Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
6:11 | After a short survival and orientation course, Mike Carey was on his way to Vietnam. All his romantic notions about war from all those war movies were immediately gone when he found out what his first assignment was. Eventually he made it to the field where he wasted no time in becoming a target.
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His father was a Navy lifer but the Navy wanted a four year enlistment so Mike Carey went with the Marines. It would be the best training for Vietnam and he knew that's where he would be going. He had a specialist MOS but when he got there, he was just another grunt.
Mike Carey had just arrived in Vietnam and on his first patrol, the platoon leader told him to take the point. Why would he do that? He got through the patrol and it was the start of "paying his dues." Two other Marines joined the unit at the same time and they became a close knit group.
On Hill 214, a new fire base took shape as the Marines cleared off the hilltop and brought in artillery. Mike Carey recalls that it was very thick jungle there but in the middle of it they found an NVA supply trail. They also found malaria.
Mines and booby traps can be devastating and not just because of the carnage. It was depressing to Mike Carey because there was no opportunity for payback. There was no one around to go after. He describes one that gave him a Purple Heart and took out his platoon leader.
The unit was in place for the night when a Marine heard something. Denied an illumination round, he was allowed to toss a grenade and he then found two dead NVA who'd been sneaking up on them. The next morning they made a security sweep of that area and Mike Carey describes the deadly ordeal that became.
Not long before he left Vietnam, Mike Carey had an in-country R&R at China Beach that was memorable, at least the part he can remember. He had three Purple Hearts so he got sent to Okinawa and eventually home.
Mike Carey has some advice for politicians if they dispense with diplomacy and send in the Marines. Let them do their job. His favorite song from his Vietnam days is one that many veterans of that war will mention and he had some leaders there that made an impression on him.
