Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
2:40 | In a conversation with his brother, Ed Fulghum got some insight into leadership. His brother expressed something that suggested he was a poor leader and it made him realiize what a decent job he was doing. As a 1st Sergeant he had a great record and he also had two Medal of Honor recipients in his unit.
Keywords : Ed Fulghum Vietnam leadership Medal Of Honor (MOH) Robert Foley John F Baker Jr
One day, after three hours of picking cotton, Ed Fulghum announced to his father that he was going to join the Army. Well, you can't. You're only sixteen. I will prove I'm seventeen and join up. He went straight to the recruiter and found out what document he needed. Now he had a plan of action.
He had to weigh 120 pounds but he only weighed 116. Ed Fulghum's induction physical was the next day and, as usual, he came up with a plan. It was knee deep snow where he did his basic training. When some joker didn't turn in his pistol at the range, the recruits were sent outside to stand in the snowy Indiana weather.
When Ed Fulghum got to Korea, he found out that the Inchon invasion was well underway. The notorious Inchon tide had gone out, so he had to slog a couple of hundreds yards through the mud flats to get to the shore. Was he scared? Not in the least.
Ed Fulghum had conned his way into the Army at sixteen and gone to war in Korea. He got a little nervous when another soldier was shipped home for the same reason. He had a talent for talking his way into things and, when his section chief was due to go home, he set about getting his job.
He was too young to be scared but there were a couple of times that Ed Fulghum thought he was going to die. Mortar fire will do that to you. The one thing that did affect him in Korea was seeing other guys get maimed. That will get to you.
Ed Fulghum's nemesis was his battalion commander, Col. Mooney. He disliked Mooney and Mooney hated him. While training in Hawaii, he disobeyed the colonel's absurd order about how fast to drive during a training exercise. Later, in Vietnam, he achieved perhaps his finest victory against him, totally by accident with a hot outhouse.
After relating a gruesome story about some fellow GI's playing possum, Ed Fulghum has his own combat story about a stop fire order that seemed ridiculous to him. He even got a general to agree with him, not that it did any good. Then there was the time he cleared out a bamboo stand full of unauthorized personnel, including his commander.
Ed Fulghum returned to Vietnam in 1968 with the Americal Division. He had the usual problems with his command. This time, it was an alcoholic company commander and a pushy adjutant.
When the generator for the TOC went out, Ed Fulghum went to the Marine engineering unit that was his support for such things. He walked in and the sergeant across the counter asked him what he had to trade. Well, that was one thing that always enraged Fulghum in the Army. It was on. (Caution: strong language)
During his last Vietnam tour, Ed Fulghum had a price on his head, but it wasn't put there by the VC. It was a fellow American. The division Chief of Staff caught wind of this and took action.
When he returned from his combat tour in Korea, Ed Fulghum began a long period of being sent all over the place by the Army. A series of short assignments culminated in Germany, where he served until his discharge. He got married and began an unsuccessful job hunt. Should he return to the Army?
After rejoining the Army as an MP, Ed Fulghum returned to Korea where he guarded inspection teams. His next assignment, back in the States, was in a Military Government company, which was trained to rebuild and reset devastated areas. He decide that the Military Police was a career dead end, so he returned to the infantry.
It was the stupidest weapon system he'd ever seen. Ed Fulghum was being trained on the ENTAC, a French-made anti-tank missile that was wire guided. When he tried to set one up in the field, the battery was missing so he improvised.
Ed Fulghum has a message for future generations. You're going to have a much harder time than he did. He had only a sixth grade education, but possessed great intelligence which propelled him to a successful career.
