Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
6:57 | Mac Armstrong tells of his upbringing in Louisiana and his decision to join the ROTC at Louisiana State University. While stationed on the West Coast, a comical series of events led him to meet his wife.
Keywords : training growing up upbringing Southerner Louisiana Louisiana State University (LSU) ROTC(Reserve Officers' Training Corps) Air Force San Francisco CA Las Vegas road trip wife
Mac Armstrong remembers time during training as they prepared to go over to Vietnam. While flying over the jungle, Armstrong and his partner had a hairy encounter that was resolved by some quick thinking on his part.
While managing equipment in the Air Force, there are a multitude of things that can go wrong with the various aircrafts. Learning from these mistakes was essential for them in going forward.
A Chinese soldier managed to return an Air Force Class Ring back to the family of the fallen soldier, Pat Wynne, who Mac Armstrong knew from his time in Vietnam. This gave them closure on how he passed while flying over North Vietnam.
Mac Armstrong took certain things away from the Vietnam War. The shortcomings that the U.S. faced during this conflict helped to inform future conflicts that we were involved in.
Mac Armstrong recalls his time working in the Pentagon during Desert Storm and some of the decisions that they had to make. Having to navigate the intricacies of the Middle East during that time period was difficult but Armstrong and his team but they did an efficient job.
Mac Armstrong took plenty away from the mistakes made during the Vietnam War. These are the lessons that he implemented while in the Pentagon during Operation Desert Storm.
