Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
3:34 | As a longtime commander of troops, General Fred Kroesen knew the rotation scheme during the Vietnam War was a terrible decision. Of particular concern was the use of untested NCO's which made the commander's job a lot more difficult.
General Fred Kroesen grew up next to a National Guard armory with a horse drawn field artillery unit. His first job was exercising the horses, but when World War II came along, he became an infantry officer in time to join the push across Europe.
After working in the Pentagon with the Assistant Chief of Staff Force Development Office to build up manpower in the Army, General Fred Kroesen got a combat assignment as a brigade commander in Vietnam. The enemy faded away on his first operation, making it the greatest training exercise he had ever seen. By the time his tour was over, he was sure that the war was won.
On his second Vietnam tour, General Fred Kroesen returned to command the troubled Americal Division, which was still receiving a lot of negative attention in the wake of the My Lai incident. As the war wound down and the division had returned to the States, he remained with the dwindling and restrained American force and was saddened when the enemy overran a town that he had restored during his first tour.
General Fred Kroesen has some vivid memories of Vietnam including a huge typhoon and a soldier who would have gotten the Medal Of Honor if he had only been killed. He also recalls visiting an allied Korean Marine unit and leading a successful reaction force operation that was only spoiled by getting wounded.
In the pre-digital era of the Vietnam War, General Fred Kroesen had limited contact with his family, though it was a little better than it had been during his service in the Korean War. He got enough news through Stars and Stripes to be disgusted with the media distortion of the war and the bad treatment of returning soldiers.
General Fred Kroesen is thoroughly ashamed of the way the Vietnamese people were abandoned by the United States in the wake of the American involvement in that war. What makes it worse in his eyes is that we had the war won, then gave it all away.
