Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
5:43 | It was at LZ Pepper that a Chinook crashed right on top of medic Roger Lutz. He was fine but there were others who were seriously injured. Shortly after this, he had a hard time dealing with the death of a soldier who fell prey to a Bouncing Betty.
Keywords : Roger Lutz medic Vietnam A Shau Valley LZ Pepper Boeing CH-47 Chinook 105mm howitzer flechette Bouncing Betty mine North Vietnamese Army (NVA)
Roger Lutz was having a good life in northern California when he was drafted. Cars and girls gave way to training, which turned out to be OK, thanks to lasting friendships he made there. The young medic then shipped out from San Francisco, headed to Vietnam.
When medic Roger Lutz arrived in Vietnam, he was assigned to the 7th Cavalry, which he found out later was George Armstrong Custer's old unit. He was first based at Phan Thiet, where the action was light, then the unit moved to the Ia Drang Valley.
The 7th Cavalry was constantly in the field. You slept on the ground and kept on the move. Medic Roger Lutz recalls treating the wounded as the unit moved to support operations in Hue during the Tet Offensive.
Medic Roger Lutz was young and idealistic. He enthusiastically participated in many Medical Civilian Action Programs, or MEDCAPS, while he was in Vietnam. He really enjoyed treating the villagers, more than he did treating the scammers trying to get sent to the rear with a self-inflicted injury.
When you're under fire, you drop to the ground. When you're the medic and someone is shot, you have to crawl on the ground to the wounded man, hence the term "Lizard." Roger Lutz describes the job of a Lizard in Vietnam, when he was doing exactly that.
Something big was coming up. Roger Lutz got what passed for a little break before his unit moved to support Operation Pegasus, the relief of the Marines at Khe Sanh. Part 1 of 3.
There was incoming fire all the time, recalls medic Roger Lutz, whose unit was fighting its way toward Khe Sanh where Marines were besieged. He was way too close to a B-52 strike and then he was cut off from all resupply for days during this hard fought battle. Part 2 of 3.
Finally, they were in Khe Sanh. As his unit arrived to relieve the besieged Marine base, Roger Lutz remembers getting apples from the ARVN troops after having no resupply for days. After clearing the area of enemy, the next destination for the air mobile was the A Shau Valley. Part 3 of 3.
Just as his company was getting involved in some heavy action in the Iron Triangle, medic Roger Lutz was transferred to the battalion aid station. He had been in the field for eleven months, the promised six month rotation never happened for him. After he left, his company was nearly wiped out when they inadvertently landed right in the middle of an NVA stronghold.
At the end of his Vietnam tour, medic Roger Lutz extended it because he just couldn't leave his guys. When he did get home, he found that no one wanted to talk about the war or recognize and honor those who fought it. It was different when he volunteered for Desert Storm.
