Chiarelli, Mike (Interview transcript and video), 2014

Smither, James (Interviewer)

Mike Chiarelli was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1949, to parents who immigrated from Sicily. In 1969, he got a draft notice while attending barber college, but he was allowed to finish school before being inducted into the Army in Fort Dix, New Jersey and sent to Fort Jackson, South Carolina for basic and advanced training for the infantry. After advanced training, he was sent to Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland because he had not received orders to go to Vietnam yet. After three weeks at Aberdeen he was sent to Fort Knox, Kentucky, and, three months later, to Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam to be shipped to Phu Bai Combat Base. Chiarelli was assigned to the 2nd Batallion, 506th Infantry B Company of the 101st Airborne Division and served in Vietnam for eleven months from 1970-1971. He went to Bangkok, Thailand for R&R. While fighting in Vietnam, his friend Roberto Flores got killed and Chiarelli still lives with the guilt. After spending most of his deployment out in the field for the Battle of Fire Support Base Ripcord, his Company was assigned to do security for the perimeter of the base. At the end of the battle, he got burned on the face from an explosion the day they evacuated the base. He spent three weeks in the hospital to recover, after which he was flown back to Fort Lewis in Washington state, where he was discharged. He returned home in New York to work as a barber and later got a business associate’s degree. In 1977, he and his wife moved to Texas. Chiarelli still suffers from PTSD and often spends time alone to cope.

2014-10

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Grand Valley State University Libraries, Special Collections & University Archives, 1 Campus Drive, Allendale, MI, 49401.

Veterans History Project (U.S.)

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