T. Harry Williams Center for Oral
History Collection
ABSTRACT
INTERVIEWEE NAME: David LeBlanc #
4700.0960
IDENTIFICATION: Vietnam veteran
INTERVIEWER: Dudley Meier, Jr.
PROJECT: Americans in Vietnam
DATES: 4/22/76
FOCUS DATES: 1966-1970
ABSTRACT:
Tape 1402, Side A
Grew up in Hammond, LA; from middle class home; father was
professor at Southeastern; involvement in sports; friction with
his parents during high school; only studied enough to be
eligible for sports; father suggested he join service; choosing
which branch of service to join; enlisted in Marine Corps; trip
to boot camp; arriving at boot camp in San Diego; terrifying
commanding officers who met them at airport; waiting for
assignment to platoon; boot camp, learning to get up early and
follow orders; mental strain of boot camp; easier to brainwash
young people; bad ass attitude of Marines; arrival in Vietnam;
swallowed his chaw during ambush, spent his first fire fight
vomiting in a ditch; worries during boot camp; drill instructors;
pride in surviving boot camp; what became of recruits who were
duds; psychological changes during boot camp; volunteered to be
platoon leader, probably biggest mistake of his life; got in
trouble every time of his men screwed up; eager to finish boot
camp so he could be a real Marine; not allowed to send or receive
mail during boot camp, hunger for mail; mail call was the most
important time of the day; got married just before he went to
Vietnam, divorced now; failed marriage, reasons why; length of
service in Vietnam; went to Vietnam twice, was in California
during interval between trips; training, war games in California;
surprise at being sent back to Vietnam; got sent back on an eight
hour alert; arrived during the Tet Offensive; what military
intelligence knew about Tet Offensive before it happened;
Vietnam-specific training; went to communications school; had
John Wayne visions; training in ambush, guerilla warfare; war
games in Brazil at an air force base, jump school; training
helped build his confidence a lot for the war; part of upper
crust of Marine Corps; when he got to Vietnam, started
questioning what they were doing; build up in Vietnam, mid to
late 60s; thinks 1968-70 were worst years of the war; how Marine
Corp breaks you by degradation; getting beaten with broom sticks
during training; attacked a commanding officer, ensuing trouble;
sweat box; decided if it got that bad again, he'd blow his own
brains out; considered deserting, vanishing; sadistic schools for
Marines they heard about; people messed up by training; LeBlanc
still bitter, still wants to kill the man who broke his nose;
some of this training inflicted on guys who'd been in for a few
years already; stationed in Dong Tam in Vietnam delta; Navy
riverine forces; anti-aircraft cannons shot from river boats;
river boats were very effective; whole war was built around
helicopters; getting picked up by Cobras; frustrating because
they couldn't follow enemy into Laos or Cambodia; by 1968, US
forces illegally crossing into Cambodia and Laos; their job was
to engage NVA, harass them, move on; length of missions;
interviewer talks about missions of his own commanding officer;
all you think about is day to day survival.
Tape 1402, Side B
Mission in 1968 blowing up a North Vietnamese plant; two Navy
Seals who were excellent at taking out sentries; close call
escaping from mission; aggravation of lack of front lines,
frustration of territory won being reclaimed by enemy; criticism
of US strategy in Vietnam; losing faith in military, becoming
bitter; awards ceremony where officers who weren't even there got
awards; Vietnam was a ladder for the lifers to get a little
further ahead; LeBlanc had general duty, supporting river outfit;
fire fights, counting bodies; majority of his time in Vietnam was
combat duty; mostly Recon, patrol, night ambushes, occasional
sniper duty; LeBlanc didn't care for the M-16, it always jammed;
Zippo boat, a floating napalm machine that spat flames, allegedly
had range of 500 yards; weapons with eight inch steel jacket
bullets, every fifth shell was an explosive; Phantoms versus gun
ships; Air Force was useless; saw an air fight between a MIG and
a Phantom in 1968; heat-seeking weapon that would chase
helicopters; Navy air support was useless; efficiency of gun ship
pilots; impressions of Vietnamese people; ARVNs inferior to North
Vietnamese soldiers; corruption in South Vietnamese government;
never got close to ARVN soldiers; preferred the rural people;
wants to visit Vietnam again; beauty of Vietnam; most Vietnamese
didn't seem concerned with anything but getting a good meal;
LeBlanc reached a point where he didn't care what the hell
happened to them; black market trade in cigarettes; corruption,
people burying helicopters, stealing jeeps; lots of theft of
military equipment; guys who could get you anything you wanted;
drug use; prostitution; GIs who worked as pimps; Leblanc didn't
want to pay for sex, would rather buy her groceries and things;
R&R was fun; went AWOL for ten days in Australia because he
enjoyed R&R so much; everybody liked Australia because it was
like being at home; military made him grow up, but could have
done without it; things that remind him of Vietnam, flashbacks;
wishes that he'd joined Air Force or Navy instead; veterans who
couldn't readjust to US; feels like after effects are hitting him
now; started pre-med, dropped out; was dating a girl, got
serious, then itched to get away; went to Texas and raised horses
for two years; drank five bottles of wine per day for a while;
felt guilty because the public was so against Vietnam veterans;
problems with dating a Catholic high society girl; hardly said
goodbye to her, took off to Texas; returned to LSU to study
sociology; doesn't want to do manual labor for life, but is
unsure what to do; thinks the military might be why he can't get
his shit together; right now is trying to find peace of mind
within himself, is scared; interest in labor relations in
industry; theories on psychology of workers, conformity; LeBlanc
catches himself conforming in the workplace; LeBlanc doesn't like
bosses to stand over and watch him; got in trouble for beating up
a Navy officer.
TAPES: 1
TOTAL PLAYING TIME: 1 hr, 30 min
# PAGES TRANSCRIPT: 4 page index
RESTRICTIONS: none