Veterans reflect on time in Vietnam

by Mark Dykes

Independence Day is one of several days throughout the year where we have the time to reflect on what it means to be an American, the freedom we enjoy and the soldiers who made that freedom possible.

Jeff Strong enlisted in the United States Air Force in January of 1971. The first three quarters of the year, he said, were various kinds of training at locations including Sheppard Air Force Base, Brooks Airfield and Lackland Air Force, undergoing jet engine training and helicopter training along with others. His first duty station was at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson.

“I worked on some aircraft,” Strong said, as he was primarily a jet engine mechanic, and was then sent to Vietnam near the end of 1972 and remained there through most of 1973, returning in December.

He was with the 40th Air Rescue and Recovery Squad (ARRS), flying what is commonly known as BUFFs, or the CH 53 “Super Jolly Green Giants” lift transport helicopters which could carry three jeeps and 75 troops. “We would sit out on the perimeter of a fire fight that involved aircraft heavies coming in.” They would watch aircraft come in and rescue pilots who were shot down.

“I was on [recovery for], I think, the first B-52 that got shot down there,” Strong added. “And that was a recovery mission.”

After serving in Vietnam, Strong was primarily stationed at Beale Air Force Base in Yuba County, California then went to Guam to fly on B-52s back to the U.S.

“The best thing I can say as far as my tour of duty over there,” Strong said, “is I was there to save lives, not take them. I was in a completely different atmosphere than 99 percent of the people that were over there, so it made the outlook of the Vietnam War a lot different for me.”

He noted he was cussed at and spit on when he returned, and that it didn’t matter what you did, if you were in uniform “you got nailed.” He said, “I knew what I did. I don’t regret it. Yes, I would do it again.”

Strong was a sergeant when he was discharged in January of 1975.

Rod Slocum enlisted in the United States Navy in 1965, went to boot camp in San Diego, Calif. and in August the same year he was aboard the USS Renville, APA-227. In March of 1966, they took 1,500 Marines to Okinawa, then went along the coast of Hong Kong, Japan and the Phillippines and pulled into Dong Tam, South Vietnam.

“That’s where I first encountered ‘Nam,” Slocum said.

In August of ’66 they were headed back to the U.S. for decommission of the Renville. Slocum learned five seamen had been requested for river duty in Vietnam and volunteered. He got off his ship at Pearl Harbor and went back to the mainland, attending school for three months at Norfolk, Va., for counterinsurgency, jungle warfare, boat school and survival school.

In December of 1966 he went to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for the recommission of the USS Benewah, APB-35. From there they went through the Panama Canal, and pulled into Vung Tau in February of 1967, where they became the flagship for the Commander Task Force 117, the Mobile Riverine Force operating in the Mekong Delta.

“We had part of the Ninth Infantry Division with us,” Slocum said, with the objective to transport those troops down the river where they offload them in the jungle in the Delta. They also provided fire support, and also had members of the Air Force and Navy SEALs. He noted the Air Force was there to allow for calling of air strikes when they were needed.

Slocum received a field promotion in ’67 from E4 to E5, and was mount captain of Mount 41. “We went to general quarters numerous times, day and night. It seemed like Charlie knew when we went to bed was right after Taps at 10 o’clock. They’d start firing at us, and you’d just hear the rounds going over your head.”

About the third or fourth time in GQ one night, he recalled crawling into his gun mount on the bow of the ship and seeing his gun crew laying down. He asked what they were doing and they called out they were being shot at. He told them to start firing back, and if they were hit he’d get someone else to take their positions — this included his own. Following the attack, he said, they fortunately found none of the crew had been hit.

Another night, two V 40 rockets hit the mess hall shortly after 10 p.m.; the hall had been cleared out, so there were no casualties.

“Our nickname was the Brown Water Navy,” Slocum said, which reflected the color of the rivers he and his crew patrolled. His tour of duty was up in August of 1967, but he stayed until August of 1968, spending two years aboard the Benewah.

The ship was among the most decorated in the Vietnam War, receiving three Combat Action Ribbons, four Presidential Unit Citations, a Navy Unit Commendation Ribbon, a Meritorious Unit Commendation, a National Defense Service Ribbon, a Vietnam Service Medal with 14 Battle Stars, a Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Palm, an RVN Civil Action Honor Unit Citation with Palm and a Vietnam Campaign Ribbon.

In August of ’68 Slocum flew back, coming in to Travis Air Force Base, and was told it would be a few weeks before he got out, even though he only had a week left. Instead, he flew to Olathe Naval Air Station in Kansas, about 125 miles from his hometown.

Slocum received his discharge in March of 1971, after serving six years, at the rank of E5, Second Class Petty Officer, Gunner’s Mate. As for his ship, Slocum noted the Benewah had been hit twice — both times he was off-ship — and it was hit numerous times after he left it in 1968. It was later determined to be unserviceable, so everything was dismounted and it was purposely sunk to create an artificial reef off the coast of the Philippines.

Slocum also spoke of his family, of which there were six boys. Two of his brothers joined the Army and served in Berlin from 1960-63. His youngest brother was also in the Army and died in Vietnam in 1971.

Strong noted there were a lot of things that happened in Vietnam that people did not hear about, and the political stature of the war was imbalanced. It was the first war where the cameras were really there, he said, and the popularity of the war wasn’t great so much of the content that came across on television was slanted to the negative side.

John Gerrells joined the Navy on the 180-day delay program in May of his senior year, leaving for active duty on Sept. 3, 1968. He went to boot camp in Camp Nimitz and then got orders to the USS Colonial, LSD-18, and they left for a Western Pacific cruise in April of ’69.

“We spent most of our time transporting troops from Guam — and their tanks and their heavy equipment — to Vietnam. We went up the coast of South Korea and picked up a bunch of Korean Marines, and took them back to Vietnam.” That cruise lasted until the following January.

From there, Gerrells went to air conditioning and refrigeration school for eight weeks, then got on the USS Turner Joy, DD-951, in April of 1970 and went on another Western Pacific Cruise in June that same year.

“What we did mostly there, that being a Destroyer, is we would go up and down the coast — they called it the gun line — and we would give support fire to the Army and the Marines wherever they needed it.”

Gerrells further added the Turner Joy’s “claim to fame” was being in the Tonkin Gulf incident which sparked the U.S. involvement in Vietnam. It also gave the last support fire when the war ended, “so it was pretty much there for the duration.” It is now a museum in Bremerton, Wash.

Gerrells was discharged on Sept. 3, 1972, a full four years after enlisting. He noted he went to school in Bridger, Mont. and in his class there were only 12 boys and 12 girls. Of those boys, six went into the military directly out of high school as the draft was in full effect at that time.

“We were over there twice,” Gerrells said. But, he doesn’t regret his service and really feels everyone should have to serve some time in the military.

“The American public,” Strong said, “not that they were in favor of the war, but they didn’t understand even what we were doing there. And there was such a political aspect, as it was, that a lot of us that were there didn’t understand why we were there. We know we were told to be there. We know we were told to do a job, and we did it to the best of our abilities.”