Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans

SEARCH RESULTS

my selections

9,892
Videos
49
Photos
148
Docs

Search Again

advanced search

Tom Pendergrast

WWII | LCT 777

Everything was going according to plan. Tom Pendergrast guided his landing craft full of tanks and jeeps toward the shore at Utah Beach. Just before he got to his anchor point, a German mine was drawn up from the seabed into the propellor and five hundred pounds of TNT exploded. (8:51)
Recovering from wounds suffered on D-Day, Tom Pendergrast encountered one of the loveliest women he had ever seen. She was a captured German sniper working in the hospital. Returning stateside, he became an inspector for the Bureau of Ships. (5:32)
Tom Reilly

Vietnam | 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 199th Light Infantry Brigade

Tom Reilly felt the call to serve and dropped his deferments to let the draft take him. After basic, he was offered a slot at Officer Candidate School, but, to him, that was “the sorriest thing I ever saw in the service,” and he declined. (3:44)
When he arrived in Vietnam at Tan Son Nhut Air Base, Tom Reilly was assigned to the 199th Light Infantry Brigade at Long Binh, and began a routine of sweeps, patrols and ambushes. Long periods of monotony were the rule, but he soon got a taste of action. (5:02)
The Viet Cong were tough and smart, recollects Tom Reilly. He describes the twin tactics of hit and run, in which they presented no target, and the rigging of booby traps, which made targets of the GI’s, long after the guerillas were gone. He clearly remembers the incident at the Sea of Reeds when Edward Powers was killed. (9:31)
Tom Reilly was nearly killed in Vietnam seven times. Once, an RPG landed in a pond next to him and sizzled like a giant Alka Seltzer in the water. His friend, Dennis Haines, was not so lucky when three snipers opened up. (5:27)
The Viet Cong ruined a USO show with a rocket attack, causing Tom Reilly to dash for cover. He remembers the civilians, though, as unfailingly polite and gracious people, especially the Le family of Saigon. (5:17)
Tom Reilly’s Vietnam service took a new direction when he took an assignment as a war correspondent. He carried a camera along with his rifle, and documented the action for Stars and Stripes and the Army Times. (10:30)
The marksmanship of many of his fellow soldiers was subpar, according to Tom Reilly. He also asserts that the bombing halt ahead of negotiations caused a great increase in VC and NVA attacks. (3:16)
Eyewitness to an accidental massacre, Vietnam War correspondent Tom Reilly was forever changed by the experience. After the war, it was thirteen years before anyone thanked him for his service, and that was all he ever asked for. (3:46)