Oral+History+Q&A


 * What exactly was your involvement in the war?**

//I was a 30 year old fighter pilot (with the rank of captain), flying F-105 Thunderchiefs from a base in Thailand to targets in North Vietnam from July 1967 until July 1968. //

**Did you like what you did in the war? Why?** // Not particularly. I had been flying fighters for 7 years when I was assigned to Thailand, so I felt I was doing what I was trained to do. But only a very few people (I would think them crazy) actually enjoy combat. What I was doing was, I felt, necessary, but it was also risky. The people we were attacking, the North Vietnamese, were very aggressive about trying to stop us. I can assure you that getting shot at is not fun. On the other hand, there was a true sense of satisfaction if the mission went well, and we came home safely.. //


 * What was an average day like for you during the war?** //

Of course, I didn't fly every day. My primary job, in fact, was not flying, but trying to help the wing (the large combat organization on my base) figure out how to defeat surface-to-air guided missile sites and radar guided anti-aircraft guns. In this role I was the liaison between the people developing new defensive systems in the States and the wing. So, a typical day would involve getting up early, eating some breakfast, going to my office, analyzing the previous day's attacks, sending messages to the organizations in the States, attending the debriefs of the morning's mission (we typically flew two large missions a day), developing more recommendations, reading the messages of the day, attending the debriefs of the afternoon's mission, going to the officers club for a beer and dinner, then going off to my cubicle to write a letter home and get some sleep. If I was flying, it was usually the morning mission, so I would be up at 3AM or so, go to the mission brief (all pilots and crews attending), attend the flight briefing (just the airplanes in my immediate flight - 2 or 4 total), get to my aircraft, preflight it, get in, crank her up, taxi out in proper sequence, take off, join up, fly to the refueling point, refuel in the air, form up for the attack, do the attack, hopefully escape any damage, reform with my flight, maybe take some more fuel from an inflight tanker, go home, land, taxi in, shut down, go to debrief, then go to my office. That night, I would likely have more than one beer before dinner! //

//Of course we knew about the anti-war protesters while we were overseas, but it did not affect us at all. We felt we were doing good work, and they were nothing more than annoying items in the paper and news (by the way, we had no television, just radio). It was a different story when each of us came home and discovered how disrespectfully the military was being treated. We felt betrayed. We were doing what our government had asked us to do, and we were doing it as well as possible under dangerous conditions. We felt the protesters were laying blame on the wrong people, and we resented it. I still do. Ask me about Jane Fonda sometime, if you want a peek at how strongly I feel about those who encouraged our enemies. //
 * Did the anti-war people back in the US effect you while you were at war? Please explain.**


 * What were your specific views of the war?**

//I felt that, much like the case of Korea in 1950-53, we needed to repulse the North Vietnamese from taking over the South because a victory by the North would endanger the entire Southeast Asia area. And I believed then, as now, that the war was winnable. Unfortunately, the war was being micro-managed from Washington DC. If we had brought the available power of the US to bear, we could have succeeded. We waited too long to do that and by that time (1972) the anti-war movement had assumed so much velocity that all the politicians wanted to do was to get out at any cost. //


 * What does the legacy of the Vietnam War mean to you?**

//Several points are relevant here: 1) As Colin Powell articulated later, when national leaders are considering war, they must make sure they have clearly defined objectives which are generally shared by the American public, that they have, and intend to use, the resources required to win it, and that they will leave the actual war-fighting to those trained for the purpose, ie, the military. 2) All services revised their training plans after Vietnam, and in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, produced incredibly capable forces, which we are using today. 3) The change from the draft of the Vietnam war to the all-volunteer force of today produced a brilliant improvement in the quality of the attitudes and effectiveness of all the services. 4) It is the American privilege to disagree with the decisions of its political leaders, including a decision to commit forces to combat; but that disagreement must not be transferred to the troops who are doing what they have been legitimately commanded to do. Thankfully, the servicemen and women who have been fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan have been treated well. We seem to have learned a valuable lesson from Vietnam. 5) We should never doubt the dedication and willingness to sacrifice of those who fought in Vietnam. //