Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
6:09 | Before he went to Vietnam, Johnson went to Ranger school. He talks about the preparations he made for Vietnam and his flight trip over in October 1968. Once there for a little while he was assigned to a helicopter unit. He describes his first experiences in the new country and what it was like on a daily basis.
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Originally from East Bridgewater, Massachusetts, Bert Johnson was raised by parents who were both in medical units in the second world war. They urged him to go to West Point to get his college education, but instead he wound up going to Case Western Reserve for a year. After that he was accepted into Harvard, but got drafted after a semester. He was sworn into the Army and went to Fort Dix, New Jersey for basic training.
While over in Vietnam, unfortunately Bert Johnson was one of the many that fell victim to Malaria, supposedly from a mosquito bite. Luckily, he was able to recover and survive the rest of his tour. On one mission he was told to recover two bodies, and in addition he remembers his first time finding dead. He was also there for the battle of LZ Carolyn.
Once the battle of LZ Carolyn settled down, Bert Johnson was firing at the enemy and wound up getting injured very badly in the head. When he was taken to the doctor who was going to operate on him, he was still conscious and had to sign release forms. He had a nice interaction with the doctor, who he found out went to Harvard. Once his tour was over, Bert went back to Harvard in September of 1969.
Johnson explains more experiences from his time in Vietnam, such as the interactions he had with protecting Vietnamese civilians living in a local village, creating and setting booby traps, and interaction with wildlife. While in foxholes, some men killed a wild boar and tried to cook it in their foxhole and failed.
When he came back to the states, protests against the Vietnam War by students was at an all time high. Because of this, he and many others kept their service a secret while attending college. After some time he attended law school and got through it mostly without anyone finding out he was in the service. He gives advice to future generations as well as nods to people who made an impact on him while he was in the military.
