Current data for Contributor

Smither, James (Interviewer)

Current data for Creator

Konyndyk, Ronald

Current data for Date

2019-06

Current data for Description

Ronald Konyndyk was born in 1944 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he lived a comfortable childhood and attended local schools. Konyndyk’s father had been drafted into the Army during the Second World War and later worked as an executive at a furniture company. He graduated high school in 1962 and attended Ferris State University for a degree in business, which he achieved in 1967. A week after he graduated, Konyndyk received a draft notice, and on December 7, 1967, he reported to Fort Knox, Kentucky, for Basic Training. After Basic Training, he was specially selected and transferred to Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, for a year of Electronics School during which he learned to operate and repair radio communication systems. He was assigned to an old French outpost in a quiet sector of Vietnam before being transferred to the Signal Battalion of the 9th Infantry Division at a more active forward operating base. When he visited smaller forward operating bases in the field to conduct equipment exchanges, Konyndyk remembered being frequently out in the open and working in fear of being fired upon from the jungle. During the Tet Offensive in 1969, North Vietnamese sappers attempted to breach the barrier alongside his base’s airstrip and were successful in destroying one fuel tank before being apprehended. During enemy mortar attacks, he and his peers retreated to an enormous bunker built on the base. While on the base, Konyndyk noticed several cases of drug use amongst the troops, particularly with marijuana, as well as how the units were well integrated without much racial tension. He also purchased a small personal slide camera which he used everywhere he went in the field, accumulating approximately 600 photos over his tour in Vietnam. When his tour ended, Konyndyk was flown from Tan Son Nhut Air Base near Saigon back to the United States where he began the process of leaving the service, where some soldiers never received a physical or their military medals. At sixty years old, Konyndyk developed prostate cancer from his exposure to Agent Orange during his service in Vietnam. Reflecting upon his service, Konyndyk believed the psychological impact of Vietnam contributed towards his paranoia concerning safety, direction, and planning associated with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He also believed that the service taught him the positive values of discipline and responsibility.

Current data for Source

Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)