T. Harry Williams Center for Oral
History Collection
ABSTRACT
INTERVIEWEE NAME: Jerome "Jerry"
Schmidt #4700.0982
IDENTIFICATION: Vietnam veteran
INTERVIEWER: Paul K. Moore
PROJECT: Vietnam
DATES: 2/18/74
FOCUS DATES: 1966-1969?
ABSTRACT:
Tape 1435
Upbringing and education in South Carolina and Texas; professions
of parents; continuing ROTC to avoid being drafted as enlisted
man; basic army training at Fort Knox, Kentucky; training at Fort
Jackson, South Carolina; getting news that he was being sent to
Vietnam; adequacy of training for Vietnam; keeping up morale of
officers; bad reputation of the 4th Division, which
operated in the Central Highlands; company commander who
reassured him; jungle training in Panama; prostitutes who lived
on bridges and serviced American soldiers; American soldiers with
Vietnamese girlfriends; mamasans who pimped Vietnamese girls;
rates for prostitutes; English speaking abilities of prostitutes;
attempt to legalize prostitution to control spread of venereal
diseases; how mamasans operated; case where group of prostitutes
overthrew mamasan, replacing her with more popular senior
prostitute; Western dress of Vietnamese prostitutes; Americans'
dislike of Vietnamese civilians; Vietnamese people's love of
apples; black market traffic in cigarettes, beer and soda, C
rations, and expended ammunition; using up ammunition to produce
expended ammunition for black market trade; use of speed and
marijuana in his unit; supply and price of drugs; denies
homosexuality in his unit; movements of tank in his tank unit;
sleeping arrangements inside and outside his tank; bathing while
in the field; receiving mail in the field; travels in Asia while
on leave; people in Asia only wanting his money, not concerned
about him; seeing American movies in Thailand; boring days
between combat; tanks getting ambushed; deploying tanks while
serving as commander; going to find a missing tank; spending his
birthday inside tank stuck in swamp; getting tank out of mud;
targets they shot at; getting assigned to be a scout; group of
men in his unit who felt like a family; black soldiers he worked
with; home states of members of his unit; lack of respect for
Army policy and leaders;.
TAPES: 1
TOTAL PLAYING TIME: 60 minutes
# PAGES TRANSCRIPT: 32
RESTRICTIONS: copyright retained by interviewer
and/or his heirs