“My Marine
Corps”
Viet Nam Experience
I have always regarded my
1966-67 Viet Nam combat tour in the Marine Corps as a remarkable, youthful,
adventure, experiencing similar circumstances my WW2 veteran Father and Uncles
had told me about when I was a kid. Watching war movies then, I often wondered
what I would do if involved in similar combat situations, now I know those
answers.
I
remember that the Battalion CO, in his address to all the Marines before we
left Long Beach, had said that through-out the history of the battalion back to
WWI, a third of us would not be returning, and that prophesy proved to be
correct. On a somewhat lighter note, I remembered, in the unique wisdom of the
Corps, we had been sent for cold weather, training at the base of Mount Fuji,
Japan, before heading to one of the hottest climates in the world. Thinking
about it now, I am sure it was to give more than a thousand Marines, who
were chomping at the bit to engage with
the enemy, something to do until we were scheduled to enter the combat zone.
Initially
our battalion (Third Battalion Fifth Marines-3/5) was stationed off the Viet
Nam coast as a “Special Landing Force” doing multiple amphibious helicopter
landings from aboard the USS Princeton LPH-5.
I
had an 81mm mortar 0341 MOS from the Infantry Training Regiment at Camp Geiger.
I joined the Battalion Landing Team at Camp Pendleton in December 1965 (the Battalion
Landing Team left Long Beach, CA, March 1, 1966, for the start of our tour.) Being
an extra man in the mortar platoon, I became one of the platoon’s mule/jeep
drivers. We were attached to Lima Co. and on our numerous combat operations
(when there was nothing to drive) I was the rear guard and/or accompanied the
platoon Lieutenant when need be. When we were stationary, I was, usually, an
outpost guard.
Being well trained, (and
after that first initial contact with combat,) any fearful expectations were
gone and replaced with an instant, automatic, sixth sense of caution I defined
as “an edge” that remained with me the entire tour. Those countless adrenalin
surges that took place during the action we
saw on our search and destroy operations were addictive. Add to that the number
of times you were aware that you had defied death, and this makes for a
lifelong, unfading experience. One thing I took away from our battalions’
combat operations was an affirmation of the statement which is on the Marine
Corps War Memorial “Uncommon Valor Was a Common Virtue.”
With our battalion having
multiple search and destroy operations, the preliminary basics at the start of our
combat actions were routine; eating a steak and egg breakfast, boarding the
UH-34D Sikorsky helicopter on the deck of our converted aircraft carrier,
flying over rice paddies and jungle to a clearing that would become our Landing
Zone, and beginning the search and destroy operation. Once landed, we were
continually on the move for ten, twenty, or thirty days at a time with intermittent
resupplies of water, c-rations, and ammunition from similar copters, before
returning to the ship.
The detailed objectives
while on these combat operations differed with varied rules of engagement. On
most of our operations the rule was caution there could be friendlies in the
area. Occasionally we would enter a “free fire
zone” where
anyone observed was the enemy and to be
eliminated.
Following several
operations, we would float east from the Viet Nam coast, across the South China
Sea, back to Subic Bay, Philippines for either a few days of training or an
occasional “Cinderella Liberty” in Olongapo City. The latter always proved to
be a boisterous “eat, drink and be merry . . .” affair for us before returning
to the combat zone.
A few of our operations
were with the Army of the Republic of Viet Nam. On one of these operations an
ARVN Officer, who spoke French and did not speak English, wanted to interact
with some of the enlisted Marines. One of those enlisted Marines turned out to
be me, since I still remembered enough high school French to be conversant with
him. We talked and had chow together by combining our c-rations with his rations and placing them together in a center circle sharing the meal.
We disembarked from the
Princeton after approximately three months and became land based in-country,
near Chu Lai, carrying out the same search and destroy operations. In December
of 1966, I was transferred to the 1st MP Battalion at Da Nang
Airbase until I rotated back to “the world” in April 1967.
Returning combat veterans
from all past conflicts have faced reentrance into a civilian world. A world in
which we have had previous experience with and now try to recapture with our
expanded perspective on reality. These learned priorities based on combat
experiences are unique only to a military minority in the total population. To
this day I just attempt decorum when encountering the dramatic day to day
priorities of the civilian majority which usually seem mundane and
insignificant to me.
Following the combat tour, everything associated
with stateside duty seemed to be disciplined tedium. Completing my Marine Corps enlistment
at the end of the “60’s” I was not in any immediate hurry to join the workforce
and jump into the civilian “establishment.” I decided to do a roving “beach
bum” thing in Florida for several months to acclimate myself to the civilian
world from which I had been estranged. Amid the distractions in what appeared a
paradoxical existence to me, I determined my “American Dream” would be to
achieve and maintain a consistent personal comfort zone in this civilian
environment.
Andrew Syor
