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Sam Pyle

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The different culture of Vietnam was puzzling to Sam Pyle when he arrived fresh from home. Men holding hands? Next to the Air Force base was a Navy base, where Sam was sorry he went on a ride-along out on patrol. (4:27)

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Under Viet Cong mortar fire, Sam Pyle will "never forget the sound of all that shrapnel." He could hear a buddy screaming nearby, and assumed he was dying, but was relieved when he found out what happened. (7:36)

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Sam Pyle knew wasted effort when he saw it. As the C-47 Psy War planes dropped leaflets urging the Viet Cong to surrender, he knew exactly how they were going to use the paper. (4:41)

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Sam Pyle saw the two kinds of horror in war, the personal, as Viet Cong killed nuns and orphans, and the impersonal, as the incessant mortar attacks killed seemingly at random. A very close round gave him a concussion and hearing loss. (6:40)

Sammy Davis

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There was a long line of military service in his family. Sammy Davis remembers sitting around the dinner table talking about Vietnam when his father turned to him and made a very serious declaration. (3:59)

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Sammy Davis had made a big impression in boot camp, so big that the drill instructor pulled him aside and told him he had a lot of potential. After artillery training, he was off to Vietnam, where he experienced a memorable first night. (5:06)

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Artilleryman Sammy Davis was assigned down in the Mekong Delta, where it was just a lot of rain and water. This had spurred the innovation of a battery on pontoons that could be deployed on water. The locals were friendly and he considered them his friends. After all, they were the reason he was there. (4:41)

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When you're in danger of being overrun, you fire flechette rounds. Artilleryman Sammy Davis learned early in his Vietnam tour how effective they could be. They were rounds packed with small, sharp darts which could cut through the enemy or through the brush if you needed to clear out a little jungle. (3:23)

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The sergeant was only 27 years old, but he was a mean, old sergeant to Sammy Davis and the crew in the artillery battery. His mom had sent some fishing gear and he and his buddies caught fish in the Mekong and traded them in town for whatever young men go looking for in town. (4:02)

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Sammy Davis received a harmonica from his mom, which meant he had to learn how to play it. Since his guard duty was on an artillery battery, he could play it while keeping watch. This became an indispensable part of life in the unit. (3:18)