T. Harry Williams Center for Oral
History Collection
ABSTRACT
INTERVIEWEE NAME: Richard "Dick"
Post # 4700.0977
IDENTIFICATION: Vietnam veteran
INTERVIEWER: Bailey Vinson
PROJECT: Americans in Vietnam
DATES: 3/3/77
FOCUS DATES: June 14, 1963-Sept. 30, 1969;
March 1965-Oct. 1965; Nov. 1967-Dec. 1968
ABSTRACT:
Tape 1426
Born in St. Cloud, MN; parents' occupations; childhood, playing
ball; graduated from Catholic high school; joined service
voluntarily to avoid draft; joined Marine Corp; boot camp in San
Diego; advanced infantry training; was in first Marine outfit to
be sent to Vietnam in 1965; learned on the job; felt he had
adequate training; lock on training to sharpen infantry skills;
arrival in Vietnam, amphibious landing; took Freedom Hill; was
infantryman, did reconnaissance; camping in the bush; altercation
with a sergeant who never went into field; "Seven Days of
May" battle near Dong Ha; maiming Vietnamese corpses because
Buddhists believed this would condemn their spirits to wander
eternally; cutting off fingers and pulling teeth from corpses; US
soldier killed old man for charging him $1 for a Coke; Marines
operated in free fire zones where all Vietnamese were fair game;
training Vietnamese troops in Hue; ARVN nearly as good as US
army; high opinion of NVA and VC as soldiers; half the problems
in Vietnam would be solved if they used soap; his father's pigs
have better shelter than Vietnamese villagers; too scared to mess
around with prostitutes; no drug use during his 1965 tour;
prevalence of drugs in 1968; change in attitude between 1965 and
1968; not many drugs in his unit, they relied on each other too
much to chance using drugs; if men in his command used too many
drugs, he found a non-field position for them; his unit, Marine
Recon, was elite; got whiskey through his uncle in Da Nang; black
market money exchange; playing poker; combating boredom by
writing letters, listening to music, playing poker; opinions of
superior officers; enlisted men were lazy, tried to avoid field,
but once there they were good; never saw a black person until he
was 17, and that was on TV; had never met a black person until he
joined the service; blacks were lazy, always at sick call to
avoid going on an operation; blacks just as good as whites in the
field; US soldiers better than Vietnamese soldiers; quotes Chesty
Puller of the 3rd Marines on concept of limited war;
US strategy in Vietnam was senseless; war forced him to grow up;
his wife didn't grow up during war; criticism of interview
questions; Vietnam entirely different from previous wars; cared
only about surviving his year of fighting; critique of Fire In
the Lake by Frances Fitzgerald; reviews other books about
Vietnam war.
TAPES: 1
TOTAL PLAYING TIME:
# PAGES TRANSCRIPT: 14
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