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https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/7732fed5a64c6608ce06485bf842a92a.mp4
bec3257f037a4f140b1321a5d47fd1ef
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e873bb8d5458dd399169283f7f1272b5.pdf
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Grand Valley State University
Veterans History Project Interview
Vietnam War
Michael Hennessy
1:21:47
Introduction (00:20)
Mike was born January 6, 1949 in Savannah, Georgia.
His father was a World War II veteran who served in the artillery as a second lieutenant.
After the war, he went to business school and joined the Georgia National Guard; he
retired from the Army Reserves in 1973 a full colonel.
His mother was from Savannah, and was a registered nurse but she stayed home with
Mike and his two siblings, a brother and sister.
When he was in high school, he attended Benedictine Military School and graduated in
1967. (02:43)
Since it was a military school, it was also an ROTC. His senior year he was the cadet
colonel and commanded the cadet brigade.
After high school, Mike went to the University of Georgia for a while but returned home
and went to the Armstrong State College. At the end of 1968, he was getting tired of
school.
During his sophomore year of college, Mike decided to enlist in the United States Army.
Military Training (04:03)
Mike went to basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina and then attended Airborne
AIT (Advanced Infantry Training) at Fort Gordon, Georgia and then went to OCS
(Officer Candidates School) at Fort Benning, Georgia aka Benning School for Boys.
(04:23)
He spent 22 of the 24 weeks at OCS, when he decided that he did not want to go to
Vietnam as a second lieutenant, so he turned down his commission and was assigned to
be a eleven bravo ten (light weapons infantryman).
Mike was given thirty days leave and then reported to Fort Lewis, Washington and flew
out on May 15, 1970.
Vietnam (05:48)
He arrived in Vietnam through Cam Ranh Bay, and after being processed he was
assigned to the 101st Airborne. Mike attended SERTS (Screaming Eagle Replacement
Training School) when he first arrived at the 101st. After that, he was assigned to Delta
Company, 1/506th Infantry at Camp Evans. Evans was located north of the city of Hue.
Mike joined the company around the 29th of May with several other new men that were
also assigned to the 101st, including Lieutenant John Smith who became Mike‟s platoon
leader. (07:08)
He was flown out to Firebase Katherine, and it was there that he finally met up with his
company. Mike was sent to the 2nd Platoon, 2nd Squad.
�
Life on Katherine was boring, but they had a place to sleep, and they got at least one hot
meal a day. They were there a couple of weeks and during that time he was able to get to
know the men he was serving with and they got to know him.
When they left Katherine in June, they went to Firebase Ripcord. It was quiet on
Ripcord. They knew the enemy was outside the wire, but they did not engage them.
The unit was then sent to Firebase Bastogne, down in the southern part of the 101st AO
(Area of Operation).
Around that firebase, they conducted patrols through the jungle, but were shortly after
sent back to Ripcord. Due to inclement weather, they were detoured to Camp Evans and
had a short stand down that resulted in a party with steaks and lots of drinking. (09:53)
The next day when they flew out of Evans, the majority of the company was hung over.
They arrived on July 18 and landed on a hilltop near Ripcord. That same afternoon, a
Chinook helicopter crashed on Ripcord, which could be seen in the distance. The
helicopter landed on the 105mm Howitzer Battery that was stationed there and it also
destroyed the ammo dump.
On July 19, Mike was sent on a reconnaissance patrol that walked down into a valley and
discovered a cave that had about a dozen dead NVA soldiers that had been there for a
while. (12:08)
After searching the bodies, they brought back some documents that were written in
Vietnamese. The climb back up the hill was difficult. Since he had not been in combat,
he and the other new guys were very jumpy.
When they were dropped in a hot LZ, Mike was riding in the helicopter and he saw what
looked like Christmas lights coming out of the jungle, which turned out to be people
shooting at him. One of the choppers was hit going in but made it back to Camp Evans.
On the side of the LZ were large trees followed by the tree line. They were instructed to
get to the wood line and he had to hurdle downed trees to make it there. (15:37)
1st and 2nd platoons set up a defensive position on the right side of the LZ and then broke
for lunch.
As Mike was eating his c-rations, the machine gunner that was watching a nearby trail
jumped up and yelled “Chieu Hoi Mother Fucker” and began firing. There were three
NVA soldiers coming down the trail just talking and jabbering because they had no idea
that Delta Company was there. (17:06)
They later learned that the three NVA were on a work detail digging what seemed to be a
mortar pit.
That night, Mike and some others were sent out from their NDP (Nighttime Defensive
Position) and set up an LP (Listening Post) to monitor enemy activity. They spent the
whole night listening to the NVA moving and talking all around them. The next morning
around 6 am, they pulled back in and joined the company. Shortly after that, Mike heard
incoming mortar rounds and soon realized that they were being hit with CS gas. (19:30)
Thirty seconds after the gas attack, they were hit with a whole slew of HE (High
Explosive) mortar rounds. During the attack, Mike was hit in the butt with some
shrapnel.
They fell back to the LZ and Mike was told to get in a foxhole with their Kit Carson
Scout. (23:15)
�
The NVA tried to come up the hill and push them out, but once they got to the LZ and
dug in, they were able to hold the hill. As Mike stood in his hole, he saw an American
baseball grenade coming at him. He claims that he could read the yellow writing on the
green grenade. However, it was overthrown and went off behind him. Next, a satchel
charge was thrown at him and it fell short and exploded just in front of the hole. Mike
was firing at the tree he knew the NVA was hiding behind on full auto, and when he saw
the man‟s arm come around the tree with another grenade, he shot it off with his M-16.
(26:31)
This all happened on July 21st. Because they were using so much ammo and taking so
many casualties, there was an almost constant supply of choppers coming in and
dropping off ammo and supplies and medevacs coming in and taking the wounded. Once
they broke contact, Mike and several others were tasked with going out and getting the
ammo and bringing it back. Mike told the sergeant that it was best to lead from the front,
and that when he ran out there to get some ammo, they would too. So the sergeant ran
out and grabbed some and the rest of the men followed. (28:15)
Things were quiet for that morning with some mortar rounds. Later in the day a
helicopter was shot down.
After the last supply chopper left, someone yelled “That‟s it till morning”. That was as
lonely as Mike has ever felt. He was sure that they would be overrun during the night.
(31:57)
Mike was tasked with some others to go back to their NDP from the night before to
gather weapons and ammunition and some of the bodies of the men killed. Mike
functioned as the radioman for the patrol.
They received word that Delta Company, 2/506th had landed on a LZ two clicks up the
hill past the NDP to help secure their position and provide reinforcements. At that point,
Delta Company, 1/506th had about 20 men, while Delta 2/506th had about 80-90. (35:10)
About 3:30pm that afternoon a message came through telling the men to get ready
because they were being extracted. As a squad radio operator, Mike had one of two
working radios in the entire company.
Once they were extracted, the men were brought back to Camp Evans. (37:50)
Out of the two birds that arrived at Camp Evans, only eight men had made it back. The
third bird leaving the LZ was for Captain Workman and the remaining men, however,
mortars came in near the chopper and the rotor blade came down and either decapitated
him or just cut him in half, either way he was dead with only twenty two days left in
country. Everyone in the company thought the world of Captain Workman. His
replacement was already in country, but he chose to stay with the men because he didn‟t
trust the new guy to bring out his men. (39:55)
When the chopper that killed Captain Workman crashed, the door gunner was thrown out
and had the skid of the helicopter land across his legs. James Fowler, a man from East
St. Louis, Illinois ran out and lifted the skid while taking mortar fire and freed the door
gunner. Jim Fowler was later awarded the Silver Star for that act of bravery. (41:30)
The next day during muster, they had 15 men left in the company. It was July 22. The
company was put on stand down until August when they received enough replacements
to refill the company‟s ranks.
Before the 15th of August they were able to be combat effective again and returned to the
field. When they returned to the field, Mike did not want to be radioman anymore so he
�
passed it off to one of the new guys. Mike choose to become the point man for the 2nd
Platoon, he did this until two weeks before he left in April. (44:10)
They had to cross a river that was 75 yards wide, and someone asked if anyone was a
lifeguard, and Mike said that he was. He striped down, tied a rope around his waist and
began to swim across. When he was about half way through, he looked up and saw some
Vietnamese on the other shore. They turned out to be ARVN soldiers. He got across and
tied the rope off and the rest of the men and Mike‟s gear were brought over. (48:03)
In November, Mike was able to go on a three day in-country R&R to China Beach. He
had been in the bush since May, and had more field time than anyone else in the
company. He had a great time and was able to sleep on clean sheets, plus they served
beer with breakfast. He began talking to one of the lifeguards there and he told him about
his lifeguarding and water safety training and experience. He was told to go and talk to
the NCOIC (Non Commissioned Officer In Charge) about getting a job as a lifeguard.
Mike was told that if he would extend for six months, he would be given a job as a
lifeguard there in China Beach. He decided not to go through with it. (50:18)
Once he was too short to be in the field, he quit walking point.
On one mission they were conducting a patrol south of Camp Evans when they began
taking rifle fire from a hedge of trees ahead. Mike was at the end of the patrol and he
grabbed a couple guys and tried to flank them. He threw a hand grenade that resulted in
three explosions. The remaining enemy ran away. (52:20)
When Mike had left the field, he was attending an award ceremony. He was standing in
formation with a filthy uniform and an Irish flag in his helmet sweat band. The Division
Sergeant Major began to yell at Mike because of his uniform and he told him to take off
the flag. Mike told him „no‟. After explaining some history to the Sergeant Major and
that he had the same last name as the Division Commander, the Sergeant Major gave up
and stormed away. (54:54)
Mike was at Division Headquarters being processed out of country on Easter 1971. After
a little Easter party, he ended up sleeping in the post office on bags of mail. Mike had
gone through SERTS with the mail clerk.
Back in the States (55:35)
Mike left Vietnam at 6:15am on the morning of April 15, 1971. He flew back to Seattle,
and arrived at 6:10am the morning of April 15, 1971. He arrived in the states five
minutes before he left. The next day he made it back home to Savannah, Georgia.
(56:28)
On the plane from Atlanta, he sat in the front of coach so that he would be the first one
off the plane, shortly after he fell asleep. Sometime later he was shaken awake by
someone asking if he was going to get off the plane, he looked around and he was the
only person left on board.
After returning home, he still had some time in service so he was assigned to the 1st
Infantry Division, Alpha Company, 1/2nd Infantry. He was there until January 1972.
Mike carried two books in his rucksack the entire time he was in Vietnam, Norton‟s
Anthology of Poetry and The Complete Works of William Butler Yeats. (58:53)
The day he got home, he was awake for 48 hours. That afternoon, a friend that he had
known since the 7th grade came over to visit. While there, she asked Mike how many
�
babies he killed over there. He told her to get up and get out or he was going to throw her
out. (1:00:33)
When he went to the 1/2nd Infantry, he was stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas. Mike was
given a job as the Battalion Finance NCO. He addressed complaints and set up
allotments for people in the unit. It was an 8-5, Monday through Friday job with no
formations, extra duty or PT. (1:02:30)
In October 1971 he flew to Germany with the whole Division, picked up some equipment
and did some maneuvers for about a week of the four weeks that he was there. He had a
blast. They were able to go into the villages and try the beer and food.
Mike was given an early out January 5, 1972 because he had been accepted to go back to
school. He arrived home the next day, which was his birthday.
National Guard (1:04:40)
Mike went back to Armstrong State College in Savannah. He found a job as a lab tech at
a quality control lab.
In September, he thought that maybe he should join the National Guard. He went over
and signed up with a field artillery unit.
Mike went to OCS and served one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer. He
received his commission as a second lieutenant in August 1974. He never went to Fort
Sill for his basic field artillery course; instead he took them all by correspondence.
(1:06:40)
After spending some time as an observer, he was then transferred to a firing battery and
went in as the FDO (Fire Direction Officer) with a 155mm Self Propelled gun unit. Mike
went to Charlie Battery, 1/230th; which was the unit that his father was the battery
commander for in 1951. Mike became the executive officer of that battery. He was there
until 1980. He was asked to leave because he could not make the weight standards.
(1:08:42)
He went back into the Reserves and made his commission as captain. In 1985 he came
back in after he got his weight down.
In 1989, he was hard up against the move to major. January 1990, Mike resigned his
commission and enlisted in the Georgia National Guard as an E-5. He was there when
his unit was mobilized for Desert Storm. (1:11:06)
He was at summer camp when Kuwait was invaded. The rumor was that they were going
to go from summer camp straight to the Middle East. They were mobilized in November
1990; after going to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin they were deemed not to
be combat ready. They were never sent overseas, and were processed out of the Army in
April. (1:14:53)
Mike retired from the National Guard in January 1994.
In 2009, he started receiving his retirement benefits which include a check each month,
plus medical and travel benefits. (1:17:42)
His father retired from the National Guard and the IRS and he was living very well, so
Mike wanted to stay in the Guard until he too qualified for retirement benefits.
If he had to go back and do it again, he would have stayed active duty and finished OCS
and served his time there.
�
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
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1914-
Rights
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<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
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
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Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
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Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
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RHC-27
Language
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eng
Source
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<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/.
Title
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Hennessy, Michael (Interview outline and video), 2013
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Hennessy, Michael
Description
An account of the resource
Mike was born in Savannah, Georgia, in 1949. He graduated from the Benedictine Military School in 1967 and started college at the University of Georgia. Eventually Mike tired of school and enlisted in the United States Army in 1968. He started OCS but later dropped out. He went to Vietnam in May 1970 and was assigned to Delta Company, 1/506th, 101st Airborne. Mike operated around Camp Evans and Firebase Ripcord. He left Vietnam in 1971 after spending a year in country. After he got out of the regular army, Mike joined the National Guard as an officer. After resigning his commission, he retired from the Georgia National Guard as an enlisted man in January 1994.
Contributor
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McGregor, Michael (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. Army
United States. National Guard
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
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Moving Image
Text
Relation
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Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Date
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2013-10-11
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HennessyM1535V
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a>
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application/pdf
video/mp4
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PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans' History Project
Kyle Herring
War in Afghanistan
Part 1 – 48 minutes 52 seconds
(00:00:17) Early Life
-Born in Frederick, Maryland on October 11, 1987
-Lived there for one or two years
-Moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan
-Parents were originally from Maryland
-Lived on the southeast side of the city near Kalamazoo Avenue
-Moved to Kentwood, Michigan when he was in middle school
-Suburb of Grand Rapids
-Attended East Kentwood High School
-Last class to graduate early
-Graduated in February 2006
-Father worked as an aerospace engineer for General Electric
-Mother worked in healthcare for Spectrum Healthcare
(00:01:20) September 11th Attacks & Start of the War on Terror
-He was in eighth grade when the September 11th attacks happened in 2001
-Didn't have TVs on in the morning
-Teachers came in around 9 a.m. or 10 a.m. and told the students the U.S. had been attacked
-Rest of the day watched the news reports coming in from New York and Washington D.C.
-Aware of the severity of the attacks
-Possibly more aware than other students because his family served in the military
-Father served in the Marines and mother served in the Army
-Father had fought in the Gulf War
-Thought the U.S. would be invaded following the attacks
(00:03:39) Enlisting in the National Guard
-September 11th attacks contributed to his decision to join the military
-Had always wanted to be a soldier
-Wanted to serve in the Marines like his father
-Father advised against it
-Felt that Kyle would get more out of a different branch of the military
-Wanted to do something with technology
-When he was 16 years old he started talking with Marine recruiters
-When he turned 17 the recruiters asked him to sign the paperwork
-Kyle wanted to be an aircraft controller
-Recruiters told him he could be in the infantry or the engineers
-Friend enlisted in the Michigan National Guard
-Got the job he wanted and an enlistment bonus
-Talked to a National Guard recruiter and watched some different videos about technology jobs
-Decided he wanted to be a multichannel transmission systems operator-maintainer
-Military Occupational Specialty code: 25 Quebec
-Enlisted in the spring of 2005
(00:05:40) Drilling with the National Guard
-Able to start drilling with the National Guard before completing basic training
�-In the summer of 2005 he visited Europe and saw London, Paris, and Barcelona
-When he returned from the Europe trip he started doing drills with the National Guard
-One weekend a month through the summer and his senior year
(00:06:35) Basic Training
-Sent to Fort Benning, Georgia on January 1, 2006 for basic training
-Left Lansing, Michigan early in the morning
-Landed at Atlanta and told to go to the clock tower in the airport and wait for a bus
-At 9 p.m. a woman came to the tower and told him to follow him if he was a recruit
-Very informal greeting
-There with 100 or 200 other recruits
-Pulled up to Fort Benning and drill sergeant boarded the bus
-Told if they listened to him they would be fine
-Went through processing at 10 or 11 p.m.
-Given sweatshirts and sweatpants and ordered to change into them
-Didn't sleep much the first night there
-First week was spent processing
-Basic training wasn't too difficult
-Expected it to be like the basic training in the film, Full Metal Jacket
-Disappointed that it wasn't tough
-Felt prepared from hearing about his parents' experiences in the military
-Graduated from basic training in April 2006
-Drill sergeants yelled at them, but not to an extreme degree
-Spent most days exercising, sleeping, or going to classes
-Remembers one exercise called “belly, back, and feet”
-Push-ups, flutter kicks, and jogging in place
-Had to change exercises when the drill sergeant commanded
-A few men had trouble adjusting to the military
-Trained with other slightly older recruits
-Only three or four men didn't pass basic training
-One of his bunk mates had to be medically discharged due to heart problems
-Remembers a group of Ohioans didn't adjust well to the discipline, but they made it through
-Sundays were cleaning day
-One of the Ohioan recruits hid in a wall locker and slept all day on Sundays
-Did a lot of weapons training, physical training, and marches with full packs
-Basic infantry training
-Firing a rifle, digging a foxhole, basic first aid, and using a radio
(00:14:08) Signal Training
-Sent to Fort Gordon, Georgia for Signal Training
-Lasted 21 weeks
-Trained with truck-mounted radios and satellite radios
-Trained with old technology and new technology
-Radios used by the French in the 1990s
-French radios were set to OCONUS
-Overseas radio setting, and permanent unless rewired
-Learned how to rewire those radios to be used in the United States
-Second part of training consisted of satellite communications
(00:16:21) Joining the 156th Signal Battalion
-Returned to Grand Rapids and was assigned to C Company of the 156th Signal Battalion
-Stationed at Grand Valley Armory in Wyoming, Michigan (suburb of Grand Rapids)
�-Did drills one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer
-Attended Grand Rapids Community College while not drilling with the National Guard
-Did the basic weekend/month and two weeks/summer schedule for two years
-Enjoyed drilling in the National Guard
-Bond forming and team building
-Everyone worked well together and did a good job together
(00:17:48) Medic Training
-Discovered that he didn't enjoy communications work
-In early 2008 the 156th Signal Battalion became part of the 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team
-This resulted in the creation of a combat medic position
-He wanted to become a medic, requested the position, and got it
-Sent to Parks Reserve Forces Training Area (Camp Parks), California in the summer of 2008
-Base was situated in the middle of a wealthy area
-Close enough to San Francisco that they could take a train there
-Medic training usually took six months, but they did it in three months
-14 hours of training for a while
-Studied a chapter in class and read the next chapter at night
-The next day took a test on the material they studied in class
-Took the National Registry of EMTs Exam and half of the trainees failed it on the first attempt
-Second time they took the test three quarters of them passed
-Got practical training
-Trained with practice mannequins, learned how to give shots, and place IVs
-Rode in a civilian ambulance in Oakland, California
-Treated an old woman, a homeless man, an infant, and responded to a car accident
-Did that all in one, eight hour shift
-Resuscitated a man in the emergency room and pronounced an infant dead an hour later
-Doing practical work like that gave him confidence he hadn't had before
-First half of medic training focused on basic EMT skills
-Second half of medic training focused on Army medicine
-For example: properly using tourniquets and moving litters
-Did field exercises in the desert
-Remembers on one exercise he didn't drink water until 5 p.m.
-Acting squad leader and made sure the other soldiers stayed hydrated
-He just forgot to do the same for himself
(00:24:19 Pre-Deployment Training & Preparation
-Returned to Grand Valley Armory
-Alerted for mobilization
-In early 2009 they received equipment and started their training
-Went to Vermont for mountaineer training with the 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team
-Fun
-Learned how to walk horizontally across a steep grade
-Did a 20 foot rappel
-On the first rappel he was carrying a 50 pound aid bag
-Had to do his first rappel with the pound bag
-Did a 150 foot rappel down a cliff face
-Returned to Michigan after mountaineer training in Vermont
-Started dating his future wife
-Dated a few months and decide to try for a long term, long distance, relationship
-Sent to Fort Polk, Louisiana for combat training
�-Three weeks
-Ran practice convoys
-Worked in an aid station
-Did that in September 2009
-On December 3, 2009 they received their federal orders
-Bused to Camp Atterbury, Indiana
-Did three or four days of processing
-Vaccinations and various physical tests
-Land navigation training and a brief introduction of what to expect in Afghanistan
-Medics received Brigade Combat Tactical Training
-One week of intense medical training
-Trained by special forces medics and surgeons
-Learned about what IEDs could do to a person
-By 2009 the Army knew more about IEDs and damage potential
-Learned that they had to go back to Fort Polk because they missed a training step
-Three more weeks of combat training
-He was originally assigned to a Military Police platoon with brigade headquarters
-Platoon got reassigned to the 1st Squadron of the 172nd Cavalry Regiment
-Part of the 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team
-Did field exercises in the woods in Fort Polk
-Taught the Rules of Land Warfare
-What a soldier can/cannot do in combat
-At Fort Polk they had fake enemies and fake civilians
-Lived and operated in a fake Afghan city
-Had Afghan nationals and fake reporters
-Rifles with blank rounds, fake bombs, and helicopters
-Pre-deployment training was worse than the actual tour in Afghanistan
(00:33:23) Deployment to Afghanistan
-Received orders to fly directly from Fort Polk to Afghanistan
-Given 24 hours of leave
-He and the other men went to Bourbon Street in New Orleans
-Last time they could drink before being deployed to Afghanistan
-Stayed at Fort Polk for a few days then flew out of Louisiana at 3 a.m.
-Flew to Afghanistan on a chartered civilian flight
-Stopped in Canada, Iceland, Ireland, and Germany to refuel
-Allowed to get off the plane in Germany
-Place for soldiers to eat, stretch their legs, and buy souvenirs
-There were political issues with Russia which altered their flight path to Afghanistan
-Flown to Kyrgyzstan
-Landed at a Soviet-era airport
-Beautiful and cold country
-Bought an Iranian cell phone that worked in the Middle East
-Boarded a C-130 and flew to Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan
(00:36:20) Arrival in Afghanistan
-Received two days of training at Bagram Air Base
-Boarded another C-130 and flew to Sharana, Afghanistan to get to Ghazni
-Had to do a combat landing at night because the base took fire on a regular basis
-Plane corkscrewed down to the runway
-C-130 dropped the ramp and they were ordered to march off the plane
�-Only had 15-20 rounds of ammunition and it was pitch black
-Told to go to a reception area at the other end of the runway
-Went into a transient tent
-Disgusting and one of the worst places he had to stay
-Contacted the unit they were replacing in Ghazni
-Needed more ammunition before they they moved
-In RC-East (NATO designation for eastern portion of Afghanistan)
-Unit they were replacing came to pick them up from Sharana
-Traveled in Cougar Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) armored transports
-Brought them a trailer full of ammunition
-Told to watch out for IEDs en route to Ghazni
(00:39:45) First Contact with Enemy Troops
-Reached a place called Four Corners en route to Ghazni
-Afghan police were taking fire and the American forces were ordered to assist them
-Got out of the MRAP and went to the left of the road
-Told to watch out for a man riding a red moped
-Afghan forces were taking fire on the right side of the road
-Walked forward 100 or 200 yards
-The red moped showed up
-Everyone pointed their rifles at the man and he quickly turned around
-Not the target
-Took cover behind a berm and returned fire
-He was ordered to stay down and hold his fire
-If he, the medic, got wounded then who would take care of him?
-Taking small arms fire
-After 10 or 15 minutes the militants scattered and they proceeded toward Ghazni
(00:42:25) Stationed in Ghazni
-Final destination was Forward Operating Base (FOB) Vulcan in Ghazni
-Ghazni is the capital of Ghazni Province
-There was another FOB, called FOB Ghazni in the city
-Provincial reconstruction, helicopter base, and a forward surgical team
-FOB Vulcan was a former Soviet base from the Soviet-Afghan War in the 1980s
-Shared it with an Afghan battalion
-Minimal enemy contact
-FOB Ghazni got hit by mortars and rockets on a regular basis
-FOB Vulcan wasn't a large base
-150 Americans stationed there
-Shared the base with Polish forces
-NATO commander was Polish and had a Polish 155mm artillery unit
(00:44:20) Patrols in Afghanistan
-Started their mission after a week of being at FOB Vulcan
-Mission was to train Afghan police in the area
-Went to the towns of Waghaz and Qarabagh
-First time at Waghaz they took mortar fire from the mountains
-Established contact with the town chieftain
-Moved to Qarabagh after patrols in Waghaz
-Stayed there for a few nights
-Lived on Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) and trained the Afghan police
-Pulled security at night
�-Set up a post on top of an old prison
-If they saw movement they had orders to retreat
-Had only 20 men at Qarabagh and couldn't taken on an enemy force
-Arrived in Afghanistan in March 2010 and started conducting patrols soon
-Had Thursdays off because Friday is the Muslim holy day
(00:46:50) Fighting around Waghaz
-The second time they went into Waghaz they took mortar fire, again
-Brought a TOW missile launcher and a forward observer to call in artillery support
-Fired the TOW at the enemy position and it flew into a group of trees
-Mortars were landing around the compound
-Knew the militants were bad shots, but they could eventually get a direct hit
-Called in Polish artillery to knock out the mortar position
-Lieutenant was fairly incompetent
-Called in the wrong coordinates
-Resulted in the artillery hitting 1,000 yards off target
Part 2 – 45 minutes 39 seconds
Note: Separate DVD, but time code continues
(00:49:33) Fighting around Waghaz
-Polish artillery was off the mark
-United States artillery procedure is to fire to the right of the impact area
-Polish artillery procedure is to fire to the left of the impact area
-Shot again and were even more off the mark than the first time
-Decided to get into MRAPs and go into the hills to find the mortars
-Had F-16 fighter aircraft providing air support
-Went up to a little bridge in the hills
-Good chance there would be IEDs
-He was in the third vehicle in line
-Two of the MRAPs got across the bridge without incident
-His MRAP shifted to the right and hit an IED
-It was two antitank mines stacked on top of each other
-Blew off a tire
-Militants had been planning an ambush on the convoy
-Disable a vehicle then attack with machine guns and rockets
-F-16s scared them off
-No one in his vehicle was injured
-A few men sustained minor concussions
-Recovery vehicles took forever to reach them
-Traveling at one kilometer/hour (or a little over ½ mile/hour)
-F-16s ran out of gas and had to leave the area
-B-1 strategic bomber came to provide air support
-Stayed there for a while
-Pilot radioed the recovery convoy and told them to go faster
-Getting bored and wanted to leave
-Finally got picked up and his MRAP was repaired within a few days
(00:53:30) Leaving Ghazni
-Spent three months in Ghazni
�-Only American forces in the area, and they were a small force
-Got replaced by a larger American force
-Ghazni hadn't been a bad place to be stationed
-Had internet, hot food, showers, and civilians did their laundry
(00:54:15) Ambushed outside of Qarabagh
-Wanted to go to Qarabagh to say good bye to the Afghan police chief
-Bitter and nervous that the Americans would leave and not be replaced
-Stayed overnight in Qarabagh and ate breakfast with the police the next day
-Left Qarabagh and he was in the last vehicle in the convoy
-MRAP in front of him hit a 500 pound IED
-Blast threw vehicle into the air and flipped it over
-Gunner survived because he bent down to pick up a bottle of a water
-Felt the shock wave in his truck
-The gunner in his MRAP returned fire with machine gun and grenade launcher
-His truck took three rocket propelled grenades
-After each blast the gunner got back up and returned fire
-MRAP caught fire and had to be evacuated
-Made his way to the destroyed MRAP
-Half of the vehicles in the convoy were damaged or immobilized
-Ran through the blast zone and the IED produced a crater in the highway
-Everyone in the destroyed MRAP was out of the truck and were wounded
-Six wounded
-Inside of that MRAP was covered in blood
-Started treating the wounded
-One soldier had internal bleeding
-Told the platoon sergeant they needed to get the wounded out of the area
-Other soldiers went off the road to hunt down the militants
-Polish sent in helicopters to pick up the wounded
-He didn't know the Polish were sending in helicopters
-Saw a Mi-24 Hind fly overhead
-Same helicopter used by the Russians
-Astounded at the sight and didn't know what to expect next
-Militants retreated
-Helicopter pilot saw the blast crater and decided to land in the adjacent field
-Helped get the wounded to the helicopter
-Told the flight medic about the situation
-Another helicopter showed up
-Thought there were six litter wounded, not ambulatory
-Polish armored vehicles came to support them
-Patrolled the area and found a few weapons
-Got into a new convoy and went to FOB Ghazni
-Ate and got cleaned up
-Visited the wounded
-Let him put three of the more severely wounded into a helicopter
-One of the men went to Germany and two went to Bagram Air Base
(01:04:55) Stationed at FOB Lightning
-Flown to FOB Lightning in Gardez
-Spent two weeks at FOB Lightning
-Worked with the 82nd Airborne Division
�-Did patrols and went on a convoy to a FOB near Pakistan
-FOB Lightning was a larger base
-Had a mess hall open at all times with iced coffee and a panini machine
-Had internet access
-Could contact his family and his fiancee
(01:06:20) Stationed at Charikar
-Sent to Bagram Air Base for one week to await further orders
-101st Airborne Division replaced them
-Sent to the city of Charikar near Bagram
-Worked with United Arab Emirates soldiers
-Stationed at the police station in Charikar
-Shared the barracks with Afghan police
-Went on two foot patrols each day
-Did two, three hour shifts of guard duty
-One of his jobs was to bleach the water used for showering
-Built up area
-Civilians were allowed to go into the police station
-Medium-sized city with three-story buildings
-Able to send the interpreter into town to get local food
-Had french fries and kebabs
-American dollar was very strong
-Avoided eating cold food and dairy products
-Spent six months in Charikar out of a total of nine months in Afghanistan
-Did the same routine every day
-Brought a firearm with him everywhere he went
-Got comfortable carrying a firearm with him
-Never fired his rifle in anger
-Medic shouldn't have to return fire in a combat situation
(01:12:30) Enemy Contact in Charikar
-One night they were sleeping and someone fired a rocket propelled grenade at the station
-Local that angry about a political decision made by the U.S. military
-No wounded and no killed
-Pulled guard duty at night because he enjoyed the coolness of the evening
-One night he heard fire on Route 1
-Went into the tactical operations center (TOC)
-Told NATO Macedonian forces had been attacked
-Being sent to Charikar
-When the Macedonians arrived they were on edge
-Jumped out of the trucks and pointing their rifles
-An American unit near them hit an IED and lost their medic
(01:14:52) U.S. Ambassador visit to Charikar
-U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan came to Charikar to visit the provincial governor
-Had jets, layers of security, and Secretary of State security forces
-Afghan police were on the road in front of the governor's compound
-Remembers a blue tanker truck coming up to the compound
-Afghan police let it go through the roadblock
-Secretary of State security thought it was a suicide truck
-Turned out to be fine
-Ready for it to explode and deal with the consequences
�(01:16:52) United Nations Presence
-United Nations World Food Program operated in the area
-Used white vans and SUVs with no armor
-Drove around Charikar
-Never made sense to him why they'd use civilian vehicles
-Never got attacked
(01:17:50) Contact with Afghan Civilians
-A lot of contact with Afghan civilians
-Patrolled the markets in Charikar
-There was a canal next to the police compound
-Threw candy to children who stood on the other side of the canal
-A sucker hit a little girl in the head
-Brought her and her father over to the compound
-Gave her another sucker, and a stuffed animal, and bandages
-Father was happy and understood that it was an accident
-Afghans knew that he was a medic and less intimidating than the other soldiers
-Thought he had magic pills that could treat anything
-Remembers in Qarabagh a man approached him and said his leg hurt
-Couldn't give him pain pills because he could be allergic
-Gave him a red Tic-Tac
-Man came back a week later complaining of leg pain again
-Gave him a yellow Tic-Tac and the man requested a red one
-There was a blind man in Charikar that asked to be healed
-Couldn't grasp that Kyle wasn't a doctor or a miracle worker
-Apologized to the man and gave him some American money for his trouble
-Treated one Afghan policeman with an infected ankle from wearing his boots wrong
-Took a picture together
-Trusted the Afghan interpreter because he was in just as much danger as they were
-Gave him a first aid kit and a shotgun or an AK-47 rifle if they had a spare
(01:22:50) Mystery Weapons Cache
-He was on guard duty one night and an Afghan police cargo truck came into the compound
-Truck was filled with crates of rifles, ammunition, rocket launchers, and rockets
-Helped the Afghan police unload the truck
-Went into a basement on the compound and it was filled with weapons and ammunition
-Didn't know it existed
-Had no idea why the Afghan police had it
-Radioed 86th Brigade headquarters and told them about the weapons cache
-They didn't know it existed either
-Piles of Chinese, Egyptian, Soviet, and unmarked weapons
(01:25:37) End of Deployment & Coming Home
-Deployment ended in December 2010
-Stayed at Bagram Air Base for one week
-in Thanksgiving 2010 President Obama came to Bagram Air Base
-Delayed coming home
-Out processed at Camp Atterbury, Indiana
-Came home to Grand Rapids and was greeted by the community
-Stopped at Kyrgyzstan en route to the United States
-One soldier broke his ankle walking out to the plane
�-Had two choices: fly home with a broken ankle, or stay behind for treatment
-Decided to fly home with the broken ankle
-Took a year to get his ankle fixed
(01:27:02) Assignment to the 126th Cavalry Regiment & Current National Guard Service
-While on his deployment he was promoted to the rank of sergeant (E-5)
-Spent three more months with C Company of the 156th Signal Battalion
-Moved across the hall at Grand Valley Armory and was reassigned to 126th Cavalry Regiment
-Placed on full-time orders for a couple years then became Active Guard Reserve (AGR, career)
-Worked for eight months as a National Guard recruiter at Grand Valley Armory
-Went back to work as medical readiness sergeant with the 126th Cavalry Regiment
-Job as of time of interview
-Managing medical documents
-Overseeing a platoon of medics
-Administering flu shots
-Medical exams
-General healthcare of soldiers
(01:28:15) Reflections on Service
-Made him a calmer individual
-More confident
-More to life
-Drinks less after his deployment
-Appreciates life more
-Spent nine months without TV, cell phone, and limited internet
-Misses the order and routine of Afghanistan
-Still maintains a routine as a civilian
(01:29:46) Wounded in Ghazni
-In Ghazni after the 500 pound IED explosion
-He was in the mess hall and the FOB started taking rocket fire
-Ran toward bunkers and a rocket exploded in front of him
-Attack happened near Easter 2010
-Doesn't remember the blast, but remembers getting up from the ground
-Saw a man lying in the middle of the road
-Acted without thinking
-Base was still taking rocket fire
-Wounded man was a Navy corpsman
-Entire right side was peppered with shrapnel
-Polish ambulance came to help treat the corpsman
-Helped the Polish soldiers treat the man
-Reunited with his platoon
-One week later he found the corpsman survived and was being treated in Germany
-Spent three months in therapy due to sustaining a traumatic brain injury
-Didn't qualify for a Purple Heart
-Placed on rest for two days and ordered to relax
-Still has ringing in his ears and memory problems
-Works with a lot of soldiers that have traumatic brain injuries
-Is able to relate with them
�
Dublin Core
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Title
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Veterans History Project
Creator
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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.
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1914-
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
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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
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
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Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
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Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
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RHC-27
Language
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eng
Source
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<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.
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Identifier
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HerringK1933V
Title
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Herring, Kyle (Interview outline and video), 2016
Description
An account of the resource
Kyle Herring was born in Frederick, Maryland on October 11, 1987, but grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He enlisted in the Michigan National Guard when he was 17 years old in spring 2005 and drilled during his senior year. In January 2006 he received basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia then went to Fort Gordon, Georgia for signal training. He joined C Company of the 156th Signal Battalion at the Grand Valley Armory in Wyoming, Michigan. In early 2008 a medic slot opened and he volunteered for it. He received medic training at Parks Reserve Forces Training Area, California. In early 2009 they received deployment orders and spent most of 2009 training in Vermont; Camp Atterbury, Indiana; and Fort Polk, Louisiana. He was attached to 1st Squadron of the 172nd Cavalry Regiment of the 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. They deployed to Afghanistan in March 2010 and he was stationed at Forward Operating Base Vulcan (Ghazni) for three months working with local police in Waghaz and Qarabagh. He suffered a concussive injury in Ghazni. He was also stationed at FOB Lighting (Gardez) and at the police station in Charikar for six months. In December 2010 the deployment ended and he returned home. After three months he joined the 126th Cavalry Regiment and went on full-time, active duty as the medical readiness non-commissioned officer.
Creator
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Herring, Kyle
Contributor
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Jones, Adam (Interviewer)
Subject
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Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
United States. National Guard
Source
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<a href="http://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a>
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Moving Image
Text
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
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Veterans History Project (U.S.)
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
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2016-03-17
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application/pdf
video/mp4
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/9a9bb5e27591dccd2bf7c643d9b1d92c.m4v
ea254e3d4539a01341488bb7eae8660d
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/345e391257c8cc97dc6543cbb991ba8b.m4v
7d743b1e1935bab9346333cfb6b7747e
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/24228e225e062e173fad8ded1b031296.pdf
517e5d9de74ef28429c67c5913144944
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans' History Project
Kyle Herring
War in Afghanistan
Part 1 – 48 minutes 52 seconds
(00:00:17) Early Life
-Born in Frederick, Maryland on October 11, 1987
-Lived there for one or two years
-Moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan
-Parents were originally from Maryland
-Lived on the southeast side of the city near Kalamazoo Avenue
-Moved to Kentwood, Michigan when he was in middle school
-Suburb of Grand Rapids
-Attended East Kentwood High School
-Last class to graduate early
-Graduated in February 2006
-Father worked as an aerospace engineer for General Electric
-Mother worked in healthcare for Spectrum Healthcare
(00:01:20) September 11th Attacks & Start of the War on Terror
-He was in eighth grade when the September 11th attacks happened in 2001
-Didn't have TVs on in the morning
-Teachers came in around 9 a.m. or 10 a.m. and told the students the U.S. had been attacked
-Rest of the day watched the news reports coming in from New York and Washington D.C.
-Aware of the severity of the attacks
-Possibly more aware than other students because his family served in the military
-Father served in the Marines and mother served in the Army
-Father had fought in the Gulf War
-Thought the U.S. would be invaded following the attacks
(00:03:39) Enlisting in the National Guard
-September 11th attacks contributed to his decision to join the military
-Had always wanted to be a soldier
-Wanted to serve in the Marines like his father
-Father advised against it
-Felt that Kyle would get more out of a different branch of the military
-Wanted to do something with technology
-When he was 16 years old he started talking with Marine recruiters
-When he turned 17 the recruiters asked him to sign the paperwork
-Kyle wanted to be an aircraft controller
-Recruiters told him he could be in the infantry or the engineers
-Friend enlisted in the Michigan National Guard
-Got the job he wanted and an enlistment bonus
-Talked to a National Guard recruiter and watched some different videos about technology jobs
-Decided he wanted to be a multichannel transmission systems operator-maintainer
-Military Occupational Specialty code: 25 Quebec
-Enlisted in the spring of 2005
(00:05:40) Drilling with the National Guard
-Able to start drilling with the National Guard before completing basic training
�-In the summer of 2005 he visited Europe and saw London, Paris, and Barcelona
-When he returned from the Europe trip he started doing drills with the National Guard
-One weekend a month through the summer and his senior year
(00:06:35) Basic Training
-Sent to Fort Benning, Georgia on January 1, 2006 for basic training
-Left Lansing, Michigan early in the morning
-Landed at Atlanta and told to go to the clock tower in the airport and wait for a bus
-At 9 p.m. a woman came to the tower and told him to follow him if he was a recruit
-Very informal greeting
-There with 100 or 200 other recruits
-Pulled up to Fort Benning and drill sergeant boarded the bus
-Told if they listened to him they would be fine
-Went through processing at 10 or 11 p.m.
-Given sweatshirts and sweatpants and ordered to change into them
-Didn't sleep much the first night there
-First week was spent processing
-Basic training wasn't too difficult
-Expected it to be like the basic training in the film, Full Metal Jacket
-Disappointed that it wasn't tough
-Felt prepared from hearing about his parents' experiences in the military
-Graduated from basic training in April 2006
-Drill sergeants yelled at them, but not to an extreme degree
-Spent most days exercising, sleeping, or going to classes
-Remembers one exercise called “belly, back, and feet”
-Push-ups, flutter kicks, and jogging in place
-Had to change exercises when the drill sergeant commanded
-A few men had trouble adjusting to the military
-Trained with other slightly older recruits
-Only three or four men didn't pass basic training
-One of his bunk mates had to be medically discharged due to heart problems
-Remembers a group of Ohioans didn't adjust well to the discipline, but they made it through
-Sundays were cleaning day
-One of the Ohioan recruits hid in a wall locker and slept all day on Sundays
-Did a lot of weapons training, physical training, and marches with full packs
-Basic infantry training
-Firing a rifle, digging a foxhole, basic first aid, and using a radio
(00:14:08) Signal Training
-Sent to Fort Gordon, Georgia for Signal Training
-Lasted 21 weeks
-Trained with truck-mounted radios and satellite radios
-Trained with old technology and new technology
-Radios used by the French in the 1990s
-French radios were set to OCONUS
-Overseas radio setting, and permanent unless rewired
-Learned how to rewire those radios to be used in the United States
-Second part of training consisted of satellite communications
(00:16:21) Joining the 156th Signal Battalion
-Returned to Grand Rapids and was assigned to C Company of the 156th Signal Battalion
-Stationed at Grand Valley Armory in Wyoming, Michigan (suburb of Grand Rapids)
�-Did drills one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer
-Attended Grand Rapids Community College while not drilling with the National Guard
-Did the basic weekend/month and two weeks/summer schedule for two years
-Enjoyed drilling in the National Guard
-Bond forming and team building
-Everyone worked well together and did a good job together
(00:17:48) Medic Training
-Discovered that he didn't enjoy communications work
-In early 2008 the 156th Signal Battalion became part of the 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team
-This resulted in the creation of a combat medic position
-He wanted to become a medic, requested the position, and got it
-Sent to Parks Reserve Forces Training Area (Camp Parks), California in the summer of 2008
-Base was situated in the middle of a wealthy area
-Close enough to San Francisco that they could take a train there
-Medic training usually took six months, but they did it in three months
-14 hours of training for a while
-Studied a chapter in class and read the next chapter at night
-The next day took a test on the material they studied in class
-Took the National Registry of EMTs Exam and half of the trainees failed it on the first attempt
-Second time they took the test three quarters of them passed
-Got practical training
-Trained with practice mannequins, learned how to give shots, and place IVs
-Rode in a civilian ambulance in Oakland, California
-Treated an old woman, a homeless man, an infant, and responded to a car accident
-Did that all in one, eight hour shift
-Resuscitated a man in the emergency room and pronounced an infant dead an hour later
-Doing practical work like that gave him confidence he hadn't had before
-First half of medic training focused on basic EMT skills
-Second half of medic training focused on Army medicine
-For example: properly using tourniquets and moving litters
-Did field exercises in the desert
-Remembers on one exercise he didn't drink water until 5 p.m.
-Acting squad leader and made sure the other soldiers stayed hydrated
-He just forgot to do the same for himself
(00:24:19 Pre-Deployment Training & Preparation
-Returned to Grand Valley Armory
-Alerted for mobilization
-In early 2009 they received equipment and started their training
-Went to Vermont for mountaineer training with the 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team
-Fun
-Learned how to walk horizontally across a steep grade
-Did a 20 foot rappel
-On the first rappel he was carrying a 50 pound aid bag
-Had to do his first rappel with the pound bag
-Did a 150 foot rappel down a cliff face
-Returned to Michigan after mountaineer training in Vermont
-Started dating his future wife
-Dated a few months and decide to try for a long term, long distance, relationship
-Sent to Fort Polk, Louisiana for combat training
�-Three weeks
-Ran practice convoys
-Worked in an aid station
-Did that in September 2009
-On December 3, 2009 they received their federal orders
-Bused to Camp Atterbury, Indiana
-Did three or four days of processing
-Vaccinations and various physical tests
-Land navigation training and a brief introduction of what to expect in Afghanistan
-Medics received Brigade Combat Tactical Training
-One week of intense medical training
-Trained by special forces medics and surgeons
-Learned about what IEDs could do to a person
-By 2009 the Army knew more about IEDs and damage potential
-Learned that they had to go back to Fort Polk because they missed a training step
-Three more weeks of combat training
-He was originally assigned to a Military Police platoon with brigade headquarters
-Platoon got reassigned to the 1st Squadron of the 172nd Cavalry Regiment
-Part of the 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team
-Did field exercises in the woods in Fort Polk
-Taught the Rules of Land Warfare
-What a soldier can/cannot do in combat
-At Fort Polk they had fake enemies and fake civilians
-Lived and operated in a fake Afghan city
-Had Afghan nationals and fake reporters
-Rifles with blank rounds, fake bombs, and helicopters
-Pre-deployment training was worse than the actual tour in Afghanistan
(00:33:23) Deployment to Afghanistan
-Received orders to fly directly from Fort Polk to Afghanistan
-Given 24 hours of leave
-He and the other men went to Bourbon Street in New Orleans
-Last time they could drink before being deployed to Afghanistan
-Stayed at Fort Polk for a few days then flew out of Louisiana at 3 a.m.
-Flew to Afghanistan on a chartered civilian flight
-Stopped in Canada, Iceland, Ireland, and Germany to refuel
-Allowed to get off the plane in Germany
-Place for soldiers to eat, stretch their legs, and buy souvenirs
-There were political issues with Russia which altered their flight path to Afghanistan
-Flown to Kyrgyzstan
-Landed at a Soviet-era airport
-Beautiful and cold country
-Bought an Iranian cell phone that worked in the Middle East
-Boarded a C-130 and flew to Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan
(00:36:20) Arrival in Afghanistan
-Received two days of training at Bagram Air Base
-Boarded another C-130 and flew to Sharana, Afghanistan to get to Ghazni
-Had to do a combat landing at night because the base took fire on a regular basis
-Plane corkscrewed down to the runway
-C-130 dropped the ramp and they were ordered to march off the plane
�-Only had 15-20 rounds of ammunition and it was pitch black
-Told to go to a reception area at the other end of the runway
-Went into a transient tent
-Disgusting and one of the worst places he had to stay
-Contacted the unit they were replacing in Ghazni
-Needed more ammunition before they they moved
-In RC-East (NATO designation for eastern portion of Afghanistan)
-Unit they were replacing came to pick them up from Sharana
-Traveled in Cougar Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) armored transports
-Brought them a trailer full of ammunition
-Told to watch out for IEDs en route to Ghazni
(00:39:45) First Contact with Enemy Troops
-Reached a place called Four Corners en route to Ghazni
-Afghan police were taking fire and the American forces were ordered to assist them
-Got out of the MRAP and went to the left of the road
-Told to watch out for a man riding a red moped
-Afghan forces were taking fire on the right side of the road
-Walked forward 100 or 200 yards
-The red moped showed up
-Everyone pointed their rifles at the man and he quickly turned around
-Not the target
-Took cover behind a berm and returned fire
-He was ordered to stay down and hold his fire
-If he, the medic, got wounded then who would take care of him?
-Taking small arms fire
-After 10 or 15 minutes the militants scattered and they proceeded toward Ghazni
(00:42:25) Stationed in Ghazni
-Final destination was Forward Operating Base (FOB) Vulcan in Ghazni
-Ghazni is the capital of Ghazni Province
-There was another FOB, called FOB Ghazni in the city
-Provincial reconstruction, helicopter base, and a forward surgical team
-FOB Vulcan was a former Soviet base from the Soviet-Afghan War in the 1980s
-Shared it with an Afghan battalion
-Minimal enemy contact
-FOB Ghazni got hit by mortars and rockets on a regular basis
-FOB Vulcan wasn't a large base
-150 Americans stationed there
-Shared the base with Polish forces
-NATO commander was Polish and had a Polish 155mm artillery unit
(00:44:20) Patrols in Afghanistan
-Started their mission after a week of being at FOB Vulcan
-Mission was to train Afghan police in the area
-Went to the towns of Waghaz and Qarabagh
-First time at Waghaz they took mortar fire from the mountains
-Established contact with the town chieftain
-Moved to Qarabagh after patrols in Waghaz
-Stayed there for a few nights
-Lived on Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) and trained the Afghan police
-Pulled security at night
�-Set up a post on top of an old prison
-If they saw movement they had orders to retreat
-Had only 20 men at Qarabagh and couldn't taken on an enemy force
-Arrived in Afghanistan in March 2010 and started conducting patrols soon
-Had Thursdays off because Friday is the Muslim holy day
(00:46:50) Fighting around Waghaz
-The second time they went into Waghaz they took mortar fire, again
-Brought a TOW missile launcher and a forward observer to call in artillery support
-Fired the TOW at the enemy position and it flew into a group of trees
-Mortars were landing around the compound
-Knew the militants were bad shots, but they could eventually get a direct hit
-Called in Polish artillery to knock out the mortar position
-Lieutenant was fairly incompetent
-Called in the wrong coordinates
-Resulted in the artillery hitting 1,000 yards off target
Part 2 – 45 minutes 39 seconds
Note: Separate DVD, but time code continues
(00:49:33) Fighting around Waghaz
-Polish artillery was off the mark
-United States artillery procedure is to fire to the right of the impact area
-Polish artillery procedure is to fire to the left of the impact area
-Shot again and were even more off the mark than the first time
-Decided to get into MRAPs and go into the hills to find the mortars
-Had F-16 fighter aircraft providing air support
-Went up to a little bridge in the hills
-Good chance there would be IEDs
-He was in the third vehicle in line
-Two of the MRAPs got across the bridge without incident
-His MRAP shifted to the right and hit an IED
-It was two antitank mines stacked on top of each other
-Blew off a tire
-Militants had been planning an ambush on the convoy
-Disable a vehicle then attack with machine guns and rockets
-F-16s scared them off
-No one in his vehicle was injured
-A few men sustained minor concussions
-Recovery vehicles took forever to reach them
-Traveling at one kilometer/hour (or a little over ½ mile/hour)
-F-16s ran out of gas and had to leave the area
-B-1 strategic bomber came to provide air support
-Stayed there for a while
-Pilot radioed the recovery convoy and told them to go faster
-Getting bored and wanted to leave
-Finally got picked up and his MRAP was repaired within a few days
(00:53:30) Leaving Ghazni
-Spent three months in Ghazni
�-Only American forces in the area, and they were a small force
-Got replaced by a larger American force
-Ghazni hadn't been a bad place to be stationed
-Had internet, hot food, showers, and civilians did their laundry
(00:54:15) Ambushed outside of Qarabagh
-Wanted to go to Qarabagh to say good bye to the Afghan police chief
-Bitter and nervous that the Americans would leave and not be replaced
-Stayed overnight in Qarabagh and ate breakfast with the police the next day
-Left Qarabagh and he was in the last vehicle in the convoy
-MRAP in front of him hit a 500 pound IED
-Blast threw vehicle into the air and flipped it over
-Gunner survived because he bent down to pick up a bottle of a water
-Felt the shock wave in his truck
-The gunner in his MRAP returned fire with machine gun and grenade launcher
-His truck took three rocket propelled grenades
-After each blast the gunner got back up and returned fire
-MRAP caught fire and had to be evacuated
-Made his way to the destroyed MRAP
-Half of the vehicles in the convoy were damaged or immobilized
-Ran through the blast zone and the IED produced a crater in the highway
-Everyone in the destroyed MRAP was out of the truck and were wounded
-Six wounded
-Inside of that MRAP was covered in blood
-Started treating the wounded
-One soldier had internal bleeding
-Told the platoon sergeant they needed to get the wounded out of the area
-Other soldiers went off the road to hunt down the militants
-Polish sent in helicopters to pick up the wounded
-He didn't know the Polish were sending in helicopters
-Saw a Mi-24 Hind fly overhead
-Same helicopter used by the Russians
-Astounded at the sight and didn't know what to expect next
-Militants retreated
-Helicopter pilot saw the blast crater and decided to land in the adjacent field
-Helped get the wounded to the helicopter
-Told the flight medic about the situation
-Another helicopter showed up
-Thought there were six litter wounded, not ambulatory
-Polish armored vehicles came to support them
-Patrolled the area and found a few weapons
-Got into a new convoy and went to FOB Ghazni
-Ate and got cleaned up
-Visited the wounded
-Let him put three of the more severely wounded into a helicopter
-One of the men went to Germany and two went to Bagram Air Base
(01:04:55) Stationed at FOB Lightning
-Flown to FOB Lightning in Gardez
-Spent two weeks at FOB Lightning
-Worked with the 82nd Airborne Division
�-Did patrols and went on a convoy to a FOB near Pakistan
-FOB Lightning was a larger base
-Had a mess hall open at all times with iced coffee and a panini machine
-Had internet access
-Could contact his family and his fiancee
(01:06:20) Stationed at Charikar
-Sent to Bagram Air Base for one week to await further orders
-101st Airborne Division replaced them
-Sent to the city of Charikar near Bagram
-Worked with United Arab Emirates soldiers
-Stationed at the police station in Charikar
-Shared the barracks with Afghan police
-Went on two foot patrols each day
-Did two, three hour shifts of guard duty
-One of his jobs was to bleach the water used for showering
-Built up area
-Civilians were allowed to go into the police station
-Medium-sized city with three-story buildings
-Able to send the interpreter into town to get local food
-Had french fries and kebabs
-American dollar was very strong
-Avoided eating cold food and dairy products
-Spent six months in Charikar out of a total of nine months in Afghanistan
-Did the same routine every day
-Brought a firearm with him everywhere he went
-Got comfortable carrying a firearm with him
-Never fired his rifle in anger
-Medic shouldn't have to return fire in a combat situation
(01:12:30) Enemy Contact in Charikar
-One night they were sleeping and someone fired a rocket propelled grenade at the station
-Local that angry about a political decision made by the U.S. military
-No wounded and no killed
-Pulled guard duty at night because he enjoyed the coolness of the evening
-One night he heard fire on Route 1
-Went into the tactical operations center (TOC)
-Told NATO Macedonian forces had been attacked
-Being sent to Charikar
-When the Macedonians arrived they were on edge
-Jumped out of the trucks and pointing their rifles
-An American unit near them hit an IED and lost their medic
(01:14:52) U.S. Ambassador visit to Charikar
-U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan came to Charikar to visit the provincial governor
-Had jets, layers of security, and Secretary of State security forces
-Afghan police were on the road in front of the governor's compound
-Remembers a blue tanker truck coming up to the compound
-Afghan police let it go through the roadblock
-Secretary of State security thought it was a suicide truck
-Turned out to be fine
-Ready for it to explode and deal with the consequences
�(01:16:52) United Nations Presence
-United Nations World Food Program operated in the area
-Used white vans and SUVs with no armor
-Drove around Charikar
-Never made sense to him why they'd use civilian vehicles
-Never got attacked
(01:17:50) Contact with Afghan Civilians
-A lot of contact with Afghan civilians
-Patrolled the markets in Charikar
-There was a canal next to the police compound
-Threw candy to children who stood on the other side of the canal
-A sucker hit a little girl in the head
-Brought her and her father over to the compound
-Gave her another sucker, and a stuffed animal, and bandages
-Father was happy and understood that it was an accident
-Afghans knew that he was a medic and less intimidating than the other soldiers
-Thought he had magic pills that could treat anything
-Remembers in Qarabagh a man approached him and said his leg hurt
-Couldn't give him pain pills because he could be allergic
-Gave him a red Tic-Tac
-Man came back a week later complaining of leg pain again
-Gave him a yellow Tic-Tac and the man requested a red one
-There was a blind man in Charikar that asked to be healed
-Couldn't grasp that Kyle wasn't a doctor or a miracle worker
-Apologized to the man and gave him some American money for his trouble
-Treated one Afghan policeman with an infected ankle from wearing his boots wrong
-Took a picture together
-Trusted the Afghan interpreter because he was in just as much danger as they were
-Gave him a first aid kit and a shotgun or an AK-47 rifle if they had a spare
(01:22:50) Mystery Weapons Cache
-He was on guard duty one night and an Afghan police cargo truck came into the compound
-Truck was filled with crates of rifles, ammunition, rocket launchers, and rockets
-Helped the Afghan police unload the truck
-Went into a basement on the compound and it was filled with weapons and ammunition
-Didn't know it existed
-Had no idea why the Afghan police had it
-Radioed 86th Brigade headquarters and told them about the weapons cache
-They didn't know it existed either
-Piles of Chinese, Egyptian, Soviet, and unmarked weapons
(01:25:37) End of Deployment & Coming Home
-Deployment ended in December 2010
-Stayed at Bagram Air Base for one week
-in Thanksgiving 2010 President Obama came to Bagram Air Base
-Delayed coming home
-Out processed at Camp Atterbury, Indiana
-Came home to Grand Rapids and was greeted by the community
-Stopped at Kyrgyzstan en route to the United States
-One soldier broke his ankle walking out to the plane
�-Had two choices: fly home with a broken ankle, or stay behind for treatment
-Decided to fly home with the broken ankle
-Took a year to get his ankle fixed
(01:27:02) Assignment to the 126th Cavalry Regiment & Current National Guard Service
-While on his deployment he was promoted to the rank of sergeant (E-5)
-Spent three more months with C Company of the 156th Signal Battalion
-Moved across the hall at Grand Valley Armory and was reassigned to 126th Cavalry Regiment
-Placed on full-time orders for a couple years then became Active Guard Reserve (AGR, career)
-Worked for eight months as a National Guard recruiter at Grand Valley Armory
-Went back to work as medical readiness sergeant with the 126th Cavalry Regiment
-Job as of time of interview
-Managing medical documents
-Overseeing a platoon of medics
-Administering flu shots
-Medical exams
-General healthcare of soldiers
(01:28:15) Reflections on Service
-Made him a calmer individual
-More confident
-More to life
-Drinks less after his deployment
-Appreciates life more
-Spent nine months without TV, cell phone, and limited internet
-Misses the order and routine of Afghanistan
-Still maintains a routine as a civilian
(01:29:46) Wounded in Ghazni
-In Ghazni after the 500 pound IED explosion
-He was in the mess hall and the FOB started taking rocket fire
-Ran toward bunkers and a rocket exploded in front of him
-Attack happened near Easter 2010
-Doesn't remember the blast, but remembers getting up from the ground
-Saw a man lying in the middle of the road
-Acted without thinking
-Base was still taking rocket fire
-Wounded man was a Navy corpsman
-Entire right side was peppered with shrapnel
-Polish ambulance came to help treat the corpsman
-Helped the Polish soldiers treat the man
-Reunited with his platoon
-One week later he found the corpsman survived and was being treated in Germany
-Spent three months in therapy due to sustaining a traumatic brain injury
-Didn't qualify for a Purple Heart
-Placed on rest for two days and ordered to relax
-Still has ringing in his ears and memory problems
-Works with a lot of soldiers that have traumatic brain injuries
-Is able to relate with them
�
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
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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
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1914-
Rights
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<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
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Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
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Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
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RHC-27
Language
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eng
Source
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<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
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RHC-27_HerringK1933V
Title
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Herring, Kyle (Interview outline and video), 2016
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-03-17
Description
An account of the resource
Kyle Herring was born in Frederick, Maryland on October 11, 1987, but grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He enlisted in the Michigan National Guard when he was 17 years old in spring 2005 and drilled during his senior year. In January 2006 he received basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia then went to Fort Gordon, Georgia for signal training. He joined C Company of the 156th Signal Battalion at the Grand Valley Armory in Wyoming, Michigan. In early 2008 a medic slot opened and he volunteered for it. He received medic training at Parks Reserve Forces Training Area, California. In early 2009 they received deployment orders and spent most of 2009 training in Vermont
Camp Atterbury, Indiana
and Fort Polk, Louisiana. He was attached to 1st Squadron of the 172nd Cavalry Regiment of the 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. They deployed to Afghanistan in March 2010 and he was stationed at Forward Operating Base Vulcan (Ghazni) for three months working with local police in Waghaz and Qarabagh. He suffered a concussive injury in Ghazni. He was also stationed at FOB Lighting (Gardez) and at the police station in Charikar for six months. In December 2010 the deployment ended and he returned home. After three months he joined the 126th Cavalry Regiment and went on full-time, active duty as the medical readiness non-commissioned officer.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Herring, Kyle
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Jones, Adam (Interviewer)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
United States. National Guard
Type
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Moving Image
Text
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>
Rights
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a>
Publisher
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Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
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video/x-m4v
application/pdf
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f570b9fbe195a804d4d0adf76700688b.mp4
44e73035134f2e42f3b4c6c37a416d14
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/5b0bf48f326d2e41ad987f0807f7df36.pdf
50534eee3c0f9ce20c96703293bbbd30
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans’ History Project
Mort Hoffman
World War II
51 minutes 18 seconds
(00:00:31) Early Life
-Born in Rochester, New York
-Most likely in 1926
-Grew up in Rochester
-Attended George Washington High School and Ben Franklin High School
-Graduated from high school in June 1944
(00:01:05) Enlisting in the Navy
-He enlisted in the Navy after graduating from high school
-Sent to Naval Training Station Sampson, New York
-A lot of his high school friends joined the Navy at the same time that he did
-Had been in the New York National Guard from 1942-1944
-Got sick of being a foot soldier
-There was also a patriotic duty to serve one’s country during World War II
-He felt a personal duty to help stop the spread of fascism due to his parents’ heritage
-Mother had been born in Ukraine
-Father had been born in Belarus
-Father had served in the Russian Army in WWI
-Moved to the United States after the war
(00:04:47) Deployment
-Sent to Camp Parks, California to receive his overseas assignment
-He was given a week leave home before being deployed
-Upon returning from leave he wound up in a naval hospital due to a severe fever
-His original unit was shipped out to the Marianas Islands at this time
-He was reassigned to another unit and deployed with them
-On December 7, 1944 he was aboard the SS Carl Schurz bound for the Aleutian Islands
(00:06:10) New York National Guard
-In the National Guard as a high school student
-Only had to be sixteen years old to be in the National Guard
-He received Army basic training
-Drills and marching
-Would go to Camp Smith near Peekskill, New York for maneuvers
-Several of his friends were in the National Guard as well
-Helped prepare him for when he enlisted in the Navy
(00:07:29) Basic Training and Assignment to the Seabees
-Basic training lasted twelve weeks
-Basic training consisted of a lot of marching
-Went out for drills on Lake Geneva
-He was in good shape during basic training
-There was an emphasis on discipline and following orders
�-Wasn’t too difficult for him to adjust
-There were 144 men in his barracks
-He was not allowed to leave the base during the twelve weeks of basic training
-Parents were allowed to visit him after four weeks though
-He had worked for an auto parts store in high school
-He had experience with putting things together which led to assignment to the Seabees
(00:10:00) The Seabees
-The Seabees had been established in 1942
-Navy’s version of the Army Corps of Engineers
-Duty of the Seabees was to do construction work
-Building docks and airstrips
-Destroying enemy coastal defenses
(00:10:52) Stationed on Adak
-Constructed a spare parts depot for vehicles on base
-He was part of the 114th Naval Construction Battalion
-He had been assigned to the Navy side of Adak Island
-Maintaining refrigeration units for the mess hall and the medical facilities
-His unit finished a landing strip in only nine days
-The men in his unit got along together well and did their work well
-Primary duty was to maintain construction vehicles for the construction of that air strip
-In early 1945 he was reassigned to the Marine camp on Adak Island
-Trained with the Marines
-Carried the twenty pound Browning Automatic Rifle
-Went on marches with them across the tundra
-It got down to -55oF one night while they were bivouacking
-There was a fleet assembled to prepare for the planned invasion of Japan
-British ships, Canadian ships, and Russians ships were assembled there
-NOTE: The Russians did not declare war on Japan until August 9, 1945
-The planned invasion was cancelled after the atomic bombs were dropped
-The rest of his time was spent doing maintenance work
(00:15:33) Coming Home Pt. 1
-In early July 1946 they flew back to the continental United States
-Landed at Seattle, Washington then took a train to Lido Beach, Long Island, New York
-There was an attempt for the men to reenlist
-He declined
(00:16:53) Living Conditions on the Aleutian Islands Pt. 1
-They lived in Quonset huts
-The snow could get up to nine feet high
-There was a major snow storm that was the result of a typhoon near Hawaii
-During that time you were not allowed to walk anywhere without another sailor
-There were ropes strung between the buildings
-Both of these things were to avoid anyone getting lost during the storm
-This storm had 107MPH winds
-They had “foul weather gear”
-Heavy, fur lined, insulated jackets that the soldiers envied
-Some soldiers would trade their beer ration for a coat
�(00:19:11) Downtime on the Aleutian Islands
-The normal shift was eight hours and everything after that was downtime
-There was a movie theatre that they could go to
-There was a beer hall
-There was a recreation center
-Had pool tables, shuffleboard, etc.
-A lot of downtime was spent sleeping
-There was no alcohol abuse that he was aware of
-Used downtime to write letters home every day
-His parents would send him corned beef, cookies, and cake sealed in cans
-It was far better than the processed meat and powdered eggs they were served
(00:21:17) Contact with other Military Forces
-He met Russian, Canadian, and British troops
-The Russians could speak a little English and he could speak a little Russian
-This was because of his parents’ heritage
-Found that it was actually harder to communicate with the English due to their accent
(00:22:11) Living Conditions on the Aleutian Islands Pt. 2
-There were sixteen men to one Quonset hut
-Also could sleep in an insulated tent
-They would keep their food in a box in the ground as a sort of improvised refrigerator
-Also allowed to cook their own food on an oil stove
(00:23:18) Contact with Friends after the War
-He had a lot of friends while he was in the Navy
-He still maintains contact with some of them
-There has never been a formal reunion for his unit though
(00:24:45) Life after the War Pt. 1
-He went to Des Moines, Iowa for college at Drake University
-Started college in January 1947
-He joined the American Veterans (AMVETS)
-His roommate had been in the Army and had landed at Sicily and Anzio, Italy
-He and his wife visited Anzio after the war
-He met a man that knew a man that Mort worked with in Grand Rapids
-He saw the American cemetery that had been established at Anzio
-Now works as a civilian contractor for the Navy
-He worked for Wolverine-Hushpuppies Shoe Company
-Opened 128 specialty stores around the country
-Worked with foreign distributors
-Established a store for the company in downtown Charleston, South Carolina
-He set up locations for the Navy
-Due to his job he has gotten to travel around the United States and around the world
-He has been to Japan three times, Italy two times, and Spain one time
(00:30:24) Morale
-The morale was good in his unit
-Everyone knew they had a job to do and did it
-There was only one casualty in his unit
-Man killed himself after learning that his first wife knew about his second wife
�(00:32:08) Indigenous People and Animals
-The only other living things on Adak were foxes and some trappers
-There was also salmon and king crab that they could go fishing for
(00:32:39) Revisiting the Aleutian Islands
-He has since gone back to Kodiak Island
-He tried to return to Adak but it has since been returned to the Native Americans
-It is also basically inaccessible
(00:34:00) Famous People
-He saw President Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt when he was in the Navy
-Got to see actor Don Ameche
-Saw Phil Spitalny and His All Girl Orchestra
-He had gone to high school with one of the girls
-Got to go to dinner with them
-Saw actor Tyrone Power
(00:34:56) Logistics
-There were a few thousand men on Adak
-Ships would come in periodically to deliver supplies and refuel
-There was an Army Air Base nearby and planes would fly patrols from there
(00:35:50) Life after the War Pt. 2
-The summer of 1946 he worked for a local gas and electric company doing construction
-He attended Drake University because some friends were going there and it wasn’t crowded
-He majored in marketing and accounting
-Worked for the Edison Brothers’ Shoe Company
-From there he went to work for Utica Shoes and became the manager
-Worked there for ten years
-Worked on his master’s degree but didn’t complete it
-GI Bill took care of that
-Moved to St. Louis in 1958 and got married there
-He worked for another shoe company in St. Louis
-It was strange to go from being the one taking orders to being a manager
(00:41:14) Veteran Group Involvement
-He joined the AMVETS
-Eventually became a post commander
-Still receives their newsletter
-He has attended AMVETS conventions in Iowa, St. Louis, and Grand Rapids
(00:42:38) Life after the War Pt. 3
-He has one daughter
-Moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1976 and got the job with Hush Puppies
(00:42:58) Reflections on Service
-Taught him about camaraderie
-Always thought positively about their contribution to the war effort
-It was difficult to visit Japan the first time after the war in light of their war crimes
-Taught him people skills
-Learned how to get along with a lot of different types of people
-Taught him teamwork
-Learned that sometimes some jobs can’t be done by just one man
�-He did face discrimination due to being Jewish
-Some men beat him up solely for being Jewish
-Just tried to ignore the people like that
-Otherwise he and the non-Jewish soldiers got along and took care of each other
-There were three Navajo Native American soldiers in his unit
-They faced some discrimination as well
-Remembers that one wasn’t allowed to go home for his parents’ funerals
-Felt that it was a worthwhile experience and is grateful that he came through it okay
-Reflects on the men that didn’t make it, especially some of his friends that didn’t make it
�
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
HoffmanM1755V
Title
A name given to the resource
Hoffman, Mort (Interview outline and video), 2015
Description
An account of the resource
Mort Hoffman was born in Rochester, New York in 1926. He grew up in Rochester and graduated in June 1944. From 1942-1944 he was in the New York National Guard and after graduating from high school decided to enlist in the Navy. He trained at Naval Training Station Sampson, New York and was deployed out of Camp Parks, California. He was sent up to the Aleutian Islands in Alaska and served on the island of Adak with the 114th Naval Construction Battalion, helping to maintain vehicles and equipment as well as take part in construction projects. He stayed on the Aleutian Islands from December 1944 to July 1946, and was discharged shortly after his return.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Hoffman, Mort
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Moore, Deb (Interviewer)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
United States. National Guard
United States. Navy
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Moving Image
Text
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>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-05-04
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
video/mp4
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e28657f0f6c18b1c7fcdb418c5cdab88.mp4
a7d3a5d6c67521292e9c9d76db52b2b2
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3f960a6d358b87263d0716cf26aa21f5.pdf
d81a884984a61e436667a3476e235249
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans History Project
Afghanistan (2012-2013)
Joseph Larner
Total Time – (00:49:19)
Introduction – (00:00:15)
Joseph Larner was born in Lansing, Michigan on September 29th, 1976 and grew up in Bath,
Michigan; his father was a mechanic and his mother worked as a dental hygienist- Joe also has
two brothers and is the middle child (00:00:53)
Joe graduated from Bath High School in 1995 and attended and graduated Lansing Community
College as a surgical technician (00:01:36)
◦ At the age of 29 Joe decided to enlist in the National Guard in the year 2007; Joe had a full
time civilian job and “really had no reason” why he joined the National Guard and the Army
over other branches of military (00:03:05)
◦ He did his training as a combat engineer at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri and was gone just
under six months; he left on October 2nd 2007 for training (00:03:58)
◦ Joe recalls that his training wasn't too challenging for him and psychically it wasn't an issue
at all, but mentally it was a bit more torturous (00:06:15)
◦ He has been assigned to the 507th Engineer Battalion since he finished basic training
(00:07:13)
▪ Joe is now full time with the National Guard and admin and commanding officer of his
company (00:08:25)
▪ As soon as Joe and his company got word they were going to be deployed to
Afghanistan the training intensified; they had about a year notice of their deployment
(00:12:14)
▪ He trained in the Mojave Desert in California to train and prepare for Afghanistan; there
was a lot of human interaction and real world scenarios to train to (00:13:04)
Afghanistan (00:14:50)
Joe and his unit deployed in May of 2012 to Afghanistan; they flew from Grand Rapids Airport
to Ft. Bliss in Texas and stayed there for several weeks- much of it was administrative and
medical clearance; from there they trained for a month and a half in New Mexico (00:16:37)
From Ft. Bliss he traveled to Bangor, Maine, from there he traveled to Ireland and finally
Tajikistan (00:18:25)
◦ They were briefed in Tajikistan for a few weeks; he was told what to expect while in
Afghanistan as it was quite intense (00:18:58)
◦ From Tajikistan, Joe and his unit flew on a C130 cargo plane and describes the process as
feeling strange; they landed at Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan (00:21:48)
▪ The heat of Afghanistan was quite extreme and was the first thing that really hit Joe
(00:22:20)
▪ Camp Leatherneck was a Forward Operating Base (FOB) and was ran by Marines when
Joe first got there but was eventually taken over by the Army; he described it as a little
mini-city in the middle of the desert (00:23:13)
▪ As a combat engineer Joe was trained to in Improvised Explosive Device (IED)
detection and worked as support for the battalion commander (00:24:18)
▪ Joe's battalion commander went on several missions with him as well as the company
�chaplain and the command sergeant major (00:26:41)
Joe and the unit did security for other companies all year long as well; they would
put a few gun trucks between the other trucks to keep everyone secure- Joe has been
in large convoys of 60-70 vehicles long but they are usually 10-12 vehicles long
(00:27:39)
On average most of Joe's convoys were about 8-12 vehicles long; most of the time
he was heading to different FOB's (00:28:27)
After a few days in Afghanistan, Joe and his crew received a battle hand off from the
unit that was there before them- the prior unit would tell them of important areas of
interest (00:30:35)
Although Joe was trained to detect IED's, he was put on a team that stuck to doing
security- he also trained the Afghan National Army on combat engineer tactics
(00:31:50)
◦ Joe's experience training Afghan soldiers concluded with him saying that they
don't have the time or the patience to take the precautions that the Americans
took with IED's (00:33:23)
◦ Sometimes they received intelligence about IED locations through Afghani
locals although they would mostly get their information from their
telecommunications headquarters (00:35:24)
◦ His experience with the local population was 50/50 as far as behavior went:
sometimes the locals would wave to them and sometimes they would throw
rocks at them, it was pretty tough to deal with (00:37:40)
▪ When Joe was at Camp Leatherneck he had pretty good contact with his
family back at home; but when he went out on missions it was quite tough to
keep in touch (00:39:18)
▪ Joe provides that near the end of their deployment, the morale was actually
good although it was quite hot for them which meant a lot of action- they
were all ready to come home (00:42:24)
Back to the United States (00:44:53)
Joe and his unit were sent back to Ft. Bliss in Texas for a few weeks; he surprised his three
children by coming home a month early (00:45:59)
Joe now works full time for the National Guard and he loves it (00:49:13)
�
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
LarnerJ1572V
Title
A name given to the resource
Larner, Joseph (Interview outline and video), 2014
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Larner, Joseph
Description
An account of the resource
Joseph Larner was born in Lansing, Michigan on September 29th, 1976. Joe decided to join the National Guard at the age of 29 in 2007. He trained as a combat engineer at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri. Joe was assigned to the 507th Engineer Battalion. Joe and his unit deployed to Afghanistan in May of 2012. Joe did security for convoys for most of his time in Afghanistan. He is currently serving in a full time position with the Guard.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
McGregor, Michael (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
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
United States. National Guard
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
2014-03-08
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
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/05c6067547228cd12240f16cc52cdf63.mp4
98892ad0a07fc538da6015098b0538b0
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/8d66ee7e4161921240873a1a2d5c2bb0.pdf
291163b57ba72c89251fc39f7acc9b85
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans History Project Interview
Vietnam & Afghanistan & Iraq
Baltazar Martinez
Total Time – (02:11:52)
Introduction / Basic Training – (00:00:11)
Baltazar Martinez was born in Plainview, Texas on August 8th, 1952; he lived there for about
eight years until his family moved to Bovina, Texas (00:01:03)
His father was a farmer and his mother stayed at home to work on the fields (00:01:42)
◦ Baltazar was one of the last people drafted by the draft board in 1972 (00:03:16)
◦ He is the oldest in his family and has a younger brother and and two younger sisters
(00:06:00)
◦ Baltazar was planning on going to college to play football and used that as motivation to
keep up his grades (00:07:33)
◦ A couple colleges offered him football scholarships but he ended up receiving a draft notice
and his mother took it especially hard (00:08:54)
▪ Baltazar headed to Amarillo, Texas for a physical and other check ups and eventually
wound up in the Army (00:12:00)
▪ He went to Ft. Ord in California for basic training (00:13:28)
Baltazar was brought up in a very structured family and thanks his parents for that as
it helped him get used to the way of the Army (00:14:34)
Baltazar got sent off to become a 19 Delta (Cavalry Scout) (00:17:25)
A lot of the basic skills of the Army came natural for him; his father taught him how
to shoot a rifle- everything Baltazar did in Basic Training is what he wanted to do
(00:19:53)
Four to five weeks after he arrived at Basic Training, he was congratulated by the 1st
sergeant on being of the last people to be drafted (00:22:01)
Baltazar didn't know what a 19 Delta was when it was announced that's where he
was going to be; he finally learned that he was going to be at reconnaissance school
(00:23:37)
All of his drill instructors had combat experience and his 1st sergeant had served in
Korea (00:25:27)
◦ Baltazar left Ft. Ord for Ft. Carson in Colorado to be a cavalry scout (00:26:57)
▪ He learned how to set up ambushes, explosives, booby-traps, among other
things; he already knew how to work with a map and compass (00:29:13)
▪ The training at Ft. Carson took eight weeks; from there, Baltazar got orders
to go to Vietnam (00:32:01)
▪ After Advanced Infantry Training (AIT), he earned leave to go home for
about a week; he then reported to Travis Air Force Base (AFB) and flew
from there (00:32:48)
Vietnam (00:32:29)
He jokes that his time in Vietnam was so short that he just showed up, saw the land, and was
turned around to be sent back home at the end of 1972 (00:33:00)
They flew from Anchorage, Alaska to Japan and then Japan to Saigon; he was only there for a
�couple of days (00:33:54)
Back to the United States (00:33:57)
He was then assigned to the 1st of the 10th Cavalry at Carson (00:34:20)
◦ Baltazar mentions that the military is constantly training people and that's part of the
everyday routine- a lot of weapons training (00:36:29)
◦ He liked the training because he was never bored- he was constantly doing something
(00:37:19)
◦ Baltazar describes a situation when he was on a vehicle one time that was on fire and his
sergeant told him to keep driving; eventually the situation was diffused but quite nerveracking (00:40:29)
◦ He spent about two years with the 1st of the 10th Cavalry before he got his orders that sent
him to Korea (00:41:43)
Korea (00:43:30)
Baltazar was with the 1st of the 72nd Armor and was attached to combat support (00:43:41)
He was still a Cavalry Scout but was attached to his assigned unit; he spent 13 months there
(00:44:43)
◦ After Baltazar became the rank of E5, he was told that he needed to go to NCO school and
was sent there because of his character (00:46:33)
◦ He was getting ready for an inspection when North Koreans entered into the “No Mans
Land”; gunfire was exchanged but nothing major happened (00:49:27)
◦ Baltazar says he learned to always be prepared because you never know what's going to
happen- you must have flexibility (00:49:40)
▪ With about three weeks left in his 13 month tour, Baltazar explained a story about a US
chopper getting some bullet holes from North Koreans near the exhaust (00:53:55)
His parents let him make his own decisions once Baltazar turned 18 but said they
would always give him advice for whatever he chose to do (00:55:18)
Baltazar then enlisted for another three years with the Army (00:56:09)
He and his unit provided gifts for a local orphanage while in Korea (00:58:09)
◦ Other than providing for the orphanage, Baltazar didn't really have much other
communication with the local population but remembered a few words he
learned while he was there (00:59:44)
◦ Baltazar mentions another story about a time when locals got on to a restricted
area in their mortar range and how one of his NCO's chased them off (01:03:15)
◦ The weather in Korea was brutally cold but not a lot of snow (01:04:28)
◦ Sometimes the locals seemed to know more than the soldiers about alerts and
things like that as one certain local would set up shop for the soldiers because
she had heard about an alert before they did (01:07:43)
◦ When an alert would happen, his unit would resort to fighting positions and
again, it was a secret to the US but not to the local population (01:09:07)
▪ Baltazar put Ft. Hood, Ft. Carson, and Ft. Bliss in El Paso, Texas as his
number one destination- he laughs because he got sent to Ft. Knox, Kentucky
(01:09:39)
Back to the United States (01:10:58)
Baltazar was sent to Ft. Knox, Kentucky after 13 months in Korea; he was assigned to the 1st
�
Training Brigade Unit (01:11:05)
He was still an E5 and was an Advanced Individual Training Instructor- about a year later he
was E6 (01:11:32)
◦ Baltazar was selected by a committee to go to drill sergeant school at Ft. Knox for about
five weeks (01:15:30)
◦ He received a score of 49 out of 50 and the person that graded him told him the only
mistake he made was that he wasn't perfect- Baltazar was humbled by that (01:17:57)
◦ Overall the quality of individuals of recruits were intelligent; he remembers a young man
that had a masters and was gung-ho as could be (01:21:22)
▪ The young man that Baltazar mentioned wanted to become a Chaplain and he wanted to
know why the man didn't just go through OCS and the man replied that if he didn't go
through the training, how would he know what the other soldiers are going though
(01:22:15)
▪ Baltazar did the training stint for three years which would have been around 1981 as his
enlistment was coming up (01:23:15)
The Marine Corps Years (01:24:47)
After nine years and three three-year enlistments, Baltazar decided he wanted to join the Marine
Corps (01:24:47)
His Command Sergeant Major told him he was going to make E7 soon and asked him why he
wanted to give that up and Baltazar replied that something was telling him to join the Marines
(01:28:04)
◦ He was told that he'd be brought down to Lance Corporal, an E3 position, as well as go
through boot camp and that was fine with Baltazar (01:29:42)
◦ Baltazar was brought in as the Marines were suspicious of his situation: they asked him if he
was related or knew any people in congress- they couldn't believe he wanted to come into
the Marine Corps as an E6 (01:32:08)
◦ He actually came back as a Staff NCO as an E6 in the Marine Corps at Ft. Knox (01:33:05)
▪ Some of his previous majors from the Army were sitting at the NCO bar as he walked in
(01:35:13)
▪ He was at Ft. Knox from around 1981 til 1983; he was then assigned to an inspective
duty over in Alameda, California (01:36:39)
▪ Baltazar finished a three year enlistment with the Marines and then went on Reserve
Status for three years (01:37:36)
He was thinking about himself and starting a family and that's a big reason why he
chose to not be on active duty (01:38:53)
Baltazar and his family lived in California from 1983/84 til almost 2000 (01:41:35)
Him and his family ended up moving to Marshall, Michigan in 2000 (01:43:28)
National Guard Duty (01:45:50)
In 2007, Baltazar joined the National Guard after his daughter entered college (01:45:50)
After the E6 and E5 slots were filled, he decided that he didn't need the rank in order to lead as
part of the National Guard (01:50:23)
◦ In 2010, Baltazar was deployed to Kuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan for six months (01:52:50)
◦ The deployment was an individual deployment because of Baltazar's expertise in weaponry
and prior combat experience (01:53:38)
▪ Kuwait was his main base and first flew out to Afghanistan; he was accountable for all
�▪
the heavy machinery (01:54:33)
He went back and forth from Kuwait to Afghanistan twice and would be gone from ten
days to 14 days at a time (01:57:19)
Baltazar was accounting for equipment in Iraq as the United States started to
withdraw troops as this made his job quite critical (02:00:00)
◦ He mentions that while he was in Iraq it seemed like the Insurgents were just
waiting for the US troops to get out (02:04:26)
Back to the United States (02:06:00)
Baltazar returned from Iraq in 2011 and wanted to return in 2012 but his aged barred him from
his deployment (02:07:27)
Baltazar came home to a loving family in 1972 when he got back from Vietnam and came back
from Iraq to a loving family in 2011 and that's what he believes keeps him grounded and sane
(02:10:05)
He feels like he can still perform for the military and be able to provide experience for young
men and women; to pass the torch on to the younger generation is one of his goals (02:11:17)
�
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
MartinezB1571V
Title
A name given to the resource
Martinez, Baltazar (Interview outline and video), 2014
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Martinez, Baltazar
Description
An account of the resource
Baltazar Martinez was born in Plainview, Texas, in 1952. He was one of the last people to be drafted into the Army in 1972. He trained as an armored cavalryman and was deployed to Vietnam toward the end of the year, but stayed only a few days before being sent home. He re-enlisted twice, and served in Korea and in different bases in the US until 1981. He subsequently served in the Marine Corps for three years, and then later joined the Army National Guard, and deployed to Kuwait, and Iraq in 2010. He currently serves with the 507th Engineer Battalion, but did not deploy with them to Afghanistan in 2011 due to his age.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
McGregor, Michael (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
Iraq War, 2003-2011--Personal narratives, American
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
United States. Army
United States. Marine Corps
United States. National Guard
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
2014-03-08
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
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/46327f45f3596b2e0c6661c41a1f91c8.m4v
ea0ca424b230f2262fa4d4edf5b14697
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Grand Valley State University
Veterans’ History Project
John Matt
Iraq War & War in Afghanistan
1 hour 24 minutes 42 seconds
(00:00:12) Early Life
-Born in Marquette, Michigan on October 1, 1984
-Grew up in Marquette
-His father worked for the city of Marquette
-In charge of city maintenance
-His mother worked in various secretarial positions in the hospital
-He had two brothers
-Attended Marquette High School
-Graduated from there in 2003
(00:01:05) Enlisting in the Marines
-After high school he did a lot of job hopping
-He was working as part of a security detail at a casino
-A friend, who had just completed Marine boot camp, came and visited him
-Encouraged John to go and talk to a recruiter
-He wanted consistency in his life
-Enlisted in the Marines in November 2005
-Prior to going to boot camp there was a preparatory period
-Getting physically prepared for boot camp with the help of a recruiter
(00:03:00) Marine Corps Boot Camp
-Took a van from Marquette to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to go to the MEPS
-Military Entrance Processing Station
-Various physical tests to see if you’re qualified to go into the military
-Took a plane from Milwaukee to San Diego, California
-There were drill instructors waiting at the airport
-Spent three hours standing at attention on the curb waiting for the busses
-In the meantime the drill instructors yelled at the new recruits
-First week of training was called “Hell Week”
-Get your head shaved, no sleep for thirty six hours after arriving, lots of waiting
-Basically getting indoctrinated into military life
-On the Friday of “Hell Week,” called “Black Friday” get assigned to training company
-Boot camp lasted thirteen weeks
-First month the focus is integration at San Diego
-Drills, learning about ceremonies, military protocol, and the history of the Marines
-Second month is at Camp Pendleton, California
-Qualifying with the M16 assault rifle
-Land navigation training
-Going out into the field and sleeping in a tent for a week
-Third month is back at San Diego and there is further training with drills and ceremonies
-Boot camp ends with “Parent Day” which is the graduation from boot camp
�-Parents from the area can see their sons and daughters graduate
-First time that you’re truly recognized as a Marine
-His father was a disciplinarian, so getting yelled at was not shocking, or foreign
-Learned that teamwork was key to survival
-Knew that in the future, if one man made a mistake, it could be fatal
-There were always those few who didn’t care, or didn’t cooperate
(00:09:08) School of Infantry
-His specialization was as an infantryman
-After boot camp went home for ten days of leave
-Returned to California and went to the School of Infantry at Camp Pendleton
-Two months of infantry training
-Working with a variety of weapons
-M240 machine guns, Mark 19 grenade launchers, .50 caliber weapons
-Getting the skills needed to be considered an infantryman
-Went on marches in the mountains
-Every Marine has to receive at least some kind of infantry training
-Even Marines in administrative positions receive a month of infantry training
(00:10:58) Assignment to the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Marines
-In April (or May) of 2006 he was assigned to the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Marines
-It took some adjusting to go into the unit that had fought in Fallujah, Iraq
-Had to prove himself before being fully accepted
-For the next year they focused on training to get ready to go to Iraq
-Spent three weeks of every month training in the field
-Receiving urban combat training
-He began to work with people who were from the Middle East
-Learning about the culture, customs, and the language
-Trained with them as stand-ins during urban training
-The goal was to not be culturally shocked when he got to Iraq
-The other part of it was showing that the Iraqis were humans too
-Feels that the media only focuses on the negative aspects of the people
(00:16:52) Deployment to Iraq
-The initial plan was to go with the 31st MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit) to Thailand
-Train with the Thai military and other military forces in the area
-Before leaving saw his sergeant major in the “smoke pit” smoking cigarettes
-Learned that this meant they were probably going to Iraq, and not with the 31st MEU
-The second day that they were on the ship they were called to the flight deck
-Told that there was a change of plans and they were going to Iraq
-On the voyage over began target practice
-Challenging because of the motion of the ship
-They had a month and a half to prepare before arriving in Iraq
-Left the United States in summer 2007
-Most likely mid-May because he remembers celebrating the 4th of July in Iraq
(00:19:30) Arrival in Iraq
-When they arrived there was no clear route into Iraq
-Had to go with a four man team of combat engineers to clear the route of IEDs
-From there their mission was to find an abandoned building and get established in it
�-The ship arrived in Kuwait
-They had to wash dust and dirt off their equipment, vehicles, and clothing
-Kuwaiti culture demands that no foreign soil be on their soil
-Stayed in Kuwait for a week
-While in Kuwait given more cultural awareness courses
-Went to a place called TQ in Iraq (Al-Taqaddum Air Base west of Baghdad)
-Collected their ammunition and got assigned to a vehicle there
-Spent five days at TQ
-After TQ went to their area of operations in Iraq
-Operating near COP (Combat Outpost) Golden
-They paid some of the local elders to move out of their houses and live with family
-This allowed them to set up in the houses and have immediate access to the area
-They would go out on patrols and meet with the locals
-Operating in a largely uninhabited part of Al Anbar Province (western Iraq, bordering Syria)
-South of the city of Al Karmah
-They could see rockets being fired at night
-On the outskirts of an area where major fighting was occurring
(00:24:00) Interacting with Iraqis Pt. 1
-In their interactions with the Iraqis they would try to figure out what the people needed
-First step was to contact the village elder and talk to him first
-From there give him water, educational supplies, and any other supplies
-He would go and hand out the supplies to the families
-It showed that the U.S. was the supplier, not the savior
-Whenever they went out to meet with the Iraqis, medics came along
-Able to provide medical assistance the villagers wouldn’t have gotten otherwise
-The Iraqis reacted positively to the American presence, but they were wary of helping
-They wanted to help, but were afraid of what the Insurgents might do to them
-Some Iraqis helped regardless of what the Insurgents threatened
(00:27:40) Daily Routine in Iraq
-His days were organized in a 4x4x4 pattern
-Four hours of patrolling a square kilometer area
-Watch the roads and study the daily habits of the people
-Talk to the locals and gather any possible intelligence
-Figure out who needed to be talked to
-Either because they could help, or were a threat
-Four hours of guard duty at the house
-Go up on the roof and watch the neighbors to check for consistency
-Four hours of sleep
-The 4x4x4 pattern would be done twice a day
(00:30:16) Interactions with Iraqis Pt. 2
-One Iraqi man wanted to help, but wanted to be “arrested” to do it
-He didn’t want to look like he was willingly helping the Americans
-Told them to stage a fake raid on his house at night
-The situation seemed sketchy, so they went to talk with him during the day
-The man had left and his son was the only one at the house
-His son had three cell phones which was a sign of being involved with the Insurgents
�-The man never did come back to his house
(00:31:52) Enemy Contact in Iraq
-The worst contact they had with the enemy in Iraq was soon after they arrived
-Combat engineers were helping to build up their fortifications
-A vehicle-borne sniper came by and shot at them
-One of the combat engineers was hit through both lungs
-He walked over to see how the engineer was
-The man was already pretty much lifeless
-Drove home the selflessness of all military personnel
-A noncombatant gave his life for the combatants
-The combat engineer wound up dying en route to a larger medical facility
-The contact drove home the severity, and reality, of the deployment
-After that they didn’t take too many more casualties
-All wounded, no fatalities
(00:36:06) Living Conditions in Iraq
-At times they could go to their battalion’s base
-Living conditions still weren’t good there
-No air conditioning, and the base was made up of tents
-In the field they would live off MREs (meals ready to eat)
-Sometimes only ate one MRE a day
-Taking a real shower was nonexistent
-Learned how to use body wash and a bottle of water to get somewhat clean
-The average temperature every day was around 130oF
-Grew to appreciate the most basic things when he came home
-They would pay villagers $30 for a block of ice just to help deal with the heat
(00:38:38) Coming Home from Iraq
-The deployment to Iraq was nine months
-Did not receive any R&R while in Iraq
-Came home around Christmas/New Year’s Eve of 2008
-Boarded a ship in Kuwait and sailed home
-It was a chance to unwind and decompress before coming home
-Aboard ship they received reintegration classes
-Learning how to cope with being around family again
-At the time didn’t want to get lectured, but knew that it was necessary
-Learned about the signs of PTSD and how to deal with it
-Upon coming home, some men wanted to go back to Iraq because it was easier than civilian life
-In Iraq everything was provided, no bills to pay, just had to stay alive
(00:41:00) Leaving the Marines
-At first he wanted to stay in the Marines
-He had his wife and children to consider though
-If he stayed in there was a chance he would wind up going to Afghanistan
-Left the Marines and went to college and got a part time job
-Didn’t have insurance and had to rely on state aid
-Felt that that wasn’t good enough and wanted to pursue other options
(00:43:18) Enlisting in the National Guard
-Enlisted in the National Guard and was able to stay in college and keep working
�-Assigned to the 1431st Engineer Company in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan
-Volunteered to go help the 1433rd Engineers in the Lower Peninsula
-Wound up getting deployed to Afghanistan
-Joined the National Guard in March 2010
-Only five months after getting out of the Marines
(00:44:20) 31st MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit)
-After Iraq, but before the National Guard, went with the 31st MEU on a training mission
-Learning how to be a “boat company”
-Operating like a special operations unit off of a ship
-Went to Okinawa, Japan for a month
-Went to an island in the Philippines and trained with the Filipino Marines
-Had some encounters with the Filipino civilians
-Little kids would trade random items for ballpoint pens
-Learned a lot about jungle warfare from the Filipinos by going on patrols with them
-Went to Seoul, South Korea and trained with the Republic of Korea Marines
-Visited the city of Seoul
-Saw the Korean War memorials and got to see what the war was like for them
-Went to the Korean Demilitarized Zone
-Saw the Bridge of No Return
-If you start to cross it you have to cross to the other side
-Otherwise you will be shot
-Asked his officer if he could try to run it, but was not allowed
-Went back to Japan for another month and then flew home
(00:48:19) Training with the National Guard
-Went to Fort Crowder, Missouri for demolitions training
-Spent one weekend a month training with the National Guard
-The role that he trained for was to be a combat engineer
-Clearing roads of IEDs and other explosives
-They had a vehicle that could safely detect where explosives were
-They also had equipment for BIP: blow in place
-Destroy an explosive without the help of a bomb disposal team
-Also learned how to efficiently cut down trees by using explosives
(00:51:25) Deployment to Afghanistan
-He was deployed to Afghanistan in the summer of 2012
-Went to Kingsford Armory in the Upper Peninsula and took a bus to Grayling, Michigan
-Remembers being escorted to the Mackinac Bridge by the Freedom Riders
-Motorcycle group that will escort deploying soldiers and welcome them home
-Along the way people would come out and show their support as they passed through towns
-It was a morale boost to see local support
-Flew to Afghanistan
-Remembers that it was a long plane ride
-A lot of them took sleep medication to help the time pass
-Remembers getting fed a lot
-Stopped in Germany to refuel and to get a chance to stretch in the airport
(00:55:07) Arriving in Afghanistan
-Landed at Kandahar Air Field in southern Afghanistan
�-There was a major base there
-Received cultural integration classes at Kandahar
-Stayed at Kandahar for a couple weeks waiting for an assignment
-Got a chance to Skype with family back home
-It was totally different than what was available in Iraq in 2007
-Had access to a TGI Friday, soccer games, internet, ping pong, video games
-Meant to be a taste of the United States in Afghanistan
(00:56:50) Afghan Society
-Afghanistan was mostly nomadic, agricultural, and primitive compared to Iraq
-The cities were slightly more modern than the rural areas
-They had access to some modern amenities like a barber shop
(00:58:10) Assignment in Afghanistan
-He and his unit were assigned to Forward Operating Base Pasab near Kandahar
-Their mission was route clearance
-Securing roads and clearing them of IEDs and other explosives
-Making it safe for the infantry to go out on patrols during the day
-Felt hugely responsible for the safety of the infantrymen
-They would get up before dawn to go make sure the roads were clear
-The other part of route clearance was to make it safe for the locals to travel
(01:00:20) Enemy Contact in Afghanistan
-There were more IEDs in Afghanistan than in Iraq
-His unit had the highest discovery and detonation rate of IEDs
-By the time they arrived the terrorists were running out of money and starting to retreat
-The first couple months they were there they always had firefights during route clearance
-Eventually the firefights stopped and it became easier to do their job
-They lost one man very quickly
-He stepped on an IED and it detonated right beneath him
-It was the same as in Iraq, it made the situation very real again
-He knew how to deal with it after having experienced it in Iraq
-Went and talked to the new soldiers and made sure they were alright
-Still completed the mission for that day for the sake of closure
(01:03:42) Interacting with the Afghans and Coalition Forces
-The Afghan people had a larger sense of entitlement than the Iraqis had
-They would more readily ask for stuff from American soldiers
-Help from soldiers was expected
-If you didn’t have anything to give them they would turn against you
-Little kids would throw rocks at them
-During the deployment he saw a loss of public support happening in Afghanistan
-The Afghan National Army (ANA) became a threat at times
-Members of it wound up being double agents for the various terrorist groups in the area
-At the end of his deployment he started seeing people returning to the region
-Indicated that Afghanistan was normalizing and support was returning
-The ANA had a lot to learn still even at the end of his deployment (2013)
-They were not used to American military tactics
-Just wanted to charge into a situation guns blazing
-The didn’t understand protocol or Rules of Engagement
�-There were communication problems
-Didn’t know if interpreters were trustworthy
-Most of the time had to rely on body language to communicate
-At Kandahar Air Field you could meet the other Coalition soldiers
-Never carried out operations with them though
-Always made sure to guide the ANA soldiers and give them advice
-During house searches they had the ANA do the searches and act independently
-This allowed for the ANA to see that they were being given respect
(01:11:08) Living Conditions in Afghanistan
-Living in a forward operating base was much better than the living conditions in Iraq
-At the FOB he had access to a modern gym
-On the FOB they were able to eat real meals and not just MREs
-They had “Taco Tuesdays,” and steak and lobster on Thursdays
-Remembers they had a butter sculpture of the Last Supper
-Showed that the Afghans were starting to respect American culture too
-Served as a morale boost
(01:13:58) End of Deployment to Afghanistan
-Even by the spring of 2013 there was still a lot of work to be done in Afghanistan
-Around Easter 2013 they were preparing to return to the United States
-By the time they left Afghanistan the firefights had stopped and IEDs had gone down
-There was only one road that consistently had IEDs on it
-In their area, enemy morale had been broken and they were retreating
-Went to Kandahar Airfield for a few weeks
-Looked for ways to kill time
-Did end of deployment work
-Physical and psychological health evaluations
(01:16:42) Coming Home
-From Kandahar flew to Fort Bliss, Texas
-Processed out there
-Mostly allowed to just unwind and not have any military responsibilities
-Just had to report at 7 PM each night so they knew you were alive and well
-Went to the on base shopping mall, saw movies, and swapped war stories
-Took more reintegration courses at Fort Bliss
-After Iraq understood that they were necessary for readjusting
-From Texas flew back to Michigan and landed at Sawyer International Airport
-Formerly K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base
-Left Sawyer International on a bus and after only driving a few miles the bus broke down
-Still had to go to Kingsford Armory for the formal homecoming ceremony
-He was walking distance from his house though
-In the meantime the soldiers got off the bus and started making snow angels
-Got a new bus and went to Kingsford for the homecoming ceremony
-Got to be reunited with his wife and children
-Remembers that it was a much bigger homecoming than when he was in the Marines
-Reaffirmed his National Guard service, truly felt that he was fighting for his community
(01:21:15) Present Service
-Still does the one weekend a month, two weeks a year with the National Guard
�-He is currently involved with helping to train soldiers at Fort Custer, Michigan in urban combat
-How to properly breach and clear houses
-Incorporates both his infantry and combat engineer experience
(01:22:35) Reflections on Service
-Learned that there was nothing that he couldn’t handle
-He loved, and still loves, the spirit of teamwork in the military
-Helped him to learn that it’s okay to have a support network and to ask for help
-He still loves the sacrificial aspect of the military
�
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
RHC-27_MattJ1670V
Title
A name given to the resource
Matt, John (Interview outline and video), 2014
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2014-09-27
Description
An account of the resource
John Matt in 1984 in Marquette, Michigan. He grew up in Marquette and attended high school there and graduated in 2003. In November 2005 he enlisted in the Marines and attended boot camp at San Diego/Camp Pendleton and the School of Infantry at Camp Pendleton specializing as an infantryman. In the spring of 2006 he was assigned to the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Marines. In mid-May 2007 he and his unit left for an international training mission in Thailand, on the second day of sailing they were rerouted and deployed to Iraq. They arrived in Iraq in late June/early July 2007 and were stationed in a village south of the city of Al-Karmah near Combat Outpost Golden in the Al-Anbar Province. During his time in Iraq he went on patrols and took part in the humanitarian mission to improve the lives of the Iraqis. Around Christmas/New Year's Eve of 2008 he and his unit returned home. In 2008 and 2009 he went with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit to Japan, the Philippines, and South Korea to carry out training missions with the allied forces in those countries. After leaving the Marines in late 2009 he enlisted in the National Guard in March 2010 and was assigned to the 1431st Combat Engineers Company in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan based out of Kingsford Armory where he could be near his wife and children. He volunteered to help the 1433rd Combat Engineers based in the Lower Peninsula and wound up getting deployed to Afghanistan in the summer of 2012. His unit operated out of Forward Operating Base Pasab helping to clear the road of improvised explosive devices and other explosive materials.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Matt, John
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Jones, Adam (Interviewer)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Iraq War, 2003-2011--Personal narratives, American
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
United States. Marine Corps
United States. National Guard
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Moving Image
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>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
video/x-m4v
application/pdf
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/8f8102e6706616e16bda56d9633165bf.pdf
7982921f1df87a8e863f93a3a89c28bf
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans History Project
Richard McCarty
(7:17)
Background Information (00:35)
Before joining the Service he worked in the Printing department. (00:40)
At the age of 21 Richard received his draft notice. (00:51)
At the time of his draft, he was living in Grand Rapids Michigan. (00:54)
Training (1:05)
The first days in the service were very exciting for Richard. (1:06)
Richard attended basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri (1:34)
Service (1:37)
After completing basic, Richard was assigned as a truck driver at Fort Leonard Wood (1:40)
The men would wake up every morning and run. Because of the heat, the men were made to
wake up an entire hour earlier (3 AM) to run. (2:00)
Richard was to be sent to Korea, however was discharged and aloud to spend the remainder of
his service in the National Guard. (3:39)
The men had very little free time while in service. (4:11)
Exiting Service (4:48)
Richard was very sick the day he was released from service. He was very happy to return home.
(4:52)
After being released, Richard served in the National Guard in Grand Rapids. (5:20)
He did make some close friends while in the service. He is no longer in touch with them. (5:35)
He is a member of the American Legion. (5:58)
Documents (6:08)
Discharge papers. (6:39)
�
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
McCartyRT
Title
A name given to the resource
McCarty, Richard (Interview outline), 2010
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
McCarty, Richard
Description
An account of the resource
Richard McCarty served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War (approx. 1951-1953). After completing his basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, he was employed as a truck driver on base. Richard was assigned to be sent to Korea but was discharged before being sent out. He served in the National Guard after completing his military service.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Kimes, Nathan (Interviewer)
McCarty, Richard (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
Other veterans & civilians--Personal narratives, American
United States. National Guard
United States. Army
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
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
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
2010-05-09
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
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b8febe07b632f960fe058bb89451c318.mp4
8fde5953768e0fc2105c4f37d6e60b50
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/7987f3472d9c753bd567fdf15998b04b.pdf
7c311971099a81e1b15bd2754dbbbb7b
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans History Project
Title
Mulbrecht, Fred (Interview outline and video), 2012
Subject
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American;
United States. Army Air Corps; United States. National
Guard
Description
Fred Mulbrecht served in the U.S. Army Air Corps as an
aircraft mechanic from 1942-1944 in Italy during World
War II. Prior to joining the service, Fred was in the National
Guard. After being drafted in 1942, he aspired to be a pilot
but instead was made a mechanic. Fred’s training was
undergone at Kistler Field Virginia as well as several private
schools in New Orleans and Detroit. In late 1943 Fred was
sent to a unit of the 15th Air Force in Foggia, Italy, where
he spent all his service until he was discharged in 1944.
Creator
Contributor
(Interviewer/Affiliation)
Mulbrecht, Fred
Date
2012-09-20
FMulbrecht1441V
Digital Identification
Smither, James (Interviewer); Barnum, Rich
(Interviewer)
�
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
MulbrechtF1441V
Title
A name given to the resource
Mulbrecht, Fred (Interview outline and video), 2012
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Mulbrecht, Fred
Description
An account of the resource
Fred Mulbrecht served in the U.S. Army Air Corps as an aircraft mechanic from 1942-1944 in Italy during World War II. Prior to joining the service, Fred was in the National Guard. After being drafted in 1942, he aspired to be a pilot but instead was made a mechanic. Fred's training was undergone at Kistler Field Virginia as well as several private schools in New Orleans and Detroit. In late 1943 Fred was sent to a unit of the 15th Air Force in Foggia, Italy, where he spent all his service until he was discharged in 1944.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James (Interviewer)
Barnum, Rich (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
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
United States. Army Air Corps
United States. National Guard
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
2012-09-20
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
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/9a53f329361c05166258357516268adf.m4v
2a08dd3711ba6a2606272eded1fde397
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6d191842fbea16b5cfff48004ce38c17.pdf
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PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans’ History Project
Peter Newman
War in Afghanistan
2 hours 18 minutes 36
(00:00:18) Early Life
-Born in Mount Prospect, Illinois on June 18, 1980
-Parents’ names were Jay and Barb
-Both of his parents were teachers
-His father was a secondary education teacher, and his mother was in early education
-He had an older brother and a younger sister
-Moved to Colon, Michigan and attended elementary school there
-After elementary school he and his family moved to Sturgis, Michigan
-Graduated from high school in Sturgis
-Met his wife at the end of high school
-Got married after attending college at Western Michigan University
(00:01:54) Enlisting in the Army
-There wasn’t any one point that made him want to enlist
-He had talked to Army and Marine recruiters in his senior year of high school
-Wound up getting enrolled in Western Michigan University’s Reserve Officer Training Corps
-His grandfather had fought in World War II and his older brother was in the Army
-He wanted the scholarship money and the experience of being in the Army
-Also looked up to his brother and wanted to follow what he did
(00:03:53) Reserve Officer Training Corps
-Joined the Army ROTC in 1997
-First year of ROTC was introductory
-One day a week for a couple hours being taught basic Army information
-Protocol, decorum, ethics, map reading, and troop formations
-Second year was more focused on tactics
-Between first and second year went to Schofield Barracks, Hawaii for air assault training
-The idea of ROTC was for it to be a slow progression of military knowledge
-Before being commissioned had to go to “Summer Camp”
-Leadership training course at Fort Lewis, Washington
-It was basically an assessment of your knowledge of being an officer in the Army
-ROTC physical training consisted of 3 days of it a week, starting in his third year
-Joined the “Western Rangers” early on
-Helped with physical and mental conditioning as well as further introductions to tactics
-It served as preparation for going into the infantry
-He had friends in both the ROTC and outside of it
-While he was at WMU he visited his future-wife at Albion College
-Each ROTC volunteer had his or her own reasons for joining
-Some wanted the scholarship then would leave the ROTC
-Some wanted to mark the ROTC as the beginning of a military career
-Some of the volunteers washed out due to the physical training being too demanding
�-His specialization became as a signal infantryman in his senior year of college
-Start off knowing how to be an infantryman, and then move on to being a signal officer
-Working with military communications (computers, radios, networks, etc.)
(00:09:54) September 11 Attacks
-He was in his senior year of college when 9/11 happened
-He had already wanted to go into the infantry, so 9/11 didn’t change anything with that
-He had been getting ready to go into a class when his sister called him
-Told him to turn on the TV; he skipped his classes and watched the events unfold
-The attacks only served to reinforce his desire to be in the Army
-He knew that it changed what the nature of his service would be like
-He already knew there was a good chance that he’d probably go somewhere he didn’t want to
-Looking back, didn’t think that the majority of his career would be spent in the war
(00:12:13) Graduation, Commission, and Infantry Officer Basic Training
-Graduated from college in June 2002
-Allowed to finish his degree before going into the Army
-He received his commission and became an officer on June 29, 2002
-In July 2002 he went down to Fort Benning, Georgia for infantry officer basic training
-While he was waiting for the training to start he took some courses to prepare himself
-Upon arriving in Georgia he had to adjust to the warmer weather
-Went for a five mile run and thought he was going to have a heart attack
-Remembers having to do 100 pull ups before getting a shower and dinner
-Took him about a week to adjust to the heat and humidity
-Part of the training was learning how to interact with noncommissioned officers (sergeants)
-Essentially the goal was to see the Army as a profession
-Another part of the training was advanced infantry tactics
-Learning how to make good judgment calls as a leader
-Spent a lot of time training in the field and living out of a rucksack
-Enjoyed it because it felt like being a soldier and not like being a student
-Also enjoyable because he enjoyed camping and being in nature
-Some of the men training them were veterans from Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan
-Told the trainees about what to expect were they deployed to Afghanistan
-There wasn’t discussion about where they would be sent after training
-Trained with a diverse group of men and women including international officers
-They had a major from Egypt, a lieutenant from Turkey and a lieutenant from Greece
-There was a lieutenant from the United Arab Emirates that he talked about Islam with
-Realized that the Middle Easterners are humans too and not just a target
-Helped greatly when he was deployed to Afghanistan and dealing with the culture
-Showed him that, for the most part, the Middle East is full of people, not enemies
-The training was focused on “force-on-force” training, not counter-insurgency training
-Going up against an “enemy” force that closely resembled the Russians, or Iranians
-The idea was preparation for a clearer cut war than fighting an insurgency
-Throughout his training he always reminded himself that wherever he went, there were civilians
-How he would feel about a war being fought in front of his family
-Towards the end of this training there was a lot of talk about invading Iraq
-Finished the infantry officer basic training in December 2002
�(00:24:30) Pre-10th Mountain Division Service
-He was originally assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division
-Went home for a short leave and got married during that time
-Returned and went into the Ranger School, but did not complete it due to plantar fasciitis
-He intended to return to Ranger School, but never did because of his deployments
-As his feet healed he worked as a trainer for the 211th Infantry Battalion 11th Infantry Regiment
-After his feet were healed he was sent to a signal school at Fort Gordon, Georgia
-It was a ten week qualification course
(00:28:09) Assignment to the 10th Mountain Division
-He was attached to the 10th Signal Battalion and was made the executive officer for A Company
-He became close with an officer named Doug Sloan who helped him get back in shape
-Doug’s family lived with Peter’s family for about six months
-The 10th Signal Battalion is a part of the 10th Mountain Division
-The 10th was, and still is, the most deployed division in the Army
-They always had troops on the ground in Afghanistan
-After a few months the division was reorganized
-He helped with the reorganization process
-Moved equipment to new buildings, changed personnel, and updated equipment
-Part of his job during this was to manage personnel and equipment
-Keeping track of who had what, and who could be trusted with it
-Stayed with the 10th Signal Battalion from late 2003 to mid-2004
-Spent a year as the executive officer of Charlie Signal Battalion of the 3rd Brigade (“Spartans”)
-They had “sister” units deployed at this time and the division was getting ready to deploy
-The reorganization was completed and he left C Signal Battalion in 2005
-Joined the 1/32nd Infantry Battalion
(00:36:30) Being an Officer
-Always took notes on what works and what doesn’t work as a leader
-Learned from the good (what to do) officers and bad (what not to do) officers
-He had some problems with the enlisted men (privates, specialists, corporals) and officers
-Remembers one officer who commanded from a closed office
-This meant that he basically had to assume responsibility for his unit
-Dealt with the problems that enlisted men ran into
-Bailing enlisted men out of jail
-Remembers disciplining one by making him walk back to base
-Dealing with DUIs, domestic disputes, assault (w/ deadly weapon and sexual)
-Basically there were good soldiers, bad soldiers, and soldiers who made bad decisions
-His job as an officer was always to make the Army look as professional as possible
(00:41:04) Joining the 1/32nd Infantry Battalion of the 10th Mountain Division
-In 2005 he became the S6 (communications) officer for B Company of the 1/32nd
-He has identified the most with the 132nd Infantry Battalion
-Wound up spending sixteen months in Afghanistan with them
-Joined them in October 2005 and they were deployed in January 2006
-The 1/32nd was, and is, the most deployed battalion of the 10th Mountain Division
-Saw action in Fallujah, Iraq; the Korengal Valley, Afghanistan
-Also had a history of fighting in World War II and the Korean War
-One of their own was a Medal of Honor recipient
�-Received more training prior to being deployed
-Received EIB (Expert Infantry Badge) training
-Went to the National Training Center and the Joint Readiness Center
-Also engaged in field exercises
(00:45:23) Deployment to Afghanistan
-They were deployed to Afghanistan in January 2006
-Families were allowed to come to the base to see them off
-A major problem was that they were going to replace a nonexistent unit
-This meant that they had to all of their equipment because there wasn’t any waiting
-He had to get tactical satellite and high frequency radios
-Necessary for communicating over the mountains in Afghanistan
-He had to make a trip to Iraq to get more equipment once in Afghanistan
-Flew over on a contracted flight to the Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan
-From Manas took a C-17 into Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan
-And from Bagram flew to Jalalabad, Afghanistan
-On the way over stopped in Ireland, and then in Germany due to technical troubles
-Not allowed to leave the hotel or to drink while in Germany
(00:49:15) Conditions in Afghanistan
-If you were stationed at Bagram there was relatively no real threat
-It was basically a rest area and meant for soldiers to forget about the war for a while
-The soldiers permanently stationed at Bagram were disconnected from reality though
(00:51:24) Getting Established in Afghanistan
-Managed to establish a radio network that worked out of the Pesh River Valley
-Told that it would be impossible, but he and his unit accomplished it
-He was able to get phone cards for the satellite phones so his soldiers could call home
-Always wanted to make life a little less miserable for his soldiers
-Even if it meant going up against higher ranking officers
-They were stationed near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border
-Their mission was to replace the 1st Marines and patrol an area the size of Vermont
-Expected to do this with only six hundred men
-Upon arriving had to repurchase and/or find equipment meant for Army use
-They weren’t allowed to use the equipment left behind by the Marines
-Over the course of a couple weeks was able to go around and collect equipment
-Had to overhaul vehicles before using them
-There were times where he would go days without sleep
-Usually had to be forcibly sedated by a medic
(00:58:30) Operation Mountain Lion
-Operation Mountain Lion’s objective was to get a U.S. foothold in enemy territory
-From there it would be easier to have a positive U.S. influence in the area
-The plan was to push out the enemy then establish connections with the locals
-The ultimatum to the locals was to keep the enemy out
-If they did the U.S. would reward them with water, food, and money
-Some of the communities were cooperative and others weren’t
-Cooperative communities saw a threefold increase in average yearly income
-In the cooperative communities they built schools, roads, and dug wells for them
-The other communities began to cooperate seeing these improvements
�-The bottom line was that if the locals were won over the insurgency would fail
-By now the enemy wasn’t the Taliban but a mix of villagers, terrorists, and criminal groups
-Mountain Lion was the largest operation in Afghanistan since Operation Anaconda
-Multiple valleys were going to be attacked by the Army and the Marines
-Pesh, Kunar, and Korengal Valleys
-Mountain Lion was the first major push into that area
-The first phase was to fly troops in in an air assault on the region
-Once on the ground they could capture any persons of interest and start attacking
-The second phase was moving in ground troops to flush out the remaining enemy forces
-In the wake of the assault they were able to establish three combat outposts
-Restrepo, Michigan, and California
-There was some resistance and there were some casualties in the initial assault
-Both increased after the outposts were established and the enemy forces returned
-Took heavy casualties as the deployment continued through 2006 into 2007
(01:06:26) Meeting with the Afghans and Going on Patrols
-They all knew that after a while they would have to go out on patrols and meet the locals
-The problem is that they would go in, and then have to leave (eventually)
-Once they left the enemy would return
-The locals were more willing to help the enemy
-Because the enemy would quickly resort to violence to extort the locals
-Saw that Afghanistan is a beautiful country full of mountains, rivers and valleys
-Unfortunately, there was a lot of ugliness in Afghanistan too that haunts him to this day
-He had a lot of respect for the Afghan people
-Got to know a mullah (Muslim religious scholar) and a trader
-Saw that there were a lot of honest, hardworking people
-Unfortunately, a lot of leaders were dishonest and corrupt
-There was always an extreme risk in going out on patrols and meeting with the locals
-As a result of the patrols 200 men were wounded, and twenty were killed
-Some of the men lost had been close friends of his
-Feels that if the strategy had been followed through the risk and loss would have been worth it
-Instead, once they left it all began to implode and revert back to what it had been
-He blames the implosion on the lack of continuity in units in the area
-After a year a whole new group would have to come in and establish connections
-Basically have to learn the culture and the individuals from scratch
-There was a disconnect between winning the war on the national level and village level
(01:19:20) Threats in Afghanistan
-The enemy used anything and everything within reason against them
-Suicide bombers, IEDs, Soviet weapons, mortars
-Most of their casualties were due to IEDs
-The terrain posed its own threat
-He fell off a mountain. Twice.
-There were dangerous animals in the area
-Mountain lions, venomous scorpions, and venomous snakes
-Several soldiers were evacuated due to scorpion stings
-There were almost no laws pertaining to vehicle travel
-On top of that some roads were so narrow that wheels hung off the edge of a cliff
�-There were below-freezing temperatures
-Being a light infantry unit they were poorly protected against IEDs
-The enemy knew their patrol patterns and planted IEDs accordingly
-Occasionally fuel trucks would be rigged to explode once they reached a base
-Suicide bombers would bum rush a checkpoint then blow themselves up
-IEDs were planted on cliffs so that when they exploded a vehicle would be thrown over the side
-Constantly had to anticipate the threat of IEDs
-Eventually got so good that they could head the threat off before it happened
(01:24:29) Unit Cohesion and Strength
-When going over as a unit you have a limited amount of personnel and equipment
-Sometimes got additional personnel from the rear, but not often
-The “reinforcements” they got were from wounded men coming back to fight
-Most of the men in his unit wanted to do their part in the fight
-Some men did not though, and he remembers having to court-martial one soldier
-This man quit fighting in the middle of a firefight
-Another soldier had to physically carry him out of the fight
-Most of the men were willing to do their part, just for the sake of the person next to them
-He attributes a lot of survivor’s guilt to that feeling of devotion
-He still has guilt for sending out men on missions that they didn’t come back from
-Or didn’t come back intact from
(01:28:33) Daily Duties as an Officer
-Requesting more supplies
-Going out on patrols with the soldiers
-Dealing with re-transmit teams that were in the field for ninety days at a time
-Moving with the infantry and doing communications work with them
-A lot of times the signal soldiers assumed the role of infantry, and vice versa
(01:30:55) Re-Transmit Outposts
-Re-transmit outposts were fairly well protected from enemy attacks
-Stationary, relay stations manned by a few soldiers
-The stations were watched over by U.S. and Afghan National Army soldiers
-If the enemy attacked an outpost the retaliation would be swift and brutal
-Usually fire everything available on them to send a clear message
-Found at these outposts that if the enemy had to fight a conventional war they always lost
-IEDs and other forms of indirect combat were basically useless
(01:33:09) Working with the Afghan National Army (ANA)
-The average ANA soldier was a good and honorable man
-The leaders were former warlords and more selfish than the enlisted men
-The regular soldiers were just fighting for a better life and for a better Afghanistan
-He had the privilege of dealing with quality ANA units
-The ANA had a different approach to combat situations
-More inclined to charge in guns blazing without regard for their own safety
-U.S. tried to teach them to soften a target with artillery and air strikes first
-The ANA was a mix of Afghans from all over the country
-Southerners were sent to the North and vice versa to help bond the country better
-Some ANA soldiers would desert because they weren’t being paid for their service
-Some men hadn’t been paid in over a year
�(01:35:18) Deployment Extension
-His unit was only supposed to be in Afghanistan for a year
-He had been given two weeks of leave and got to go home and visit his family
-At the end of their deployment their deployment was extended for an indefinite amount of time
-They took casualties after the extension which caused bitterness
-Feeling that the men killed or wounded shouldn’t have even been in the country
-The extension caused a massive drop in the unit’s morale
-As a leader he had to put on a good face and urge the other soldiers to keep pressing on
-They were supposed to have gotten rotated to a rear area for a break
-His unit was never allowed that because they were considered to be too essential
-Soldiers, for the most part, understood and accepted it
-Some men were rotated back to avoid total psychological breaks though
(01:40:36) Emotional Impact of First Deployment
-There are still memories that he keeps down and hasn’t talked about since
-Things that he may never share
-Things that he saw that make you lose a little faith in humanity
-The things that bothered him the most were the things done to animals and to children
-They had to routinely go out and kill dogs because they carried dangerous diseases
-Bad for morale because of the emotional connection Americans have with dogs
-Learned that donkeys can scream
-Seeing what happened to children, and what that did to their families
-Losing soldiers also had a huge toll on him
-He lost his best friend, Doug Sloan, to an IED on October 31, 2006
-It has always made Halloween a difficult holiday for him
-All of his friends that were killed, were killed by IEDs
-One of his jobs was counter-IED work, so he has always felt responsible
-In the years after his first deployment he has gone to therapy to cope with the grief
-He recognized that he was changed in a profound way upon coming home
-His wife eventually told him that either he got therapy, or she left
-Able to deal with the loss of his friends now
-He made some close friends while in Afghanistan that he still talks to today
-That first deployment showed him the best, and worst, that humanity has to offer
(01:45:55) Coming Home & Joining the National Guard
-When he returned from his deployment he planned on getting out of the military
-Got a job at Target and didn’t feel like he was making any difference in life
-Found it impossible to go from making life or death decisions, to that
-Wanted to go back to the military to be able to make a positive impact in the world
-The end of the deployment to Afghanistan was June 2007
-Returned to the U.S. and signed up for the National Guard
-He became the commander for the forward support company of the 507th Engineers Battalion
-Planned on spending only one year in the National Guard, and part time
-In the meantime got a job at Target
-Didn’t make him happy, but they were at least good people to work for
-He taught ROTC courses in 2008 before going full time in the National Guard in April 2009
-Started off working as both a commander and in a staff position in the National Guard
-Helped build up the 507th Engineers Battalion from scratch
�-The 507th specializes in construction, bomb disposal, firefighting, sapping, and field support
(01:51:54) Second Deployment to Afghanistan Pt. 1
-When deployed for a second time his battalion was in charge of route clearance
-Left the States in May 2012 and returned in March 2013
-Operated in the southern/southwestern part of Afghanistan
-It was a tougher deployment because of the mission, and leaving his two year old son
-The separation was a little less difficult thanks to broader internet and cell communication
-Able to contact his wife and son with his iPhone at night
-He became part of a Joint Staff in RC West working with the Italians, Spanish, and Lithuanians
-Having constant communication with home made the deployment a little easier
-Never got shot at and never felt in danger during his second deployment
-Still went out on patrols occasionally to check in with his soldiers and to meet the locals
-It was also not as difficult of a deployment because it wasn’t a full year deployment
(01:56:17) End of Second Deployment
-They accomplished their mission, but didn’t feel that the overarching mission was accomplished
-It was disheartening to see that Afghanistan was not going to be a functioning state
-Attributes a lot of that simply to the massive amount of disconnect with modernity
-Some tribal people thought that they were Soviet troops at first and were scared
-Had to convince and show them that they were American soldiers
-Noticed that as the resources and personnel were pulled out the American influence collapsed
-Enemy forces began to move back in and overwhelm Afghan forces
(02:00:13) Second Deployment to Afghanistan Pt. 2
-Knew there was widespread corruption during the second deployment and had to deal with it
-Demoralizing because he knew the average Afghan didn’t want that corruption
-Some routes just had to be abandoned, and as a result some forward operating bases were too
-The second deployment was much more coalition focused, than American focused
-ANA and Afghan police started trying to kill coalition troops during his second deployment
-Attributes that to a possible breakdown of respect between the two groups
-Most of the second deployment consisted of planning and resource management
-This meant that he could stay at battalion headquarters and not be in the field
-He wasn’t able to go out with his soldiers as much as during the first deployment
-Still made sure to go out and meet with his troops and the locals occasionally
-Didn’t like being behind a desk, but realized that was the reality of higher rank
(02:04:53) Working with Europeans on Second Deployment
-He learned some Italian, some Spanish, and some Lithuanian
-He learned that Americans have a different way of approaching tasks than Europeans
-The Spanish and Italians were more focused on the process of a task
-Americans are more focused on the results, and not how it was accomplished
-During his first tour he had served with British and Australian forces
-More Americanized than they would like to admit
-Very similar to Americans in terms of being results, not process, oriented
-The Lithuanians were Americanized as well
-Had the same personalities and the same sense of humor
(02:07:40) Coming Home from Second Deployment
-He and his unit left Afghanistan in March 2013
-From Afghanistan flew to Texas and processed out there
�-Given one week of medical examinations and paperwork to fill out
-Checking for unknown injuries, diseases, and any psychological problems
-Making sure that finances were in order so troops would get paid
-Flew back to Michigan for the welcome home ceremony there
-The processing in Texas was good for soldiers to decompress and readjust to being home
-Saw that the welcome home ceremony was more for high ranking officers and politicians
-Soldiers didn’t really care about the formality; they just wanted to see their families
-It was basically a display for the military to be able to show troops were coming home
-Return from first deployment hadn’t been quite as formal
-Lower ranking officers didn’t care about formality
-They just wanted to see their families too
-As he moves up in the ranks he wants to work to compress the formality of it all
-Feels that the soldiers of the 507th were cheated out of an experience by not getting leave
-Because the deployment was so short they were not granted a leave home
-Denied the chance for soldiers to see the appreciation of strangers for their work
-Feels that not getting those interactions was demoralizing for troops
(02:16:00) Reflections on the National Guard
-Feels that National Guard troops, as a whole, are more mature
-This is not a critique of Army regulars, but Guardsmen are usually older, experienced
-Most likely have families; most likely have a civilian job outside of the Guard
-Army regulars are younger and haven’t experienced “life” yet
-Saw that National Guard troops are more self-sufficient which engenders responsibility
-Saw that Guard troops are a little more career oriented and thus strive for professionalism
�
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
RHC-27_NewmanP1671V
Title
A name given to the resource
Newman, Peter (Interview outline and video), 2014
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2014-09-27
Description
An account of the resource
Peter Newman is a major in the Michigan National Guard and a veteran of the War in Afghanistan. He was born in Mount Prospect, Illinois, in 1980 and grew up in Michigan. He took ROTC training in college and was commissioned in the Army in 2002. He trained as an infantry officer at Fort Benning, Georgia for infantry officer basic training and then served with 82nd Airborne Division, the 11th Infantry Regiment, the 10th Signal Battalion of the 10th Mountain Division and finally the 1/32nd Infantry Battalion of the 10th Mountain Division as the S6 (communications) officer for Bravo Company. In January 2006 the 1/32nd Infantry Battalion was deployed to Afghanistan. They operated in the Jalalabad area and took part in Operation Mountain Lion establishing the combat outposts of Restrepo, Michigan, and California. After a sixteen month tour he and his unit returned home in June 2007. Left the service briefly, then joined the Michigan National Guard. He taught ROTC courses before going full time in the Guard in April 2009. He helped build the 507th Engineers Battalion from scratch and deployed with them to Afghanistan in May 2012 operating in the south/southwestern portion of the country. In March 2013 the 507th returned home.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Newman, Peter
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James (Interviewer)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
United States. Army
United States. National Guard
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Moving Image
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>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
video/x-m4v
application/pdf
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6ab263495ca4f6426d643bea777500a0.mp4
7dafe8965a10cb00a57d49fb34569ed8
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b60966b87e7935ac43ea765ad8ba7738.pdf
c7d9790e3f828246fabc23b8fcfc06ab
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans History Project Interview
Iraq
Christopher Notestine
Total Time (00:52:44)
Introduction (00:00:09)
Christopher was born in Charlevoix County, Michigan on July 26th, 1980 (00:00:21)
He has a younger brother and grew up with both parents and comments it was a “white picket
fence” type of family (00:00:55)
◦ Christopher had no major motivation to join the Army as he just drove by the recruiting
office one day and thought that's where he wanted his life to go (00:01:21)
◦ He worked as a roofer before he started basic training at the age of 19 (00:02:06)
◦ Christopher did his basic training at Ft. Benning in Georgia and trained as 11 Bravo
(Infantry) (00:03:15)
▪ After AIT and basic training, he showed a knack for weapons and did a few more weeks
of additional training in Dragon and Javelin weapons systems (00:05:26)
▪ Christopher spent a few weeks at home and then headed out to Ft. Lewis in Washington
(00:06:35)
▪ He was part of the 2nd Battalion 23rd Infantry that worked with Stryker vehicles
(00:07:04)
▪ His unit was originally decommissioned; eventually they became recommissioned and
became the 23rd Infantry Stryker Combat Team (00:09:16)
His units did hard training as they wanted to get the units up and running- they
trained in Yakima, Washington at high altitudes; this was all prior to the September
11th, 2001 attacks (00:11:09)
They went to JRTC Ft. Polk, Louisiana for about a month and then to NTC in Ft.
Irwin, California (00:11:40)
The attacks of September 11th occurred right before he left for Louisiana and
California while he was in Washington (00:11:57)
◦ Christopher was told he was going to train before heading overseas- he didn't
have a clue where he would be heading at the time though- about eight months
later Christopher and his unit were in Iraq (00:13:54)
◦ At the time he remembers he and his unit being gung-ho about getting revenge
for what had happened- even though he comments now that he didn't know what
was going on then and just wanted to go do something because Americans were
killed (00:14:28)
▪ In preparation to go to Iraq, there was physical and mental testing done- he
said they just went and jumped on a plane and left as they didn't have any
plans and then just went to war (00:15:36)
Deployment in Iraq (00:15:58)
Christopher and his unit landed in Kuwait and went to a base just south of the border of Iraq
and waited there for about a week for their vehicles to get there (00:16:02)
It was October of 2003 and very hot- weather in triple digit degrees (00:16:28)
�◦ After the vehicles showed up he mentions the Army figured out their vehicles weren't RPG
proof so they had to rework the vehicles which took a couple days (00:17:36)
◦ He describes the process of moving north towards Iraq as they witnessed chaos and mayhem
and didn't really have any guidelines on how to deal with it all- they didn't stop because of
IED's (00:18:24)
▪ One of the first bases Christopher went to was Anaconda- “it was horrible” he comments
while he laughs about it (00:20:43)
▪ The living situation was pretty bad at the camp so they slept in their trucks for about a
month (00:21:24)
One of the Stryker units' duties was to be the first group there after a base had been
mortared- he says that the mortars were hit and they'd be out the gate before anyone
called them out there (00:23:09)
nine out of ten times they wouldn't be able to catch who was mortaring them but if
they did catch them, they would (00:24:11)
◦ Christopher mentions there was all types of ethnicities and genders represented
in his unit- he says he thinks every unit in the Army is like that (00:26:08)
◦ He jokes that tires were their best technology in detecting IED's (00:27:39)
▪ A lot of the raids he was involved with dealt with insurgents who were
weapons dealers- a lot of the time there wasn't anything there (00:29:14)
▪ The nature of the fighting stayed the same as he mentions Saddam Hussein's
forces used mortars and the insurgents or other people that didn't want the
United States there used IED's- all the action was jumbled together
(00:32:19)
▪ After they spent about nine-ten months in Mosul, Iraq, they showed the next
group of soldiers what they did and advised them on what to do; they handed
over their Strykers and were shipped out Diamondback Airfield across the
Tigris River (00:33:16)
On the way to Diamondback, one of their C130 planes got hit and had to
do an emergency landing between their and Kuwait (00:34:31)
Back to the United States (00:35:10)
The homecoming process was very long as Christopher just wanted to see his family but had to
go through and be 100% accountable to the Army and their check-ins (00:35:30)
Christopher and his unit got about a month's time worth of leave (00:37:52)
◦ He got married a few months before he deployed and had the wedding ceremony when he
returned from Iraq (00:38:59)
▪ Christopher was injured in Iraq by an IED and couldn't do infantry anymore; he didn't
feel his service was complete- he joined the National Guard and came to the 1434th
Engineer unit out of Grayling, Michigan and has been there since 2005 (00:40:25)
▪ Christopher gets the impression that the Iraqi's don't really care to change their ways and
it angers him that the United States is still there and not much has happened although he
acknowledges he's sure not everyone is like that (00:41:34)
Back to Iraq (00:42:36)
Christopher and his unit were doing construction missions on his 2nd deployment to Iraq; they
would go out to certain bases and build police stations or army style barracks for the local
police (00:43:05)
�
He was deployed for eight months with few additional months of training (00:44:06)
◦ His unit went through specialized combat training but Christopher didn't have to because he
was previously in the Army; they trained at Ft. McCoy in Wisconsin for about a month or so
(00:44:35)
◦ If his unit needed anything he was the go-to guy for fixing things (00:46:51)
◦ The timeframe for his deployment was 2009-2010 (00:47:37)
Back to the United States (00:48:16)
The homecoming the 2nd time around was in Grayling, Michigan and was a lot different: there
was not much checking in with the National Guard and they saw their families and friends
immediately (00:48:37)
He mentions he didn't do a darn thing for about three weeks after he got home from Iraq
(00:49:44)
◦ He went back to work for the National Guard; he had to go to Wisconsin to do inventory
(00:50:32)
◦ Christopher and his unit went to El Salvador; they built four or five school houses for kids
but they spent several million dollars- he says it would have been cheaper to contract it out
(00:51:42)
�
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
NotestineC1576V
Title
A name given to the resource
Notestine, Christopher (Interview outline and video), 2014
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Notestine, Christopher
Description
An account of the resource
Christopher Notestine was born in Charlevoix County, Michigan, in 1980. He joined the Army at the age of 19 and did his basic training at Ft. Benning in Georgia. He became part of the 2nd Battalion 23rd Infantry which used Strykers. Christopher and his unit went to Iraq in October of 2003 and mostly stayed in Mosul, Iraq. He was injured by an IED in Iraq and could no longer serve as part of the infantry so he enlisted with the National Guard in the 1434th Engineer Battalion based out of Grayling, Michigan. He went back to Iraq in 2009-2010 as part of a construction unit. He continued to work for the National Guard after he got home from Iraq in 2010.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Dashner, Matthew (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
Iraq War, 2003-2011--Personal narratives, American
United States. Army
United States. National Guard
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
2014-03-08
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
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/0bdb671d7a98ff3fcf68544c7d2ac9b9.jpg
e6caf41086c3d086cc9bcabf0736f06c
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
Ronald Oakes collection
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Oakes, Ronald
Description
An account of the resource
Collection of photographs by Ronald Oakes, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, and in the U.S. National Guard in the Iraq War.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1968/2005
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/628">Ronald Oakes Vietnam and Iraq war photographs (RHC-80)</a>
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
Iraq War, 2003-2011
Vietnam War, 1961-1975
Veterans
Photographs
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project interviews, RHC-27
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-80
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials.
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
RHC-80_Oakes-Iraq-40ftCHUliving
Title
A name given to the resource
40 ft. Connex containers
Subject
The topic of the resource
Iraq War, 2003-2011
United States--History, Military
United States. National Guard
Military life
Soldiers
Photographs
Description
An account of the resource
40 ft. Connex containers at FOB (Forward Operating Base) Q-West that housing four people each. These were what the men first moved into in December 2004.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Oakes, Ronald
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Image
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Ronald Oakes Vietnam and Iraq photographs (RHC-80)
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project interviews, RHC-27
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Iraq War
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>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
image/jpeg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2004-12