Dallas Jackson
Interview with Dallas Jackson
Interviewed by Chelsie Pattison
Marion High School
Interview on May 12, 2003
406 E Wiley St.
Marion, IN
CP: Today is May 12, 2003 and this is the beginning of an interview with Dallas Jackson at my home at 406 E Wiley St. in Marion, IN. Mr. Jackson is fifty-five years old being born on June 14, 1947. My name is Chelsie Pattison and I’ll be the interview. Dallas Jackson is my mom’s co-worker and friend. Mr. Jackson, could you state for the recording what war and branch of service you were in?
DJ: I was in the Vietnam Service and the United States Army from 1965 to 1967.
CP: What was your rank?
DJ: I was a sergeant D-5 when I got out.
CP: Where did you serve?
DJ: Oh, several locations in Vietnam, we landed in Kenmont Bay in June of 1966 and set up a base camp. We were there about three weeks. Then we went to Touiua, south about fifty miles and set up another base camp. From there we went to Painray, it was eighty miles north, getting closer to the DMZ. We led the main betallion and our sport units there and we proceeded on to Phan Thle. And this was in August we entered Pantet. That was on the South China Sea.
CP: Were you drafted or did you enlist?
DJ: I volunteered for the draft.
CP: You volunteered?
DJ: The only difference between that and enlisting was only two years, and if I had enlisted it would have been three.
CP: Where were you living at the time?
DJ: Tipton, Indiana. I was eighteen at the time.
CP: Why did you decide to join?
DJ: All my friends were either joining or getting ready to be drafted, so myself and a two other friends just went up to the service board and put our names in.
CP: Why did you pick the service branch you did?
DJ: Again, a little peer pressure and I had some friends that were already in the Army and they had survived it so I said, well, why not?
CP: {laugh} Do you recall your first days in the service?
DJ: Hectic. I’m sure you have seen Platoon and several of these other films you know, first days at camp, all the drill sergeants yelling at you. That’s basically true, getting off the bus. I went to Fort Knox for basic training. We took a bus from Indianapolis. We arrived there around midnight and everything. Yelling, you know, grabbing your stuff trying to get into everything. It was, after the first couple days it leveled out. And then you kind of, if you wasn’t yelled at, you wasn’t doing anything.
CP: What did it feel like?
DJ: Kind of, uh, I’d like to say exiting, but you was nervous, you know, and definitely getting in shape every time you turned around it was oh, get down and give me twenty, you know, talking about push-ups. Luckily, I was in shape back then, no problem, but the first night we had fire watch. We were there at midnight, you know, ha ha get to go to sleep. {laugh} No, we had to stay up. They had the old World War two wooden barrels, someone had to be awake at all times, so every two hours you would trade it up. It was a good experience.
CP: Tell me about some of your boot camp and training experiences.
DJ: {laugh} Well, the first day, like I said we arrived about midnight, we looked until I’m pretty sure it was about five o’clock that we were up. We shuttled to the mess hall. Then we started learning how to run in formations within the first day we get it in gear and get our cute little hair cuts.
CP: {laugh}
DJ: After our haircuts we went to a big old warehouse and started to get our military uniforms. They just run you through there, they ask you what size, you start telling them and they just throw them to you. They say, “This will fit”, and you’re like, “ok” About the only thing that did fit was the boots. You got two pairs of boots and four utility uniforms, one dressed green and one khaki uniform. That was basically the first day and then the second day was the battery test, the IQ test, testing knowledge, and then that same day it was back to the nations, shots and all sorts of good stuff.
CP: Do you remember your instructors?
DJ: There was Staff Sergeant Larry Anderson. He was from Kentucky. I ran into him later in my career, in Fort Nix, New Jersey. But he’s about the only one I remember, basically, he was a good instructor. He had had prior Vietnam experience. He helped us quite a bit.
CP: How did you get through it?
DJ: A day at a time. It was December 2, when we got there and we knew in two weeks we would get a little leave for Christmas, which we did, we got three days to go back home for Christmas. And broke the monotony because basic training was eight weeks, so after less than three weeks we were home for three days and then we went back to complete it, our basic training. Then after that, I had a ten-day leave, which I was looking forward to help change. As long as you got to go you know, a light at the end of the tunnel. All in all, physical training, rightful training, CPR, NBC training, Nuclear Biological Chemical. And back then it was a, we had quite a bit of first-aid training. Which I got out and came back in in 1973 and they did away with a lot of the first-aid training. I don’t know, but it was a learning experience. I loved the physical training, loved running.
CP: What did you think when you found out you where going into the Vietnam War?
DJ: Really, in early 1966, you didn’t hear too much about it. The drill instructors kept reiterating that it was very possible that ninety percent of us would be going. It wasn’t an up-scale there wasn’t you know, at one point there was a hundred and seventy-two thousand troops over there. At that time, I think there was a little over sixty thousand. To go back for basic training I was assigned to Fort Carson, Colorado. That was when I was standing out in formation. It was snowing and the wind was blowing. This drill sergeant had a clipboard and he came up and he said now I’m looking for volunteers for someplace called Vietnam. I said is it warm in Vietnam? He said definitely, so I said put my name down.
CP: {laugh}
DJ: And that’s when first Donely says, oh, we’re going to Vietnam, and I’m thinking that maybe in two or three weeks I’ll be over there. No, I had to go through from Fort Carson, Colorado, to Fort Riley, Kansas and it’s colder in Fort Riley than it was at Fort Carson. So I’m there like three months getting more training. And it was May 28, 1966, we got on a troop ship headed for Vietnam. By the time we got on the ship it was warm anyway. {laugh} And I was done and it got warm. I got my wish. And we was on that troop ship for twenty-two days before we landed.
CP: Twenty-two days?
DJ: Yes
CP: How was that?
DJ: It was crowded, uh, we had like ten thousand people. We had artillery unit, infantry unit, about a quarter {unclear} battalions, and an MP unit, a first-year cab, and then resting up I found two friends from Tipton I ran across, one was artillery unit, one was infantry. It was crowded, it wasn’t bunk beds, it was three high, little cloth bunks, and you got hot and crowded. About the second day out, we ran out of fresh water for showers. We had to use salt water for showers.
CP: The second day you ran out of that?
DJ: Yes, it was the second or third. But then we started, it seemed like everyday we had octal stew for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, it seemed like anyway. A couple of us guys got together and went down in the hull of the ship and found some sea rations, so we had some good sea rations. {unclear} Like I said we were on the ship for twenty-two days, so we were glad to see land.
CP: I bet. What were your viewpoints on the Vietnam War?
DJ: At that time I was anxious to go. I think for the most part everyone on that troop ship was anxious to go and do their part. We were not misguided, a bunch of us were volunteers. At the time we were thinking it was the same as the Korean War or World War II. But little did we know that we would end up being scapegoats, they had everybody back in the world we called it, protesting and burning flags, but at the time we were proud, and we’re still proud. I don’t know of any Vietnam vet that isn’t.
CP: Do you agree with the United States intervention in Vietnam?
DJ: Again, back to that same answer, we were there we was behind our president and our government at the time and again at the end of the war they let us down. They wouldn’t let us win the war, it turned out to be political. President Johnson’s wife owned about three or four Arms foundaries, she didn’t want it to end. She was thinking money. The war went through three presidents, we had Nixon, Johnson and Ford. That’s a first in history.
CP: Do you think the U.S. should have gone to war?
DJ: I think we should have went to win, and not to make it a political war. We could have won numerous occasions, we’ve had it won, but they told us to back off. That’s why we lost fifty thousand troops.
CP: Do you know why they kept telling you to back off?
DJ: It comes down to politics. They were afraid well, Russia was already intervening, they was supplying arms, of course, China, we were right there at the Chinese border. Politicians were afraid of a full-scale war.
CP: Where exactly in Vietnam did you go?
DJ: Like I say, we landed in Kenmont Bay and basically the stations we set up we were supporting the first air cab that was there a little over five minutes I think. But we set up base camps for the combat troops. They would more or less follow us in, and we’d set up tents and then the combat troops would come over and get processed. They’d get all their rations, arms, ammunition. Then they’d go and do their own thing.
CP: Do you remember arriving and what it was like?
DJ: Yes, the first day, well, no one had gotten mail for twenty-two days. About all day was mail call. They had the Red Cross tents set up and they had ice cream. That was good getting all that ice cream for a while. So that was good. Then of course, down the road they had like beer tents. Civilians, you know. I had my first taste of Vietnamese beer, Beer 33. They called in brandy bile, because when you turn it up you could see little specks in it. Don’t care if it’s dirt or not, drink it anyway, but it turns out it was pieces of rice. They made rice wine and rice beer. Anything you wanted out of rice. But anyway, after eating about a half gallon of ice cream I drank two or three beers, I get an upset tummy. {laugh} I’m sick for the rest of the day and night. Then we could unload it and get our batalionary secured, right on the beach. Right off the beach. Then we get a couple days on the beach. This one guy from Missouri, his last name was Austin. He had red hair and light complected. He got burned, he had to go to the court Marshall he was blistered up so bad. He was really our first casualty. He couldn’t hardly move, get in his clothes or anything. On the ship also I brought and eight millimeter camera, a video camera, a movie camera. I had left it with him along with my wallet and everything. And well he went to sleep, that’s how he got burned and everything and they stole my camera and my wallet. Those little rugrats running up and down the beach, they’d steal anything. What they couldn’t bum from you. I had a bunch of mail. I had a Dear John letter waiting for me, Karen Capeson, the love of my life. I’d known her for a month before I’d went into the Army. She done threw me over by the time I landed. It was good to get off that ship. And the countryside was pretty, right on the beach, on the South China Sea. A lot of ships in the harbor.
CP: What was your job assignment?
DJ: That varied. At the time going through basic I fractured both of my heels. That took me out of combat. It ended up when I got there I was a truck driver. Hauling supplies all around and taking our convoys back and forth. At one time I was helping set up a waterproof station I was finding freshwater inland right off the beaches. We filled five thousand-gallon drums and brought the freshwater inland for the troops. From there I went to grade registration. First cab station. That’s where the fun ended. Sometimes we would retrieve bodies, other times they would sent them to us, we would clean them up, prep them and throw them in the back and ship them. That’s how you got them ID, ship them home. That was about the worst part as a part of seeing a whole bunch of action. We were attacked occasionally, nothing serious. Few snipers. I didn’t have it bad like the first cab did, they went out looking for it, I was stationed in one place. I had a lot of friends when I had that refrigerated truck that wanted me to keep their beer cold. Of course I drank a few of them too.
CP: There weren’t many casualties in your unit then?
DJ: As far as the unit went that I went over with, we got pretty well dispersed. Myself and twelve others were there. Out of best thirteen, we only lost two, but those were from sniper attacks. They came after us. I made a few friends in the first cab, especially combat engineers in batalion. I lost three good friends in one mission. They were mine-sweeping, Gary from Flint, Michigan was one of them. I didn’t make too many friends with the first cab because they kept rotating them. I saw a lot of bodies, but fortunately I didn’t know many of them.
CP: Tell me about some of your most memorable experiences.
DJ: {laugh} One time I had to go to Natrang. I was running parts for my generators, they needed updated, so I got to go to Natrang for a couple days. This was like a vacation, it was a large city. And I go bar hopping while I was there. And I run up on a guy from Tipton, Indiana, Mike Johnson, so come on, I’ll show you where to go and what to do. So I ended up staying three days. We had a good visit, and I finally got back. Evidently no one was worried about me, they were worried about the parts. As long as I got the parts back. There was this one time I got me a pet duck. {laugh} It was just an itty bitty thing. And just kidding around like eighteen year-olds do, I bought a bottle of rice wine, rice brandy and poured a little cup for him and he just drank it all up then he started staggering around and then just fell over dead. You know I guess that’s not really funny, but that’s the only pet I had while I was down there. Other guys had a couple of little monkeys, and they are not really good pets in the wild. They were hard to contain, and they’d get in their supplies and go to the bathroom on them and so they didn’t last long either. They’d keep them a few days and then they’d be gone. That and my ice cream and beer mix, that wasn’t too good. That’s about all I could remember except when I was about to come home. That was a good experience. We were coming back from convoy about to head back to base camp and we couldn’t get through. Charlie had the road, we couldn’t use the road. They had to bring in the choppers to take us back to base camp. That was a good time, because I got to see the choppers with first cab.
CP: Were you awarded any medals or citations?
DJ: Yes, of course everyone got the national defense service medal, the Vietnamese Service medal, the Vietnamese combat medal, the Vietnamese Cross of Galantry with palm, two offensive medals from Vietnam: counter-offensive and counter-offensive two, two overseas bars, the accomadation medal, and the good conduct medal, can’t forget that. That’s about it. Nothing spectacular. Like the two I got for counter-offensive, we just happened to be there with the first cab when they hit, when they attacked us. After it was over the first cab went after them so it was called an offensive, and I just happened to be assigned to it. The Vietnamese Cross of Galantry was another attack. That was a pro-national, they wanted to see how far inland they could get. They came with sandpans, little round boats with electric wheels they came at night, rolled right on the beach and attacked us early in the morning. Again, I was with the first cab, so we all got that also.
CP: How did you stay in touch with your family?
DJ: Pretty easy, once we got set up, they had pretty regular mail calls, I’d say twice a week. Of course at that time, all mail was free, we didn’t use stamps, just put the p.o. number on there and send it off. The mail service was steady. As far as now, they go to combat with their cell phones and all that, I never had any phone contact or anything. Once I was there seven months I got r and r for Hawaii, I went to Honolulu for seven days. I made calls from there. Other than that, I didn’t talk to them on the phone.
CP: What was the food like?
DJ: The food? It was mainly sea rations. You got to tolerate it. You found ways to fix it up. You could heat up your beanie weenies, you had your spiced beef, chicken and noodles. You’d find on economy some cucumbers and tomatoes, mix it together and you’d have gumbo. And frenchbread, that long, hard frenchbread left by the French, and the French got kicked out in ’54, but that’s a different story.{laugh} You didn’t want to eat anything on economy. When you’re resting, that was a “no no”.Spam, you get spam. They came in like five pound tins. You got to like that. I still eat that. And on holidays you always got good meals.
CP: So it wasn’t too bad?
DJ: No, you learned to adjust. You know when you stop and think about it those P.O.W.s in captivity for nine years learned to adapt to a little broth and rice every once in a while. They call it mind over matter, the need for survival. That guy cutting his arm off, you’ll find a way. It may not be easier, but you will.
CP: Did you have plenty of supplies?
DJ: Yes, with the food anyway. Like I say the original company I was with had a direct line to us, and the first cab had their own engineer and quarter master, and being in combat they had first dibs on everything. But then again our weapons, we didn’t have extras, but we didn’t have any shortages. Also once a month they would fly in cigarettes and beer to us. About everybody had a carton of cigarettes and a six-pack, sometimes 12-pack of beer. But that was when they had steel cans and they’d rust, and it get to raining, it they’d be all rusty. (side of tape change) We’d get Sterling beer, Rhineholt that’s a beer from the east cost around New Jersey. We were lucky if we got Budweiser, now they’d fight over Budweiser. And the same way with cigarettes, most people wanted the filtered cigarettes, and that’s how I got in the habit of smoking non-filters, because no one ever wanted them, so I would always have plenty of cigarettes. Candy bars came in. We’d end up with them. They were a good treat. They were unexpected, you know things you wouldn’t expect, we’d be like, ooh a candy bar. That was pretty good.
CP: Did you feel any pressure or stress while you were there?
DJ: No, not really. Like everybody else, you were looking at the calendar, counting down until your days off. Trying to keep abreast all the things going on around you. As far as the combat row and keep wanting to hear something from the politicians, we’re going to end this war in the next month or so. Like great expectations, you want it to be over but you don’t want it to end like it did. Like as a stalemate for Korea which we never did.
CP: Did you expect anything like that? Did you expect to win?
DJ: I expected to win. Like when they marched into Berlin we wanted to have a victory.
CP: Were you anxious to go home or did you want to stay longer?
DJ: Yes, like I said I was counting days on the calendar. But then again, you know the end of it was disappointing. Of course I’d been out almost five years when it ended. Official pull-out of Sygon, it was May of 1973. We were the last ones in Sygon. I came back home in May of 1967. So there was a lot of combat after I left.
CP: Did you do anything for good luck?
DJ: No, I can’t remember anything in particular. No, I wasn’t overly religious until the firing started. Someone added that there is no atheist in the foxhole. When they’re shooting at you, everyone prays to God, so there’s no atheist when they’re firing at you. {laugh} For good luck, no I can’t remember anything I did. I did have a $2.98 PX watch that I wore all the time, we flew on the way back. We just got in the air and the damn thing exploded, springs and everything came out.
CP: It exploded?
DJ: Yes, the dial and everything it was weird. I just though, hmmm. … you just can’t buy a good watch these days. I remember I bought it for $2.98 at Fort Knox Peak. It lasted all that time. I guess the air pressure got it when we were taking off. {laugh} Maybe that was a good luck watch, it lasted until I got on the plane.
CP: How did people entertain themselves?
DJ: Like I say occasionally, we wasn’t too far from the village. I made a couple of friends their at Fantet. One of them her dad ran a bar we used to go to, his name was Mike and she was a French Vietnamese, probably about seventeen or eighteen. She couldn’t speak real good English. She was a pretty good. I had a photo of her. It got lost in the divorce. We would go to the village occasionally. They had barbers there, we’d get haircuts, photography, get our pictures taken, then of course you had bars, there were prostitutes. Prostitution was ramped. Shelter daughters, give their daughters away for like two or three dollars. The unit currency was piasters. It was one hundred piasters to one dollar in American. You could find you a girl for two or three dollars. That was early stages. Prices got higher later. Combat troops would come back. The longest they’d be out was seven days. They would lay around and drink or try and find a girl.
CP: Were there any entertainers there?
DJ: Not in our area. Bob Hope and his troop would hit bigger areas, the Trang, Sygon, very seldom they would come that close to the field.
CP: What did you do when you were on leave?
DJ: Drink {laugh} When I got back officially on leave I called home about every day. I didn’t really do all that much sightseeing. I went to a couple of shows there in Hawaii. I hated to get back on the plane to go back to Vietnam. We stopped on the Philippines on the way back. A fuel stop or something. We all got off and they had duty free booze there. You could get a gallon for a dollar or ninety cents and we stocked up about all we could carry and took it back with us. That’s about the only leave I got when I was there. When I came back to the United States I got a thirty day leave before I had to go back to Fort Nixon, New Jersey. I had six months left. So thirty days I got me a car, a 1960 chevy convertible, cruized around, and went fishing. That would be about it.
CP: Do you recall any unusual or humorous events?
DJ: You mean besides my duck thing? {laugh} Well I told you about on the ship I won that movie camera by playing bingo. A couple of the sailors didn’t like it so we got in a scuffle over it. And I ended up on KP. I don’t know if you call that humorous or not, but I won a camera, got in a fight and got the camera stolen, so it’s not much for a documentary on Vietnam, but then it was kind of funny when the little boy got sun burned. {laugh}
CP: Did you or your friends ever play tricks on anyone?
DJ: Yes, we’d be on guard duty down guarding the equipment right on the beach, and occasionally they’d have hot food down at the headquarters, and we’d ask whoever’s on guard to bring them a sandwich. This one guy would never do it, he would either be too busy or forget or something, so somebody would have to ask someone else to get something to eat. So this one night this guy was on duty. Oh would you guys bring me a sandwich? Yep, sure will. Well, on the side of the road there was a dead chicken. {laugh} We got his paper plate, we plucked that chicken, and went up and gave it to him. He started cussing. From then on, he would bring us something to eat. So he got the picture. He didn’t think it was too funny, but..{laugh} Better not mention the pork and beans had I?
CP: Oh no, go ahead!
DJ: Oh no! I told you about the prostitution and about the people selling their daughters and everything. I was on a supply run and we had twin fifties on the top of this truck, machine guns you know on both sides. Anyway, I stopped at this little village. We had extra supplies we were authorized to give away to the needy over in Vietnam. They gave us these big cans of pork and beans. I went inside and this lady asked me if I wanted to be with her daughter. I said uh, no. No can do, no boom boom. She was pointing at my pork and beans, I was like, ah! I gave her the pork and beans. Baby son’s gonna do what baby son’s do, and we come out and the big cans of pork and beans had already been eaten. They didn’t leave her one bean.
CP: Oh! That’s wrong!
DJ: So I go out and find her some chewing gum and sea rations to give her. It was kind of funny. {laugh}
CP: Do you have any photographs?
DJ: They’ve been misplaced in my divorce also. I’ve got a few, but they’re floating around.
CP: Do you remember the day your service ended?
DJ: December 1, 1967, that was at Fort Dixon, New Jersey. I’m sure you don’t remember the race riots in the summer of ’67, in Newark, New Jersey. We got fast training on riot control. They gave us rubber bullets and let us shoot. There were twelve riots after I had been over seas for five years. That war upset me. We had demonstrators against the war, burning flags, we had Jane Fonda doing the handout. It was hell having to go back and face that. Like this war going on now, everyone is getting welcomed home and all the goodies. The yellow ribbons and all. I came home to people burning flags and people spitting on all you baby killers. And then I get thrown in the race riots in New Jersey. One time I even volunteered to go back to Vietnam.
CP: It was that bad?\
DJ: Yes, that’s where the pressure and stress came in. Then I got out of Newark and they put me on stockade duty, twelve hours on twelve hours off seven days a week. I tried to get on and then the captain wouldn’t sign my paperwork. Because I would have had to reenlist and volunteer for the war. Because he didn’t like me.
CP: He didn’t like you?
DJ: No
CP: Why didn’t he like you?
DJ: Because he thought I was prejudice.
CP: Why did he think you were prejudice?
DJ: Because he was black and I made the statement that it’s a damn shame I spent all this time fighting in Vietnam and I come back and I have to fight my own people. Anyway, we didn’t get along
CP: What did you do in the days after the war?
DJ: The next few months I just enjoyed life. Did a lot of fishing. Traveled around a lot. After a couple months I found a job at Chrysler in Kokomo. I got almost ninety days in and got laid off. After that, I started bar tending in Tipton right before I was twenty-one, bar tended for about three years. I got married, decided to go back in May, 1973 and was in the Army from 1973 to 1980.
CP: Were you still married when you went back in?
DJ: Yes
CP: Did that affect your marriage any?
DJ: There at the last. We spent three years in Germany with me and then I was assigned back in Missouri. Which wasn’t bad. We were there two years almost. Then I had orders to go back to Germany. I was having problems and then in 1980 I got out of the Army and got a divorce at the same time.
CP: You lived in Germany for three years? Can you speak German?
DJ: Nine, nicht sprekein ze doich
CP: Did you understand anything?
DJ: pompfritz and yegersnichzle {unclear}
CP: What did you just say?
DJ: I just said french fries, yegersnizle, and a beer
CP: What did you go on to do as a career after the war.
DJ: Like I said most of the time I was bar tending. After I went back in I planned on making the Army a career which I pretty much did, but I’m drawing disability from a prier injury. My own disability. In 1980 I was going to work in autoparts. That was pretty easy. I worked at dealerships, I was an encyclopedia salesman {laugh} Didn’t sell any, I only worked there a couple weeks, worked in an oil field in Oklahoma, got in security in 1993, and been in that ever since. That’s what I’m doing now.
CP: From what injury are you drawing disability?
DJ: My feet were fractured.
CP: What from? The war or just…
DJ: Basic Training
CP: Oh
DJ: That may have been a blessing in disguise you never know. I was a truck driver, grave registration.
CP: Did you get into a veteran organization?
DJ: Yes, the VFW American Legion. I keep saying I’m going to join the VAD , the disabled veterans, but I haven’t got around to it yet.
CP: What kind of activities does your organization have?
DJ: We the American Legion sponsors a little league baseball team in Tipton County. We have sales at the Legion and the VFW. Any veteran that dies in Tipton County or some of the other counties, we give a military funeral to. Twenty-one gun solute, condolences from the president and all that. The taps get me every time. {laugh}
CP: Did your experience influence your view on war or the military in general?
DJ: Kind of gave me a bad taste with politicians. We’re over there 170,000 troops strong and they tell us to back off and they’re taking out troops because they had this war won. But then all the history books say that we lost that war. Which in my mind and every veterans mind we didn’t lose that war, politicians gave that war away. We won the war. The ambassadors in Sygon and Washington drinking their coffee and tea while we’re the ones fighting. We were just puppets.
CP: Do you attend any reunions?
DJ: No, there’s thirteen of us that were side by side there for the last six months. We planned to keep in touch once a year, but it never happened. I couldn’t tell you where any of them are now.
CP: None of them?
DJ: No, not any of them.
CP: How did your experiences affect your life?
DJ: I’m looking around and seeing all these protestors in the streets, no respect for the Army. 190 degrees from what you see now. I guess I could say I’m jealous of the veterans that are coming back now. I’m proud of them. I’m really proud of them. I look back at what we went through just getting home, no respect. And respect, they were blaming us, like we started it or something. Through all the 60s that’s the way it was. I muched rather been in Vietnam fighting then being in the streets of Washington or Newark. In my opinion I wouldn’t mind opening up to them, that’s one opinion. Those spoiled kids! No, that’s just the way the culture was, free love, free to do what ever they wanted. Before your time, huh?
CP: Is there anything you would like to add that we have not covered?
DJ: No, like I said, I’m glad the last two wars have ended the way they did, the Gulf war and this one in Iraq. Hopefully, we won’t have anymore. I’m happy for the returning veterans. There’s a little difference in this last war there were 58 casualties, no 62 casualties in this war, in the Vietnam war there were 58,760. That’s a little difference. Then you go back to the MIAs it’s down to the hundreds. In my opinion most of those ran away from us. That’s just my personal opinion. But I appreciate the time to voice my opinion. I’m ever so humble.
CP: Thank you for taking the time to do this.
