Emerson+and+Savannah

__George M. Roberts__ by: Savannah Barry and Emerson Brown

In 1969, George M. Roberts was commissioned into the Vietnam war. He was a part of the 142nd transportation Battalion 1st Aviation Brigade. Mr. Roberts was stationed in the army at Red Beech in Da Wang, Vietnam. Throughout his service he underwent numerous attacks, overcame conflicts and trained in many different ways. Mr. Roberts went through basic training, missions, and attacks to serve his country in the Vietnam War. Before any soldier was sent to war, he/she needed to be sent to basic training. Depending on the months of training men and women had to deal with drastic training conditions like working in the mud, rain, heat, and snow. Many training camps were located in the northern part of the US including New Jersey. To enter training soldiers had to pass a physical and mental test. When they entered, they went mainly through physical training. This helped them to not only get stronger with their bodies, but to also get stronger with their minds. The most important thing the men learned to do was to work as a unit and how to fend for themselves. A days work was from 5 a.m. until 10 p.m. with short breaks in-between. Training was a two year program. Then men were released into war (Ford, Daniel). The branch of military Mr. Roberts was commissioned into was the Army. Many branches of the military were put into force during the Vietnam war. He served as a transportation officer who could be found checking planes and aircraft before departure. This was a very important job to make sure everything was up and running to prepare for battle (Prabhakar, Pilla). The army not only helped fight in the Vietnam war, but the army also supplied the troops with weapons as well. The US gave and donated airplanes, tanks, guns, and ammunition. Without the US supplying them the Vietnamese would not have had as great of a technology advancement (History.com). Mr. Roberts served his country in many ways, and his highest rank was 1st Lieutenant. After Mr. Roberts was commissioned into the army, he found out that he would be serving at Red Beech in Dawang. In Dawang American marines were being deployed to help secure the United States air base in Vietnam. The US sent out a notification of the landing to the Vietnamese, but they declined it. The Americans still landed in southern Vietnam to help forces against the north. However, despite their efforts the American soldiers were needed but not very welcomed. Soldiers faced harsh conditions with constant bombings, and destruction of buildings, bases, homes, and the death of many men. The Vietnam war had more deaths during the first year than the entire Korean war. The US air support was often used as reinforcements, which is where Mr. Roberts would have worked. The most bombed nations were Cambodia and the southern Vietnamese regions (History.com). During this part of the war Vietnam was trying to gain Independence from France. Vietnam was split into two different regions due to differences in opinions on who and what to support for a government. The two main targets to hit were the capitals, Hanoi and Saigon. Both regions signed the Paris Agreement that stated each region would ceasefire in exchange for prisoners of war, but the north violated the agreement. Then the south finally surrendered in April 30,1975 (Prabhakar, Pila). Before Mr. Roberts was sent to Da Wang in Vietnam he went through basic training, and after he arrived in Maine he had to go through MOS training. Red Beech is a learning center where men learn about aircrafts, army, leadership, and overall warfare. There was a total of three battalions he could have been put into 1st Battalion 13th Aviation, 1st Battalion 142nd Aviation, and 2nd Battalion 13th Aviation, Mr. Roberts was put  in the 1st Aviation 142nd Transportation Battalion. During MOS training men focused mainly on the development of leaders, and professional education in officers. The men in training learned by getting instruction in classrooms as well as by doing field exercises ( __www.Rucker.Army.Mil)__ . Mr. Roberts was a part of the 1st Aviation Brigade in April 1965 the 1st Aviation Brigade was started, along with the battalions 13th, 14th, 52nd, and 145th, the 1st Aviation Brigade  was the largest operational brigade in the US army (MilitaryVetShop.com). When in the Vietnam, War Mr. Roberts worked at Keystone Aviation Processing Point, processing all aviation equipment within the country. On this job basically what he and the other soldiers that worked with him did was air equipment would be brought to them. Once the equipment was repaired or fixed, they distributed the equipment to wherever it was needed in the country. The constant trouble with this job was that enemy were constantly attempting to break or ruin the equipment that was at that specific aviation point. The enemies did that because if the equipment was not able to be used it would slow the country down because we would have to build more equipment since the other aircrafts was broken (Roberts Interview). While in the Vietnam War, Mr. Roberts earned two different medals/rewards. One special reward he earned was the Vietnam Service Reward, which was given to all people that served in the army in Southeast Asia, between the years of July 4, 1965 to March 28, 1973. The ribbon’s appearance has stripes going vertically in the colors red, yellow, and green (Air Force Personal Center). All members earned this ribbon, as long as they served in Vietnam, the neighboring waters, or you were in the air flying any type of aircraft (Buice, Phillip). Mr. Roberts also earned the Army Commendation Medal(ARCOM Medal ). This medal was given to men that showed heroism, exceptional achievement, or deserving service throughout war. The Army Commendation medal was established by the 'War Department, Circular 377' in mid December of 1945 (ArmyAwards.com). Mr. Roberts earned two medals and accomplished a lot in the four years he was in the Vietnam war. During 1972, he was released from combat and returned home to his family. Throughout his journey his life was changed, and forever changed ours. Our country commends him in all that he did for us, without men like him our country would be nowhere near where it is today. __Work Sited__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Vietnam Service Metal." Air Force Personal Center. N.p., 4 Aug. 2010. Web. 23 Sept. 2012 History.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Sept. 2012. <http://www.history.com/ this-day-in-history/us-marines-land-at-da-nang>. "'The Golden Hawks.'" Military Vet Shop.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2012. <http://www.militaryvetshop.com/History/1stAvnBde.html>. Buice, Phillip. "Vietnam Service Medal and Ribbon." Photographs. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2012. Roberts, George. Personal Interview. 24 September 2012 "1st Aviation Brigade." U.S. Army. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2012. <http://www.rucker.army.mil/usaace/1ab/index.html>. "Army Commendation Medal (ARCOM)." ArmyAwards.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2012. <http://www.armyawards.com/army-commendation-medal-arcom.html>. The Warbirds Forum. Daniel Ford, July 2008. Web. 20 Sept. 2012. <http://www.warbirdforum.com/basic.htm>.

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Savannah Barry Emerson Brown ** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 24px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">__Introduction__


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">We are here today with Mr. George Roberts. He was born on December 15, 1947. Mr. Roberts served in the army during Vietnam War where he earned the rank of 1st Lieutenant. Today’s date of recording is October 9, 2012 in Myerstown, Pennsylvania. The interviewers are Emerson Brown and Savannah Barry, friends of Mr. Robert's family. The interview is being conducted for the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress. **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 24px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">__Interview Questions__


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Please tell me a little bit about your childhood. **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Where did you grow up and what was your childhood like?What did you do before entering the military? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Tell me what you did before you were commissioned into the Vietnam War? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What were your first thoughts about entering the war? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Where did you go to basic training, and how far away was it from your home? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How did you feel, and what did you experience throughout basic training? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How long did basic training last? Where were you assigned to go after you finished basic training? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What do you feel were the positives and negatives of basic training? What was your MOS? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What were your thoughts once you left basic training and were entering specialized training? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Were you prepared for the difficulties and problems you would experience throughout battles and attacks? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How did you get to DaWang? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What was the first thing you did after you arrive in Da Wang? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What was a normal day like being at the Keystone Aviation Processing Point? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Did you enjoy your duty at the Aviation Brigade? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What were some things you experienced throughout the Vietnam War? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Did you experience many casualties during war? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What were your everyday feelings being in the war? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Were you injured or sick at all during the time you served? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Explain how you earned the medals you did during the war? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Were you aware of what you were fighting for? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Was serving in Da Wang a culture shock? What were some major adjustments? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Did you make any friends or companions during war? Do you still communicate with them? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Did you enjoy the time you spent serving in the Vietnam War? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Where did you go for rest and relaxation? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What type of activities did you do during rest and relaxation? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What did you miss the most about home during the war? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What was the hardest thing you experienced through war? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Did you ever get homesick? How did you communicate with loved ones back home? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Did you learn any morals or lessons during the time served? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What was your fondest memory of serving in the war? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What was it like returning home? **

Roberts Transcript page 1 Emerson Brown and Savannah Barry Transcript Barry: We are here today with Mr. George Roberts, he was born on December 15, 1947. Mr. Roberts served in the army during the Vietnam War where he earned the rank of first Lieutenant. Today’s date of recording is October 9, 2012 in Myerstown, Pennsylvania. The interviewers are Emerson Brown and Savannah Barry, friends of Mr. Roberts’s family. The interview is being conducted for the Veterans History project at the Library of Congress. Brown: Please tell me a bit about your childhood. Mr. Roberts: I was born at Fort Dick’s, New Jersey. My father was a major in the United States Army. He spent 32 years in the army and my grandfather also spent 32 years in the army. My grandfather fought in the First World War, my father fought in the Second World War. I grew up in North Brunswick Township, New Jersey. I had a happy childhood. We lived on a small farmette in New Jersey, didn’t have computers or any of those things like you have today, so we had to make our own fun. Going down to the lake and swimming, trying to basically grow up and have fun doing it. I went to New Brunswick Senior High School, and after I graduated from there, I attended Pennsylvania Military College, which is now Weidner University. While at Pennsylvania Military College I wore a uniform everyday, which is identical to the uniform that they wear at West Point, the only difference being that the uniforms at Pennsylvania Military College had black embroidery on the side because it was originally a Calvary School. The school was founded in 1821, which I’ve always thought was pretty fascinating because that was the same year that Napoleon was exiled to the island of Elba. So it had a rich history. After I graduated from Pennsylvania Military College, I went through my summer camp training at Indiantown Gap, Roberts Transcript page 2 Pennsylvania, where after I graduated from that, I was commissioned to Second Lieutenant in the United States Army as an Infantry Officer, and my first assignment was to go to my Officers Basic Course in Fort Benning, Georgia. Barry: Did you play any sports in high school? Mr. Roberts: I ran track in high school. I ran the quarter mile and I threw the javelin. So that was basically it. When I was a kid in high school, we didn’t have soccer or lacrosse. There was no field hockey for girls. You didn’t even have wrestling. You basically had football, basketball, baseball, and spring and winter track. So, track was what I was involved in coming from a small farm. I had a lot of chores around the house to do, and because of the distance to the school from where I lived; I really didn’t have the transportation. Both my parents worked. So, I didn’t have transportation to get to and from too much of the athletics, so that’s all I did basically was basically run. Brown: What did you do before you were commissioned into the Vietnam War? Mr. Roberts: Well, like I said I went to Indiantown Gap in the summer of 1969, and they put us through a lot of what you would experience in a basic training format, marksmanship courses and map training, and so on and so forth. Once that was completed, I was commissioned to like I said to Fort Benning for my Infantry Officers basic course, where I went through similar training only in more of an advanced setting. After I graduated from the course at Fort Benning, I went to airborne training which was also at Fort Benning, which culminated in the final week being what was referred to as jump week, at which time we made a number of jumps out of airplanes and after that I relocated to Fort Knox, Kentucky which was the armor school at the time, and I was enrolled in a maintenance course for learning Roberts Transcript page 3 how to take care of some of the army’s heavy equipment like tanks and things of that nature so then I got an assignment to go to Berlin, Germany. My wife, who at the time was pregnant with our first child Sherry, came with me and once we got to Berlin we spent about a year there. Had some time to visit some countries like Switzerland, Austria, Germany so on and so forth and then I got my orders to go to Vietnam. Brown: What were your first thoughts about entering into the war? Mr. Roberts: Well at the time I already had a daughter, Sherry, and I had agreed to go into the military. It wasn’t that I was drafted I went to a military school so I knew that in the end I was going to be an infantry officer and the chances of going to Vietnam were pretty good. So the only apprehension I had about going was the concern that I didn’t want to become a fatality. I didn’t want to leave my wife and child without a husband and a father so I had some apprehension about that but basically when you say that you are willing to do something and you commit yourself to it, you do it. Barry: Where did you go to go through your basic training? Mr. Roberts: Basic training was at Fort Benning, GA it’s called IOBC Infantry Officer Basic Course. Fort Benning is the home of the infantry. That’s all they teach there. If you were going for armor, you would have gone to Fort Knox. If you were going for artillery, you would have gone to Fort Sill to some other location. If you were becoming an infantry officer, you had to go to Fort Benning, so that is where you went. And basically every day you were up at 5:30, and you went through training on how to survive in combat, how to be an officer, how to be a leader of men and that is what you did for that time until you graduated. Roberts Transcript page 4 Barry: How did you feel and what did you experience throughout your training? Mr. Roberts: I enjoyed the training. The training was very physically demanding, and when I went through airborne training we ran 5 miles every morning before we started anything and when I signed up to become an airborne candidate you had to pass a test. And part of that test was you were required to run in formation and a platoon that’s 40 people, that’s 5 rows of 8, 40 people. You had to run a mile in 7 minutes in combat boots in your fatigues with just your jacket off and you had to stay in formation. If you dropped out of formation, you didn’t qualify for the training. I guess what I am saying is that if you go into the military, you have to be in good physical condition. You do a lot of running and you don’t get a lot of sleep. It’s basically learning how to survive in a structured environment that can at any time become very chaotic and knowing how to deal with that chaos at the time and try to keep it all together for the safety of your men as well as for yourself. So, I enjoyed the training. I enjoyed the experience. I look back on it very fondly. I’ve always been proud to have been associated with the military and to this very day I have a very soft spot in my heart for anyone in the military because I feel like they have stepped up and said count on us we’ll protect the country, and I’m glad that I was part of it at that point in time. Brown: How long did your basic training last? Mr. Roberts: It lasted, good question, I am thinking it was 9 weeks if I’m not mistaken. It has been a long time that was 41 years ago. Somewhere in that time frame, but a long time. Barry: Where were you assigned to go after your training? Mr. Roberts: Well like I said first I was assigned to go to airborne Roberts Transcript page 5 training because I had asked for that and that was right there at Fort Benning and that was a 3 week course and then after that I went to Fort Knox, KY for a 4 week course and then after that I was stationed in Berlin. So we flew to Berlin, Germany and of course that was back in the day when the Berlin Wall was still up and it was very very chilling so to speak if you understand what I am saying to go to a country like Berlin. At that point in time was 110 miles behind communist lines. Berlin was in East Germany. It wasn’t in West Germany and the city of Berlin is broken into different sectors, you have British sectors. You have a French sector, you have an American sector and then you have a section on the other side of the wall, which is East Berlin, which no longer exists. It was part of East Germany and when you saw that wall and you realized how many people had died trying to get across that wall to get into west Germany after the wall was put up to that the Russians killed trying to get across to west Berlin which was a freedom run for them basically. We used to go across into east Germany periodically to a place called check-point Charlie and there was another one going out of Berlin into western Germany called check-point Alpha. But when you went through check-point Charlie, when you drove your car through they made you open your trunk, when you came back through they wanted you to open the trunk, checked everywhere under the seats everywhere to make sure you weren’t trying to smuggle somebody out of East Berlin. There were Soviet soldiers, standing there all the time with their weapons with real bullets in them and it was very chilling to go over there. I remember going over one time. This was right after the Apollo mission, this would be 1970 and I remember walking into a restaurant and one of the east German Berlin waiters clicking his heels and kind of bowing to me saying congratulations sir on Apollo because we had achieved that and I got to thinking to myself that these people are no different than any other person in the world except that they don’t have freedom and I always thought to myself that it would be great if they did because Roberts Transcript page 6 literally where they put up the wall in Germany you could have had one part of a family on the western side of the wall and the other part of the family on the eastern side of the wall. And they never saw each other for all those years and that was just sad. So when the wall came down under President Reagan’s administration, I was very happy. Let’s put it that way. I have one other story and that I would tell you and that is that after the Second World War Adolf Hitler was dead at the time and there was a fellow named Rudolph Hess. He was the deputy furrier. If you have studied anything about the Second World War you would know that Adolf Hitler was referred to as Del Furor and he had a deputy furrier who was supposedly the second in command and his name was Ruldolph Hess. Early in the war they wanted to get the English to agree not to fight against the Germans and obviously Winston Churchill would not agree to that. Well this guy Rudolph Hess flew a plane into British Airspace. I think it was more along the lines of Ireland or something like that and he landed the plane of the plane crashed and a farmer took him prisoner and this would have been in the beginning of the war so this would have been around 1941, 42, I don’t know exactly but he became a prisoner of war. At the time that I went to Berlin in 1970, Rudolph Hess was in a prison in Berlin called Span dough Prison. I was the officer and the guard there that guarded Rudolph Hess who was the furrier of the third Reich on two separate occasions. I saw him as close as I am to your window there and we were told obviously not to talk to him and he would walk up and down in a very military posture and he was a really scary looking guy and if you talked to him they would report you that someone tried to talk to him. Just to be able to say that you were that close to and guarded and kept out of the population of the world the deputy f urrier of the third Reich. It was incredible. Brown: What was your MOS? Roberts Transcript page 7 Mr. Roberts: Well, an MOS is really more of a normal cloture of an indication of what an enlisted man’s position in the military is, it stands for Military Occupation Specialty and officers don’t have that. Actually a lieutenant in the infantry is 1542 where as 11 bravos, which is an MOS for infantry private, or somebody like that. I was an infantry officer but infantry officers don’t have MOS exactly, they have different call signs or something like that. Barry: Do you think that you were prepared, mentally to go into the war? Mr. Roberts: I think that I was, I mean let’s face it I went to a military college for four years wearing a uniform for four years. I was a sophomore in my second year and was under military contract. I was literally a private in the Pennsylvania reserves at that point in time and let’s face it, you don’t go to a military school if you don’t plan on being in the military and I was an infantry officer so I pretty much knew that if the Vietnam War was on, which it was at that time, matter of fact my roommate my senior year named Bob Aldrich was killed in a training accident in route to Vietnam, His name is on the wall in Washington. He was my roommate at Pennsylvania military college my senior year. You are as mentally prepared as you can possibly be, and that’s it. I guess, when I was in Berlin, here’s another story I can tell about having been in Berlin. I was coming back to the complex and the Russians in Berlin because you are behind Soviet lines they have what they call mission signs and a mission sign says you stay on this side and you don’t go on that side because there is information on that side that we don’t want you to see so around our area there were mission signs. And I came back this one day driving my Buick Grand sport which I had shipped over to Germany when I went over there and I see this Volga which is a Russian made car, and I knew it was a Volga as soon as I saw it, and it was in our quad rangle which is like a big paved parade area and I drove down as quickly as I possibly could to get a Roberts Transcript page 8 quick look inside the car and sure enough there was a Soviet Major, in uniform in the backseat and they were trying to take pictures. And I was fortunate enough to run him into the curb, use my car to run him into the curb. And at the point that he got into the curb they tried to put it in reverse and the MPs from McNairy barracks which was where all the MPs were kept they came and got up behind him and I can only tell you that that Soviet Major had to be sweating bullets because to be caught in west Germany behind mission signs wearing a Soviet uniform could not have been a pleasant experience for him. So you know you are asking was I prepared, yes because of all the experiences that I had and all the things that I learned and the feelings that I had about being as good as I could be at what I was doing prepared me as well as they could prepare me so yes I was ready to go. Brown: How did you get to Da Nang? Mr. Roberts: Da Nang. Ok, when I first went into Vietnam we flew in by PaAm, which is kind of funny. That’s a commercial airline which is no longer in business but that was the airline that they used to fly us in. I left from flew from California and we flew into Hawaii and from Hawaii into Vietnam. Came into an airport called Ben-Hoax. And I remember when the door opened up thinking two things, how can it be this hot and how can it smell this bad? The smell was beyond anything you could imagine it was there is no septic or sewage systems in Vietnam it was pretty bad. And when I got there I was taken to Saigon, and in Saigon I was assigned to a place called Red Beach which was named after the fact that the French got beat up pretty bad there. That’s how they named it Red Beach. The beach was red with blood and a matter of fact a lot of the military pill boxes and firing locations that the French had were still visible there and I was stationed there until the unit, of the first aviation brigade 142nd transportation battalion relocated over to Da Nang which was Roberts Transcript page 9 where the jets were kept all the F4 phantoms which were the primary tactical air support at the time were kept and the 142nd trans did most of the service and maintence of all the helicopters whether they were Cobra gunships or whether they were just B model or C model or D model Hooeys which I understand you don’t know much about any of this, it’s just nomen cloture, comes second nature to me. And that’s how I got there. We flew in and then after I spent my time over there it was funny because the night that I was getting ready to leave we were getting mortared that night and I can remember being in the replacement battalion where the next day you got on an aircraft to leave and that night we are getting mortared and I am in a bomb shelter with no roof on it and everybody is down in the dirt and everything like that and I am thinking to myself what good does it do to be in a bomb shelter if there’s no roof on it no sandbags or anything like that but you know that was it I made a lot of good friends there and one of my best friends I still keep in contact with, a fellow named Jim Little and you just, you just do what you have to do. Barry: What was a normal day like at the Keystone Aviation Processing Point? Mr. Roberts: Well, at this point in time of the Vietnam conflict in this was in 1971 into 1972 there were a lot of military organizations that were beginning to “stand down.” They were getting ready to go back to the United States because the President at that point in time was drawing back on the war. The Vietnam War was extremely unpopular so the President was trying to get as many troops as possible home because that’s what it just was so unpopular and there were protesters and riots in the streets and you know people burning draft cards and everything else which I am sure you will study about someday. And so at the time I was running this Keystone Aviation Processing Point any of these units that were “standing down,” Roberts Transcript page 10 leaving country they had certain equipment that was called property book equipment and it might have been parachutes, might have been radios, it might have been aircraft repair stands, it could have been any number of probably 10-20 thousand different items. Ok, well this stuff all had to be processed. I had about 25 Vietnamese carpenters working for me, and I had a couple of civilians working for me that would process the equipment. We would determine its service ability. We would check to see if it was needed someplace else in country. In other words, if another unit might need an item that we were getting back because the one they had had been destroyed or something like that, we would either process the equipment or transport to another location or return to the United States or dispose of however it needed to be disposed then the group of Vietnamese I had were basically carpenters and they would build all of the packaging and the boxing and everything like that for the shipping equipment. So... that was it. Mr. Roberts: I have to tell you a story. I think it__’__s a good story. I’m down at the Nang docks one day, and I saw...When my mother and father and I went to Germany in 1953 I think it was, I was three years old and I came in 1954 I was five years old. When we came back, we came back on a ship called the USS //Upshur//, U-P-S-H-U-R. But I was at the docks in Da Nang that day, and that ship was there. They were no longer using it to transport personnel but they were using it to transport equipment. The same ship that I came back on when I was five years old from Germany was still there in service at the docks in Da Nang when I was there in 1970. So it’s pretty fascinating I think. Brown: Did you enjoy your duty at the Aviation Brigade? Mr. Roberts: Yeah, I think I’d have to say that I did, I mean I certainly didn’t have it as bad as some guys in Vietnam did. We used to get mortared a lot because of it being an aircraft location. We had a perimeter that the Vietcong would constantly try to Roberts Transcript page 11 penetrate. We would get shot just about every night. Not the type of situation where you were going to be overrun by the enemy. The complex was just too big and at that time during the war there was too much defense there for anybody to ever think that they could overrun it. It was a huge, huge complex, but I made a lot of great friends there. I had a chance to experience some things that I probably would have never got the chance to do. I mean, I actually got the chance to go up into a helicopter and the pilot said, “take the cycling”, which is what you use to fly, and I got a chance to fly a helicopter. It was an experience of a lifetime. We had a chance to fly around and I was up in the (Haway Bi Fu) area when one of the units up there was standing down and I was able to pick up some neat things to bring back and you know you have friends, and you have circumstances, and you have things you worry about, but when you look back on those you think to yourself about how small they seem to be over a lifetime. The worst thing I can remember about Vietnam was the mosquitoes. I mean, I’ll tell you what they were like the size of helicopters. It was unbelievable, and rats the size of small dogs. But, other than that and getting shot at periodically, like I said, I was never, the area that I was in, Da Nang ok, was not like the jungle so to speak. It wasn’t in the delta where the soldiers were constantly in the muck and the goo and the water and the leeches like all that stuff you see on TV. I wasn’t in that even when I was an infantry officer. That’s not what I did. So I’d have to say I feel very fortunate that I went through it that way. I think a lot of it has to do with that I went through Vietnam late. When I graduated from high school in 1965 one of the guys that I graduated with was one of the first men to be killed in Vietnam from my hometown. His name was Ritchie Anishevits, whose name is on the wall. When you think about those things over the years you feel so bad about the friends who have been lost and you have to be thankful that for whatever reason it didn’t happen to you. I never looked at Vietnam as having been a nightmare experience because for me it wasn’t. But, like I said, I was not in Roberts Transcript page 12 the midst of the worst fighting in Vietnam like they had in (Ka Son) and some of the places like that. I had a job to do, and I did it. Barry: So since you went through Vietnam late, did you experience any casualties? Mr. Roberts: No I did not. We periodically would have altercations but like I said, at that point in time going through it very late there were such defenses around Da Nang. There was a gunship called Spooky. It’s a fixed wing aircraft, actually I think it was “Puff the Magic Dragon” which was a Chinook helicopter and it had what they called (volcan) 20 millimeter cannons on each side and it had six barrels and they would spin electrically and you know how a machine gun sounds, tatatata, well this would just go mmmmmm and they were going so fast it would fire 6,000 rounds per minute, it could put a bullet in every square foot of a football field in less than 60 seconds. As a matter of fact, the night that I was telling you about when I was at the 20 second replacement at (Na Tai) and I was getting ready to come to the United States, we were getting mortared that night, “Puff the Magic Dragon” went up into the air, because when the mortar started you could hear the base planes of the mortars settling and it goes up into the air and then comes down. You could tell there was a big steel plate at the bottom that it hits and when they see those up in the air they could tell where they were coming from and when “Puff the Magic Dragon” went up into the air, those things got quiet real fast because if you can see a spot over there where it was being fired from, all of sudden there were 6,000 rounds of twenty millimeter which is a big bullet coming at you. You get out of there real fast. So yeah, I have to say because of the power that we had and our capabilities, there was just not that much reason to be concerned. Roberts Transcript page 13 Brown: What did you feel on a everyday basis Mr. Roberts: Well I guess I have to say that I felt we were there because we were suppose to be and there was a reason to there. Obviously, we felt that as a democracy in a country of freedom that we wanted all the people of the world to be free and I am afraid that we probably got involved there and we probably shouldn’t have. Today, they say if there is a national interest, we need to be involved. It’s like keeping the straights and vamoose open because so much oil flows through there coming into the United States and it is a national need for us to be involved in keeping that area open. The question is, do we really need to be involved in keeping the Vietnamese people free when they really never knew anything about freedom? Let’s put it this way. When the Vietnam conflict first started, the farmer in Vietnam was making about $50 a year equivalent growing rice. We poured billions and billions of dollars into the Vietnam War and at the end of the war that Vietnamese farmer still wasn’t free and was still making only $50.00 a year on his rice crop, so somebody got rich, but it was not the people who we were suppose to help to be free. So, I am not sorry that I did what I thought was the right thing to do or what I was asked to do, but in retrospect when I look at it now, I am not sure we necessarily really needed to be there or should have been there especially not for the 55,000 men that are on the wall in Washington that gave their lives. I feel that as an afterthought, we did not need to be there, and we did not accomplish anything. We could have won the war but got so wrapped up in politics that you couldn’t win the war. So that is just the way it works. Brown: How did you communicate with your family back home? Mr. Roberts: I wrote my wife a letter every single day. Every single day I was in Vietnam I wrote my wife a letter and every Roberts Transcript page 14 day she wrote me a letter. The best time was when mail call came and there was a letter from my wife. We wrote religiously and I was able to call her one time and hear her voice and know that my daughter Sheri was ok. I gotta be honest with you, when I left to got to Vietnam, I flew out of Philadelphia International Airport, there were a lot of tears because it was uncertain as to what was going to happen and you could only hope for the best and now we are today sitting and talking about this and we can say, “well gee it all worked out,” but at that time you never knew that it would and so that is how I kept in communication. Today with Skype and all these other things there are ways to communicate. Back then it was one way and one way only it was a letter. Either you got the letter or you didn’t and if you didn’t get a letter at mail call you sat there another day waiting to hear from your loved one and so that was the way, it was. Like I said, being able to use a phone, you had to be at a place where that phone was available and the connections were never good. You were allowed two minutes on the phone because other people wanted to use it and it was just a tough time, nothing like what it was in the Second World War or the First World War because those guys that was in the trenches and the islands in the Pacific and Germany. Their mail wasn’t running like it does today, they didn’t have the jets flying the mail back and forth. Back in those days, there were just propeller aircraft and boats, like I said when I went to Germany in 1953. We did not fly over and when we came home, we didn’t fly back. We went by ship. That was the transportation. The military has always had a difficult time, I’m sure; with its people being able to communicate with there loved ones. It was a little easier with Vietnam than it was in the first and second World Wars and it is a lot easier today but it is still war and is still ugly. People get killed and hurt and we have to remember these people today volunteer to do this. Barry: Were you sick or injured during the war? Roberts Transcript page 15 Mr. Roberts: No. I was never sick. I never came down with any fevers or malaria or anything like that, fortunately. Brown: Were there many people around you that got sick? Mr. Roberts: Well, I guess a lot of that depends on how you are looking at it. In the city of Da Nang there was a Vietnamese hospital that we referred to as Peg Leg City. Every person in there, now these were Vietnamese not Americans soldiers, but every patient in that hospital was an amputee. They either lost a leg, legs, an arm, and both arms, whatever it was. Now as far as I’m concerned, we had field hospitals and we had a hospital right there at Da Nang and if someone was ill they could get good treatment. Whatever medical technology was available at that time. In terms of people being wounded or injured in combat, there wasn’t that much of that in Da Nang at the time. We would get probed every once in awhile through the lines and if somebody would fire a shot and someone would be wounded they would either take them to the Da Nang field hospital or they always had other locations. They had hospital ships and things of that nature so there was plenty of medical treatment available and fortunately I never needed to have any. Barry: Did you earn any medals during the war and if so how did you earn them? Mr. Roberts: I never won any medals for valor or anything like that because again I wasn’t really involved in the combat part of it as much. We were in a position that the enemy shot at us and they would mortar and probe us, try to intimidate us but those things never resulted in any combat needs on my part so the typical medal that people talk about like the bronze or silver star, no I did not get any of that. I got an army commendation letter Roberts Transcript page 16 and I got a Vietnam service ribbon for having been in Vietnam. I went and did my duty; I didn’t run off to Canada or someplace else like some people did. I went and did what I had to do and had it been different we would be doing a different interview or maybe I might not even be here. I earned my Airborne wings for being an airborne soldier and I went through Jungle Warfare School in Fort Sherman, Panama in the canal zone for three weeks before I went to Vietnam and I feel like the things I accomplished including my maintenance course when I was in Berlin as an officer as a second lieutenant, I was in an infantry company, and we scored pretty well on our infantry training and they asked me to take over their motor pool because they needed some help. They were in terrible shape. The military has a system where if you have vehicles assigned to a battalion or a brigade like trucks, jeeps, tanker trucks, etc., they have to go out on the road everyday and everyday somebody stops you and inspects the vehicle to see if it is safe to be on the road. The laws in Berlin, they had such a miserable record with their vehicles. They just didn’t know what to do. It was literally to the point where some of these vehicles were coming back to the motor pool, and we were being told not to move them. They put me in charge of it and we went from having the lowest record to having the highest record. Again, it was not a big deal but you do what you are trained to do, and you put that in practical application and it helps to accomplish whatever the goal is and you have to feel good about it. I had a skill set and they put it to the application, and I fulfilled the obligation and I fulfilled the requirements they wanted from me. As far as I’m concerned, I’m proud of what I did. Brown: Are you aware of what you were fighting for throughout the war? Mr. Roberts: Yes, again if you grow up in America you grow up in a country that is free, and again I come from a military family Roberts Transcript page 17 between my grandfather and my father there were 64 years of service between the first and second World Wars. I was named after the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff during the Second World War. His name was George Catlit Marshall. I’m sure you will study about that. I was named after him. That’s why my name is George Marshall Roberts. So I came from a military family and the flag was very important to us. Service to our country was important to my father and grandfather. That’s what their life had been devoted to so selecting the military for me was not that difficult of a chore, although I did not stay in because I felt the military had changed a lot since my father and grandfather had been in and towards the latter part of the 70’s obviously. The military went to an all volunteer army, and it went through a period of (segregation) as far as I’m concerned where a lot of the guys that were in the military were wearing their hair long and doing things they should not have been doing, and they really did not have the right reason for being in the military. This is not the case today, but at that point in time I just thought to myself maybe this is not what I want to spend the rest of my life doing. When you grow up believing in freedom and the American flag and you come from a family that has served, I think you are going to be mentally and psychologically prepared going forward to do those things. Barry: When you were serving in Da Nang was there a culture shock? Mr. Roberts: Oh yeah, when I got off that plane in (Benwa), which was not where Da Nang was, you just can’t imagine the smell. When you do not have septic or sewage systems it’s bad. They do not have tractors that they farm with, and I know your father is a farmer, and I’m sure he has some fabulous equipment. In Vietnam they still plant rice one stalk at a time in a rice patty in their bare feet standing in this mucky, disgusting water that has human waste in it. All their villages are built next Roberts Transcript page 18 to streams and rivers and you would think that the place closest to the village would be where you would get your water to drink and then down further you might wash your laundry and then down further still you might do something different. Well that is exactly the opposite, they would have the village here and then upstream they would wash their laundry and water the cattle and then this water would come down through and then they would drink it. One of the biggest problems you had in Vietnam as far as an illness point of view was soldiers coming down with hepatitis because they were told, “Don’t drink the water” but when they would come out of the field and haven’t had a shower for a couple of weeks and they would be thirsty and all they had to drink was basically warm water, sometimes they would fly out coke and stuff to them but even then it wasn’t ice cold, they would come out and see these vendors on the roadside selling ice pops, next thing you know they would eat them and would then come down with hepatitis because there was human waste in all the water. You just can’t imagine the smell that is associated with this. When I see pictures of Saigon, which is now (Ocheman City) compared to what it was like when I was there, I just can’t believe it. It’s like they took something from the Stone Age and made it into a modern city. If you can imagine what it was like in the Stone Age, you did not have toilets, sewage systems, septic tanks, and fresh running water. You did not have any of those things. Because of not having these things you had all the nasty smells that were associated with it. Over there people did not dress the way we dress and they were always barefoot. They chewed something called “beetle nut” and everyone’s teeth were black. Men and women it did not matter. There were no McDonalds or anything like that. A lot of what you would find in cooking was watermelon rind and lots of fruits and rice. They were very poor, poor people, but very gracious and giving people when you were around them. You could not just get in your car and drive to a restaurant and get a hotdog, etc. It just did not exist. There were children running Roberts Transcript page 19 around naked all over because they did not dress them. They were running in the messy areas through the filth. It was unbelievable. Dogs over there are an item that they eat so you rarely saw a dog running around and if they could catch it, they would eat it. This is definitely something you were not used to coming from the United States. Barry: What are some of the things that you ate? Mr. Roberts: Well, when I went through Jungle Warfare School in Fort Sherman, Panama, we ate monkey, iguana and boa constrictor and I can tell by the looks on your faces that you’re thinking “Oh my God”, but I can tell you that monkey taste like a sweet pork and iguana and boa both taste like chicken. So it is one of those situations that if you don’t know what you are eating and someone puts it on a plate and you can’t tell what it is and you eat it you wouldn’t think anything of it. Now in Vietnam, we had sea rachis, which most of those were packaged in the 1940’s, but they still served them to us because they were still good. We had a little key that came in the package and you would just open up the can and see what you got. It might be beef slices in juice; it might be ham and lima beans, which knows? A lot of times everyone would pour it all together and make one big stew. It always came with a chocolate bar, some cigarettes, crackers or cookies. That is primarily what you ate unless you lived in a location that had a mess hall near. Than you might get something better. We would usually all get care packages from home. My wife would send me Tasty cakes from Philadelphia and things like that; this is what we all looked forward to. Other than that, you made do with what you had.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Are you glad you experienced the war? Do you have any regrets? **