COMBAT STORIES FROM Vietnam

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Showing : Vietnam Videos

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  Mike Pomakis - Marines +9 Total Videos

  3rd Battalion, 7th Marines

  It was during Operation Desoto that the forward observer asked radioman Mike Pomakis if he'd like to go on a special reconnaissance patrol with him. They crept quietly into a village that they suspected was occupied by the NVA. It sure was.

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  Jack Tragis - Army +9 Total Videos

  82nd Medical Detachment

  No GPS, you had to find them with rough map coordinates and a radio beacon. Medevac pilot Jack Tragis had a reputation for getting in and out quick on his evacuations so you better be ready. He went down in a chopper seven times. The most memorable of those incidents was the time he spent the night in a rice paddy with a full load of patients.

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  Myron Harrington - Marines +8 Total Videos

  D Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division

  Upon leading the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, Myron Harrington had to help conduct an attack on the citadel in Hue City, Vietnam. This is the story of how he and his men charged the tower, which took longer to accomplish than expected. This action earned then Captain Harrington the Silver Star.

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  Bernardo Lopez - Marines +11 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment

  He was already dog tired from staying awake to keep an eye on his untrustworthy ARVN allies. Bernardo Lopez and his fellow Marines were told to gear up and head to Hue. The Tet Offensive was on. The combat there was intense but there was also some strangeness to the proceedings, like the Vietnamese girl who asked him an odd question and the TV cameraman who wanted a good shot. Part 1 of 4.

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  John Bates - Marines +8 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment

  John Bates had just recovered from a gunshot wound but the NVA wasn't done with him yet. When he was on a listening post, he saw them creeping toward his position and readied a hand grenade. Before he left Vietnam he would have two more Purple Hearts.

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  Myron Harrington - Marines +8 Total Videos

  D Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division

  The attack on the citadel in Hue City, Vietnam was no easy task, as one can imagine. It is here that Myron Harrington goes into descriptive detail on how exactly they planned and conducted this tower attack. This action earned then Captain Harrington the Silver Star.

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  Fred Behrens - Army +10 Total Videos

  Eagle Dust Off

  Word back at the Eagle Dust Off base was that Fred Behrens was dead. Shot down and hit with five bullets, he survived two nights in the bush and was airlifted out when he was found by some Rangers. It was a long recovery with sometimes indifferent treatment by the Army. Part 3 of 3.

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  Terry Caskey - Army +10 Total Videos

  95th Evacuation Hospital

  There was water everywhere which meant that there were mosquitos everywhere which meant that Terry Caskey had malaria four times in Vietnam. His day at the hospital could be mundane or it could be terrible. He recalls a terrible day when a chopper full of dead and wounded Marines landed at the hospital.

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  Fred Behrens - Army +10 Total Videos

  Eagle Dust Off

  At first light, downed Dust Off pilot Fred Behrens found himself in even more trouble. He took three rounds from a Cobra gunship and one from a sniper. He had already been shot while still in his chopper. The next day, the Rangers he had set out to evacuate took off and he was nearly hit with more friendly fire from a Phantom jet. Finally he saw the right uniforms heading toward him. Part 2 of 3.

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  Lee Riley - Marines +5 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment

  Saddle up! The Marines were used to helicopters but this time they were ordered to board trucks. Hue City was under siege as the Tet Offensive raged across the entire country. Lee Riley recalls that they were under fire the minute they got there and it didn't let up for months.

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  Terry Caskey - Army +10 Total Videos

  22nd Surgical Hospital

  There was a mortar attack going on when medic and operating room technician Terry Caskey arrived in Phu Bai. He was assigned to a field hospital where the flow of casualties and the enemy attacks were relentless. He could watch the rockets fire off from a nearby hilltop and track the contrail right into his compound. And as he ended an epic shift in the operating room, he emerged covered in blood. It was too much for a twenty year old to bear.

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  Bill Gessner - Navy +9 Total Videos

  1st Battalion, 9th Marines (Attached)

  The fighting was hard. One company was ambushed and the other two were having a hard time breaking through to support it. Corpsman Bill Gessner was in the thick of the fight and as he was treating a wounded Marine, a hand grenade came into the hole and wounded him and killed two others.

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  Freddie Owens - Army +11 Total Videos

  A Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division

  After the column was devastated by an NVA ambush, wounded Americans were scattered in the darkness. After his captain heard one such group calling for help on the radio, Freddie Owens joined a patrol to find them, guided by a gunshot every few minutes. Once there, medic Daniel Torres volunteered to stay with those who couldn't move and protected them through the night with medicine and a machine gun.

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  Joe McDonald - Army +5 Total Videos

  A Company, 3rd Battalion, 4th Division

  The RPG that severed Joe McDonald’s foot didn’t kill him. The machine gun fire that hit him as he still tried to help others didn’t kill him. The grenade taped to his hand might have killed him if the VC had found his hiding place.

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  Stuart Jamison - Army +9 Total Videos

  9th Infantry Division (ARVN)

  Stuart Jamison recalls observing the reality and immediacy of death as his unit assaults a Viet Cong company during Phase II of the Tet Offensive.

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  Laurie Druyor - Navy +4 Total Videos

  USS Sanctuary

  One night, while Laurie was eating dinner, the USS Sanctuary got a call about a plane crash. She vividly remembers the patients coming aboard, and the aftermath of this incident, including one boy who was MIA. As difficult as this experience was, it was nothing compared to the Tet Offensive. New wounded were coming in constantly, and trying to care for all of them at once was emotionally exhausting. (Interview conducted at, and with the assistance of, the Military Heritage Museum- https://freedomisntfree.org/.)

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  George Forrest - Army +11 Total Videos

  1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment

  They were hunkered down after fierce fighting when the call came from "Ghost 4-6." It was a group of wounded men who had pulled themselves together after the ill fated march to LZ Albany and were lost in the dark. George Forrest sent a patrol to find them, and in an incredible act of bravery, medic Daniel Torres stayed through the night with them and saved many men. Captain Forrest still had to write a gut-wrenching letter to the mother of a missing soldier. Part 3 of 4.

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  Tommy Clack - Army +8 Total Videos

  C Company, 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division

  In a letter home, Tommy Clack expressed his worry that something bad was going to happen and it did when his unit engaged the NVA near the Cambodian border. He saw the enemy soldier stand and fire the RPG that changed his life forever.

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  LtGen Ron Christmas - Marines +16 Total Videos

  H Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division

  As Marine Captain Ron Christmas fought to regain the city of Hue, he found the enemy adept at concealment and surprise. Every soldier in a spider hole was armed with a rifle and a RPG launcher. His action during this time earned him the Navy Cross.

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  Chuck Traviolia - Marines +8 Total Videos

  3rd Battalion, 7th Marines

  A Marine was supposed to be sent home from Vietnam after three Purple Hearts. Chuck Traviolia had been wounded four times but his records were messed up and he was still there. He didn't have much longer until he rotated home when the VC nearly overran Hill 25. Part 1 of 2.

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  Tim Orr - Marines +6 Total Videos

  3rd Battalion, 7th Marines

  The Marines in the machine gun squad were great guys. They welcomed Tim Orr into the fold when he arrived in Vietnam and he has kept in touch with some of them through the years.

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  David Ray - Marines +9 Total Videos

  3rd Battalion, 7th Marines

  The radioman was wounded and evacuated for awhile. He was David Ray's best friend and foxhole buddy who decided one day that the M-16 was too much to carry with the radio and got a .45 instead.

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  Tim Orr - Marines +6 Total Videos

  3rd Battalion, 7th Marines

  It was relentless for the Marines. Tim Orr remembers the cycle well. Go into the bush and dig in. Set up ambushes at night and patrols during the day. Then move to another spot and repeat. When the regiment was sent home early, he volunteered to stay as a part of a special unit which moved into a village and stayed there, protecting the villagers from the VC.

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  David Ray - Marines +9 Total Videos

  3rd Battalion, 7th Marines

  For their booby traps, the VC preferred to use American hand grenades. They would shorten the fuse as much as possible for a quick reaction when the trip line was hit. They would also use artillery rounds but, by 1970, punji pits were no longer used. (Caution: strong language)

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  Jack Tragis - Army +9 Total Videos

  82nd Medical Detachment

  Jack Tragis supervised the pilots at the 82nd Medical Detachment but he had limited experience himself and was still flying in the right seat. He became an aircraft commander much sooner than he would have except one day he had a pilot announce that he was quitting.

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  David Ray - Marines +9 Total Videos

  3rd Battalion, 7th Marines

  His homecoming was easy. Not only was David Ray not yelled at or spit on, he came to regard those stories as a kind of urban legend. The worst time he had was an encounter with a World War II vet.

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  Chuck Traviolia - Marines +8 Total Videos

  3rd Battalion, 7th Marines

  Chuck Traviolia and his fellow Marines were sent to an R&R at China Beach but they couldn't enjoy it because they were simultaneously prepping for a big operation. When it kicked off, they found themselves pinned down by heavy machine gun fire so they called in some air support. When they did get into the enemy bunkers, they were amazed at what they found.

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  Tim Orr - Marines +6 Total Videos

  3rd Battalion, 7th Marines

  The Marines enjoyed robust artillery and air support in Vietnam. They did not enjoy the booby traps, though. Tim Orr recalls an incident in which his squad narrowly avoided a disaster when a trip wire was nearly triggered. Another favorite method of the VC was to put hand grenades in old C-ration cans.

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  Jack Tragis - Army +9 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  If you're going to war, commit to winning it. Don't play around with people's lives. That's the plea of Jack Tragis, a helicopter pilot who saved a lot of people in Vietnam. During the ill-fated Operation Lam Son 719, he learned an important lesson; that Medevac pilots must be prepared to fly other kinds of missions.

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  Chuck Traviolia - Marines +8 Total Videos

  3rd Battalion, 7th Marines

  Chuck Traviolia just happened to be on a direct line towards an enemy target when a short mortar round hit. He wasn't badly wounded and walked back to the aid station. Later during this engagement, he saw an example of a gunney outranking an XO.