Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
4:29 | He thought it would be a hard question. Vietnam veteran Walt Lineberger asked a psychiatrist what is the deciding factor that makes some returning vets adjust well and some not. The reply startled him.
Keywords : Walt Lineberger Riverine Vietnam psychiatrist faith communism
The draft was lurking, so business school student Walt Lineberger got himself tested and qualified for Naval OCS. After being commissioned, he had a tour on the USS Northhampton but was cherry picked for another assignment. He was sent to the Mobile Riverine Force in Vietnam.
With his sea bag over his shoulder, Walt Lineberger came to the Mobile Riverine Force and was sent out right away. He didn't even have time to find his bunk. The Mekong and the Bassac rivers were huge rivers, like the Mississippi, and the delta they formed was his area of operations.
The first time he got shot at, Walt Lineberger was leading a formation of Riverine boats, one of which had a huge bladder full of napalm. As they neared a Vietnamese fishing structure, he had a hunch and went around it on the left.
There was one sailor in Walt Lineberger's Riverine outfit who refused to go out anymore as he got close to rotation. When it was discovered why, his commanders found him another job for his last few weeks.
With his Riverine boats, Walt Lineberger escorted some Army howitzers on pontoons up river. Then he had to listen to the deafening sound as they immediately began pounding the enemy. This went on for three days and led to an embarrassing incident for the young officer.
When the men were on an operation, morale was fine. It was when they were on down time in the rear that the problems started. Walt Lineberger had to deal with that and it was no fun but neither were the VC out there on the river banks. There was an operation to catch a large formation of the enemy in a pincer movement using infantry and Riverine boats and it was during this that he saw a recoilless rifle round coming right for his head. Part 1 of 3.
Riverine unit leader Walt Lineberger was engaged in a firefight with an NVA unit on a riverbank when he got shot in the arm. Once he was patched up and on the move again, he noticed that the artillery fire, which was supposed to be clearing out the enemy ahead, was walking right toward his boat. Part 2 of 3.
The next shell would hit his boat, for sure. That's what it looked like to Walt Lineberger, but it never came. The next move was to go help some troops who were on the river bank and taking recoilless rifle fire. For his actions during this rescue, he would be awarded the Bronze Star. Part 3 of 3.
Riverine Force officer Walt Lineberger went from the delta to a river area near Saigon to test some new methods and procedures which looked promising. After that successful mission, he learned that his unit was going to be the first in the war to undergo Vietnamization. He immediately began pressing to be an advisor.
Walt Lineberger had been a Riverine unit commander and when the operation was turned over to the Vietnamese, he became an advisor. This got him out from under the overly restrictive Rules of Engagement.
Walt Lineberger learned some things in Vietnam. One is that Americans and people of another place and culture are more similar than different. He also learned confidence, which he brought to his business career. He benefited from good leadership in the Navy, but he had one big disagreement, which he felt put his men at risk.
