Captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2008 girl thanksgiving of 67 which was just a couple days or so after my birthday. I had my 21st birthday there at khe sanh. I dont remember that, but i remember thanksgiving we had fresh eggs that morning and we had real, real turkey in the chow hall. I understand the chow hall got completely blown away. But we had real food, and all of this through air drops. It was amazing. I remember colonel lowndes, David Lowndes who was our he was our commander. He was also he was a cowboy. He was a john wayne with a big red mustache all over the place. Just the guy was, hey, john wayne. Im just going out there and doing whatever. So i remember him i remember nothing of my shop. I can see a work bench and some maybe test equipment, a few people with no faces. I have no idea who i worked with. I now learned from my records that my Communications Officer was a major john, i believe it is, shepherd. Im sure i had another senior nco there. No idea who he would have been and other techs other Communications People in the area. I do remember Communications Traffic regarding the buildup of enemy troops around the base. I remember that. I remember Communications Traffic about sensors, which i later learned what they were called in the mack namara line. I didnt know that term at the time. I was aware of traffic about sensors that had been placed were way up in what was then south vietnam, kind of near enough laos that you could see there, and then just a short hop from the demilitarized zone. These censors were placed throughout the militarized zone with the ability to detect movement, substantial movements of troops. Of course, i also remember on more than one occasion, apparently some rock apes were not only setting off the censors there, but started up quite a few skirmishes around our perimeter there. Theyd throw things or theyre out walking around. Youve got troops there. Youve got americans who tend to be kind of messy with their garbage. Hey, good eating around here for the rock apes. So theyd come up and start a small battle there. I just dont remember any specifics. I was reading just last night about the one c130, and i was surely there october 15th. And i was in eyesight, both my hooch where i slept and my shop where i worked and the chow hall which was there at the time all were within eyesight, line of sight of the airstrip, and i have no memory of that. Have you ever figured out yourself or have somebody tell you why you dont remember some of that . No. No on the latter. I kind of think ive figured it out myself, or at least i this is my theory, is that im i compartmentalize pretty effectively, and if we had to go do Something Else right now, i could kind of put this into suspended mode while we went off and did the other. And i think personally that that was something that maybe i wasnt prepared to deal with, and i put it in a compartment, but i think the compartment became sealed, so to speak, once i got home. I mentioned earlier, once i left khe sanh and eventually made it back here, the first thing happened. After the transpacific flight i land, we land, several of us. Again, traveling individually. I dont know these guys. Several of us get off the plane, again another Continental Airlines charter with flight attendants, the whole kit and kaboodle. We land and were so thankful to be back in the world, the good old u. S. Of a. We kiss the runway. Neil down and kiss the runway. Im home, everything is going to be great. A few hours later after processing out, we walk off the base, a long comes a hippy bus, they throw crap, feces out on us, call us all sorts of names. Its like, how can i fit this experience into the feelings that i was just expressing. I couldnt. As we traveled as i traveled after that point, i was with two, three other marines. We were trying to find a pay match to get some money. We partied on okinawa. So we were broke. Wed make it over to okinawa, the national station at the time and get some pay. Then im on my own. Im headed home, and i realize that maybe something is wrong with me. If im an an port and sat on a bench, all of a sudden, people just kind of got up and vanished. So i get back. Ive got 2 1 2 months, 3 months actually, left in the core. Im reporting back into my old unit, Marine Air Base squadron one. Ive got leave. I come home. We immediately marry, within a week after i return home. A few days later, here is khe sanh emblazoned on the front pages on the 6 00 news, in magazines, Time Magazine, wherever. And this is to the question of the compartmentization and also to feelings in general. Im looking at this stuff, and my first i guess impulse is, man, thank god im out of there. Im back in the world. Im not dealing with that. And so then, kind of the next thought was, i wonder if anybody heard me thinking that, because im supposed to be back there with the troops, with my brothers. Did anybody does anybody know how im feeling about getting out of there and what a cowardly thought that they would think of me if they knew i was kind of rejoicing about being out of there. This thing was just constantly in the news. Meantime, im trying to get situated for a civilian career career wasnt even the thought. A job, a civilian job. While i was at khe sanh, i came across an old magazine, ebony magazine that happened to have one of these little coupon ads, recruiting ad. People with whatever skills, electronic maintenance skills, complete this. And i sent the thing back in to ibm. It turns out i was ibm atlanta. Literally i got a response from them while i was in khe sanh, and we found the letter, i dont know, 15, 20 years ago and i kept it. I kept the letter. Its folded up in my pocket. Got spots of khe sanh mud on it, red mud. I kept the letter. Im thinking this is my ticket when i get back. Sure enough, this would have been, sure enough, octoberish of 67. When i communicated in september october, they answered in october if im not mistaken. Actually, the letter dates two, three days before this c130 crash that i talked about where the crew was killed. I have no memory of the y 130 crash. I do have and i have the letter as evidence of the memory of the communicating with ibm. So im trying to i guess rationalize what the heck is happening here, because i had been essentially out of the primary society during a period of its biggest change, if you will, and out of the country 1965, Voting Rights act, all of this. So im trying to fit all of this into my head. Meantime, heres this neverending barrage of information about khe sanh. Khe sanh, the marines. And i dont remember it at this point, but i read i have an old Time Magazine from 19 february of 1968. So im a month home at the time. And even the Magazine Article talks about how they continue to show the flaming crashed c130 aircraft out there. And it wasnt the only one that crashed. Several crashed and burned out there. I vaguely remember the carcass of an aircraft out there, but i dont remember so i think to the question of why i think that was sort of a selfpreservation, get this locked off somewhere so i could operate. Meantime, this is First Quarter of 68. Im trying to prepare myself to get this job. My bride, she had no clue of whether or not i was going to be able to be the provider that i needed to be. I think she just believed in me. But thankfully, i went ahead and contacted ibm. She and i drove to atlanta because there was little or no augusta was too small to have any significant resources there. At khe sanh, i guess the biggest thing for me was maybe this didnt happen. Maybe whatever i do remember multiple occasions of making it to a bunker during relatively infrequent incoming. We would take in rockets, a little mortar, a little artillery here and there while i was there. Now, as soon as i left, they were sustaining incoming at the rate of like 1,000, 1,500 rounds a day coming into the base. So im reading this and im seeing this. I think it was just more it was an overload psychologically, and i just kind of pushed it off. So i got back here. I didnt really with the experiences that i was having and realizing that it was not in vogue to be Even Associated with the military, and the thought of being in vietnam, you definitely didnt want anybody to know that. So i think that also kind of contributed to my to this thing being kind of locked away or at least no memories. Wow. Because i have no real memories there. Then once you got back, you settled down and started working, i assume . Yeah. Its interesting. I got that letter from ibm and i was holding on to this thing like, this is my ticket. So i come back. Were living in augusta, which is hometown for me. Im stationed at buford, south carolina, 110 miles away. I take a couple days off and we drive over to atlanta. And i come in to the ibm office. Mind you, i dont have a i dont make an appointment until i get here. So we come into the ibm office and i had my uniform on. I come into the office and i ask for the same i called in, asked for the gentleman who authored the letter to me. Of course, shea shuttled me off to the opiate person. I asked for this fellow, mr. Lovett, bill lovett, and he wasnt around. So i kind of stood around. And in those days, 68, most offices kind of had kind of a glass front area. Had kind of a big, imposing reception desk where the reception would look over at you, and then they had a door to the back office that was also glass. So youve got this vietnam guy out here in the lobby. So they tell me, you know, well, were going to see if we cant get an appointment for you, and if youd like to call back no, you dont understand. I need to see somebody today. So one guy comes out. He actually takes me back and interviews me, and hes got favorable words, good to have you here, good interview. Im sure well be in touch, you know, patted me on the back. I aint going anywhere. I mean im spitshined. My barracks hat on. That boy is shining, my shoes, im squared away. So he goes off into the back, im still around. I can see people kind of coming and looking out the windows. Is that crazy guy still out there . So the guy comes back out again. I have a couple of interviews. Finally i tell him. I said, you dont understand, i need to know if i got the job. He said, this is highly unusual. Our practice is to let you know by letter what our next steps are. You dont understand. Im getting out of the corps in a month or two. Ive got a brand new wife. I need to know if i got the job. He vanishes off again. Meantime, i think this is becoming kind of a soap opera in the back because other people are coming along, let me see if that guy is out there. [ laughter ] he finally comes back and says this is highly irregular. Im not authorized to tell you what the salary might be, but i can say that you will be getting an offer. I didnt hear anything else. Doesnt matter to me what the salary is going to be. I dont have an appreciation for civilian money anyway. Boom, go out of there. Sure enough, the next week or however long, i get a letter from ibm with an author to go to work im getting out on april fools day of 68 and they want me to start up april 2nd. So i call them and ask for a little bit of time to get moved. I started on april 8th. And actually, going to ibm, essentially i traded my marine corps uniform for an ibm dark suit with white shirt. You could wear any color shirt you wanted to, as long as its white, a drab tie. I traded my marine corps uniform for the ibm uniform. I traded my hard metal marine corps tool kit for a nice, disguised like a briefcase, ibm tool kit. I kwaem to an organization, ibm, of the 60s which was very regimented, very hierarchical in its organizational structure. I knew exactly where i fit in the organization, what my role is, what my contributions could be, et cetera. Had a great time with ibm. Stayed there 33 years. You were used to a structure in the marines. You were going to another structure. It was like pea in a pod. Boom. A natural fit for me with ibm. I stayed there 33 years, actually a couple months shy of 33 years. I retired about 15 years ago. Thats a credit to you for your persistence. A lot of people would have walked out of that office and waited for a call. Hey, i had a new bride. That makes you persistent. Tell us a little bit before we finish about your family. Wonderful family, wonderful support structure. My immediate family, my wife and our two daughters, and i mentioned my daughter norma, my older daughter. Barbara, my wife, we go back to 3 and 2 years old, respectively. We have monica and marsha, our two daughters. Theyre both young professional women doing their thing. The older has been in the Law Firm Marketing business. She works for a Major Law Firm and has been with law firms for many years. And the younger is a counselor who happens to now be, for the last several years, probably five years ago, doing working as a contract family military family life consultant. So shes been working with the various military units on the stress, both the Service Member and their families. So she kind of we always kind of i always felt shes looking into my mind from the beginning. She kind of helps to manage me. But she kind of an aside, the first couple years doing this, shed do an assignment, a few months, and then off doing her regular practice. Shes working with the army, and then shes working with the air force. She did several, four or five of these rotations. Im kind of sitting back there saying to myself, gee, i know thats her business, but sure would be nice if she really had a stint with the marine corps because that way shed see how its really done. Everybody should have one yeah so sure enough, shes now probably in her third year or third cycle anyway of working with the marine corps. She works right now with marine corps recruiting station atlanta, and i think shes hooked. I know they think the world of you. Theyre a blessing to me. We have wonderful friends and wonderful family as far as my siblings, and there are still eight of us left alive. Youre a lulk i can man. So there are plenty of subsequent generations. Norma has my three grandsons. Our other girls have no children. Thats wonderful. I want to ask sue, before we get much further, if you have any questions that youd like to ask. No, i think im good. This has been fabulous, really. One thing we want to do, also, before we finish is give you a chance to say anything you want to say over and above what you said. You dont have to, but if theres something you want to get on the record, something you left out or a message you want to give, feel free to do it. I would just kind of ive alluded to it along the way. My experience as a veteran, if you will, having immediately upon my return, and then actually getting out of the corps, i spent years i think i mentioned to you, i wouldnt have been caught with anything like this. I got rid of everything that i had that was military related. I think ive got one field jacket. All of the old uniforms, anything it was like travel incognito. Dont let anybody know. Not that they wouldnt have known anyway, but i hid the fact that i was a veteran, and it was that way for years. After i got out, i then started in school at night at georgia state, and i just kind of i didnt get too close to anybody because of the atmosphere toward the military. And i went that way until the mid 80s. So im talking over 15 years, and im reading an article about the moving wall, and this was the Vietnam Memorial i guess had just been introduced at the time, and im reading an article about a moving version, miniature version in atlanta, and i was compelled to i picked up the phone, called home and told barbara that, gee, lets keep the girls out of school, whatever day this thing is here, i want to go see it. And it was when i went down there it was herd park or whatever it is, at five points in atlanta, i went down and it was like boom, an awakening or whatever. I think it was such a potent moment even for our girls that monica, when she went off to college, her Birthday Gift a Birthday Gift from her to me, its a print of a businessman standing at the wall with his briefcase down, standing with his hand against the wall and there are comrades, if you will, fallen comrades trying to reach from the wall. She must have been middle school age when this experience at the moving wall happened. So it had to have been impactful for her, but for me, it was just like things just opened up. I just i was in tears. And even then, though, i never was really i hadnt reached the point where i wanted to talk about the military, and certainly not publicly acknowledge that i had something to do with the military. And so probably at about the time im retiring from ibm, which would have been 20002001. It was actually january 2001 i retired, i began to within this last 15year period, have more and more interest in so now ive been trying to put together my experience its been very cathartic for me to try to rebuild my especially my time in okinawa and on vietnam in vietnam. Youve got an amazing story and youre an amazing person. Growing up, you didnt have the opportunities that some people had back then, but you made your opportunities both with the Trucking Company when you were unloading it as a teenager, all the way to hanging around the office at ibm. You served in one of the more dangerous theaters of vietnam during a dangerous period, and your family obviously loves you and respects you for a lot of reasons. We want to thank you for doing this and particularly thank you for your service. Well, thank you. Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you for your service and for coming. Weeknights this month were featuring American History tv programs as a preview of whats available every weekend on cspan3. Tonight an evening of programs from the university of Mary Washingtons great lives lecture series. First, we look at the military career of general douglas macarthur, from his 1903 west point graduation to being relieved of command by president harry truman during the korean war. Watch tonight beginning at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. Enjoy American History tv every weekend on cspan3. American history tv on cspan three, every weekend documents americas story. Next, virginia lee dornheggen recounts her time as a u. S. Army nurse during the vietnam war. She describes injuries she treated, the night the hospital came under fire and the impact the job had