Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
7:48 | Bill Greinke was a new lieutenant being groomed for captain, a needed commodity in Vietnam. He was serving in Berlin, surrounded by Russians and East Germans and he had no problem driving his Camaro right through them.
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Bill Greinke graduated college and was commissioned an Army officer on the same day. He went for a regular Army enlistment with a four year obligation. It was winter when he went to Ranger school, which meant no snakes during the jungle phase but freezing cold during the mountain phase.
Most of the men in his Ranger class knew they were going to Vietnam, so they were paying close attention to the tasks they were made to perform. Bill Greinke remembers a lighter story from the training that involved a candidate who did not want to kill a chicken when it became necessary. He also remembers having to get over his fear of heights.
His tour in Germany was over and he was bound for language school and then Vietnam. Bill Greinke got a surprise when the plane departing Germany was held on the runway and he was informed that there was a change in the plan. Part 1 of 5.
The South Vietnamese, or ARVN, troops had good officers but the enlisted men were often criminals paroled to fight. Bill Greinke was an assistant advisor to an ARVN battalion where he and his captain coordinated the air and artillery support and intelligence gathering. Part 2 of 5.
His first night in the field was spent on the outskirts of a battle that had been going on for days. Bill Greinke was a new advisor to an ARVN unit that was trying to push the NVA out of a valley where they had got a foothold. The second night, he was in it. Part 3 of 5.
Bill Greinke witnessed an incredible rescue when a South Vietnamese helicopter pilot plucked a downed airman from a tree during a battle. That Vietnamese pilot was luckier than one American advisor in the area who was captured by the NVA just weeks before he was to rotate home. Part 4 of 5.
The battle had lasted for days. The ARVN troops were pushing the NVA out after air strikes failed to do the job. American advisor Bill Greinke moved with them through defoliated areas where exposure to Agent Orange came back to haunt him. Then came the grim task of taking care of the dead. Part 5 of 5.
After American advisor Bill Greinke was promoted to captain, he became a rotating advisor to different ARVN units. It was about this time that the NVA started firing off 122mm rocket attacks. They got lucky one night and hit an ammo dump.
Bill Greinke had expected a combat infantry assignment in Vietnam but he was used as an advisor to the South Vietnamese Army. That was not a career booster and he had a negative feeling about the whole affair. He had no training for the position but he learned a lot from his interpreter about the language and culture.
The ARVN unit had casualties and needed a Medevac. American advisor Bill Greinke directed them to a hilltop where the ships could hover low enough to pick up the wounded. There was one wrinkle, the Vietnamese troops had captured a python and they wanted to send it back for a feast.
American advisor Bill Greinke was now out of the field and working in a command bunker. It was so boring that he would hitch rides on sniffer birds and spotter planes just for something to do. On one of these flights, the spotter got into a duel with a lone VC on a hilltop who defied and survived every attempt to get him.
American advisor Bill Greinke describes a large incursion into Cambodia, a part of the secret war that included his ARVN battalion.
When it came time to rotate home, Bill Greinke felt apprehensive about his friends left in the field. It was near the end for the South Vietnamese Army that he'd been advising. He had decided that his Army career was at an end, too, a decision he reached after a run in with one of his superiors.
Why should I change to civvies? Bill Greinke was on his way home from Vietnam and he didn't like it but he complied. Afterward, he reflected back on the much worse treatment he'd received in college as an ROTC cadet. He was determined to get out of the Army, but he still had time to serve.
What should be remembered about the Vietnam War? Bill Greinke has a definite opinion on that. What was it that turned turned that war from a sure victory into a political fiasco and an embarrassment for the Army?
Once Bill Greinke was made the intelligence officer of a battalion in Berlin, he began to have a lot of fun playing cat and mouse with the Russians and East Germans. They would pelt the cars driving around to gather intelligence with snowballs and the occasional bottle.
The Berlin Wall was not the same everywhere. Bill Greinke had to keep tabs on the condition of the wall and any changes made. He describes different sections, from the fancy to the sloppy.
His time with the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood was the best time of his Army career. Bill Greinke bested a well known commander in a war game and he went on splendid maneuvers in Europe at the Fulda Gap. Then he moved on to specialized training in media and information.
