1
12
1
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ba5f97b176dffec193c0212fdc5d7075.mp4
66f5de71a763809b5b33e52fd34454fd
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/75fcad0eb4e0119d74693edc4129cda9.pdf
82d7b1e08ccefd6414c61021d6dd8ed8
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans History Project Interview
Name of War: Vietnam
Name of Interviewee: Roger Williams
Length of Interview: 00:27:10
Background:
He spoke in his native language to the interviewer.
What he said was that his name means “little fat pig.” His grandmother gave him that
name. He also has a spirit name.
He feels very honored for being invited to participate in this project.
He was born August 1940, in Holland, Michigan.
He served in the United States Air Force. His highest rank was E4.
He served two periods, from 1957-1961 at San Antonio.
He served at a hospital there for some time.
He got out in 1961 and got back in to serve in the Vietnam War in 1962 and would serve
until 1967.
He did not go to Vietnam and was not in combat.
He enlisted in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
He was raised in Holland until he was 12 years old. Although he has a Native American
heritage, he is mostly Dutch. He would have loved to take part in the Tulip Time parade,
but that never happened.
He went to high school in Muskegon but did not finish. He would finish high school
while he was in the service and started college while he was in the service also.
He made a great number of friends while he was in the service. He actually was able to
reach out to a friend who he went to medical school with in Montgomery. His daughter
would find him over Facebook. He doesn’t know what will happen but he hopes to
reconnect with him.
He had quit high school and things were not going so well for him. He had great work
ethic, but the jobs were not that good.
At 17 he was starting to get in trouble.
When he was still in school, he went into his school’s counselor’s office, and asked about
what he should do. The man told him that if he graduated with a B average, he would
help him get into the US Naval Academy.
As a poor kid with little support, it didn’t occur to him that it was a wonderful offer. So
when he was 17, he started to think about it some more, and thought the military was a
good place for him to be.
So he joined the Air Force.
Training (6:54)
When he first went into the Air Force they had a 12 weeks basic training program.
He was a pretty unrestricted man, so basic training was very good for him. It gave him
discipline, it gave him boundaries; it gave him a better way of life.
Following basic training, he went to a medical prep school for about 8 weeks.
�
In this he learn the basics of how the hospital is run, the history of medicine, etc.
Following that he went to a school in Montgomery, Alabama. He thought about being a
field medic, but they wanted him to be an Administrative Medic.
So when he got to San Antonio, he was basically helping to run the hospital.
Adapting to military life was a big change for his life. It was a little difficult and it kind
of stressed him out. He wasn’t a very big guy, but he did what he had to change.
Active Duty (9:30)
During the first part of his career, most of his time was served at the hospital, in San
Antonio.
He did a lot of administrative work, such as choosing which patients to admit. He was
responsible for sending telegrams when someone died.
There were responsibilities for taking inventory of who came in and who died in what
way.
One of the most traumatic experiences he had was when he had to do an inventory on
dead person’s personal effects, which was zero. The guy had crashed a plane and his
body was in a lot of different pieces in the rubble and dirt.
Opening the bag up and seeing the dirt, he thought they were playing a joke on him at
first, but it was quite a shocker for him when he found out a body was actually in there.
Another one was a Mexican boy’s body came in and he had to do inventory on him.
When he pulled the sheet back, the boy looked exactly like him, with his head caved in.
And that was a shocker.
The second part of his service was spent in Miami. It was party city for him.
The Cuban Crisis came along and he was at the Homestead air base.
He had first-hand experience with his time during this time.
Following the Cuban Crisis, John Kennedy came to the base and awarded them a special
award.
He would then go to Germany, which was also a lot of fun. There was still a lot of work
to be done.
While there, he was the administrator.
He would then move to France, just outside of Paris. He was able to Paris in his off time
and go to the Paris Opera House. He got to see a lot of artistic things he got to see
including the Mona Lisa and Cleopatra’s Needle.
He would also go to museums there as well. (15:20)
While he was there, the war was still going on. He would be there prepping guys for war
and taking care of those who came back from war.
He would read the newspapers and read about how so many of those guys were dying and
it bothered him tremendously.
The people of the USA were starting to speak out against the war.
It was his time to get out and he did.
He feels bad because the job was not getting done and it was the soldiers who were
paying the price.
Post Duty and other stories (18:05)
�
It is always difficult when a friend dies. When he was in France, a buddy of his was
driving to Paris one night and had a seizure and he and the passenger died. It was a pretty
bad time for him because he was on duty when they brought the bodies in.
They came in and he didn’t know about the accident yet. He walked in and saw their
bodies lying on the slab and that’s when he found out.
He was not mistreated when he came home from the service, while serving in Vietnam.
His family was there for him when he came home and they were very supportive. He has
a way in his community where they truly honor veterans.
The guys who came home from Vietnam were treated badly. It was horrible and quite
real.
One of the things that the community doesn’t know is that natives have a higher rate of
enlistees than the whole. 1 of 4 compared to 1 of 10
Part of that is no so much that we are loyal, but they have a real sense of connection to
the earth around them. Veterans are represented in a different way because of the culture.
In order to honor the customs of his community, he gives the interviewer some items
from his culture, in exchange for letting him be a part of this project.
He continues to serve his community; to show it he collects buttons, awards and other
patches.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
WilliamsRo
Title
A name given to the resource
Williams, Roger (Interview outline and video), 2010
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Williams, Roger
Description
An account of the resource
Roger Williams is a Native American who served in the United State Air Force as a medical Administrator in two separate tours between 1957 and 1967. He was stationed in Texas, Florida and Germany, and was at the Homestead , Florida, air base at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Kimes, Emily (Interviewer)
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
United States. Air Force
Indians of North America
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Moving Image
Text
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2010-06-04
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
video/mp4