Veteran Transcript
Morris Mitchem Jr
[b. 3 /16/1948]
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[Note: adjust the following paragraph and put it in brackets if this was not included at beginning of your tape.]
“Today is September 14th . I am Chelsea Carter and I am interviewing Morris Mitchem Junior at 1522 Royal Lake Mr. Morris Mitchem Junior is my cousin. Mr. Morris Mitchem is 60 years old and was born on March 16th 1948. Mr. Morris Mitchem Junior served in the Vietnam War. Mr. Mitchem was in the Marine Corps and held the following rank:Corporal.
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CBC: Were you drafted or did you enlist?
MMJ: I enlisted.
CBC: Where were you living at the time?
MMJ: Columbia, South Carolina.
CBC: Why did you join?
MMJ: Because I wanted to see what it was like to play cowboys and Indians for real. That’s the reason.
CBC: Why did you pick the service branch you joined?
MMJ: Well, because the Army teaches what they called a strategic retreat, which to me means running, and I couldn't get in the Air Force because I wore glasses and you had to have twenty-twenty vision for our flight and that's what I wanted to do. And I couldn't swim, so I didn't go in the navy [because] I can't drink that much water.
CBC: Okay. What did it feel like?
MMJ: What did what feel like?
CBC: Being in the Army?
MMJ: I wasn't in the Army I was in the Marine Corps.
CBC: What did it feel like being in the Marine Corps?
MMJ: When? I went a few different times? [Do] you mean when I first enlisted?
CBC: Yes.
MMJ: Well, I didn't have [an] idea that I was going some place, but I knew because of an vision in my heart and I had never been anywhere, so liked that part. Also I was looking forward to the training, because I like to exercise, stay fit and all that. So I was looking forward to how tough training would be, so that was exciting. First three days I remember were tiring because they kept you up for seventy-two hours, they didn't let you sleep only an hour or sit down.
CBC: Oh okay.
MMJ: That wasn't fun (Chuckles). They let you stand next to a bunk, but wouldn't let you get in it.
CBC: Oh why wouldn't they let you get in the bunk bed?
MMJ: Well, it's the Marine Corps part way through the training I realized that the first thing they tried to do was break you down mentally and physically. Their theory is to break the individual from everything that he knows and then rebuild him. So one they keep you awake, when I first go in I get on a bus here [to] send me to Parris Island, then you get off the bus, and right away they start yelling at you. They call you girls, shower shoes all kinds of stuff and you stand along in line or line up and then eventually they send you somewhere where they take all of your clothes away from you and give you a uniform and boots that don't fit. I wore a size eight triple A shoe and they put a nine wide boot on me.
CBC: Okay.
MMJ: Then they made you stand around, I stood next to a bunk basically for three days, until you get a haircut [and] then they move you away from it, to go [and] eat and every now and then they'll let you go to the bathroom. And that's it, so for three days you stood next to a bunk and you only did whatever they wanted you to do. Mostly [they] cut hair off, that's the first thing [that] they did, was cut your hair off, so [that] everybody was bald.
CBC: Do you have bad feet now?
MMJ: No. Actually my feet are pretty good.
CBC: Okay.
MMJ: When I got out of there I was able to wear a B width shoe because, they flattend my feet out putting those big boots on me.
CBC: Ok. How did you get through it?
MMJ: Get through Boot camp?
CBC: Yes. The mental impact?
MMJ: It was nothing for me because I was used to exercising all [of] the time anyway, all they did all day was exercise and work you, but that's what I liked doing, so that wasn't a problem for me, it was a challenge. I enjoyed that part. A lot of people fell out or quit, I think we had 105 people in my platoon, but we graduated with eighty people. Eighty of them were left.
CBC: What kept you going?
MMJ: That's what I wanted to do and besides I wanted to go to Vietnam so.....
CBC: Where exactly did you go?
MMJ: I didn't go anywhere in particular, I was in what they called a circuit destroyer group. When I first got there I was in Da Nang and then I was sent out to my unit, if you want to call it a unit and from there I went on to what they call full phase. Which was part of the battalion recon. So, our job was for the first nine months I was there, what they did was row the ship and they would ride up and down the coast of Vietnam and wherever the Army was taken fire, if they wanted them to retreat they would drop us off in the middle between the fighting. Between the Vietcong and the Army and then we would take over and our orders from there were to kill everything living and that got in our way, [to] kill everybody all the way back to the water.
CBC: What was your job assignment?
MMJ: Excuse me?
CBC: What was your job assignment?
MMJ: For the first few months, I had three jobs I ran point, I was radioman and I was what they call Tail-end and Charlie, the last person on line in patrols.
CBC: Well, what is point?
MMJ: That's the first man that's out, normally when you're going through the jungle or anywhere really, you always have an advanced person. We either have an advanced team or an advanced person. I was one of the advanced people so you are the first person that goes into wherever you're going. This was after the fighting was over we had shut down the combat. When we got there and headed back to the ocean. Then, I would lead the troops back to wherever we were going. Point man is the one that hopefully will see everything, the first one to get into an ambush if there was one, first one to trip a booby trap if there is one, you’re the first one in line you get whoever or whatever is out there.
CBC: Were you afraid during combat?
MMJ: Nope.
CBC: At all?
MMJ: Nope I enjoyed it, that's why you were there. That's not normal, I don't want anybody to think that it's normal, I was not afraid because that is where I wanted to be, and I wasn't afraid because I had a vision before I left. I knew that I wouldn't die so I wasn't concerned. Most normal people are afraid, that's not normal to not be afraid but, to my knowledge nobody else had a vision like that. I had one before I left that said I could not die before the age of twenty-six so I knew that I'd be back before the age of twenty-six. I had no fear.
CBC: Okay. Were there many casualties in your unit?
MMJ: Yes. A battalion is twelve-hundred men. I was part of two battalions and three platoons. I went over with four-hundred guys and three of us came back. That was a nature where we did go out. I only spent two days on a ship and we would go out we'd have what they call a dead man's meal in the morning and then they would put us on a chopper and they would fly low and then we would jump out of the chopper between when the Vietnam were shooting at each other and they would drop us off in the middle and we'd take the fire. So the Army could retreat and that's what I did and a lot of people died every day, we lost eight-hundred men in one day one time on Hill eight eighty-one and they probably publicized that back here.
CBC: Oh wow. Tell me a couple of your most memorable experiences?
MMJ: I've got one that I think about a lot. I was on point [and] I went into an area, it was part of a jungle but there wasn't a lot of undergrowth but, there was a lot of trees and shade. I walked into this group of trees and there was an opening [and] something told me to walk around the opening and not straight through. I walked around it and I looked to my left and I right, then I looked down and there was what is called a punji pit that I had just walked around, that I would have fallen into. A punji pit is a deep hole with sharpened sticks at the bottom of it, and if anyone would have fallen into it they would have been inpailed by all of the sticks.
CBC: Oh yea I know what you're talking about.
MMJ: Yea, I think about that frequently at least once a month. Another was I set off a booby trap and the guy behind me got killed, [I] don't know why I did it, the booby trap must have delayed.
CBC: Was the guy in your unit?
MMJ: Yea, we were in the bush and he was walking a little too close to me, they normally don't walk that close to me. I was point man and he was a little to close so he got killed. I call that mamoboo? Because I set off the booby trap. Normally the booby trap would kill the person that set it off and not the person behind or in front. Oh and another was someone tried to give me a purple heart because of moore, which is a big bullet that fires out of a........ but anyway it exploded next to me and scraped my hand. I guess you can consider these memorable. There's one better than that I had to go pick up one of my buddies in the military he got shot about six months in and I went out in the open under three sets of fire to get him out, and I stood up to draw fire [because] I knew I couldn't die so I didn't even worry about it I just stood up to draw the fire and then we carried him up.
CBC: What was the closest you came to death?
MMJ: I can't say death because I thought I came close to death, since I knew I couldn't die. When I was radioman I got shot well my canteen because they always tried to kill the radioman or anyone that was dark complected. I got a bullet in my radio, which was on my back, one scraped my ear and one in my canteen. Other than that I never got any scratches. Bullets in my equipment that's it.
CBC: Were you a prisoner of war?
MMJ: No way. In boot camp I was a prisoner for a short time as a part of training, and I said I would never want to do that again, but no one wants to be a prisoner anyway. Prisoners don't usually survive, we ran across some people who were prisoners, well what was left of them.
CBC: Did you have friends that were held captive?
MMJ: No. My unit was the search and destroy unit, the goose would not capture us. Their goal was to kill us, we were not stationed anywhere we were only there when the fighting was going on. We were in the Marine Corps this is what I like about the Army or any other branch, it was against the rules for a marine to leave another marine. We lost six men one day trying to pick-up one dead man. Six men killed trying to pick-up one dead man. That's why I went into the Marine Corps.
CBC: Do you remember the guy that died when you set off the booby trap?
MMJ: Yea, what about him?
CBC: Did you go back and save him or did he die instantly?
MMJ: There wasn't anything to save I set off a booby trap, he was killed instantly.
CBC: That's what I was thinking.
MMJ: He was right next to me or behind me, he was killed then. That's what usually happens with booby traps they are not designed to injure there designed to kill you immediately.
CBC: Did you take his body back?
MMJ: No. [I] didn't have to we had other people to do that, I was point man they don't do that. I stayed on point
CBC: Were you awarded any medals or citations?
MMJ: Yea, you've got the Vietnam medal there's about five different medals but, I didn't get the one I wanted which was the Congressional Medal of Honor. I expected to get a silver star but, I didn't get that either especially after saving my buddy and going through all of that. The platoon sergeant got the medal. I didn't get anything because he didn't get killed but, he got killed the next day.
CBC: How did you get your awards?
MMJ: What do you mean how did I get my awards?
CBC: How did you earn them and who have them to you?
MMJ: Oh these are not awards that you get for doing anything other than being in Vietnam. I've got medals they call them ribbons, all of the medals they've got are afro-camp which is when you get expert for firing, in Vietnam everybody got a ribbon for being in Vietnam. I've got one of those, I got different types of ribbons because of my operation. I had fifty-two major operations, as battalion recon, that was for dropping us off in the middle of fire, because we got shot at every day except two days out of the month for the first nine months, so we got ribbons for operations and I had fifty-two operations. Operations last from anywhere from three days to twenty days.
CBC: Oh okay.
MMJ: I never knew when one began or ended, because we were out for twenty-eight days every month and then we came back in for two days and then they would drop us off somewhere else, wherever anybody is being shot at and can't get away.
CBC: What would you do with your two days off?
MMJ: You don't have two days off, there's two days out of the field they bring you back on the ship and you get more supplies. You get a bath or a shower and you get to go to sleep without somebody guarding you. That's it you [are] not off, you're getting ready to go back out again. Then the morning before you go they give you what they call a dead man's meal, [because] they don't expect anybody to come back. That's nature, that's what we did.
CBC: What is a dead man's meal?
MMJ: Excuse me?
CBC: What was a dead man's meal?
MMJ: Steak and potatoes or steak and eggs. Steak potatoes and eggs.
CBC: How did you stay—?
MMJ: They probably call it a dead man's meal because it was the only time you got steak. See we ate C rations every day at the first part of the tour, toward the end they gave us salt rations. But in the beginning we only got C rations, salt rations didn't exist I don't believe at that time, because I went over in 1966 before salt rations came out. We didn't have them we had cans of food.
CBC: What are salt rations?
MMJ: Salt rations are food that come in a bag, and it's dried food and it's salty. That's why they call it salt rations, but it's been dehydrated and it's in a bag, all you do is pour it into a container and add water.
CBC: Did you like it?
MMJ: Pardon?
CBC: Did you like it?
MMJ: No, not in particular. I wouldn't go out and buy it but, I like C rations that I'd buy. Salt rations no, it was easy to carry you could carry a lot of bags, a lot more food you could carry a lot more salt rations than C rations. Because C rations were in metal cans and salt rations were in plastic bags, so it was light. See you couldn't carry more than a three day supply of C rations it would weigh you down, but salt rations you could carry a week supply.
CBC: What was arriving in Vietnam like?
MMJ: What was what?
CBC: What was arriving in Vietnam like?
MMJ: It was like to any place new, difference in a sense that there was no city. It was like a land, a farm type land except with tents and wooden buildings, from what I remember they might have been wooden they might have been something else, but I am going to say wooden, I didn't pay a lot of attention to it. It was during the monsoon season or close to it in December, so it rained quite a bit. It had different odor than anywhere I've ever been. There they had no industry, no smokestacks or anything like that, so the air was—I guess I would describe it as fresh now, but then it was kind of odd, but you can smell anything its nature.
CBC: What is monsoon season?
MMJ: monsoon it's like a rainy season, when you get really big drops of rain. When I say big drops I mean you could get a drop of rain I would guess a quarter of an inch in diameter. Big drops and a lot of it, everything is pretty much flooded when you get in the monsoon season. You woke up in the water and you slip in the water. I'm serious go to sleep right in the water.
CBC: Was it ever hot?
MMJ: Yes, some days we didn't have a thermometer but, I was told some days it was 115 degrees in the shade.
CBC: Oh wow.
MMJ: Yes, so sometimes it was definitely well over 110 degrees sometimes.
CBC: Did that affect the military or the unit that you were in?
MMJ: Yes. It would affect different people usually they were accounted for that. Actually I got heatstroke one day, probably because I was carrying too much weight, but I got heatstroke or heat exhaustion I don't know the difference all I know is that I fell out. I was carrying about one-hundred pounds of rope along with my gear, and we were climbing a mountain. I had not enough water too much heat, too much weight. Actually I didn't know anybody else that did fall out, so it probably wasn't one of my best moments, but I didn't stay out long.
CBC: Okay. Were there any women in your unit?
MMJ: No, women were not allowed in combat, not in the Marine Corps, not that I'm aware of. There were women in the (Vietcong?) in fact they captured one, which they eventually killed, but no women in the Marine Corps on the front lines or out in combat, no women in my unit at all. Not my platoon and not my company as far as I know, I think the only women that could have been in the Marine Corps at that time were the clerks and nurses and they were back at the hospital at (Da Nang?) or at some other place that might have had a hospital.
CBC: Were you ever exposed to an Agent Orange?
MMJ: I don't know that, they claimed everybody was they use Agent Orange as our understanding to get rid of some of the undergrowth brush, they also used napalm. I and walked across some areas were the military dropped napalm and I walked through those areas and I've been told that those areas were contaminated with agent orange, but I don't know that for a fact. I've never been treated, diagnosed or examined for it.
CBC: Oh okay. What were the affects of Agent Orange?
MMJ: I have no idea, I've never been exposed to it.
CBC: Did you know anybody that was?
MMJ: Personally no, if we were infected yes I know some people but, to my knowledge I don't know any. The only guy I could think of died about three years ago. Like I said most of the people I went over with died, only three of us came back so, I really didn't know anybody.
CBC: Why was the war fought?
MMJ: I have no idea. We weren't told that, we were just told to go there and fight.
CBC: And kill people?
MMJ: In my unit yes, we had standard orders our counselors told us to kill everything living and everything that got in our way.
CBC: Okay. How did you stay in touch with your family?
MMJ: I did not. I wrote letters but, I'm not sure that we were actually in touch. Everybody writes letters, I can't remember if I got a letter from them, I imagine I did but, I don't remember getting a letter from them. I know [that] they wrote me but I don't remember from then.
CBC: Were you married at the time?
MMJ: No.
CBC: What was the food like?
MMJ: I had C rations and it was great! I like C rations, now most people don't like them. Most of the people I knew didn't like it but, I like C rations.
CBC: Did they give you enough to eat?
MMJ: It depends on what you mean, they didn't have to give us anything no.....they didn't always give us food. They give you a three day supply when you get there, and if they can they will drop some more supplies to you. Since we were usually fighting, sometimes firepower was to heavy so they couldn't drop supplies, so we would take food from the people we killed and eat their food.
CBC: Did you ever find your own food?
MMJ: Yes. Well, we had to one time because it was five or six days before we got any food. I went and I don't know how but you learn what to eat, what roots what trees and whatever to pull up. I don't know how but, you automatically know what you can eat and what you can't. I found some stuff, a plant that looks like a (stump?) and the roots had water in them, so you could drink water, it had (stunk?) it taste like supper so I could eat that.
CBC: Oh okay.
MMJ: You'll survive you see I was a scavenger too. So a lot a people didn't like C rations especially the bread that came in the can, so I had food that other people didn't have. They throw away can I pick them up and I pack it.
CBC: Okay.
MMJ: So I never went without food, except for that one day where I had what I didn't want, but I always had something. I was always able to scrounge, because I always ate other people food. One guy they killed him and he had some kind of rice or something, I didn't know what it was but I ate because I was hungry.
CBC: Did boot camp prepare you for battle?
MMJ: It depends on what you mean by prepare you for it. If it gave you real life situations that you would face, no it did not. Did it give you endurance or stamina to sustain you, yes. It helped me to shoot, yes like I said I was an expert shot I was pretty good at doing what I did. They gave us some hand-to-hand skills mostly killing techniques and they were very effective.
CBC: What were some of the techniques?
MMJ: It's not something you can describe. It's something that you demonstrate. Neck-breaking, back-breaking and joint-locks anything that's used to kill, usually they involve breaking the neck, back, choking or twisting anything that destroys bone or tendons, something quick. We had one thirty second kill, that's a long time but you can kill a person in three seconds it's easier to do. You can do it with two fingers but, they taught it with two hands, but I've learned since then I can do it with two fingers one on each hand. I guess after saying all [of] that I guess it did prepare you, it just wasn't like we could say you're going to go into a building you're going to go through three doors and you go in this room, and then you go in there and look, it wasn't like that. We had to go in a cave sometimes, we had to climb down a cliff sometimes, we had to wave through waters we didn't do any of that. There is none of that stuff here in America we didn't know to look for people in holes of mountains, but you were physically fit and not tuned as a killing machine, people like to say that but you’re not they show you stuff. It's like I show you how to do a math problem, but when I give you another problem it's not exactly the same you have to figure out what to do with it. You're not an expert at anything, you've just been introduced to it.
CBC: Okay. Did you mostly use guns in battle or your hands?
MMJ: Mostly guns, I had three different types.
CBC: What were they?
MMJ: I had a rifle I started off with an M-14, then eight months in I got an M-16 that's another rifle. I got a 45 as radioman because you couldn't get a rifle and a radio, then at one time i had what they call a bloop gun when I was point man and Tail-end and Charlie it shoots a forty millimeter round and has about a fifty yard range on it with a fifteen meter killing radius if it lands, you don't have to hit the person if you hit twenty feet away from them it will kill them. I liked that, it was a nice little weapon, think it was an M-40 but everyone called it a bloop gun [because] when you shot it sounded like a bloop and then a few seconds later you heard boom.
CBC: Did you ever run out of bullets?
MMJ: I don't know, I don't think so. Some people did, but I didn't. I never fired indescrimently, just fire fire fire, I would only fire if there was a target. I can say I was an expert shot, I only need one shot, I didn't have to wait everybody I hit, I hit with the first shot.
CBC: How much supply did you have?
MMJ: What kind of supply?
CBC: Just like bullets, pocket knives anything?
MMJ: I guess when we started off we had two hagranades, a 45 caliber pistol and a M-14 rifle. I didn't keep all [of] that, eventually there was no 45, eventually you ended up with a rifle a two hagranades on my shirt because you don't put them in your pockets.
CBC: Did you ever take any ones weapons after they were dead?
MMJ: No, that would be more weight to carry, we never looked to carry any weight, [as a] matter fact after our first month there everyone stop wearing their helmets because they were too heavy. Helmets didn't protect you anyway they said that it would help stop a bullet but it wouldn't, what would happen is somebody would get shot and the bullet would go inside the helmet and it would slow the bullet down enough for the bullet to bounce off inside the helmet. Nobody wore the helmet everybody through them away. He had flap jacket or flight jackets and we through them away too[because], they didn't stop bullets either.
CBC: Did you ever get any upgrades in weapons?
MMJ: The upgrade was supposed to be the M-16, but it was a downgrade it was a bad weapon. The best rifle we had was the M-14, it was the heaviest but it was the best weapon that we had, when they brought the M-16 in it was lighter it fired more bullets, it had a really good reation when it hit a person but, miss fired a lot and in Vietnam there is a lot of sand and a lot of water and it jammed a lot. A lot of people got killed because their weapon wouldn't fire.
CBC: Was there something special you did for good luck?
MMJ: Nope. [I] Didn't believe in luck.
CBC: Did you feel pressure or stress?
MMJ: No, because I enjoyed bring in Vietnam.
CBC: Okay. How did people entertain themselves?
MMJ: I don't know, because I was a loner. There was no entertainment, like I said we were search and destroy and you were marching through the jungles or shooting people, we were trying to get rid so you could march through and shoot more people. There's no time for entertainment, there is no weekend off we had a twenty-four hour-a-day job.
CBC: What did you when on a leave?
MMJ: I had two leaves one [for] five days and the other for one day they call them R&R. I don't know I think it stands for rest and relaxation. Everyone is entitled to one R&R during the tour. I took mine in September for five days that was great!
CBC: Where did you travel while in the service?
MMJ: I can tell you where I touched down, I won't say traveled, [I went to] Alaska, Japan and Vietnam that's it. I do anything or see anything I just went.
CBC: Did you enjoy yourself in the different countries?
MMJ: No, Alaska was just a stop at the airport just long enough to catch a plane to go somewhere else, and so was Japan. Vietnam I stayed there for thirteen months except for the five days I spent in the Philippines there, now I enjoyed myself in both of those places, the Philippines and Vietnam. Now Alaska and Japan I didn't see anything but, the airport and the terminal at the airport. [I] didn't get outside other than to get on the plane.
CBC: Okay. What did the others do for entertainment?
MMJ: I don't know, like I said I was a loner, I really didn't care about anybody else. All I could think about was me, [I] don't know what they did. [I] didn't believe in friends, and didn't want any. We were told one of the things when we went over, to never get close to anybody, you don't have friends because it's your friends that are going to die, or you’re going to die. You don't get stressed out if you don't have any friends, so I didn't make any. I'm a marine, and I'm there to protect other marines all of them, black, white, red, yellow, but I'm friends with nobody.
CBC: Do you have any photographs?
MMJ: Yes.
CBC: Who were some of the people in them?
MMJ: I don't know, they were just people in my unit that asked me to pose with them. I don't even remember their names, like I said I didn't have friends, other than the people I went there with and one guy I guess, went on R&R at the same time as me, I know his name. He died and I kind of felt responsible for him but, other than that I don't remember the names of anybody there.
CBC: Did you trust the people in your unit?
MMJ: Yes, they were marines you don't have a choice. They went through training they survived training and the boot camp even though it could have been harder, I believe that they would protect me and they know [that] I am going to protect them. I trusted them with my life.
CBC: Did you ever give orders?
MMJ: Yes, I wasn't supposed to, but yes.
CBC: What were they?
MMJ: I gave two I told one staff Srgnt. to get out of the field or I'de kill him.
CBC: Why?
MMJ: Because he took advantage of another individual in my unit. He tried to rip him off for money, and I thought that was very unbecoming of a marine and I was not going to let him stay alive in my unit in Vietnam. That is just disrespectful.
CBC: Oh okay.
MMJ: And the only other was some stupid Ltnt. we had tried to set up an ambush, and told everyone to make a circle and face inward. I cussed his butt out, [I] told him how stupid he was, that was the extent of my order giving.
CBC: What orders did you take?
MMJ: Most of them that were given, not all of them. I was on full phase and there were very few orders there, just to get on the chopper and get dropped off in the middle of where people were shooting at us. Yes, very few orders in full phase.
CBC: Did anyone ever try to hide?
MMJ: Strangely enough, yes. Even though there was no where to hide. Every day when we stopped we had to dig a fox, hole so nobody would see us up in the mountains. We were in a sandy area and one guy dug down and then in, and the top came down and he suffocated. You can't hide if there is nowhere to hide.
CBC: Did you ever keep a personal diary?
MMJ: Nope.
CBC: Did you have to take an order that meant life or death for someone else?
MMJ: I was in full phase, everything thing that we did determined life or death.
CBC: Did you ever refuse to do something that you were told?
MMJ: Yes, I refused to go out in a field and get shot at to pick-up a pack.
CBC: Do you recall the day your service ended?
MMJ: Not the day, no but I know the month.
CBC: What month was it?
MMJ: That was in July. I'm pretty sure that it was July, I was coming back to base and the MP at the gate asked me my name, and told me I could get an early out if I wanted it. I didn't have to serve the full four years because of the number of people getting killed in my unit. He said that if I had already served for thirteen months I qualified for an early out.
CBC: Did you get out when you wanted to?
MMJ: Yes, well I got out when I thought I wanted to. I retro-state that was a mistake.
CBC: How did you feel about it?
MMJ: I was happy. I did not like state side duty, I liked Vietnam but I didn't like state side duty. I didn't like the military in the United States I liked it in Vietnam.
CBC: If you had a chance to go back to Vietnam would you do it?
MMJ: Now? No, I'm not as stupid now.(Laughter). I don't wasn’t to play cowboys and Indians for real now.
CBC: What did you do with your days and weeks afterwards?
MMJ: [I] worked and went to school, mostly worked and partied, I partied a lot.
CBC: What kind of food did you eat when you got back?
MMJ: Well, I wanted three things. The first thing was I wanted to sleep on a mattress with a clean white sheet. I wanted [some] ice cream, a bag of popcorn and a Baby Ruth candy bar, because I didn't see this kind of stuff in thirteen months.
CBC: Oh, everybody loves those.
MMJ: That's it. You didn't get that in Vietnam, no candy, no ice cream.
CBC: Where did you go to school?
MMJ: General Motors Institute of Technology.
CBC: Why?
MMJ: Because I worked for General Motors and somebody suggested it.
CBC: Was your education supported by the GI Bill?
MMJ: Yes.
CBC: How so?
MMJ: They give you a check to go to school.
CBC: Ok. Did you make any close friendships while in the service?
MMJ: No.
CBC: Did you join a veteran’s organization?
MMJ: I belong to the VA.
CBC: What made you join the VA.?
MMJ: Just to support the group, and I like the commander she was a woman, she would get brownie points for the more people joined.
CBC: Did you ever have post war trauma?
MMJ: Well, yes one I could never sit with my back to a door or entering area. When I came back from Vietnam I had a sharp sense I could sense anything that was ten feet away from me, but since I have gotten older I am losing it.
CBC: What are some of the symptoms of war trauma?
MMJ: I don't know.
CBC: Do you still feel people behind you?
MMJ: No, I think I'm losing that sense. People can sneak up on me now.
CBC: What did you go on to do as a career after the war?
MMJ: I became an engineer.
CBC: How was the experience?
MMJ: I am still an engineer.
CBC: Oh ok. Did you military experience influence the thinking about the war or about the military in general?
MMJ: No
CBC: At all?
MMJ: No, they are two different worlds.
CBC: Is there anything that you would like to add, that we haven't covered in this interview?
MMJ: A lot of people lie about Vietnam to look good or try to make themselves look dangerous, but in reality if the person told you the truth about Vietnam you would not believe it.
CBC: Do you know why they do that?
MMJ: Some people that went to Vietnam didn't see any action, and two some people that went there probably didn't do what they were supposed to do and they just survived. Some people probably never even went, they were in the military but they didn't even go to Vietnam. Some people lie for attention and some people lie for conversation so you'll never know. One thing that I know is that I had a new respect for life when I came back.
CBC: Thank you for your time and I hope you enjoyed talking about Vietnam and what happened in your service. I enjoyed speaking with you and also listening and learning.
MMJ: Thank you this was great. I could spend hours talking about Vietnam, because I really enjoyed it.
