Current data for Contributor

Smither, James (Interviewer)

Current data for Creator

Broe, Daniel

Current data for Date

2012-01-25

Current data for Description

Daniel Broe was born in Allegan, Michigan in 1949, and grew up there and in Holland, Michigan. He went to work after high school, and was drafted into the Marine Corps in 1969. He did well enough in rifle training at Camp Pendleton to be put into scout/sniper training, and went to Vietnam early in 1970. Assigned to the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, he spent most of his tour on patrols in the northern part of South Vietnam, with occasional forays into Laos. The patrols were intended to find the enemy without being seen, and for the most part they avoided firefights, and took no casualties while Broe was in the field, despite a number of scares. While trained as a sniper, he never had occasion to carry out a sniper assignment, and instead operated his squad's radio. Toward the end of his tour, his unit shifted its area of operations away from the Laotion border and closer to Da Nang, and he was eventually assigned to a radio relay station, where he communicated between the units in the field and the rear area headquarters.

Current data for Source

Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)