T. Harry Williams Center for Oral
History Collection
ABSTRACT
INTERVIEWEE NAME: Gilly A. Marshall #
4700.0966
IDENTIFICATION: Vietnam veteran
INTERVIEWER: Paul Moore
PROJECT: Americans in Vietnam
DATES: 3/26/74
FOCUS DATES: Oct. 20, 1968-Jan. 5, 1973,
March 1969-Feb. 1970
ABSTRACT:
Tape 1411, Side A
Born in New Orleans in 1948; went to Catholic grammar school,
Jesuit high school; was involved with Marine ROTC in high school;
everyone he knew went to private school, stigma around public
school; came to LSU for two years, then joined military; parents
are from Italy, mother came over on boat; mother is CPA, parents
are divorced; mother went through night school to become CPA, are
middle class family; used to live in lower middle class
neighborhood; got draft notice because he wasn't far enough along
in school; joined Marines because several family members had been
Marines, had had Marine ROTC; thought he had the best chance of
coming back alive as a Marine; mother wanted him to appeal draft
board's decision; now he doesn't regret going, would do it again,
but maybe would have joined Air Force; 8 week boot camp in
Alameda, CA; lots of people didn't make it through boot camp;
guys switched from reserve to regular, stayed in much longer than
they had to; Marshall was in Delta Company 66; get more
privileges every week if you're good; easier on you every week;
the secret to boot camp is not letting them know your name;
Marshall tried to stay hidden in group, never be leader; two-hour
watch every night, watch continued 24 hours per day; classes on
Marine Corp history, VD, safety, first aid; encouraged to write
home; got 15 days off after boot camp, realized it might be his
last 15 days at home; returned to Alameda for more training; knew
he'd be sent to Southeast Asia; sent to electronics school, hated
electronics; for Marines, infantry comes first, specialty comes
second; spent several months in Pearl Harbor; then went to
Vietnam, spent ten months there; came back after he was wounded;
ranks, promotions; became E4 after Honolulu; teletype school in
Memphis; worked radar, teletype, planes at same time; probably
would have returned for second tour in Vietnam if hadn't been
wounded; worked with third Naval helicopter division, lots of
Medevac; went to Guam; transferred to assault division with
Cobras, still flew Medevacs; had lots of helicopter experience;
definition of a hero; saw people throw themselves on hand
grenades to save other people; saw people lose hands; got
acclimated after a month; learning about VC tactics, NVA; respect
for the NVA, a fine army; hates VC, would kill one now if he had
the chance; cruelty of the VC; acclimation to war is no excuse
for behavior of VC; atrocities VC would commit against village
elders, their families, little children; ideologically we fought
on the right side, militarily we fought on the wrong side; knew
Vietnam was lost when US troops pulled out; North Vietnam has
more of a cause than South Vietnam; Marshall never lived in
village, set up camps near villages; sometimes warned Vietnamese
to clear out of villages; shot them dead if they didn't provide
ID cards; didn't have that much contact with village people;
opinion of South Vietnamese army; South Vietnamese versus VC;
lots of Filipinos were employed by the US; residents of Saigon's
feelings toward Americans; had only superficial dealings with
Vietnamese; black market, rate of exchange; people of Saigon were
cosmopolitan, normal people; village people were friendlier; when
he got wounded, villagers saved his life; prostitutes,
blacklisted bars were most popular; prostitution was preferable
to marrying a nice Vietnamese girl and having to bring a gook
back home; lots of guys ditched Vietnamese wives before coming
home; prostitutes were much better option; low morale was big
problem; realizing they might never get back home; guys that got
killed, made careless by girls who sent them Dear John letters;
Marshall had a letter from his girl every day; if she'd found
someone else he would have wanted her not to tell him; how much
it meant to get letters; doesn't know what happened to Vietnamese
girls left behind; military was against US soldiers marrying
Vietnamese; had to put in request to get married, talk to
chaplain; military discouraged marriage to Vietnamese, but you
could if you really wanted; if Vietnamese girl was beautiful
enough was worth it; friend in New Orleans who married beautiful
Vietnamese girl; rich father of his friend's Vietnamese wife,
upper class; class differences between Marshall and his friend
and rich Vietnamese; their wedding, children, her father's
beautiful house; figures ten of these marriages failed for every
one that worked; more about the rich and well bred Vietnamese
father of his friend's wife.
Tape 1412, Side B
Majority of people he knew in Vietnam smoked marijuana; military
did rehabilitative work with drug abusers; if Marshall had been
US president, he would have leveled North Vietnam; thinks just as
many people use drugs on college campuses as over there;
Vietnamese drug dealers; how to find prostitutes, prices ranged
from two to five dollars; you could buy $35 or $40 worth of stuff
for five dollars there; how to maximize your currency; Saigon was
a busy, compact city, reminded him of New Orleans; people who got
rich off black market, war; was glad he was an enlisted man;
hates officers for looking down on enlisted men; generals know
how important enlisted men are; lower ranking officers don't
appreciate enlisted men; Calley should never have been an
officer, wasn't educated or mature enough to handle situation at
My Lai; people that have been through college for four years are
probably more mature; military needs more liberal arts people who
are critical of the military.
Tape 1413, Side A
Tape is blank
Tape 1413, Side B
Went out in assault helicopter in 1969; didn't know VC had
machine gun set up there; got machine gunned as they were coming
off helicopter; felt pain in leg, knew he was hit; hit in the
butt, passed out cold; recuperating in a camp hospital; surgery,
skin grafts; sent to Guam, stayed there till mid November; Naval
hospital in Guam was bad, lots of death around him, old
buildings; sent to Army hospital in Honolulu, wanted to be home
for Christmas; arrival at Travis Air Force Base near San
Francisco; had 47 days leave left, terminal leave; got home to
New Orleans on Christmas eve morning, surprised family; got to
visit Tokyo, enjoyed it; also sent to Philippines for R&R;
when he was wounded, the guys from the helicopter carried him in
a stretcher; someone snuffed out the machine gun; Marshall was
unconscious, carried to a village, doesn't remember much; limited
medical care in the village; personnel at MASH hospital;
description of hospital; not many American women in Vietnam;
hospital similar to TV show MASH; lengths of time he spent in
different hospitals; had to wait two weeks for a flight out of
Guam; very satisfied with the medical attention he received;
Marshall knew he wasn't going back out to field, no matter what;
would have got home about the same time even if he wasn't
wounded; was back in school at LSU in January; had been overseas
for more than one year; Marshall was in combat zone the whole
time he was overseas; society doesn't like Vietnam veterans;
Philippines was full of talented, industrious people; people are
educated in Hong Kong, don't fool around; duration of his R&R
trips; Okinawa was his worst R&R trip, lots of resentment
against Americans; went to a geisha house, took a bath; liked the
Philippines the best, wished he could have been stationed there;
all the people were industrious in the countries he visited;
black market; better rate of currency exchange on black market;
can get into trouble dealing with black market; prostitution has
an ugly stigma attached to it here, but not a dishonorable
profession there; guys who got homesick for their girlfriends,
got married there, didn't want to take her home; Marshall fooled
with prostitutes but didn't love them; girls in Philippines
especially beautiful; organization of prostitution; in
Philippines you could rent a girl for a whole day, like renting a
car; didn't go for going to a village and raping girls, much
easier to pay one a dollar; safer in bars; enjoyed the
prostitutes more than anything else, Oriental girls just turn him
on; didn't have women out in field; prevalence of drugs; could
have found heroin easily if he'd wanted; thinks 60-70 percent of
people he knew there used drugs, just about everyone smoked pot;
believes in legalizing pot because people seemed to be able to do
their jobs on it; rehabilitation centers for soldiers in Vietnam;
wasn't exposed to many hard drugs; thinks statistics on heroin
use were exaggerated; Philippine hustlers near US bases in the
Philippines; inefficiency of military; too many old generals in
charge of a young army, this wasn't America's kind of war;
importance of helicopters; wasn't that much corruption; not
enough quality people in military; Marshall plans to join Air
Force after he finishes college; looks at it as a job and way to
serve his country, but not gung ho; many able people in military,
some incompetent.
TAPES: 3
TOTAL PLAYING TIME: 2 hrs
# PAGES TRANSCRIPT: 6 page index
RESTRICTIONS: none