Blu1989 Posted October 24, 2015 Share #1 Posted October 24, 2015 I was looking over my Vietnam reference books and pictures today and realized that I had only a few odd and end pieces of my dad's stories written down to go alongside his pictures and bring backs. After he got back home from his golf tournament and rested a bit he sat down with me and gave me as much of a full story as both of us could handle. When he landed in Vietnam in December of 66 he was immediately put into the fight as his unit was just coming off of Operation Starlite and was going into the Search and Destroy policy. Many of his stories involved different firefights here and there and one of them cost the life of his lieutenant, whom my dad had to heft his body over his shoulder to get the body back to base. Other stories were about how scared he was every day and night that he was going to die then and there. He slept with his knife in his hands for fear that his throat could get cut at night and during the day he was extra cautious on patrols in case they got ambushed. He mentioned about a time when the enemy attacked at night my dad had to dive into a foxhole to avoid mortar fire. He told me that he could hear bullets whizzing over his head and could hear grenades and mortars hitting closer and closer to his foxhole. That was the most scared he had ever been in his entire life as he really thought he would get hit but somehow he made it through unscathed. It was the most emotional interview I ever had with a veteran and I got more of my dad's story written down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fly USMC Posted October 24, 2015 Share #2 Posted October 24, 2015 Sounds like a special day. Tough to get some of those stories out some times..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garandomatic Posted October 24, 2015 Share #3 Posted October 24, 2015 Be glad you got it. Both of my dad's buddies that were "my" Vietnam vets growing up died in 2011 before I got around to recording or documenting anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sundance Posted October 24, 2015 Share #4 Posted October 24, 2015 Thank your dad for his service. It's great your getting it down on paper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMariner Posted October 24, 2015 Share #5 Posted October 24, 2015 Thank you to your father for his service, also good idea to have his story written down!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blu1989 Posted November 5, 2015 Author Share #6 Posted November 5, 2015 Thanks everyone. These stories mean a lot to me as my grandfather never talked about what he did during WW2 and I had to find out after he died that he was at Pearl Harbor the day after the attack pulling bodies out of the water and that he ended up stationed in Florida hunting U-boats in the Gulf of Mexico for the rest of the war. My dad remembers the funny stuff and the more serious stuff from his service easily but when it comes to the fighting part it's tough to get him to talk about it unless I lead him into that part of the conversation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwb123 Posted November 5, 2015 Share #7 Posted November 5, 2015 Have those conversations now. There is no way to make for it after they are gone. Believe me, I know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustyCanteen Posted November 5, 2015 Share #8 Posted November 5, 2015 Have those conversations now. There is no way to make for it after they are gone. Believe me, I know. Absolutely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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