T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History Collection

ABSTRACT

INTERVIEWEE NAME: Gregory G. Barnes #4700.0936

IDENTIFICATION: Vietnam veteran

INTERVIEWER: Dale Jenkins

PROJECT: Americans in Vietnam

DATES: December 6, 1975

FOCUS DATES: Nov. 21, 1966-Oct. 28, 1966; Oct. 28, 1967-Oct. 26, 1968

ABSTRACT:

Tape 1362

Family and early education in Monroe and Baton Rouge, LA; getting drafted at age 19; basic and advanced training at Fort Polk; military courtesy; learning phone communications for use in field; simulated Vietnamese village at Fort Sill; inadequacy of training; arriving in Vietnam; normal day in headquarters; free time entertainment; liquor consumption and fighting in unit; relations with Vietnamese civilian workers; severe mortar attack; mounted artillery; language barrier between Americans and Vietnamese; anti-Vietnamese sentiment among American soldiers; working with Arvin division; casualties during Tet Offensive; hierarchy and poverty within Vietnamese society; proprietors of brothels; bar prostitutes; appearance of Vietnamese villages; prevalence of marijuana; obtaining drugs in Vietnam; cliques based on drug use; black market activity; combating boredom; American girls sent by Red Cross; relations and attitudes toward superior officers; widespread hatred of sergeant major; African Americans in Vietnam; racial altercation at Fort Polk; contempt for Vietnamese army; Vietnamese soldiers selling their weapons for a few dollars; Vietnamese unconcerned with communist threat; Vietnamese lack of ambition; critique of US war effort in Vietnam; nothing gained by US presence in Vietnam; infantry men brainwashed to be gung ho about war.

TAPES: 1

TOTAL PLAYING TIME: 55 minutes

# PAGES TRANSCRIPT: 2 page index

RESTRICTIONS: copyright retained by interviewer and/or his heirs