T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History Collection

ABSTRACT

INTERVIEWEE NAME:   Fleet Trahan                                   COLLECTION:   4700.0988

IDENTIFICATION:   Vietnam veteran

INTERVIEWER:   Donald Pierce

PROJECT:   Americans in Vietnam

INTERVIEW DATE:   5/14/75

FOCUS DATES:  May 28, 1968 - Dec. 30, 1969

ABSTRACT:

Tape 1442.1

Birthplaces of parents; Trahan born in Baton Rouge; siblings; parents' occupations; childhood illnesses; active in sports later; attended Trinity Christian college in Zachary, LA.; was drafted, inducted in New Orleans; most of his fellow recruits were Yankees; training at Fort Polk; ignorance about the army before he was drafted; testing at boot camp reception center; drill sergeants very mean, crude, abusive; definition of a gig line; not allowed to leave for funeral of close friend; counting down days till end of basic training; Trahan hit a drill sergeant with a shovel, got in big trouble; cleaning the barracks; basic training made him tough; graduation day at Fort Polk; "TTA", a.k.a. Treetop Airways; confusion upon his arrival at combat engineer training; yard work on base; Waynesville, MO, closest town to base; milk shortage at base, Trahan had to spend a day guarding the milk supply; assigned to F Troop;

Tape 1442.1 Side B

Prized piece of jewelry he got appraised at $4,000; Vietnamese houses; simple diet of Vietnamese; Buddhist religious observances in the home; twenty days R&R in Thailand; first experience smoking marijuana; effects from getting high the first time; continued use of marijuana; buying marijuana, prices and amounts; other MPs who smoked marijuana; ease of growing marijuana in that area; mountain that caught fire, making everyone terribly high from the marijuana growing on its side; terrible headache from using water pipe that had been used for smoking opium; prevalence of heroin.

TAPES: 1 (1442.1)                                                    TOTAL PLAYING TIME: 36 minutes

# PAGES INDEX:   2 pages

RESTRICTIONS:   None