On March 29, 2023, I watched live on YouTube the National Vietnam War Veterans Day Welcome Home Ceremony which triggered some memories of my Vietnam service. The keynote speaker was Capt. J. Charles Plumb, a navy pilot shot down and held prisoner in Vietnam for six years. Fifty years ago final American military forces left Vietnam and our remaining POWs were returned, including Capt. Plumb. Listening to his address I felt very sad for the suffering he and his family endured and I looked over the audience of Vietnam veterans and their wives and children and had a similar feeling. But I am also proud to have served and feel proud of all veterans who served in Vietnam. Capt. Plumb encouraged us to tell our Vietnam stories and here is mine.
I volunteered for Vietnam in March 1968. I was a 2Lt. in the Army Quartermaster Corps (supply) and had recently graduated from officer basic and advanced supply officer courses at Ft. Lee, Virginia. I was stationed at Ft. Lewis, WA at the time. A lot of things had gone wrong with the Army supply system in the Vietnam War by the end of 1967 and I felt I could be part of the solution. But contrary to my initial thoughts, my experience in Vietnam was a lot of chaos. Not only did I lack control over events there but no one seemed in control.
The Army tried to establish a major logistical base in a country with no terrain under real American control over enemy observation and hostile fire. There were no adequate port facilities or logistics or supply personnel. There was no real meaningful experience data to use to estimate troop supply needs. To get items in-country needed by rapidly expanding forces in 1965-67, Push Packages were used. These were supplies to meet an anticipated 90-day need for units of about 5,000 and were based on WWII and Korea experiences, which did not work in Vietnam. The packages did not meet demand, causing many item overages and shortages. The packages piled up in Saigon supply depots. I volunteered for an Army group called Project Clean to organize the packages. But many remained in the original convex metal shipping containers still unidentified and unusable when I left.
My arrival in Vietnam was a reality check that I was in a war zone. The transport plane I was on landed at the Ben Hoa airport north of Saigon which had been under a Viet Cong mortar attack the night before. Military buses met the plane as we landed and armed soldiers yelled to get on the buses ASAP, stay below the windows, as we were sitting targets. I kneeled next to my bus seat and felt vulnerable to the unseen enemy. From that point on I experienced constant fear and anxiety, wondering whether I would measure up and whether I would be killed or wounded at any moment.
I was taken to the Bachelor Officers Quarters located in Saigon near the Chinese District named Cholon. From there I began work on Project Clean at the 506th Field Depot on the Saigon River. I remember the day May 5. I was on guard duty all night on the roof of the BOQ when Viet Cong units attacked multiple locations visible from the roof. I locked and loaded my M-14 rifle. I started breathing rapidly, my muscles were tense and I had tunnel vision straining to see every movement and hear every nearby sound. After a few hours I began imagining hearing
nearby VC climbing sounds with the backdrop of the attacks going on. Finally morning came with a breath of relief, and I went to my room and shaved to get ready for duty at the depot.
As soon as I got to the depot about 7 am, the company commander, a captain, called me into the headquarters office and told me that his 1Lt. in charge of 8 warehouse operations, who I worked with and knew, had been seriously wounded by the VC in Cholon about midnight, while I was on the BOQ roof. He had taken a jeep into Cholon to rescue his girlfriend but the VC spotted them killing his girlfriend and wounding him. The captain told me I was immediately off Project Clean, and now the new replacement and executive officer of the company. He told me to write up the seriously wounded 1Lt for a bronze star and make it sound good because we didn’t want his parents to know what really happened. I asked around and found some bronze star medal wording scenarios that I used to type up the valor wording. I felt he deserved the medal. He showed up, he put his life on the line for his country in Vietnam, and, if he survived, he had a life of disability before him. I submitted the recommendation to the captain.
At about this same time, I was moved into the officer barracks at the 506 Field Depot and began learning about and commanding military operations of the 8 warehouses, which had about 40 enlisted men and 6 or 7 non-commissioned officers. There were also at least 8 or 10 local Vietnamese in each warehouse to help with orders. A few of them had worked in the same warehouses before WWII for the French, for the Japanese in WWII, for the South Vietnamese after the French left, and then for the Americans.
A week later I submitted to the captain my first monthly warehouse inventory order filled report that my warehouses had filled 70 % of orders received. When I showed it to the captaihe said 70% was unacceptable as the figure had always been above 90%. I got the message and inflated the order-filled reports thereafter. As with body counts, these inflated numbers became the metric or measurement of Vietnam’s military success. I was awarded the Army Commendation Medal for meritorious service with the 506th Field Depot.
When I returned from Vietnam in November 1968, I received neither a hero’s welcome nor appreciation for my service and sacrifice, but instead got apathy, anger, and hate. And so the war ended in 1975, or at least I thought so. In January 2000 my urologist told me I had prostate cancer. The cause or statistical relationship was a chemical defoliant that was sprayed in Vietnam called Agent Orange. My cancer was ruled to be service-connected and I still get excellent care at the Veterans Administration. I am still here today after a couple of near-death Vietnam experiences. I feel a strong call to share my story.
Was it worth it? On balance, I say probably yes. About 15 years ago I spoke with a Chinese Communist China civil war veteran and later top communist official in Northeast China, now living in the U.S. In a candid moment, he told me in his view America won- only in a different way. We stopped communism which didn’t advance in Indochina any further than it reached in 1975. That result gives me peace of mind about my Vietnam service and the painful return. The legacy of the communist takeover of countries in Asia has been mass murder through man-made famine, starvation, and conventional mass execution. I have talked to many survivors who had lost control of their lives, faced repressions of basic freedom of speech and religion, and loss of property rights. We enabled other countries in the region to develop market economies and government systems that were basically functional and responsive to their people.
I have only the highest respect for those who have volunteered to serve in the military and have placed their lives on the line to protect our country and freedom-seeking people around the world.
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