896 24 26018 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c2b243f821dfa0107894b3f62c9eb248.jpg a5dbcc64410ce98c6b9a58bbe0637e76 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 Naval Recognition Training Slides Subject The topic of the resource Slides Military education Airplanes, Military--Recognition Warships--Recognition World War, 1939-1945 Description An account of the resource Slides developed during World War II as a training tool, for top-side battle-station personnel on board ship and for all aircraft personnel, by the US Navy. In 1942 a Recognition School was established by the Navy at Ohio State University where the method of identification was developed. In 1943 the school was taken over by the US Navy. The importance of training in visual recognition of ships and aircraft became even more evident during World War II. Mistakes resulting in costly errors and loss of life led to an increased emphasis on recognition as a vital skill. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource United States. Navy Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/477">Naval recognition slides (RHC-50)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-04-04 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-50 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1943-1953 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. Source <a href="http://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/477">Naval recognition slides, RHC-50</a> 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-50_905 Title A name given to the resource Spitfire fighter Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource United States. Navy Description An account of the resource Spitfire British F (fighter), October 1, 1947. Subject The topic of the resource United States. Navy Military education Airplanes, Military--Recognition World War, 1939-1945 Slides Great Britain Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Naval recognition slides (RHC-50) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1947-10-01 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/42eaf46b229ac403871a4586a2f21336.jpg 4cdd8ad54ff606393155e7babd7821dd 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 Naval Recognition Training Slides Subject The topic of the resource Slides Military education Airplanes, Military--Recognition Warships--Recognition World War, 1939-1945 Description An account of the resource Slides developed during World War II as a training tool, for top-side battle-station personnel on board ship and for all aircraft personnel, by the US Navy. In 1942 a Recognition School was established by the Navy at Ohio State University where the method of identification was developed. In 1943 the school was taken over by the US Navy. The importance of training in visual recognition of ships and aircraft became even more evident during World War II. Mistakes resulting in costly errors and loss of life led to an increased emphasis on recognition as a vital skill. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource United States. Navy Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/477">Naval recognition slides (RHC-50)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-04-04 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-50 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1943-1953 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. Source <a href="http://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/477">Naval recognition slides, RHC-50</a> 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-50_M1747 Title A name given to the resource Spitfire single-seat fighter aircraft Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource United States. Navy Description An account of the resource Spitfire single-seat fighter aircraft used by the British Royal Air Force during WWII. Subject The topic of the resource United States. Navy World War, 1939-1945 Military education Airplanes, Military--Recognition Slides Great Britain Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Naval recognition slides (RHC-50) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ae1f2f189885e19cefdbbf1f05d9536b.jpg 02ee3dcb270ce2105850c03387135b97 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 Naval Recognition Training Slides Subject The topic of the resource Slides Military education Airplanes, Military--Recognition Warships--Recognition World War, 1939-1945 Description An account of the resource Slides developed during World War II as a training tool, for top-side battle-station personnel on board ship and for all aircraft personnel, by the US Navy. In 1942 a Recognition School was established by the Navy at Ohio State University where the method of identification was developed. In 1943 the school was taken over by the US Navy. The importance of training in visual recognition of ships and aircraft became even more evident during World War II. Mistakes resulting in costly errors and loss of life led to an increased emphasis on recognition as a vital skill. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource United States. Navy Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/477">Naval recognition slides (RHC-50)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-04-04 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-50 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1943-1953 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. Source <a href="http://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/477">Naval recognition slides, RHC-50</a> 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-50_907 Title A name given to the resource Spitfire XII fighter Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource United States. Navy Description An account of the resource Spitfire XII British F (fighter), October 1, 1947. Subject The topic of the resource United States. Navy Military education Airplanes, Military--Recognition World War, 1939-1945 Slides Great Britain Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Naval recognition slides (RHC-50) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1947-10-01 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/eb01bff1c2dd7f5e8a9a9966c10d8d19.mp4 6bb00fe26fd465d41f5199c03a5ff56d https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/dec9a43f3911119920e982358b8376fe.pdf 4435658a9892db764c8193fa7babaa56 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans' History Project Bea Foster Spivey World War II-Homefront 10 minutes 11 seconds (00:00:01) Husband's Service in the South Pacific -They were married during World War II -Husband was a staff sergeant in the Army -Enjoyed being in the Army -They had an eighteen month old baby when he left -Prior to the war he had played baseball -Went to a camp, so he could learn how to join a professional team -He was a semi-professional pitcher -Pitching shoulder was injured during the war in the Philippines -When he was in the Philippines a fellow soldier was harassing a Filipino -He stepped in and stopped the harassment -Moved into an area with caves in the Philippines -He went in and encountered a Japanese soldier -He shot first, but the Japanese soldier was able to shoot back -Got shot in the ear and didn't even realize it -Later got wounded in the shoulder by artillery shrapnel -Served in New Guinea -Able to go to Australia on leave -Enjoyed going to the bars to get the local milk -He didn't drink, but enjoyed the milk because it was so thick and sweet -His name was William Hubert Foster -Took part in the liberation of the Philippines (October 20,1944-August 15, 1945) -Her brother was in the Navy during the liberation of the Philippines (00:06:22) The Homefront -She lived with William's family for a while -Then lived with her Aunt Julie -Moved up to Michigan to live with her parents -Worked in a Ford factory during the war -Started off by working a rivet gun -Moved on to spot welding aircraft wings -Enjoyed working at the factory -Everything was rationed -It was hard to feed a family off of rations, but her mother was able to do it -Near the end of the war she went to work in a nightclub as a cleaning lady (00:08:59) End of the War -Had moved back to South Carolina to live with William's family -When the war ended everyone got in their cars and drove around honking their horns -Everyone was celebrating everywhere � 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_SpiveyD1751V Title A name given to the resource Spivey, Beatrice Foster (Interview outline), 2015 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015-04-24 Description An account of the resource Bea Foster Spivey was on the homefront during the Second World War and worked in a Ford factory in Michigan during the war. She was married and had a baby during the war, and her husband, William Hubert Foster served in the Army as a staff sergeant and saw action on New Guinea and on the Philippines and was wounded twice on the Philippines Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Spivey, Beatrice Foster Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Childress, James (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. Army 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/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Language A language of the resource eng Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e30158d29a3c4b79bb98208fa1c3964b.mp4 fcda23aa500e7659627cf4766cf00e22 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e7295689a2e2b3ed8ac4b4d768c51361.pdf 99cae3833528828deec412361e0f98a3 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview Tanjore Splan Korean War Total Time: 1:05:00 Pre-Enlistment (0:00:40) • • • • • • • Born in September 1929 in St. Ignace, Michigan. Lived in a children’s home from age 4 until he was 11, and then went to work on a farm. Attended High School in Sault Ste Marie, Michigan. He then worked in shipping and ferries on the Great Lakes. Joined the Army at age 17. Recalls the numerous ways that the US government and Army protected the locks in Sault Ste Marie during World War II. He had his mother give her permission for him to sign up for the Army, specifically field artillery, when he was in Detroit, Michigan. Enlistment and Training (0:07:34) • • • • • • • • Was shipped from Detroit to Fort Sheridan, Illinois for induction (0:07:48) Was then sent to Fort Bragg, North Carolina for basic training for 16 weeks. During basic, he was taught the fundamentals of small field artillery. During basic training, they trained for all of the jobs on the gun. (0:12:20) After basic, he joined the 82nd Airborne and was shipped to field artillery school in field artillery mechanics. He was taking classes and learning maintenance procedures for field artillery while he was there. (0:15:30) Was then shipped back to Fort Bragg where he took more training, including jump school. They trained on gliders while they were at Fort Bragg. He stayed at Fort Bragg the whole time he was in the service. Active Duty (0:21:28) • • • • (0:21:28) He was able to participate in President Truman’s Inauguration and General Pershing’s Funeral and some other events in an official capacity. They dropped bundles packed with howitzer equipment from planes for them to use. They also carried the 105mm Howitzer in gliders. They also experimented with dropping the 105mm from an airplane. Enlisted for three years, and after these years went back to finish high school. After he graduated he moved to Detroit and worked in the Auto Industry. He re-enlisted in the Army at the start of the Korean War. �• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • (0:26:20) Was inducted at Fort Knox, Kentucky and then took a train to Seattle where he loaded on a truck and rode to Vancouver, British Columbia or Washington, he was not told which, and then got on an airplane to Anchorage, Alaska. After Anchorage, he stopped over at a small air base on the Aleutians named Shemya, and then went on to Tokyo, Japan where he spent 4 days. (0:28:50) In Tokyo, they were issued field equipment and a rifle. He was assigned to C Battery of the 555th Field Artillery of the 5th Regimental Combat Team. (0:31:00) He was then loaded on a ship and sent to Korea. (0:32:10) He arrived around the same time as the Marines invaded Inchon, which gave the area he was in, the Pusan Perimeter, some relief. (0:32:48) His unit was up on the line firing and fighting. He was initially assigned as a loader. (0:34:15) He was then sent by train from Pusan to Taegu right when he landed. His unit was sent diagonally across the peninsula to Seoul, the up to Pyongyang. (0:37:08) He thought the war would be over soon when the reached the Yalu River. They reached the western end of the river, and became engaged with the Chinese. After they met the Chinese they began to retreat while firing on their pursuers. They retreated back through Pyongyang to 75 miles south of Seoul where they spent the winter. Remembers the winter being very cold. (0:45:15) They began moving up and attacking the Chinese until April, when the Chinese began their spring push. Their infantry units took the heaviest losses during this timeframe. At one point, they were attacked by the Chinese while they were in a convoy and lost 11 of their 18 howitzers. Their unit of 1300 men took around 400 casualties. (0:55:30) He was in Korea a total of 13 months and was rotated out. His unit was stationed in Hawaii before the war, and thus there were many Hawaiians in the unit. (0:58:00) To go home, he was sent on an airplane to Japan, and spent 5 days there. He was then loaded on a ship for a 21 day ship with a 1 day stopover in Hawaii. He still had time on his enlistment when he got back, so he was sent to Fort Custer, Michigan and allowed to go on leave. After leave, he was sent to Fort Lewis, Washington to train new recruits on field artillery. (1:03:40) Applied to instruct ROTC but was assigned to train National Guard troops in Alameda, California instead. He spent a year there and was then discharged. Post-Service (1:04:20) • He worked with the National Guard for 2 years after he got out, and then applied for several different law enforcement agencies. Was accepted for a position at the Alameda County Sherriff’s Department. � 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 SplanT Title A name given to the resource Splan, Tanjore (Interview outline and video), 2009 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Splan, Tanjore Description An account of the resource Tanjore Splan was born in St. Ignace, Michigan and grew up in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. He served in the Korean War. He joined the Army at age 17, and decided to specialize in filed artillery. He trained at Fort Bragg, NC where he trained for the airborne and was then shipped to Korea, where he served with the 5th Regimental Combat Team in operations against the Chinese and North Koreans throughout the Korean Peninsula from Pusan into North Korea and back in 1950 and 1951. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings 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 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 2009-06-04 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/5d8fb981f8fe80c92c2196e11ca4d5dd.jpg 033655e7c096ae8a04c60a724e33cc70 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 Robert H. Merrill photographs Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Merrill, Robert H., 1881-1955 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1909/1950 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Robert H. Merrill papers (RHC-222) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-222 Description An account of the resource Photographs, negatives, and lantern slides digitized from the papers of engineer and archaeologist Robert H. Merrill. A Grand Rapids native, Merrill held an accomplished career as a civil engineer. He founded the company Spooner & Merrill, which held offices in Grand Rapids and Chicago. From 1919-1921, Merrill lived in China, working as Assistant Principal Engineer on a reconstruction of the Grand Canal - the oldest and longest canal system in the world. Merrill became fascinated by archaeology, and among other projects, he traveled to the Uxmal Pyramids in Yucatan, Mexico, with a research expedition from Tulane University. Merrill's photo collection includes images of his travels and projects, friends and family. 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 Merrill_NE_47_1916_010 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1916-08-21 Title A name given to the resource Split Rock Falls Description An account of the resource Black and white photograph of a waterfall among boulders surrounded by trees. A wooden bridge is visible in the distance. Subject The topic of the resource New York Adirondack Mountains (N.Y.) Waterfalls Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Robert H. Merrill papers (RHC-222) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Merrill, Robert H., 1881-1955 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/5c4e57a7e2f61788ee27b2360d47fd72.mp4 ba328e6c9050d0c5c7459305f5e9a967 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/fca3dbcd03d82e9f8a1d61faebb3ff62.pdf 012ea5fc7242c1cf644cbde57c114a9d PDF Text Text Phillip Spoelstra (1:15:30) (00:05) Background Information • Phillip was born in Wyoming, Michigan in 1923 • His family moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1939 • Phillip’s father was a camera man in the printing trade • He graduated from high school in 1941 and went to work with his father • In 1942 Phillip went to the armory and signed up for the Air Corps (5:30) Training • He went to Detroit, MI and then to Miami Beach, FL where he received his basic training • Phillip was then sent to Union College in Alliance, Ohio • He spent half the day at school and the other half flying • Phillip went to Yukon, Oklahoma for pilot training • He flew the BT-13, which was an open cockpit mono plane • Phillip trained for about 2 months and then decided to go into bombers instead of fighters • He was sent to Frederick, Oklahoma, where he graduated and got his wings after about 6 months • While in Frederick he had weekends off and could go into town • There were some training accidents including one death by pilot error • Phillip then went to Lincoln, NE and was assigned to a B-17 • He had to be co-pilot for testing planes that had been fixed • Phillip was moved into a combat crew in the summer of 1944 • They sent him to Norfolk, Virginia and he boarded a liberty ship for Naples, Italy (19:26) Deployment • When Phillip got to Naples it was busy and didn’t have much damage �• He was sent to Bari, Italy and then Foggia, Italy with the 5th wing of the 15th Air Force with the 97th bomb group in September of 1944 • The airstrip was dirt and would get muddy, but then they brought in steel mats • The planes that took off first had to circle and wait for everyone else to get into formation, but it evened out because the planes in the back used more gas by speeding up and slowing down to stay in formation (25:47) Missions • His first mission above Vienna had a lot of anti-aircraft fire • He flew missions to Vienna, Munich, Linz, Austria, Yugoslavia, Northern Italy, and Czechoslovakia • In March of 1945 he took a couple days off and when he got back he was told that they were going to fly an unusually long mission to hit Berlin • Phillip barely made it back from Berlin and a lot of other guys didn’t make it back at all • On one mission they dropped smaller bombs on German infantry in Northern Italy • Sometimes the Germans would fix up American planes that had crashed and use them to give away the American bombers’ location to the anti-aircraft guns • Later in the war they went on night missions to buzz towns to keep them awake and annoy them • The job of the bombers was to bomb strategic places like oilfields and railways • Some of the fighters got their guns taken off and had to do photo recon to see what the bombers hit • At the base they hired people from Foggia to help them out • Phillip took his R & R in the Isle of Capri • He was in Italy about 7 or 8 months total and the missions got easier towards the end • They didn’t get heated suits until right before the end of the war (1:02:30) War Ends • Phillip spent another month in Foggia after the war ended and there wasn’t much to do • He received a distinguished flying cross for the Berlin mission �• Phillip got transferred and knew he was going home because he had enough points • They sent him to Bari and his unit was split up • He was then sent to Casablanca and then Newfoundland • After Newfoundland they flew to Bradley Airfield, Connecticut (1:09:15) Back Home • Phillip was sent to Fort Miles Standish, MA then to Fort Campbell, Illinois • He was then sent home and found out the war in Japan had ended • Phillip went back into the printing business • He received a Bachelor’s Degree in business at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan � 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 SpoelstraP Title A name given to the resource Spoelstra, Phillip (Interview outline and video), 2008 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Spoelstra, Phillip Description An account of the resource Phillip Spoelstra was born in Wyoming, Michigan in 1923 and moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1939. He graduated high school in 1941 and joined the Air Corps in 1942. Phillip trained mostly in Oklahoma and became part of a bombers unit. He was deployed to Foggia, Italy and assigned to the 5th wing of the 15th Air Force in the 97th bomb group in September of 1944. It was their job to strategically bomb German supplies and transportation. He was in Foggia until the end of the war and then was sent home. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) 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 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 2008 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 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/63b7bba2bef2a62bd9f2a18c47db10d0.jpg d9782786d88927d80fecc821777c6e46 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 Robert H. Merrill photographs Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Merrill, Robert H., 1881-1955 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1909/1950 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Robert H. Merrill papers (RHC-222) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-222 Description An account of the resource Photographs, negatives, and lantern slides digitized from the papers of engineer and archaeologist Robert H. Merrill. A Grand Rapids native, Merrill held an accomplished career as a civil engineer. He founded the company Spooner & Merrill, which held offices in Grand Rapids and Chicago. From 1919-1921, Merrill lived in China, working as Assistant Principal Engineer on a reconstruction of the Grand Canal - the oldest and longest canal system in the world. Merrill became fascinated by archaeology, and among other projects, he traveled to the Uxmal Pyramids in Yucatan, Mexico, with a research expedition from Tulane University. Merrill's photo collection includes images of his travels and projects, friends and family. 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 Merrill_EastmanAlbum_2_1909-1911_003 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1909-11-01 Title A name given to the resource Spoil Hoffmans Description An account of the resource Black and white photograph of spoil in Hoffmans, New York. Subject The topic of the resource Hoffmans (N.Y.) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Robert H. Merrill papers (RHC-222) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Merrill, Robert H., 1881-1955 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4a0ca947edf2d37f42554f6d3b8e43ea.jpg 666fd2a70e24066903af10b426e76ad8 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 Decorated Publishers' Bindings Subject The topic of the resource Book covers Covers (Illustration) Graphic arts Publishers and publishing Pictorial bindings Description An account of the resource From the early 1870s to roughly 1930, many publishers issued their commercial book covers with a remarkable variety of graphic designs and illustrations. This sixty-year period saw many artists and designers contributing to this art form. While some can be identified from their style or initials, others remain unknown. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Seidman Rare Books Collection Michigan Novels Collection Regional Historical Collection Lincoln and the Civil War Collection Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-08-30 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>, <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-01 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. Source Seidman Rare Books. S411 .R87 no.17 1928 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 DC-01_Bindings0199 Title A name given to the resource Spraying, Dusting, and Fumigating of Plants Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource N. (Designer) Description An account of the resource Binding of Spraying, Dusting, and Fumigating of Plants, by A. Freeman Mason, published by The Macmillan Company, 1928. Subject The topic of the resource Book covers Covers (Illustration) Graphic arts Publishers and publishing Pictorial bindings Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image 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 1928 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/03ba507f9b531a71673a933703021a04.mp4 8df0a742f24e35251e1b0bc7a98ae352 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/22ecf9b1b07a10980ea098175d756a9f.pdf 7b433ce2ce90f29f543896f2ec698eea PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Norman Spring (47:05:10) Early Life • (00:18:13)Spring was born in 1932 in Ann Arbor, MI • (00:25:21)both of his parents emigrated from Germany, both were deceased by the time of this interview; they came to the United States in the late 1920s • (00:48:26)his father was a watchmaker in an Ann Arbor jewelry store; he started his own business and worked at it for a number of years • (01:13:27)he graduated from high school in 1950, at the age of seventeen • (01:26:09)the day after graduation, he hitchhiked out West and worked at "miscellaneous" jobs during that summer • (01:35:17)he returned to Michigan by hitchhiking and got a job in a factory that may not be in business anymore [as of the time of the interview] Joining The Military • (01:47:14)the Korean War had started while he was out west; people would listen on their car radios at the overnight stop where he was working, in Browning, Montana; "you could tell there was an invasion" • (02:21:09)he went into the service in February of 1951 • (02:31:26)he had really wanted to get into the Marines, but he would have had to be in for the duration of the war, perhaps five or ten years, and he did not want that; the navy and the air force required a four-year enlistment period, and the army was three years, so he joined the army • (03:11:01)he was in the 11th Airborne Division, and went through basic training at Fort Campbell in Kentucky • (03:23:26)he was almost finished with "jump school" when his father visited him and talked him out of airborne: “once you get in you can't get out of it"; Spring quit airborne and volunteered for combat duty overseas, which required "intensive" training In Japan • (04:08:16)on the way to Korea, they stopped in Japan and thirty of them were taken off the plane and put into the military police; he spent a year and a half in Tokyo as an MP • (04:32:25)but he really wanted to go to Korea, and volunteered again and his wish was granted; he asked for a seven-day furlough before leaving, and this wish was also granted, which was out of the ordinary because they were "tight for men" • (05:10:27)he arranged to live with a Japanese family in the country so he could hunt pheasants; they spoke little English and he spoke little Japanese, but they got along well and they hired a hunting guide with "a couple of bird dogs" �On To Korea • (05:40:17)after furlough he went back to camp and got transferred to a "repo depo outfit"; the next day he was shipped to Korea • at Inch’on [South Korea] he was put into the military police again, and was there for a month • 906:34:23)he then was sent to another “repo depo,” where "you change from one place to another," and they tried to talk him out of combat, as he was an only son; but Spring insisted that he wanted to go to the front line, and he was "there that night" • he was with the Seventh Infantry, the 31st Infantry Division, as a foot soldier • he became a squad leader, and they ran night patrols • he was in the "iron triangle" area, around "Old Baldy" and "Pork Chop Hill"; this was the "main line of resistance," they were "trenched in," and they had bunkers • the enemy attacked them and they attacked the enemy • (07:51:05)the Pork Chop Hill invasion during the summer of 1953 was one of "last great battles" of the war • the 32nd Infantry Division bore the brunt of it; the 31st was next to them and got some of the "residue" (they were attacked, but not as much as the 32nd Division); the battle lasted a week • between the "moon beams ( lights on from behind) shining on ridges and mountainsides and flares from airplanes being dropped, one could read the newspaper at night The War Ends • (09:10:11)Spring thinks it was on July 25th [1953] when the commander of the outfit informed them that a truce had been signed but "they" [the North Koreans] were going to fire ammunition at the Americans all day long, and they would have to take cover • shells were fired at the Americans all day and "they just emptied their guns" • he was sitting on a mountainside with another man when a shell exploded nearby, wounding the other guy in the leg • (10:02:25)Spring himself was lucky, but he nearly got shot "numerous times," and actually was hit by shrapnel a number of times • (10:16:20)at 10 p.m. everything stopped, as if water was suddenly turned off; "lights went on on both sides of the lines," and the North Koreans talked "in American" over loudspeakers, inviting the Americans over for a party; some Americans accepted the invitation but they were court-martialed for "fraternizing with the enemy" • Coming Home (11:04:24)because they had lost so many men, transfers were delayed; Spring had thought he was going to go home immediately, and he gave away his air mattress to a friend—he had to remain there another month and a half—“sleepin’ on the ground”— before he was sent back to the US by ship �the ship was named the Marine Adder; they carried 250 repatriated American war prisoners released by North Korea back to the States � it took seventeen days to reach the US; they "went through the Golden Gate Bridge in that area" � the water was very rough and it was very hot down near the Tropic of Cancer—"everybody was sick on board," but he stayed "out of the way," on the bow [of the ship] � • (12:34:26)he was flown to Chicago and was assigned to Fort Sheridan, Illinois for still another transfer, but they lost his records, and he spent the fall there; finally he went to one of the commanders, it may have been in November, and they let him out of the service Hitchhiking Around The United States • (13:41:29)when Spring was in high school he did not hear a lot of talk, or he does not “recall it,” about a conflict with the Russians that was looming: "kids are kids, "they are doing their own thing and they really don't pay much attention to what else is going on" • (13:56:10)when he was seventeen, he took a hundred dollars and a little suitcase and hitchhiked out west— "back in those days it was okay to hitchhike" � he got to Montana in three days and worked there for a while; then he hitchhiked to Yellowstone Park with another family, but the husband and wife "bickered too much" and he caught another ride back to Lake Michigan and crossed the lake on the Milwaukee Clipper ferry • (14:53:29)next, he hitchhiked in the Upper Peninsula and stayed with a friend of his whose parent's had a place on Mackinaw Island; then he went back home Basic Training • (15:44:07)he went through basic training at Fort Campbell Kentucky, not far from Nashville--he hitchhiked to Nashville in his free time and he slept on the capitol lawn because he had no money • (16:29:19)on the first day he was there [at Fort Campbell], a major took them out to the [parachute] drop zone, and they stood and watched � guys jumping out [of a plane] were a "stick": eighteen guys on one side and eighteen on the other side of the plane, each side was a “stick” � one guy got caught on the static cord that opens the parachute as the person jumps out; he “was banging on the side of the plane” and they managed to extricate him from his situation � from the next plane the chute came down in a "Roman candle," wrapped around itself ; the guy pulled his "emergency," which came “from the front,” and it broke his back and killed him the guy landed, but he was dead • (18:26:02)the trainers were veterans "from some time" � they were "hillbillies" from the South with "deep" accents � they were dumb as crap but physically fit � Spring did not want to be "living with and working for people like that" �he had not planned on going to college, but his experience with the trainers “forced” him to change his mind; he did go to college after serving in the army, getting a BA, an MA, and "just short of a doctorate" (19:49:23)after quitting "jump school" and the 11th Airborne: infantry training was "hand to hand combat", involving the use of weapons � • Sent Into Action • (20:08:02)he took a train from Fort Campbell out to California; from there they flew to Japan, stopping at Wake Island and Hawaii to refuel � at that time, they were trying to get people "over there in a hurry" so they flew them (instead of sending them by ship) • (22:27:10)he was assigned to the Eighth Army stockade in Japan; it used to be a Japanese prison, taken over by the US during the occupation; there were Japanese war criminals in there as well as American prisoners • (22:58:03)Spring was a "prison chaser": when prisoners were transferred to "some legal situation" or to the hospital, spring escorted them, handcuffed to his left hand and he also carried a 45 pistol on his right side; transfers were made by bus or car, a chauffeured car; if a prisoner needed an operation, Spring got “dressed up” and watched the operation � the American prisoners were "our guys" who had committed crimes, including murder (24:32:07)about the [Japanese] war prisoners/criminals: "in fact a lot of them spoke English"; a Japanese vice admiral did not understand why he was considered a criminal because every time he sent a ship out it got sunk [by the Allies] • (26:22:25)how Spring got along with the Japanese, in general: he made contact with a family he stayed with for a week (see the “In Japan” section, earlier) through one of the Japanese barbers on base—he asked the barber if he could “fix” him up with a place to go hunting � the husband in the family was a WWII veteran and was “real good” to Spring (28:46:22)he traveled "quite a bit" around Japan, and he saw the bombed [in World War Two] areas; he "made a point” of traveling as much as he could, and combined it with his hunting and fishing trips; "they had rebuilt quite well" since WWII (29:26:20)Mount Fujiamo, in the middle of Japan, had a golf course on its base and only the Americans could golf on it during the occupation; he himself golfed on it once, and he had a "little freckle-faced Japanese caddy" • • • From Japan To Korea • (30:38:03)he went to an NCO club on New Year's Eve and left the next day, New Year's Day of 1953, for Korea; he was there until September or October of that year • (31:17:01)[as a squad leader] Spring took patrols out, and monitored the guys guarding the physicians in the trenches—these guys had machine guns in �• • • • • • • • • • • "apertures, bunkers," and he had to check to make sure that everything was okay and that nobody was in the trenches that was not supposed to be there; he walked around with a 45 in his hand (32:01:08)on patrol: they went out on "ambush patrols, always at nighttime"; they also had "listening patrols where they carried radios, and if the enemy came at them they would throw grenades and run back up the hill toward their bunker (32:50:04)they used communication wires "to get to their phone," and they ran a new line from the main bunker to the listening post; a "regular path" was created as a result, the enemy figured this out and shelled them with mortars � they saw the Chinese and shot at them, especially when Pork Chop Hill was attacked; one couldn't tell at nighttime who was who, between the Chinese and North Koreans, according to Spring, but they were told there were many Chinese in action against them (33:57:02)the Americans had superior weapons—Spring brought home a North Korean bolt-action rifle—the Americans had automatics; the rifle he brought back had a hammer and sickle stamped into it (35:38:17)he knew they were fighting against Russian weapons, but did not believe that the Americans would have to fight the Russians themselves (36:15:21)sometimes a big container of hot coffee was brought to the men on the front line, and they "would just dip into it" (36:37:27)their food on the front line was sea rations that "came in a box"— crackers, cans of stuff like pork and beans, cigarettes—which he gave away because he did not smoke—sometimes crackers with jam; sometimes the food was stale, of course � how they heated the canned goods: the cans had small white "heat tabs" that they lighted, three heat tabs were set down and a can put on top of them, with the lid open; they ate the food cold when the cans had no heat tabs (37:48:02)sometimes they gave the soldiers R & R--rest and recuperation: they were sent to the back of the line, they could sleep and eat as much as they wanted to, they even had ice cream to eat there (38:32:21)they were interested in what was happening "collectively"; they got the Stars & Stripes newspaper "once in a while"; Spring has some articles left from Stars & Stripes about battles they were involved in (39:28:02)during the month and a half after the war ended: they cleaned up and had "normal patrols," cleaned up the trenches (40:09:11)the ship that carried them home was the Marine Adder, a merchant marine ship not designed to be a troop ship; there were 250 repatriated American prisoners of war on the ship, but "everybody was so sick" they really did not want to talk [regarding how they had been treated, the POWs in particular]; the ship docked in California, and from there Spring came back across the country, to Illinois (41:22:07)he started college at Ypsilanti Normal now Eastern Michigan University, then transferred to Michigan State and finished there � he met his wife at Michigan State �he started out majoring in veterinary medicine, and eventually ended up in education � he got his masters wherever he “could take night classes”—he was working in Oxford (Michigan); he went back to MSU in the summers � he spent thirty-three years teaching in Michigan (42:50:06)he went to a Seventh Division reunion at Fort Mitchell in Kentucky "last June," driving down with his wife; he knew no one there, but the people there had had similar experiences � • In Retrospect • (43:23:13)he is glad he “got through it all," and thinks it was "good experience" but would not recommend it to "anybody" On The Possible Reinstatement Of The Draft In The Present [Iraq] War • (43:43:07)in Spring's opinion "they're gonna have to probably because they're just running out of men" (at the time of the interview) and "I don't think you can pay people enough to do that kind of stuff"—they have to be forced • (44:01:19)he believes that the draft can be a "good thing" if people are offered a choice of the type of service, to accommodate those who do not want to fight: there are "all kinds of service jobs" and only one out of fifty "go to the front line" • (44:40:01)he thinks that everyone, out of appreciation for their country, should spend two years in the military; he brought up the fact that there are countries in Europe that do that, also Israel Korean War Movies He Likes • (45:18:11)he watched Pork Chop Hill and thinks it was a good movie and fair; he has a paperback version of the original book, and he himself went through much of what is in there • (46:14:09)he liked the original M*A*S*H movie best: "it was so close to reality that it was unbelievable"; the one-liners made the TV series, in his opinion For The Record • (47:05:10)he went to Washington DC, where he has a friend in the Secret Service, and they [Spring and his wife] stayed at his house; the friend took them sightseeing: they saw the Korean War Memorial and went to Monticello �2003 50 t h Anniversary Korean Truce Remembered Today Norm Spring, 70, is a retired teacher from the Grand Haven school system who enjoys hunting, fishing and his family. But on July 27, 1953, he was huddled on the back side of a hill in Korea waiting an agonizing 12 hours for the truce to go into effect so the shelling would stop. I'd been on the front line in Korea since January 1, 1953. On July 27, we heard from the company commander that a truce had been signed that morning at 10 a.m. I was in the 31 s t Infantry Regiment of the 7t h Division called the Bayonet Division, and we were repairing trenches in an area adjacent to Old Baldy and Pork Chop Hill in the Iron Triangle area. Our commander came and warned us that the next 12 hours would probably be dangerous since the North Koreans might throw their remaining ammunition at us befryre the truce went into effect. He told us this had happened in the last hours of World War II. Our division moved back to a blocking posit~on approximately a quarter of a mile from the front .'line trenches. We sat on the back side of a steep hill. As predicted, shelling went on all day. Someone sitting right next to me got shrapnel in his leg ;from a cannon shell. No one in our company fired back. We just sat waiting. Finally at 10 that night the firing stopped ,as if someone had turned off a water tap. Then we saw lights coming on on both sides of the front line-truck iights, flashlights, candles and lanterns. It was a strange experience because we had worked in the dark for so many months. �· . Then some of us were surprised when we looked at the North Koreans; we hadn't known the size of their army until we sawall those lights come on. It was big. North Korean loudspeakers invited our soldiers to cross the line and join in a party. A few of our men did go over. They came back, but were court martialed afterward for fraternizing with the enemy. I thought we'd be sent home right away so I gave away my air mattress. It was an unlucky choice; it was not until the end of August that I was able to leave. The loss of men just three days prior to the 27 t h had been so heavy there was a shortage of man power. 'However, I was happy to celebrate my 21 s t birthday in the United States. Now, 50 years later, a statement I made to my hometown newspaper, the Ann Arbor News, after my return to the states seems in a way prophetic. :A reporter had asked me why there wasn't more rejoicing after the truce was signed. I told him that the settlement had been expected for a long time and besides, we feared that the fighting in Korea was not over yet. For many it didn't seem as if war had ended. � 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 SpringN Title A name given to the resource Spring, Norman A. (Interview outline, video, and papers), 2008 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Spring, Norman A. Description An account of the resource Norman Spring served in the US Army during the Korean War. He enlisted in 1951, and spent much of his time as an MP, first in Japan and then in Korea, before persuading his superiors to assign him to a combat unit. In Japan, he served as a prison guard and dealt with both American servicemen who had committed crimes while overseas and with Japanese war criminals from World War II. In Korea, he eventually joined the 31st Infantry Division and was involved in fighting near Pork Chop Hill. Normans fifty anniversary speech appended to outline. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource McCauslin, Kelly (Interviewer) Spring Lake District Library (Spring Lake, Mich.) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans United States. Army Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Video recordings 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 2008-01-28 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 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/de05c3c001ece35f1254e1cf7b1b8ac5.jpg d200c189a0ac1c293f4ee00f6f200eea 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 Faces of Grand Valley Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource University Communications Description An account of the resource A non-comprehensive collection of photographs of Grand Valley faculty, staff, administrators, board members, friends, and alumni. Photos collected by University Communications for use in promotion and information sharing about Grand Valley with the wider community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960s - 1990s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived GV012-03. University Communications. Vita Files Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copryight Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University College administrators College teachers Colleges and universities -- Faculty Michigan Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Type The nature or genre of the resource Image 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 SpringerBill_Photo01 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Communications Title A name given to the resource Springer, Bill Description An account of the resource Bill Springer, Assistant Basketball Coach Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University – History Michigan Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Communications. Vita Files, 1968-2016 (GV012-03) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/48f3e4d2229c5ca04773b5608205962f.jpg 5e94a3b90c3f76c5055246baf4aa800a 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 Faces of Grand Valley Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource University Communications Description An account of the resource A non-comprehensive collection of photographs of Grand Valley faculty, staff, administrators, board members, friends, and alumni. Photos collected by University Communications for use in promotion and information sharing about Grand Valley with the wider community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960s - 1990s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived GV012-03. University Communications. Vita Files Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copryight Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University College administrators College teachers Colleges and universities -- Faculty Michigan Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Type The nature or genre of the resource Image 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 SpringerBill_Photo02 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Communications Title A name given to the resource Springer, Bill Description An account of the resource Bill Springer, Asssistant Basketball Coach Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University – History Michigan Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Communications. Vita Files, 1968-2016 (GV012-03) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/deb5b5e74710431834f99abfb6a2af6c.jpg 8ef05447cbe3b0f46ee3238c47d27783 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 Faces of Grand Valley Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource University Communications Description An account of the resource A non-comprehensive collection of photographs of Grand Valley faculty, staff, administrators, board members, friends, and alumni. Photos collected by University Communications for use in promotion and information sharing about Grand Valley with the wider community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960s - 1990s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived GV012-03. University Communications. Vita Files Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copryight Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University College administrators College teachers Colleges and universities -- Faculty Michigan Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Type The nature or genre of the resource Image 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 SpringerBill_Photo03 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Communications Title A name given to the resource Springer, Bill Description An account of the resource Bill Springer, Assistant Basketball Coach Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University – History Michigan Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Communications. Vita Files, 1968-2016 (GV012-03) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2247b6fdb6d754ff3ca840400f81cf7c.jpg 2f8c3759967045b3799edf0242ae7f52 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 Faces of Grand Valley Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource University Communications Description An account of the resource A non-comprehensive collection of photographs of Grand Valley faculty, staff, administrators, board members, friends, and alumni. Photos collected by University Communications for use in promotion and information sharing about Grand Valley with the wider community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960s - 1990s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived GV012-03. University Communications. Vita Files Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copryight Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University College administrators College teachers Colleges and universities -- Faculty Michigan Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Type The nature or genre of the resource Image 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 SpringerPaul_Photo01 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Communications Title A name given to the resource Springer, Paul Description An account of the resource Paul Springer, Physical Education Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University – History College teachers Universities and colleges – Faculty Michigan Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Communications. Vita Files, 1968-2016 (GV012-03) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/13a2f7bd25437451c211381e174d5e50.jpg 702296eddc4622999197bb35f34a9f85 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 Faces of Grand Valley Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource University Communications Description An account of the resource A non-comprehensive collection of photographs of Grand Valley faculty, staff, administrators, board members, friends, and alumni. Photos collected by University Communications for use in promotion and information sharing about Grand Valley with the wider community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960s - 1990s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived GV012-03. University Communications. Vita Files Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copryight Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University College administrators College teachers Colleges and universities -- Faculty Michigan Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Type The nature or genre of the resource Image 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 SpringerPaul_Photo02 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Communications Title A name given to the resource Springer, Paul Description An account of the resource Paul Springer, Physical Education Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University – History College teachers Universities and colleges – Faculty Michigan Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Communications. Vita Files, 1968-2016 (GV012-03) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/97d8583f43b59455711c01f71a66ecb2.jpg cff9a8753666577bc8e35a29f5e26e23 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 Faces of Grand Valley Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource University Communications Description An account of the resource A non-comprehensive collection of photographs of Grand Valley faculty, staff, administrators, board members, friends, and alumni. Photos collected by University Communications for use in promotion and information sharing about Grand Valley with the wider community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960s - 1990s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived GV012-03. University Communications. Vita Files Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copryight Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University College administrators College teachers Colleges and universities -- Faculty Michigan Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Type The nature or genre of the resource Image 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 SpringerPaul_Photo03 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Communications Title A name given to the resource Springer, Paul Description An account of the resource Paul Springer, Physical Education Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University – History College teachers Universities and colleges – Faculty Michigan Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Communications. Vita Files, 1968-2016 (GV012-03) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b1dd2f2ce4cd0230f2c3b2d8ae92ca33.jpg b18410cdda2c3051c83fd4f770e12cfb 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 Faces of Grand Valley Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource University Communications Description An account of the resource A non-comprehensive collection of photographs of Grand Valley faculty, staff, administrators, board members, friends, and alumni. Photos collected by University Communications for use in promotion and information sharing about Grand Valley with the wider community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960s - 1990s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived GV012-03. University Communications. Vita Files Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copryight Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University College administrators College teachers Colleges and universities -- Faculty Michigan Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Type The nature or genre of the resource Image 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 SprowJames Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Communications Title A name given to the resource Sprow, James Description An account of the resource James Sprow, Finance Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University – History College teachers Universities and colleges – Faculty Michigan Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Communications. Vita Files, 1968-2016 (GV012-03) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d30367acc1e1accace678338ebdf45e6.mp4 21875791cd4ff69a996e7d98bcc0c32e https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/8b17ae8540aaddf80fe57709c690ffb9.pdf 082809c69619a007802ac8be428fbe70 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview Vietnam Wayne Spruill Total Time – (01:09:55) Background • • • • • He was born in Cleveland, Mississippi on August 13, 1949 (00:28) His father worked on a farm and his mother worked in a factory (00:42) He graduated from a county high school in Mississippi After he graduated, he worked on a farm for two years (01:04) o He decided that farming is not what he wanted to do, so he joined the Army He would watch the news and decided that enlisting was the right thing to do (01:20) Enlistment/Training – (01:26) • • • • • • • • • • • • He went to basic training and AIT [advanced individual training] in Fort Polk, Louisiana (01:28) When he joined the Army, he believed it looked good on television (01:48) Before he decided to enlist, he did not know anyone that had been in the war o His knowledge was based off of the television He was unsatisfied with life before he joined (02:43) His father was a World War II veteran o His father did not want him to go to Vietnam He enlisted for two years (03:19) In Fort Polk, his first impression was that it was hell (03:48) o He was wondering why he joined (03:55) Basic training lasted eight weeks long o In basic, soldiers learned the techniques of map reading, breaking down guns, a lot of physical training, etc. (04:27) o The physical training was not much of a problem for him His platoon was from all over the country (05:11) Nearly everyone in his platoon were draftees (05:31) o They griped and complained – but they got through training None of the men in his group had to leave training He was assigned his MOS at graduation (Military Occupational Specialty) (06:11) �• • • • • • • • • • • • o He was designated to be in the 11 Bravo (Infantry) (06:18) He had wanted to be in the infantry (07:13) Many of the drill instructors in training were Vietnam veterans (07:47) o They would tell the soldiers that they need to learn all that they can very fast When he graduated from basic training, he was taken to Tigerland [the area of Fort Polk that included a simulated Vietnam environment] (08:19) In Tigerland, he received his AIT training Many of the soldiers in his AIT training were from different basic training bases (09:06) There were roughly twenty-five soldiers in every platoon o There were more in the training platoons than there were in the platoons in Vietnam AIT was more relaxed and they were given more freedom (09:49) The training was nearly the same as basic training o There was more emphasis on weapons training (10:15) o He trained on the M14, M16, and M79 (10:26) o They trained on machine guns as well o He got to throw one hand grenade in AIT (11:05) He spent nearly two weeks on field maneuvers (11:24) o There were land navigation courses as well o The soldiers spent some time training on radios (11:45) AIT training lasted from April-June of 1969 After AIT, he received his orders for Vietnam (13:03) o He was given two weeks of leave time before being sent out o His parents did not like him going off to war (13:20) He shipped out from Oakland, California (13:49) o He experienced some anti-war protests when he was there  He did not know that they were protesting the war – they did not have those kinds of things where he was from o He was at the replacement center in Oakland for two days (14:30) Active Duty – Delta Company – Firebase Jack - (15:00) • • • • He took a plane from Travis Air Force Base, California to Bien Hoa, Vietnam (15:05) o The plane stopped in Hawaii and Japan (15:20) When he landed in Bien Hoa, it was the middle of the afternoon (16:19) o The smell was extremely strong o As soon as they landed, there was a harassment shot near the air field Once he got off the plane, he was in a group of soldiers that were picked to go up north (17:46) They were given orders to go up north to the 101st Airborne Division �• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • o Before they left, they received more training and also received their jungle uniforms (18:25) He did not realize that the 101st was a unit that did not get many breaks when they were out in the field (19:29) He left Bien Hoa in a C130 and went to Camp Evans (20:08) At Camp Evans, the soldiers were grouped together and talked to They were then issued their weapons – he received an M16 with a grenade launcher attachment (21:02) o He was not used to walking with the bag of ammunition The first night they were sent out, they got into a firefight o After a couple of minutes, a Cobra came in and shot for nearly thirty minutes (22:44) The PT (Police Training) that he received in Bien Hoa consisted of learning booby traps, to not be a hero, etc. o He was assigned to Delta Company 2nd Battalion, 506 Regiment (24:30) When he was in the field he carried his M16 with a grenade launcher, some machine gun bullets, and ammunition rounds o He would also carry a poncho liner, toothpaste, shaving accessories, Crations, and some other personal items (26:16)  They would carry three to five days worth of C-rations o He carried roughly 80lbs. in total (27:06) He was around Camp Evans for one month in the lowlands around the camp (27:44) o His job was to patrol the area around the perimeter o He was around Camp Evans for August and September of 1969 (28:20) He redeployed into the mountains to Firebase Jack (28:50) o They stayed on Firebase Jack for roughly two weeks (29:09) The majority of troop movement came at night when they were in the lowlands In the mountains, soldiers would secure an area and do regular activities His second firefight was roughly a month after his first (30:13) When they were sent out on patrol, they would often work in platoons o They would be broken up into squads (30:41) He encountered civilians when he was in the lowland o He did not think much about them When he was in the mountains, his platoon did not make a lot of contact with the enemy (31:24) o None of the contact was very intense o The soldiers would stumble upon Vietnamese soldiers o They saw many signs of enemy activity (31:04) o They would find enemy bunker complexes (31:11) In late 1969, Delta Company found bunkers with a lot of supplies o It was a weapons cache (32:43)  The weapons would get backhauled out In the field, his squad would be resupplied once a week (33:03) �• • • o There were some days when they would have to go to one meal for the entire day o The monsoons made it difficult for helicopters to come in (33:37) o The resupplies were generally C-rations, soft drinks, toothpaste, cigarettes, soap, etc. o The soldiers would get their mail at every resupply (34:23)  He would get an average amount of mail He was with Delta Company for roughly six months The soldiers would get taken back out of the field to resupply their weapons and stand down (35:51) o The stand downs would last for one night (35:32)  Soldiers would go to get new clothes, shower, get anything fixed, etc. (35:48) When he was in the hills he did not have many experiences with the wildlife (36:33) o Leeches were a big problem for the soldiers (36:59)  The leeches would get to the size of a hotdog Active Duty – Echo Company – Firebase Ripcord – (37:43) • • • • • • • • • • After Delta Company, he was sent to Echo Company (37:52) o There were four rifle companies o Echo company consisted of heavy weapons, mortars, recon, and snipers (38:14) He made the E-5 while he was in Delta Company o When he was in Echo Company he had the same rank In order to be in Echo Company, he was sent to sniper school at Camp Evans (40:07) o Sniper school was a twenty-one day school  He did it in six days (40:19) o He shot an XM21 (41:04)  It was an experimental model of the M14 (41:09) o Sniper training was primarily marksmanship o They were also trained in camouflage and evasion (41:57) There were eleven snipers in Echo Company (42:58) o They would go out in two man teams o There was a shooter and a spotter (43:06) The pairs of men would join a company The sniper teams would work with one of the squads (44:26) When a squad would set up an ambush, the snipers would go ahead and set up The sniper teams would operate in the hills more than the lowlands (45:28) The shooting distances would be up to six hundred meters All of the soldiers would have an ammo pouch that carried two magazines for the snipers (46:38) �• • • • • • • • • • • • • • Snipers would sometimes have to use tracers to show air support where to fire The snipers would tote around a radio (48:45) He remembers having to shoot a Vietnamese soldier (49:56) o It was the first soldier that he had to shoot o He shot him in his lower half The majority of the time the snipers would have to participate in the firefights like every other soldier (50:55) o He was in very few firefights o He was off of Firebase Ripcord on July 12, 1970 – roughly two weeks before it was overrun (51:21) He worked with Delta and Alpha Company around the base of Firebase Ripcord (51:44) o He only remembers going to Ripcord two times o He was there in May and June (52:10)  The soldiers would go there to get resupplied He noticed signs of increasing amounts of enemy movements At one point, he was on a helicopter that put them down in the wrong area (54:40) o Army pilots were sent to pick the soldiers up  When the helicopters arrived, the first chopper hit a dead tree  He was going to jump out of the chopper (55:24)  The chopper landed on the skids o The soldiers had to walk back to the area again to be picked up o He was sent with a squad to go back and fix the chopper to take back to the base (57:20)  When he went back, he was given medical attention for his broken ribs from the helicopter crash (57:56) o A couple of days later, he was sick and medevaced to Da Nang, Vietnam (58:20) From Da Nang, he was transferred to Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam where he stayed for two weeks (58:29) o He was then sent to the [hospital ship] USS Repose (58:37)  He stayed on the USS Repose for two weeks He lost roughly forty-five lbs. while in Vietnam (59:49) After being in the hospital, he was sent back out into the field to continue his service (01:00:00) He rejoined his company for the remaining three months (01:00:59) When Ripcord began getting bad, a lot of the soldiers got sent back into the field (01:01:44) o He stayed in the rear doing duty around Camp Evans He saw a lot of drug abuse at Camp Evans (01:02:38) o There were some that used drugs in the field (01:03:00) o Some would use drugs on ambushes Camp Evans had many racial problems (01:03:54) o The whites and blacks were polarized o One of his best friends in Delta Company was a black man  He was shot and killed two months before Ripcord (01:04:55) �• • • • • o There was not a lot going on around the camp o Mortars would sometimes hit around the camp (01:05:19) He remembers being able to hear on the radio what was going on at Firebase Ripcord (01:05:48) o He cannot imagine what it was like to actually be there The aid station was overcrowded (01:07:10) He left the field and went home through Cam Ranh Bay (01:07:49) o From Cam Ranh Bay, he went through Guam, Hawaii, and Washington o He arrived in Fort Lewis, Washington o His two years were not done (01:08:15) He finished his service at Colorado Springs, Colorado After he got out of the military he went back to Mississippi and has lived there the rest of his life (01:08:37) � 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 SpruillW1455V Title A name given to the resource Spruill, Wayne (Interview outline and video), 2012 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Spruill, Wayne Description An account of the resource Wayne Spruill was born in Cleveland, Mississippi, in 1949. He finished high school, worked for a while and then decided to enlist in the Army, and wanted to be in the infantry. He trained at Fort Polk, Louisiana, and went to Vietnam in 1969. He spent his first six months of his tour with D Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Regiment, in the 101st Airborne Division, which was operating out of Camp Evans in the northern part of South Vietnam. He then went to sniper school and was reassigned to the sniper unit in E Company of the same battalion, and spent the next several months working as a sniper attached to different companies of the battalion operating around Firebase Ripcord. He was transferred to the rear shortly before the base was abandoned and eventually rotated home and completed his enlistment in Colorado. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource McGregor, Michael (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings United States. Army Vietnam War, 1961-1975--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 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 2012-10-04 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/10190d6feae8910cecff64eae9cfe2b7.mp4 5cd4ce39265193aa12b0d81a823f6449 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/5837637979ad7c2360bfdff1950811b8.pdf aea8d81526bf151132d7e65c631e3d10 PDF Text Text 1 Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Oral History Interview Veteran: Wesley Spyke Interviewed by James Smither Transcribed by Grace Balog Interview length: 2:12:37 Interviewer: We are talking today with Wesley Spyke of Norton Shores, Michigan, and the interviewer is James Smither of the Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project. Okay, Wes, start us off with some background on yourself. And to begin with, where and when were you born? Veteran: Well, I was born—I am a native of Muskegon, Michigan. Born in 1948 to Delores and Frank Spyke. I have two older sisters of which have been deceased now, but they too are also natives of Muskegon. Interviewer: What was your family doing for a living when you were a kid? Veteran: Well, actually, my mother was a registered nurse, and my father was a journeyman tool layout inspector for Continental Motors at the time. So, I came from a well-educated family, I guess. Interviewer: Alright. I mean, did your father have a college education or just a lot of technical training? Veteran: There was a lot of technical training in there. You know? �2 Interviewer: Okay. Alright. And did you finish high school? Veteran: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Interviewer: What year did you— Veteran: 1966. Interviewer: Okay. And then what did you do when you graduated from high school? Veteran: Well actually, I went—I graduated when I was 17. Interviewer: Okay. Veteran: So, when I turned 18 years old, the lure of money, you know, grabbed me and I went to work for Brunswick Corporation, as a matter of fact. And I got laid off of there and then I bounced from Campbell, Wyant and Cannon Foundry to, you know, and I tried going to MCC and I realized that I was not college material. Interviewer: Okay, that is Muskegon Community College. Veteran: Muskegon Community College, yes. So, I didn’t really get involved in the apprenticeship until after Vietnam. So, I was raised in the housing projects in Muskegon. My mother got cancer early on and I remember as a very young child that she couldn’t work anymore. And so, with that being said, of course my father was the main breadwinner. But we were not poor in the sense of being poor. (00:02:40) Interviewer: Yeah. You had a roof over your head, you had food to eat. Veteran: Yeah, yes, absolutely. Even in the projects. And you know what, I always had clean clothes. I always got a new set of clothes before school. New shoes and that type of thing. But �3 my sisters, my oldest sister is 13 years older than I was. And my middle sister was 9 years older than I was, so I was kind of the baby of the family, and I was spoiled rotten by them. And I mean literally rotten. So, they were very good sisters. And I love them dearly. Interviewer: Alright. So, in that period, kind of ’66, ‘7, ’68, before you go in the service, how aware were you of the Vietnam War? Veteran: Well, the media of course…In the media, I should say, Vietnam was raging at that time. ’67, ’68…Tet Offensive in ’68 was probably one of the bloodiest years in the Vietnam conflict, if you will, the Vietnam War. And I knew that my draft number was going to come up, so I started looking at all the other branches of the service. Well, I didn’t want to go in the Marine Corps because I knew where they were going. And I didn’t want to go in the Army; I knew where they were going. And the Air Force…and I don’t know why I didn’t look at them any further, but I really didn’t. I have always wanted to be in the Navy. (00:04:15) Veteran: So, I had gone down, and I talked to the recruiter. And he said, “You know, we have a reserve program that if you decide to enlist, we will keep you here for a year and allow you to get some type of rank before you go active duty, which is a 2-year stint in the regular Navy.” And I thought, well, that doesn’t sound bad. He says, “However,” he says, “if you get the greetings from the U.S. government,” he said, “do not open that envelope.” He says, “Bring it down here and we will get you enlisted in the Navy.” Well, at that point in my mind, I said, “I am not going to Vietnam. I am not going to do it. So, I am going to enlist in the Navy.” Interviewer: Right. �4 Veteran: Thinking that I was going to get onboard the USS New Jersey or something, the big battlewagon and all this business, and go to the Med. I was going to go to the Mediterranean, and we were going to go on goodwill tours and all that. Ah, no; that didn’t happen. Interviewer: Okay, so when did you sign up? Veteran: I signed up in April of ’68. And it was for a 6-year jaunt, but they said 2 years of it would be active— Interviewer: Right. Veteran: --and 1 year kind of semi-active. You’d go through your training. And then whatever time was left over, you would do that in the Reserves, should you come back. I remember going in. They said—because in the Navy, you have a rank and you have a rate, or a job what they call you. And I—my mom was an RN, so I thought I will be a hospital corpsman. You know. So, I started my studies. They sent for a book, you know, and you have to go through this book, and they would give you testing. And I remember these guys teasing me. (00:06:24) Veteran: On the drill weekends, they’d tease me, “Hey, you are going to go with the Marines,” and all this other kind of stuff. I said, “No, I am not going. No, I am going to be a corpsman.” He said, “That’s what we mean. You are going to be with the Marines.” He said, “Because that’s what the medics, for the Marines Corps, that’s where they get their medical.” I said, “No...” So, I had gone into the administration office. I told them, I said, “I…wait a minute,” I said, “a hospital corpsman,” I said, “are they—do they go to the Marine Corps?” He said, “Well, the Marines are a division of the Navy.” He says, “That’s where they get their hospital training, their medical.” And I said, “Well…” I said, “Would you go to Vietnam?” he answered, “Well, you—Wes, you probably will go to Vietnam.” And I said, “No, no I am not going there. No, you don’t �5 understand. I didn’t sign up for this. I’d have gone…” And they said, “Well, you’re allowed one change.” I said, “Okay.” I said, “Give me the form.” So, like an idiot, you know, I signed the form. And they said, “And we will give it to you—we will let you know when you finish your drill for the weekend.” I remember walking out the door and I stopped, and I turned around and I said, “What—by the way, what did I sign up for?” And he said, “Well, gunner’s mate, guns.” And I said, “Well,”—this was a shoe in gym for me. I am going to be on the USS New Jersey or a heavy cruiser or something like that. I am going to work on the big guns. Well, no; that didn’t happen either. Interviewer: Alright. Let’s—to kind of pull the story together a little bit. So, you enlist in April of ’68. Veteran: Yep. Interviewer: Do you go off to bootcamp right away? Or does that take a while? Veteran: Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah. Interviewer: Okay. And so, where do you go for bootcamp? (00:08:09) Veteran: Great Lakes. I went to Great Lakes, Illinois. Interviewer: Alright. And what did bootcamp consist of at that point? Veteran: Well, basically it was drilling and taking care of your uniforms and basically a lot of stuff to get you to fall in line with the disciplines of the United States military, from a naval standpoint. So… Interviewer: Alright. And how easy or hard was it for you to adjust to that? �6 Veteran: It was easy for me. I mean, I liked the military life. It wasn’t as hard as the Army or the Marine Corps, I don’t think. Certainly, the Marine Corps it wasn’t as hard as. But yeah, I did well in boot camp. Interviewer: Okay because you mentioned that you were the baby of the family and spoiled rotten. I was wondering about the transition from that to being in Navy boot camp. Or had you just done enough work and things like that that you were used to doing what you were told? Veteran: Well, doing what I was told didn’t really do much but…I liked the military, and I just never had a problem with it. I could see what the disciplines were and why they were the way they were. You know? So, you know, I really didn’t have a problem with that. Interviewer: Okay. And how long did the boot camp last? Veteran: Probably about 3 months, I guess? Interviewer: Okay. Alright. And what kind of act—did you get any training in anything? Veteran: Oh yeah. You know, they bring you through the gas houses you know and all that business. But for the Navy, part of that training was on the USS Havre, which was docked at…and at some point, it was supposed to go out for a 2-week cruise and that never happened. It was being worked on and all that, so it just really didn’t happen to do the cruise. However, we did have to do the shipboard training: where the compartments were, the ladder ways, you know, and bulkheads. Of course, the armament that was on there and all that business. But a lot of it consisted of painting. Interviewer: Yeah. (00:10:20) �7 Veteran: There as a lot of painting involved. Interviewer: Alright. And what type of ship was that? Veteran: That was a PCE, a patrol craft escort. So, it was a little bit smaller than a destroyer. We put the rigging up for the flags, you know, for Memorial Day. And then we were allowed to go into Chicago. Well, we didn’t have any money. I was there with a guy from Jackson, Michigan. And he was like, “Well, let’s go into Chicago, Wes.” And well so anyway, we went into Chicago, and we stayed at a mission there because we didn’t have any money. He did; he had a little bit of money. But that was an eye-opener: being in Chicago basically all night and finally stumbling upon this mission and going in. But we were only there for probably, I don’t know, a couple nights. Spent a night there and then came back to the base. It was just easier to come back to the base. Interviewer: Yeah. Veteran: You know, the meals were there and all that stuff. Interviewer: Right. Okay. Alright. So, when—once you finish that, what do you do next? Well, after boot camp. Veteran: Well, we came back to, you know again, civilian life. And then you’d continue your studies until you go orders to go to active duty. Interviewer: Alright. And so basically, you were now assigned to a Reserve unit in Muskegon and so you show up for the weekends or…? �8 Veteran: Yeah. Basically, that’s the way it was. And then of course when we got orders, my orders were to go to San Francisco, Treasure Island, and wait for wherever you were going to go with it. You were going to go to the fleet or whatever. Interviewer: Okay. Now so the part where you were reading your manuals and you make the switch from corpsman to gunner’s mate, was that while you were with the Reserve unit? Or— Veteran: Yes. Interviewer: Okay. Veteran: Yep. Interviewer: Alright. Now, at what point do you get to gunnery training? When does that come in? (00:12:17) Veteran: Well, that’s interesting because you don’t get gunnery training until you go to active duty. Interviewer: Okay. Veteran: Physical gunnery training. Interviewer: Yeah. Veteran: And that’s a very good point, Jim, because I didn’t gunnery training on the big guns. Once I got out of or received orders to Da Nang, Vietnam, after 3—and I spent 3 months in San Francisco. While I was there, they put me in a geedunk or a sandwich area where you had to maintain the vending machines and mop the floors, all that. And I got my orders to Da Nang and my heart sank of course. I was thinking oh my gosh, you really got to be kidding me. Because �9 you don’t look at Vietnam at that time as being—any areas—being peaceful or being wellprotected. The first thing you are thinking of is I am going to be in the field, and I am going to be in fire fights all the time. And the possibility of getting killed or injured always enters your mind. Well, then we got…we got orders to go home for a 30-day leave before you went to Vietnam. And I did that. But before we left to do the 30-day leave, we said, “You’re going to come back and your orders are going to go to Coronado, California. And you will receive further training there.” And I am thinking wait a minute: Coronado, California is a UDT SEAL base. I am—they don’t get this. I am not going to be a SEAL. And I am not going to be underwater demolition. But what I didn’t know is that they were setting up training at that time for riverboats. And the majority, from what I understand, of the riverboat personnel there were Reservists. So anyway, we—I came back to Coronado. Interviewer: Okay, I want to actually back up a little bit. Veteran: Yeah. Interviewer: So, you spent 3 months in San Francisco. Veteran: Yes. (00:14:34) Interviewer: Did you go into town at all? Veteran: Yes, I did. And it’s funny: most of the time when I went into town, I went in alone. And I never got bothered and a lot of these guys would come back all beat up and everything. And when I told them that I would go into town, I said, “No one ever bothered me.” And I would go in full uniform. Of course, back then, it was summertime or spring, and we were in whites then. And I said—I remember going into town. I went into Chinatown and that’s where a lot of these guys were getting beat up. And never came back—I never had a conflict with anybody. But I �10 remember going into town by myself and I remember going into a bar that was an all-gay bar. And of course, coming from the Midwest, we didn’t have that here at the time. Interviewer: Yeah, yeah. Veteran: And I remember, and I thought gosh, these women look awful strange…You know? And they were dancing on the bar and all this kind of stuff. I thought…And I am looking and one of these gals had a mustache. And I am thinking I am in the wrong place…For me, I am in the wrong place. And one of them asked me for a date I recall. And I just got out and moved out and I never went into town again. I went back to the base. But I was so close to going to, again, down to southern California. Interviewer: Right. Okay. So, let’s go down now back to Coronado. You get there. Now what happens? (00:16:21) Veteran: I get there, and they tell us that we are going through—they say we are going to go through small arms training, and we are going up to Camp Pendleton and the Marine Corps is going to train you in small arms. Now, I am really getting a little bit…you know, I am starting to think something is happening here. This is not the big guns in the fleet. This is small arms and gunner’s mates in the fleet don’t mess with any of that. Well, they do but not very often. And I remember going up to Pendleton. And I had a little Snoopy pin, a little gold Snoopy pin that I wore on my cap. And these Marines were saluting me, thinking that I was an officer. And I sat down in a 6x with the rest of the crew, and they said, “Wes, you need to take that off.” He said, “If these jarheads see that that’s a Snoopy pin, they’re going to beat you senseless.” So, I did; I did take it off. I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I am not going to, you know, risk a beating because of that. Anyway, we stayed out of the camp in tents and all that business and �11 then we went to the firing range, and they were training us on M-16s, Remington Wingmaster shotguns. We didn’t get too much training on the M-60. That was more of a self-taught thing later on. but you know, 45 pistol. And I remember that the DI was setting me up with this 12gauge shotgun. And I had shot this so many times that I was really getting sore in my shoulder. And I made the mistake of holding that away from my shoulder, because it was so sore, and touching that off and that the butt of the gun came up across. Blackened both of my eyes and my nose was bleeding and that’s all that DI needed. That. And he called me out in front of everybody and dressed me down as an idiot and the whole nine yards. And never forgot that. I haven’t forgotten in 40-some odd years. But with that being…and I was stuck with that weapon for the rest of the day anyway, Jim, so by the time—I mean, my whole shoulder was black and blue. (00:18:47) Veteran: But it was something that I never forgot, and I thank him for that to this day because it was part of the discipline that you received that could have very easily saved my life, in some course of my time in Vietnam. Interviewer: Alright. Okay, now…So, then—so you do that weapons training at Camp Pendleton and then how much time did you spend at Pendleton, do you think? Veteran: I think we spent probably a week; I am guessing. Now, in the course of that time, I was supposed to receive to go to what they call SERE training. Have you ever heard of that? Survival, evasion, resistance, and escape. And in my records, they have that I went to that class for 3 weeks. And they are classes. They are set up. Interviewer: Yep. �12 Veteran: And it was signed off by a lieutenant. I never went. Never went, they just signed it off. They needed bodies for Vietnam, and they weren’t going to mess with taking the time to do that. Well with that being said, we went back to Coronado. And I remember one of the last classes we had was—they said, “You’re going to get a 10-day protocol leave. Go home, make arrangements with insurance and everything and blah blah blah…” And that’s when it registered. I had talked to the fellow next to me and I said, “What is he talking…?” I said, “Don’t they have insurance?” I said, “Don’t they take care of their own here?” And he looked at me and he said, “You really don’t know what’s going on yet, do you?” I said, “Well, I know I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer,” I said, “but no, I don’t.” He said, “Dude,” he said, “we’re going to Vietnam.” He said, “You’re going to be in combat on a naval support activity base or something.” This guy was fleet, so he had been in the Navy for a while. (00:20:57) Veteran: I said, “Well, go take care of your—what do they mean?” He says, “Life insurance in case you get offed or whatever, you have insurance to help your folks or whatever, should you desire.” And my heart sank. And I have to tell you, Jim, I was afraid. I was afraid. Because with what you had seen on the media through all these years was just nothing but heavy fire fighting and villages burning and all of that. And I thought of myself, coming out of the projects, as a fairly tough kid, you know. But that didn’t appeal to me one bit. Now, I don’t mind servicing my country or anything, but I certainly didn’t want to go to Vietnam. I mean, we are halfway around the globe. You know? And it’s not as though it is today where you can pick up your cell phone and call home from a war zone. Interviewer: Yeah. (00:22:06) Veteran: That—no, you can’t do that. So… �13 Interviewer: Okay, so what was it like to go back home that last time? Veteran: Well, of course you went out and got drunk a few times with your buddies. Now, what buddies were still there because a lot of them had already gone. And I guess it really—you still don’t really realize until you’re ready to step on the plane to go. And that did happen. I boarded in Muskegon. It’s a funny thing about the Navy is that we went over one by one. We didn’t go over as a group like—not like the Army and the Marine Corps where they would go over in a group. Interviewer: To Vietnam, most of them went one by one too. Veteran: Yeah? That’s crazy. And of course, you are getting on the plane and as the plane is taxiing down and you leave your hometown, and you look out the window and you are looking down at Lake Michigan. And of course, over on the other side is Mona Lake. And you are thinking am I ever going to see that again? You know? And so, you are afraid. You know, it’s the unknown. You are going into the unknown. And this is—it’s an adventure but it’s not the kind of adventure that you want. Interviewer: Right. Veteran: You know, so…Anyway. Interviewer: So, you go up. And then, do they fly you to Vietnam? Veteran: They did us. They—some of the Marines and everything were taken over by ship and everything. But they did us; flew us over there. And I can remember landing in Da Nang. And we had made one hop too on the way over there. Now that I recall, I think it was in Guam. Refueling or whatever. �14 Interviewer: Right. (00:24:04) Veteran: And we got into Da Nang. And I remember stepping—my first stepping out of the fuselage and breathing the tropical air and there was a different scent about it as well and it was humid, and it was hot. And I remember going through and back—just kind of backing up in San Francisco, they gave us a shot called the gamma globulin shot. It was a big shot, and it was a painful shot. But when I got of that plane, I was glad that I had that shot because it supposedly was supposed to thin out your blood and get you more acclimated to tropical. And I remember getting off the plane and looking around, thinking that there was going to be a fire fight. Of course, I am in Da Nang. Da Nang is big by then, and I mean they are just occupied by tons of American soldiers and sailors and airmen and all that business. So, we were there probably in Camp Tien Sha. This is northern I Corps now. And I can remember they were sending us to detachments. They had given a lot—we were in a…I think we were probably in an area about as big as this room. It was outside and there were benches set up. And I remember myself and two other swabbies getting over in the latter corner, way over there. Why? I had absolutely no idea because, you know, where we were going and what we were going to do was already determined. And as some of these guys stayed in Da Nang. Some of them were going out to an NSA Detachment—Naval Support Activity Detachments. And I remember they had gotten down to us. We were the only 3 guys there. All the rest of the guys had gotten up and took off to their barracks. (00:26:24) Veteran: And he said, “You 3 guys,” he says, “are going up to the northernmost detachments in South Vietnam.” And I thought oh my God, you have got to be kidding me. The very last place in the world that I wanted to go. So, 2 of them got—we got our orders and got our sea bags packed and we went up by what they call a “ski lack”. It’s a YFU. And it’s a flat bottom scow. �15 And I mean, you are going along the South China Sea, up north. And you are hitting all these waves, like this, and it’s an overnight stint. And I remember we entered the Cua Viet River, Dong Ha River. Some guys call it Dong Ha River, some guys call it Cua Viet River. But I remember going inland. And Cua Viet was right on the mouth of the South China Sea and the river. Two guys got dropped off there. One was a cook; I can’t remember what the other guy was. And then for me, I am the last guy. And we are going up by YFU in the rivers. And I am looking on the sides of the rivers, of course, and expecting to be hammered at any time. And we got up to a little place called Dong Ha. Well, Dong Ha was quite a bit bigger than what I envisioned because we were going—unbeknown to me at the time—we were stationed with the Marine Corps. (00:28:07) Veteran: Well, the ramp, or where these YFUs would pull up with—they would drop the ramp and there were supplies onboard. And this area that they called the ramp was all cemented and they had rough terrain forklifts that would come in, lift off the supplies. And it was more or less a staging area for that. There—of course, it was all fenced off. Three strand barbed wire, you know, all that business, with bunkers in certain areas. And I remember getting off and throwing my sea bag on this 6x, this truck. And they proceeded to take me up to the base. And when we had gotten up there, there was no one that I could visually see in the naval part of this. And I remember them dropping off my sea bag and jumping off of this thing and looking around. And I could see the mountains in the distance of Laos. And the truck had pulled away and there was no one there. And I see these little dust devils out, these little, you know, along there. And I remember looking up and I said, “This is the very last place on your green earth that I want to be.” And so, I did happen to see someone. And of course, you had to go to the admin building to check in and all that kind of stuff. �16 Interviewer: So, when was this? Approximate date, yeah. Veteran: This would be July of ’69. Interviewer: Okay. (00:30:03) Veteran: So, the war is still going pretty— Interviewer: Oh yeah. Veteran: --pretty hot and heavy. Or the conflict. To the guys that were there, it is a war. It’s not a conflict. Interviewer: Right, right. Veteran: It’s not a conflict, it’s a war. Our duties—I was assigned to a certain section. They had sections of people that would—basically the security people, because I was a gunner’s mate striker wanting to be a, you know, a petty officer gunner’s mate, I was assigned to security. And security there was—they had like I think it was 4 sections, Jim, if I am not mistaken, where we would rotate. You’d have a day shift and a night shift and then you’d rotate to a night shift and do a day shift, all that kind of stuff. And I remember being assigned to the ramp. Security on the ramp. And you get to know the guys in your section pretty well because you are basically in the same hooch, or the same housing. Which made sense. So, you’d become very tight with these guys. But you lose your sanity when you are over there because these guys are crazy. They do crazy stuff. And I laugh at it now, but I can remember—now, Dong Ha was one of the northernmost areas in South Vietnam. And they would get rocketed pretty regularly. I think I had been there for 2 or 3 days. And they had instructed me that in the middle—well, right by where �17 my ramp assignment was, there was a trapdoor. And this trapdoor was probably…Well, it was a 4x8 sheet of plywood. (00:32:14) Veteran: And underneath the hooch, they—the Seabees had dug trenches for us to be in too. And I can recall probably the second—again, the second or third night—you hear this whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! And the siren would go off, which meant we got incoming. And I can remember the leading petty officer of my hooch saying, “Incoming!” And all I remember is opening up that trap door and jumping into the trench. It was water in the trench. So, that was a real eye-opener in the middle of the night. When the all-clear siren sounded, I remember getting up off of there and the LP, or the leading petty officer, turned on the light. And he said, “Who was the first one in the trench?” I said, “I don’t know. I guess it would be me.” He says, “Did you rip the door off of the floor?” I said, “I don’t know.” I said, “I guess I probably did.” He says, “Then you get your ass down there to the Seabees and have them come up here and fix it.” “Now? Right now? It is in the middle of the night.” He said, “It doesn’t have to be right now,” he said, “but…” And he was a little warm at me but…I can remember rats running across my chest. And I hate rats and I hate them to this day. But that’s what I recall about that. Jim, we—various times out on the ramp, we would get incoming down there where we got into—some of the guys exchanged fire and all this other kind of stuff. We had fire fights. That’s where we got our combat action ribbons. All of that. I do remember spending time…we had gotten a shipment of black powder on a barge. (00:34:39) Veteran: And we were coming into Tet. Kind of a stupid time to be moving black powder and not removing it off. But for whatever reason, they had me standing watch: the mid watch on this black powder. And I remember going out there, and I had 2 bandoliers of M-16 clips and all of that stuff. And I had taken tracer rounds and did a couple of full clips of tracers in there. Because �18 I had no idea, you know, if we were going to get attacked or whatever. Maybe this would scare them or something, which it probably wouldn’t have anyway. And I remember standing watch on this and I was screaming and yelling all night long and singing. And I’d take random shots, you know, with the…And we had the XO on, which was a younger guy. And morning came and I remember Lieutenant Beatty coming in. This—of course, this was secondhanded I am hearing this, but I heard it from a guy that was in the admin building there. And he said, “Beatty came on,” he says, “and he said he wanted to know who the lunatic was that was out on the barge.” So, he told the XO, he says, “Go on out and,” they told, they said, “go on out and get Spyke and bring him in.” He said, “With all due respect, sir,” he says, “you go out and get him.” He says, “Well, what do you mean by that?” He says, “Do you hear him? This man is insane.” (00:36:25) Veteran: And anyway, for whatever reason, I came back in, and they wanted to see me. And he sat down. He says, “Spyke,” he said, “come on in. Sit down.” So, I did. He says, “What are you doing?” I said, “I am protecting myself.” He said, “You’re just crazy.” He says, “You know,” he said, “there could have been a whole frickin’ army out there of NVA,” he said, “you would have stood them off.” And I said, “Well, that really wasn’t what it was about.” I said, “Here is the thing,” I said, “the Vietnamese,” I said, “are like our American Indian. If you kill somebody that is dinky dow,” I said, “or,” I said, “it is very bad for you to kill someone that is insane.” He said, “Okay.” He says, “I got you.” And I said, “So, if I went out there,” and I said, “and I am spending all this time on that black powder,” I said, “there wouldn’t have been enough of me,” I said, “to put in a thimble,” I said, “should they have gotten me.” He says, “Well that’s really…” he says, “That’s pretty smart.” I said, “I don’t know how smart it was.” I said, “But I am still here.” Interviewer: Yeah. �19 Veteran: So…That’s one of the things that I remember. That and being blown off of the, you know, by that 175 Long Tom we were talking about earlier. Interviewer: Yeah. Well, that was an off-camera story. So… Veteran: Oh! Interviewer: Why don’t you talk about that. Yeah. Veteran: Okay. Alright. Well, we had—in this—on the ramp, they had a, what they called a point bunker, which was next to the river. But it was out a ways. And because of its distance from the rest of the, you know, the sailors there, we had two people that would man that bunker just because of its logistics and all that business. (00:38:28) Veteran: So, myself and this other swabbie jockey was in there one night. And because we had a mid-watch, there were two guys out there, we decided that I’d sleep a few hours, he’d sleep a few hours, vice versa. In that bunker—it was a double bunker, so in that bunker on the top part of that bunker, there were fire ports. And the fire ports were generally I am going to say a foot by three or four feet long. And we had them—there was one on this side and one on this side. And then we had two in the middle that we could—that we had a—that we could defend from. And it was my turn to sleep, and I remember, obviously going to sleep, but when I woke up, I found myself on the floor with a bloody nose. And of course, I had no idea how I got there. I was still disoriented. After I got my bearing, I asked this guy. I said, “What in the world happened?” He said, “I probably should have woke you up.” He said, “But the Army pulled up with a 175 and I am thinking it is probably from 16 feet, maybe 20 feet away.” He says, “And when they touched it off,” he said, “you fell on the floor.” He said, “You got blown off of the sandbags.” And I am thinking: what just happened? You know? (00:40:12) �20 Veteran: Of course, you don’t report things like that. I mean, you are in a combat zone. I mean, I figured this happened probably to everybody that was too close to a cannon that went off. But later on, talking to the guys that I associate with now, some of those guys were on tracks that had Long Toms. And I asked them that, “Are they powerful? Will the percussion of that knock a man off of…?” And they said, “Oh my gosh, Wes, if you were 100 yards down from a 175,” he says, “the percussion of that would knock you over like,” he says, “and you’re a big guy.” He said, “It wouldn’t have any problem knocking you down at all.” So, he said, “You really got away kind of lucky, you know, that you got blown off the sandbag but that is all that happened.” Well, of course I lost my hearing because of that. But you don’t report that stuff. So, that was… Interviewer: So, about how long did you spend doing security there? Veteran: About 5 months. I think about 5 months. Let’s see…It was about 5 months because flatter part of January of this following year now, February, January, I went to river security. My billet had opened up. Dong Ha Naval Support Activity was being turned over to the Vietnamese. We were no longer going to be a presence there. Interviewer: Now, what was the basic purpose of the base during those first 5-6 months when you were there? What was going on? You are security, but what’s the Navy doing there? Veteran: Well, the Navy is bringing in—we are bringing in supplies to the Marine Corps, the Army, Air Force, all that business. Air Force generally flew in their own business, so we didn’t get that. I shouldn’t even include them in that because I…But we would bring in supplies. Everything from wristwatches to C-Rats, C-Rations. So, we would have everything from �21 clothing to groceries to all of that business. And they would disperse that from there, wherever they were going with it. Interviewer: Okay. Now, did you have your own landing craft or river craft that were based— Veteran: Not at that time. Interviewer: Don’t play with your microphone, please. Veteran: Oh. Sorry. Interviewer: Yeah. Okay, so it is basically just a supply base at that point, yeah. (00:42:33) Veteran: It’s a supply. Interviewer: And you are parked there as security because they are waiting to assign you to boats but then it hasn’t happened yet. Veteran: Yeah. Interviewer: Okay. Veteran: Well, it’s not only security against the Vietnamese, it is also security against our own guys, you know. I hate to say that but that, you know, there was pilfering. Interviewer: Okay, now on a base like that, I mean, did you have people using drugs or do they have a way of getting drunk or anything else like that? Veteran: Oh, absolutely. You know, it is kind of amazing when—of course, now we are dealing with a lot of that those years following Vietnam. A lot of these guys were drunks; they turned into drunks. Well, you know, they would bring it in by the pallet loads. You know? Beer and all �22 that stuff. Of course, the officers would more or less get the, you know, the goods, the liquor, as opposed to beer. But oh my goodness, yeah. Whatever you wanted. I didn’t know too much about drugs there. I never got involved in drugging there, with the exception of I had a station with a fellow from Tennessee. His name was Will Glidewell. I will never forget him. He is deceased now. But I was always having trouble because during the—staying awake—because during the day, we would fill sandbags and stuff like that. Well, then you’d go on watch at night. Well, you are tired. And I would fight that. Oh my gosh, I would fight that. And by this time, this was my section. (00:44:11) Veteran: And I remember Will telling me, “Look,” he says, “I got some people from home that I went to college with.” He dropped out of college to go to Vietnam. Go figure. And he said, “Take a couple of these,” he says, “and it will keep you awake through the night.” Well, I resisted that and resisted that and resisted that because drugs scared me. And coming from a family whose mother was an RN, you know, we knew the danger in drugs. I finally took them. They were called black widows and they were amphetamine. Boy, you want to talk about uppers. Jim, oh my gosh. I was awake for three days. But boy, when you crash, you crash big time. And I remember telling Will, I said, “Don’t you ever, ever ask me to try these again.” I said, “These scared me to death.” Well, it’s about really all I can remember, Jim, about… Interviewer: Okay. Veteran: …about that. Well, let me tell you one thing. We were going—we were coming off of a watch down there and we were on our way back in a 6x and I remember being overrun. And I can remember that—now, this is between the ramp, which was about 3 miles away from the base, and I can remember getting underneath the 6x, up over the axles. I am a tall guy now, but I am only like 206 pounds, and I was 6’4’’ then, so I am about that big around. And but I �23 remember getting up over the axle and I remember that there was fire fighting going on. I remember black pajama bottoms running by the truck. (00:46:25) Veteran: And then I hear machine gun fire, which is our machine gun fire because you can tell the difference between Chinese communist weapons and ours. And it died down. I mean, it was quiet. So, I crawled out from underneath the truck. The other guys had come who had been gone over in the brush. And there was an Army duster that was there. And a duster is a—like a 6x with a set of—some of them even had 40-millimeter guns mounted on them. But this one I think had a quad 50 on it. Interviewer: 50 caliber machine guns, which our powerful enough. Veteran: Oh, absolutely. And generally, there were 4 of them in a quad 50, so quite a bit of fire power there. And boy, you want to talk about scared then because that really could have been a casualty then, particularly when you’re ambushed because you have no idea when it is coming, you know. That’s the element of surprise. Interviewer: Okay, so basically, it was possible for—now, do you think these were North Vietnamese sappers that came in or…? Veteran: No, I don’t think sappers or North Vietnamese— Interviewer: Or is this Viet Cong? Veteran: I think it was Viet Cong. Interviewer: Okay. Veteran: Yeah. �24 Interviewer: And was it common for them to come into that area? Or was that kind of attack pretty rare? Veteran: It was pretty rare for us. You know, one of our biggest allies there were the kids because we would always give them food, you know, and we’d chat with them through the wire, you know, and all this business. And being in security, of course, you walk the wire all the time, you walk the fence all the time, so you would, you know, you’d talk to these kids. And oftentimes, they would tell you they couldn’t pronounce my name Spyke. They would call me Sa-byke. Sa-byke. And they’d come up and say, “Sa-byke, the VC come tonight. You watch.” Of course, they spoke broken— Interviewer: Yeah. Yeah. (00:48:23) Veteran: --English. And but they were a tremendous ally to us. Of course, we gave them food, we joked around with them, made them laugh. And they made us laugh. But they would let us know if something was going to come down. They said, “They may come, they may not.” They said, “But…” one of the things the kids would tell us is, “Wait for the dark of the sky.” No moon. You know, watch for that. Or if it is raining at night, when it is wet, because you don’t hear them, you know. And so, they were a real asset to our living through that ordeal. But to remember all the things that went on there… Interviewer: Okay. Alright. So, you got us to the first half of your—in Vietnam—is kind of spent doing that kind of work. Veteran: Right. Interviewer: Okay. So, now the orders come. They are turning that Dong Ha base over to the Vietnamese. And now, where do you go and what do you do? �25 Veteran: I remember that my CO came, called me into his office. He said, “Spyke,” he says, “we are going to be leaving Vietnam.” He says, “We are going down to Da Nang,” he said, “because we are in shipping, we are in Lighter G.” And he said, “I see that in your chit,” which you can see that in my orders, that—your chit is a request. That’s what they call it in the Navy. “That you wanted to go to riverboats. You are a gunner’s mate,” he says, “however, your billet was not open at the time and we needed qualified people here. So,” he said, “that’s why we didn’t let you go.” And I said, “I read that on the chit, sir.” (00:50:20) Veteran: He said, “I am going to give you a choice.” He says, “You can—your billet is open down river at Cua Viet or why don’t you come down with us. We will party.” He said, “We are going to be in Da Nang, dude,” he says, “it’s party city. We will just party down for the rest of our tour and we will go home.” And I said, “No. No sir, I’d really rather go.” In one of my stupider moments. I know there isn’t such a thing as stupider but regardless of that, in one of my stupider moments, Jim, I said, “No sir,” I said, “this is what we trained to do. This is what I want to do.” Which, really, when I first came in the Navy, that’s the last thing that I wanted to do. So, he said, “Are you—do you know what you are doing? Are you sure you want to do this?” he said, “Do you know what those guys do?” And I said, “Well, I hear them and,” I said, “I can see them downriver when…” he said, “But they…” he said, “If that’s what you want to do then so be it. I will sign your orders.” So, he did, and I went down got assigned to an LCPL. They had taken the PBRs, the—really, the work horses for the—was a fiberglass boat. We restored one in Muskegon today, you know. And anyway, my boat was not a PBR, it was an LCPL, which was a World War 2 converted rivercraft. The first riverine people there were the Coast Guard and they had LCPLs. (00:52:19) �26 Veteran: They later came out with a fiberglass version, but we had a metal version. And we had a 50 caliber, fore and aft, 60 calibers on—you know—M-60s on the side. Plus, our small arms which consisted of 2 M-79 grenade launchers. I had an M-16, 12-gauge shotgun, and an M-14 with a night scope. Interviewer: So, that’s a conventional rifle. Veteran: It’s a conventional rifle but set up for night and sniper— Interviewer: Right. Veteran: --stuff. My job was to make sure that the guns were operational, that they were kept clean, that we had the ammunition we needed onboard, for any type of thing, whether we were going to use an M-79 grenade launcher or whether we were going to use the 50 calibers. The 50 caliber was a very, very good weapon. I mean, it’s a very old weapon but it is…Browning did his job when he designed that. But and we used that many times. Interviewer: Now, were you assigned to an individual craft or did you— Veteran: Yes, I was assigned—they went by—the PBRs were boat numbers. Ours were call numbers. The base was Big Dance and our boat, my boat, was Sierra. So, when they called us, you know, Big Dance, Sierra, and we’d call back Sierra, you know. It was a—where the PBRs were a twin water jet, double-engined rivercraft, with a draft of probably 9 inches to a foot on full power, under way, whereas the LCPLs had a draft probably about 3 feet. Single prop, single engine. Diesel. (00:54:39) Veteran: In a way, it was a better craft than PBRs. Not so much where I was, but in the delta, PBRs—the engines are hooked to huge jacuzzi pumps. Well, in order to get the jet craft like you �27 see on the kids driving them on the lakes today, there is a suction that is on the bottom of that. And these engines turn the pumps to—it sucks in the water into the impellers and the impellers shoot it out through nozzles, which are controlled. They don’t have rudders; they control them with the jet nozzles, where we had a rudder. The bad part about the PBRs is that the Vietnamese knew this, and they would cut up weed beds, send them down river, and they’d get caught up into the suction thing and they are dead in the water. Whereas, we didn’t have the speed that they did. I think top end, Jim, probably about 17 knots, about 23 miles an hour. Whereas the PBRs could hit 29, 30, 32 miles an hour; that’s cooking pretty good. Interviewer: Yeah. (00:56:07) Veteran: So, with that being said, it wouldn’t make any difference whether we had weed beds or not. The screws on our thing would just chew them up and, you know. Interviewer: Yeah. Veteran: So, we weren’t as fast as they were. PBRs had twin 50s, single 50 mounted aft, M-19 grenade launcher, automatic grenade launcher on theirs, and then they probably have an M-60 as well, where we had the 60s on the side and a 50fore and aft. So, fire power, they may have had a little more fire power than we did but when you are shooting 50 caliber, that’s a lot of fire power. Interviewer: Alright. Veteran: So… Interviewer: Now, what kind of reception do you get when you arrive at the base? Because you are kind of the new guy coming in. Veteran: I can’t remember. It couldn’t have been traumatic because I don’t remember it. �28 Interviewer: Okay. Veteran: They just assign you a rack and boat and you are to report there at such and such a time for a briefing or debriefing or whatever. Interviewer: Yeah. And you had been in country for 6 months, so you maybe looked like it by then. Veteran: Oh yeah. You are starting to—but it—you go into a point of…you are seasoned for that job and now you are breaking into something new. Even though you are in river security, it’s a completely different environment. I mean, there are no sandbags to protect you there. You are just an absolute sitting duck in the middle of duck season, if you will. But with that being said, there were boats that got dressed down pretty good…not so much as in 1968, during Tet, which is understandable. And the PBRs were the ones that were picked on the most. Why? I don’t know. But they seemed to be picked on the most. Again, I can only remember a couple of days or weeks that I was there, Jim. And it was River Division 543, PBR. And they used to have swift boats there as well, but they were long gone before I got there. Swift boats being PCF: Patrol Craft Fast. (00:58:39) Veteran: But they too had a large draft. So, for river patrolling, that’s not a good thing. That river was controlled by tides as well. So, you had to watch what you were doing there. I remember one time at night, we got caught onto a sandbar. And we just couldn’t get off of that thing. So, I finally had to jump in the river with a line and try and pull us off of that sandbar. I remember one night we were motoring up and it—for a night patrol. And there were two times—there were 12hour patrols. We’d call it port and starboard: one was night, and one was day. And they were 4hour patrols or longer. It could be longer. If there was a boat that was down or something, it �29 could get into a 24-hour patrol or whatever. But we didn’t have a lot of river to patrol. Probably 10, maybe 11, miles. And back then, there was a curfew on the Vietnamese. (01:00:08) Veteran: When the sun set, you were not to be on the rivers. And this one night, we were motoring upriver and just kind of barely cruising. And we happened to see what they call a bumboat. A bumboat is a sampan. We’d call it a bumboat because it would come around the boats when they came in and they’d bum stuff, cigarettes, stuff, off the other guys. And we saw this bumboat coming downriver and it was dark. I mean, we could have shot them. We could have opened up on them because you have no idea. I mean, they could be loaded with the, you know, explosives to get rid of the boats or whatever. But I remember there were torches on both ends of that bumboat. And we had another boat come up with what we call traffic cop, which was—generally had an officer onboard. I was down below. And I think I was napping or whatever. And our boat captain said, “Well, go on down there, grab some Z’s and…” you know. And I remember him telling me that the traffic cop came up and tied up alongside of us. And he said, “Wake up, Spyke.” So, he woke me up and brought me up on deck. They said, “You have corpsman training.” And I said, “No, I don’t.” They said, “It says in your record that you had corpsman training.” He said—but I said, “It doesn’t matter. The boat that is coming up here right now,” he says, “Has got a pregnant woman on it.” He says, “You’re going to look at her.” I says, “And do what?” And he said, “Look, I don’t think she’s going to pop a kid yet,” or something similar to that. An officer generally wouldn’t talk like that. But I says, “So, what are you—what do you want me to do?” They said, “Well, we can’t bring her on to—” our base was next to a Vietnamese Navy—what they called a junk base. They had junk walls. (01:02:42) Veteran: They said, “We are going to put you on the bank,” he says, “and we are going to take these other two guys in with us, get them clearance,” he says, “and then we will come back to get �30 you.” And I said, “Well, but—wait, wait. Wait.” I said, “You’re going to put me where?” They said, “Get over on the bank, Spyke, with this woman. And we will come back and get you.” “What am I supposed to do with her?” They said, “Just be with her. Protect her.” I am thinking now, we are in hostile area up here, Jim. I mean, we’re—the NVA is not far away. You can see their campfires at night. So, here I am on this riverbank with this woman, and she is as big as a house. And she’s holding on to my fingers, my two fingers. These two fingers, because I had an M-16 in this. And she’s going through labor. And she’s, “Ohhh!” like that. And I am thinking oh my gosh, I said, “I am in hostile territory and she’s screaming out here.” You know? Black as pitch again. And you’re here, all you have is a sampan, a pregnant woman, and she’s going through labor pains. (01:04:10) Veteran: And I can feel for her, but I am scared to absolute death. And I am thinking—because you’re alone. They didn’t—both boats took off. So, they left me with a sampan. Of course, they doused the torches, you know, so we are black. Anyway, she didn’t deliver, thank God. And I mean literally, thank God that she didn’t deliver. They came back up, of course, and put her onboard the chug boat and brough her back down to the base. Apparently, she was breeched or something. Or she was going to have problems and… So anyway, got back onboard there and I thought well, you ought to get a Silver Star for this one. But that didn’t happen. But you remember things like that. I mean, that was one event there. There were several. Interviewer: Okay. So, now you are up at the base at Cua Viet, and you are now in these converted landing craft conducting patrols. What types of missions were you carrying out? Veteran: Basically, our job was deny the waterways to the enemy for contraband, whatever they were running. Arms generally. And/or food supplies. That was basically our mission. However, we would do extractions of troops, insertions of some troops. Basically, being in a special ops �31 unit, which we didn’t know at the time. We would insert Special Forces personnel. We would work with Green Beret. We would work with the recon Marines, SEALs. We didn’t do too many SEALs. But Army snipers, Marine Corps snipers. (01:06:34) Veteran: And then of course, after their mission, you know, we would—at such and such a time, at such and such a location, so many clicks upriver, we would pick them up at such and such a time. Sometimes that was peaceful. Sometimes it wasn’t peaceful. For the most part, I can honestly say that it was peaceful. I do remember being in—well, just a little thing that goes along with this—I can remember being in Washington D.C. and we were going through—well, with these veterans, other veterans—we were going through the Vietnam part of the American history part of Smithsonian. And I was bringing my—to go into the Vietnam era room, you have to walk through the fuselage of a plane. And when you get in there, of to the righthand side there is a Dustoff helicopter or a medical helicopter. Mannequins are putting a stretcher onboard and there are various artifacts from Vietnam in there. And I was explaining to my wife, “This was…” and, “This was a, you know, Dustoff helicopter. Chopper.” There were 4 gentlemen in there with red satin jackets on and they had such and such Ranger outfit and all that stuff. And one of them looked over at me and he says, “Sir,” he said, “were you in Vietnam?” I said, “Yes, sir. I was.” And he said, “Well,” he says, “where were you?” And I—or “What branch of the service were you in?” I say, “United States Navy.” And he said, “Oh,” he said, “So, you were in, you know, shipping and all that stuff?” I said, “Ah, no.” He said, “Well, what did you do?” (01:08:36) Veteran: I said, “I was a river rat.” He said, “What year were you there?” I said, “’69, ’70.” He says, “Oh my gosh.” He says, “We ought to get down and kiss this guy’s feet.” And of course, these guys peeking—got their attention with that. He said, “Why? Why?” I said, “Why would you say that?” and he said, “We were under a horrendous fire fight in Northern I Corps.” He �32 says, “The Dong Ha, Cua Viet area.” He says, “That’s where you were at?” and I said, “Yes.” And he said, “They were unable to come in and get us.” And this guy says, he says, “I remember this boat coming around the point,” he says, “and they were just blazing.” He says, “His guns were just blazing.” He says, “They came up onto the—they beached it, grabbed us, pulled us onboard, took off,” he says, “and that rear 50,” he says, “was just singing.” He says, “Was that you?” I said, “I don’t know.” I said, “It could have been.” He says, “Oh my gosh. Thank you so much.” And you have to think, Jim, I said, “What were these guys thinking?” In their minds, for a split second, they were going to die. Interviewer: Yeah. Veteran: And you realize how important that was to them. We were brothers. Interviewer: Yep. Veteran: You know, at that time, the joking around, being a ground pounder and you being a squid or a fly boy and a—all that, or jarhead—all that stuff stops. You’re brothers then. And it isn’t that you are fighting for the red, white, and blue: you are fighting to get your brothers out of there. (01:10:28) Interviewer: Okay. So, did you have fire fights like that occasionally? Veteran: Oh yeah. Yeah, occasionally, yeah. Well, probably more than occasionally. More than I wanted. Interviewer: Okay. Now, you had mentioned off camera another incident that is worth noting. And you took one of these teams coming back and one of them having a strange aroma about it. �33 Veteran: Oh my gosh. That was…We were to meet a reconnaissance Marine. Recon Marines. Again, so many clicks upriver at such and such a point, at such and such a time. And we had gone up there and they were on time. They were waiting for us. And we pulled up and our boat wasn’t like a PBR. We couldn’t get—if we beached it way up there, we wouldn’t have been able to get it off. So, we were back a little ways. And I remember pulling these Marines onboard. And I pulled this one fellow up and sat him down. And I remember we came off the bank, headed back to Cua Viet. And I remember this sickening, putrid aroma coming from this guy sitting next to me. And I turned to him, and I said, “Dude, what is that smell?” and he said—and he had a bandolier, a necklace, of ears that they had cut off the Vietnamese. Now, if it was a fresh cut, Jim, it would have been one thing. (01:12:25) Veteran: But that rancid smell? He had to have these on for a while. And he said, “We just came on to whatever the North Vietnamese would call their patrols or whatever.” And he said, “They didn’t have anybody standing guard.” He said, “So, we killed them and cut off their ears.” And I am thinking to myself: what have we turned into? I mean seriously, what have we turned into? And it may not necessarily been right at that moment but you have a chance to process that on the way to the base or whatever. And it was the same philosophy: if they don’t have all their parts, they don’t go to Vietnamese heaven or Buddha or whatever that is. And I thought what have we turned into? And those thoughts…as you go back in time, you wonder about that. Would these guys have done anything like that if they wouldn’t have been in that situation? I mean, you have to think about that stuff, Jim, and I do to this day. You know? What did I turn into there? Because like we said before, you know, taking the lives of men, particularly those where you see their face and you have the decision of killing them or allowing them to live for �34 possibly a split second or whatever to kill you, that decision lies in a second. And sometimes not even that. And it’s a hell of a thing to take a man’s life. (01:14:33) Interviewer: Alright. Now, most of the situations when you are firing, would you even be able to see who you were firing at? Or was it usually gun flashes or…? Veteran: Well, I—the two that I did were in the river, putting in a percussion mine—a pressure mine, I mean. And what would happen is that they would sink these two below the surface of— probably a foot or so—just below the surface. And when the boats would run over them, of course, it would push that trigger down and blow the boats up. One of our mail carriers, as a matter of fact, was in one of those boats at one time and he almost died. He survived. He got thrown clear of the boat. So, I didn’t—this particular night that that incident happened, I didn’t see them. We had come around the point of the river and we were—it was like a snake. And we were going up toward Dong Ha, as a matter of fact. And it just so happens the two Vietnamese trainee gunner’s mates that I had on my boat happened to be looking in the starlight scope, which is—I don’t know if you are familiar with those or not, but they magnify the light so that you can see at night. And they happened to spot them. And they called me there and I verified that, you know, what they were doing. And I told the boat captain, and I said, “You know, we can’t let—I need to…” Well, anyway…we killed them and—I killed them. And in a sense, it is a thing that you have to do, but in another sense: what have I become? You know? So, that was another incident that you never forget. (01:16:48) Interviewer: Sure. Veteran: One day we were going—we were going to go out—water was a big thing because we’d get this water and it had so much chlorine in it because of the bugs and all that business. �35 We were going out seaside to the gunline, which we called the gunline which was our destroyers and all that stuff, 3 miles out. No big deal. But what we—we were going over the bar. Do you know what the—the bar is a sandbar— Interviewer: Sandbar at the river mouth? Veteran: --at the river mouth. And it can get pretty wild out there. If you have ever seen what the bar is like in the…I am trying to think of the name of the river. It’s what they train the Coast Guard in. It escapes me right now, but waves are huge. They are just absolutely huge, and I remember going—we were going up to go out to get fresh water and our boat captain decided to turn around. He said, “It’s too rough.” I was up in the forward mount, holding on to the butterfly, the handles of the 50, just to hold on. And he had made the turn on a wave and as we were coming down, we surfed down. And now, that boat was 32, 33 feet long. We weren’t at the bottom of that yet. And we surfed that down and I am thinking we must have mellowed out because we didn’t go under the water, but it came up over the prow. (01:18:39) Veteran: And brother, if that doesn’t make you a believer. Because in that surf, you wouldn’t survive in that surf. I mean, we didn’t have life vests on. All we had on—we didn’t even have our flak jackets on, which would have been detrimental anyway if you would have fallen in the water. So, that was another incident. But there are times—and I don’t know whether other sailors thought about this—but there are times, Jim, when you just get so tired of it, you think: if I jump in the water here, it’s only like a 7,000-mile swim. Serious. I am serious. And the South China Sea is loaded with hammerhead sharks. But you get so sick of it and tired of it. And you think: I want to go home. �36 Interviewer: Okay. Now, you were mentioning having Vietnamese trainees on the boat with you— Veteran: Yes. Interviewer: So, were you starting to—you working a lot with Vietnamese personnel? Veteran: Yeah. I had two of these guys. Phuc and Phan were their names. I don’t know if that was their first name or their last name or whatever it was. Phuc and Phan. And they were gunner’s mate trainees. And we attached ourselves very closely. And I can remember picking up these squirts because I’d have them under both arms. And they—of course, they’d tease me, and they’d laugh. And most of the time, I couldn’t understand what they were saying. But they’d say, “Sa-byke, boocoo mop,” which meant ‘big’. Very big. You know? And you know, you’d tickle these guys and all that stuff. And we became very close. And I have often wondered what happened to them when we left. (01:20:45) Veteran: But yeah, they’d—you’d train them on, you know, because they were going to inherit all of our stuff. Our boats, our armaments, everything. They were going to inherit that. So, they should know how to operate it, you know. And that’s what my job was: to train them. Interviewer: Okay. And were they learning anything? Veteran: Oh yeah. Yeah. Interviewer: Okay. Veteran: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. They were—the Vietnamese are quick studies. They are very smart, for the most part. And there may be a lot of GIs that don’t agree with me on that, but you know, for the…for what they had, they were fierce fighters. And justifiably so. We were in their �37 country. And I am not trying to make an un-American statement there. I am glad that I served in our military, but probably not in that event. Interviewer: Yeah. Veteran: You know… Interviewer: Aside from the pregnant woman, did you have much contact with civilians at all? Veteran: Once in a while I’d remove a fishhook from one of the fishermen out there. They’d— and they used a tobacco to—one of them was in the lip, I remember one time, and I—we had cutters onboard because you never wanted to pull it back through with the barb. So, you know…But this one guy had one caught in his lip. And I remember removing it but I cut the line and pulled it through the other, because they are very poor. You have to understand that. They were very poor. (01:22:36) Veteran: So, to buy these kind of fishhooks—we are not talking about the little fishhooks here, we are talking about hooks like this. And I remember cutting the line and pulling that through his lip, through the other way. And then he—just without even thinking, Jim, he had tobacco there or whatever that he was—I assumed it was tobacco. And he just put it on and thanked me for it and they went about their way. Oftentimes, if we had the patrol where we were in the harbor in front of the base, we’d be checking what they would call “con cucs”, or their identifications. And we’d call them over, you know, which means ‘come over here now.’ And they’d show us their identifications. Oftentimes, they would give us fresh shrimp. And I mean, this shrimp was still swimming around. And they were—it was a funny thing about those people. They had nothing but they shared nothing. Does that make sense? �38 Interviewer: Yeah. Veteran: You know, it didn’t make any difference if they had—if they had one shrimp, they’d cut it in half and give you half. That’s just the way they were. I can’t say that I fell in love with them, but I fell in love with the peasants’ philosophy, if that makes sense. Interviewer: Okay. Alright. But you didn’t have them working on the baser with you or— Veteran: They did. Interviewer: Okay. (01:24:13) Veteran: They did work on the base. They would come in and they would clean the hooch and stuff like that. Not so much in river security. We didn’t have that there. In Dong Ha they would. They would have them do laundry and stuff like that. But when we were on the river patrol boat base, when it was an ATSB, they weren’t on there at all. Interviewer: Okay. Alright. Okay. Now, are there other particular incidents from the time at Cua Viet that stand out for you? Either on missions or in the base or…? Veteran: Oh… Interviewer: Funny or serious. Veteran: We had a boat captain that came onboard. Came out of the fleet. He was a new guy. An FNG, what they called them, I am not—a Frickin’ New Guy. And he came onboard. He was a Bosun’s mate. And second class petty officer, I think. I can’t remember his name now, but I remember he came in out of the fleet, and he was going to—and most of us were well-seasoned by this time. I mean, we were—had been on the rivers for—I think I was in probably my 11th month maybe. And we were on a patrol, again, a night patrol. There was an island that was north �39 of the base but west. And we had—he had decided that he wanted to patrol this. The northwesternmost of the island. We were turning around, heading into—back to the main river. And we received small arm fire. (01:26:18) Veteran: And this guy being new was looking at the map at the dash of our boat. It was in red lights, so it didn’t impede your vision, your night vision. And he was calling in Army artillery. Now, you got to remember, this is a village. Civilians are in this village. He’s going to call in Army artillery. And keep in mind too, Jim, we are motoring out. We are in constant motion. And he gets on the map, and he calls our position—our position—in. And you can hear this coming in and whoosh! Right in the back of the boat. I am going to say—it was in the water, thank God, but right in the back of the boat, probably…I am going to say 50 yards. And I remember our mechanic, our engineman, getting up and he was already at a machine gun mount. And I remember him going over to him and ripping the microphone out of his hands. And I remember him saying, “Give me that!” And he called in and had them stop the firing. And of course, the boat captain wanted to know what was going on, you know, and he said, “Never ever call in our position.” He said, “The Army will put that in your back pocket.” He said, “They will calculate,” he said, “they will put it right in your back pocket.” He says, “These guys are that good.” So anyway, he was…He kind of got reprimanded from the engineman. But he wasn’t a very good boat captain. He was a guy that would assign duties to the boat, painting and stuff like that, and he’d go up to the hooch and go to sleep, where the rest of the crew would be down there turning to. (01:28:33) Veteran: And we had an ensign there that was similar to that. And he had talked to me, and he says—I had come in from the night patrol. He says, “Spyke, I want you to work with the ship fitters here. We are going to mount a new mortar on here, a 60-millimeter mortar.” I said, “On �40 the boat?” He said, “Well of course on the boat. Where else?” And I said, “The superstructure will never hold the recoil of that.” He said, “Don’t worry about it. It’s a trigger fired mortar.” He says, “No big deal.” I said, “It won’t hold it.” He says, “Spyke, if I want you to mount a field Howitzer…” I remember him to this day, “You’ll do it.” And I said, “Yes, sir.” So, I worked on it with the welder. Ship fitters are the welders and all that stuff. They mounted the transom on there. We are going to be…we are going to be enlightened before we go out on a night patrol. We are going to get training. So, they had put the round in there and of course this—I remember our ensign looked like Howdy Doody. I mean, he had freckles all over, the glasses like that, and you know, that kind of a smile, and you know, and all this stuff. And his name was Ensign Mayer. I will never forget him. And he said, “We are going to have a demonstration and all this stuff.” Well, I am in the back of the pack. I am in the back of some guys. And they put the round in there. Like I said, it was trigger fire. And they trigger fired that thing and the whole transom went like that. And I began to laugh, and I said, “I told you so! I told you so!” Well, I—as a result of that—I got EMT, which is extra military—EMI: extra military instruction, which means that I had to go out and I had to burn the crappers. Are you familiar with that term? (01:30:37) Interviewer: Yes, but you should explain it for the benefit of the audience. Veteran: Well, for the benefit of the audience, we have 2 or 3 whole outhouse that would have 55-gallon drums cut in half and slid, or in thirds, and slid underneath these holes for the outhouse. And when you did your duty in there, when it became full, we would pull this out and they were full of kerosine. And we would torch that and burn the waste. I think I got that duty for 2 months, besides the rest of all of that. And…But it was worth it. It was worth it. I got caught one time surfing behind the boat by Commander—Lieutenant Commander—Nicholson. And we were out one day, and it was horribly hot because there I think the highest we had in our hooch �41 was like 123? Something like that. Because they are Quonset huts, Jim, and they heat—they are like an oven. They heat up in the summer. And but we were out on day patrol. And I said, “Hey guys,” I said, “let’s throw in a life preserver, a life ring. I will hold onto it.” I said, “You can it and,” I says, “I’ll hold onto it.” I said, “If it gets too much, I will just let loose.” “Okay.” So, like I said, these guys are nuts anyway. And so, we did that. And of course, my idea, I was the first one to do it. And he motored out until we had the slack out of the line. (01:32:25) Veteran: And then I just—I had my arm like this. I just told him to can it. So, he did. And you are going along, you know, in the water and it formed a bubble over me so you could breathe in there and you’re doing almost like a body surfing behind this boat. Unbeknown to us at the time: Lieutenant Commander Nicholson was flying over to check the rivers on that day, and he had never did it before. Why he did it this time, I have no idea. Divine intervention or something maybe. Lord probably thinking well, this guy is really stupid. He needs to be caught or something. Whatever. Anyway, when we got back in, the person from administration came down as we were docking. And he says, “Commander Nicholson wants to see you guys.” Okay. We had no idea that—what was going to happen. We got in his office, and he said, “Close the door boys. I want to talk to you.” So, we close the door. And he said to us, he said, “Funny thing happened to me today.” He says, “I was going along the rivers,” he says, “and checking the riverboats, seeing what you guys were doing.” He says, “And I came upon this boat,” and he says, “and there was a wake behind it like a bubble.” He said, “Almost like a whale or something, or a dolphin, was following this boat.” He said, “And the funny thing was about it…” and he had to have this all set up in his mind. He says, “The funny thing about it,” he says, “is that this dolphin or whatever it was never got any further away from the boat and it never got any closer to the boat.” (01:34:31) �42 Veteran: He said, “Did you guys see anything like that?” He says, “I think it was your boat.” Well, he knew for sure it was our boat. And boat captain looked over at me and he said—he says, “Spyke,” he says—or Commander Nicholson says, “Spyke,” he says, “do you know anything about that?” I said, “I don’t remember seeing a whale or anything behind our boat.” And he said, “Well, let’s cut the crap.” He said, “Do you guys know that there is a war going on here?” And of course, I said, “Well yeah sir, I know.” He said, “If you weren’t one of my best gunner’s mate,” he said, “I’d have you’re a-s-s tacked up on the wall.” I said, “I have no excuse. It was hot.” He says, “I don’t care.” He says, “But there is a war on, guys. No more.” He said, “Do I make myself clear?” I said, “Crystal.” He says, “Okay. You are dismissed. Remember: I am going to be watching you guys.” Interviewer: Alright. Veteran: Okay. Interviewer: Okay. So, was your unit sort of small enough that somebody like that lieutenant commander knows you by name? Or did he just— Veteran: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, there was only I think 61 guys at the time left on the base. He knew who the crews were. Remember, there was only a crew of 4 guys. Interviewer: Right. (01:36:17) Veteran: You had a boat captain, you had a seaman that would take care of most of the deck stuff, the lines, the ropes, you know, that kind of stuff. You had an engineman whose primary job was the engines. And then of course, you had a gunner’s mate. Now, when you are in combat, everyone is assigned a firearm. And the boat captain generally, you know, rocks the boat. He’s the one that is what we would call the coxswain of the boat. He drives it. And so, I think there �43 were…I am going to say maybe 8 crews that were still there. Now, also, Jim, you had minesweeps, which were MSMG. Have you seen the war movies where the front of the thing drops down and the boat drops down and the guys get off? Interviewer: Yeah. Veteran: Excuse me. Those are river sweeps. And they would have two of those on each side of the river and it would come back to a float which would drag the river for mines. We did have those there as well. In fact, another guy from Muskegon was on a sweep. So, you know, you had incidents like that. It wasn’t all full-time combat. It just wasn’t. So, we did have some good times there. Not—few and far between but nonetheless there were some good times there. But…Go ahead. Interviewer: I was just going to ask with good times, did you get an R and R while you were there? Did you get to leave the base? (01:38:12) Veteran: Yeah. Yeah, I went on R and R. I never went outside of Vietnam. Interviewer: Okay. Veteran: I could have but I didn’t. In fact, one guy even said that he’d pay my way to go with him down to Australia, which is one of the R and R places. And I said, “No. No, no, no. I don’t want to do that.” So, because I was crazy enough probably to not even come back. I would go out in the bush and stay there, you know, in the outback. But anyway, no I didn’t do that, but I went down to R and R, and I made the mistake of—this was kind of like an R and R combined with the corpsmen had sent me down there for dental. And I said, “Well, why don’t I take a few more days and just do R and R as well?” They said, “Well, if you want to do that, that’s fine.” So, I had contacted my old CO from at Dong Ha. Because he had told me, “If you ever want to �44 come down, don’t come down by ship.” He says, “I’ll send a chopper up to get you.” I am thinking well, that’s pretty cool. So, I contacted him, and he says, “Don’t get on a ‘ski lack’.” He says, “I am going to send up the coachmen to come get you. They are going to—they make runs up there and Cua Viet is just a little bit out of their way. They will do it.” So, they did. And I had—I got onboard this Huey. And these two guys, the pilot and, the copilot, were laughing back and forth. They were chatting while I was getting in and I remember the copilot looking back into the chopper and he says, “Buckle up, squid.” So, I did. (01:40:10) Veteran: You know? And then my gosh, Jim, I got to tell you: that was a ride from absolute hell. These guys took off and they are laughing. I mean, they are “Ahhh!” and all this other stuff. And they are chasing Vietnamese. Now remember we are on the South China Sea now. So, it is like being out at Pere Marquette in Muskegon. Sugar sands. And they are chasing the Vietnamese. Now remember, these guys are only about 6 or 8 feet off of the ground and they are shooting along. And now, the fastest I have been in Vietnam here for this past year has been maybe 30 miles an hour, 25 miles an hour, at best. These guys are doing 100—over 100 knots. And I mean now you got a feel for how fast you are going because you are that close to the ground. And they are laughing, and these guys can turn these things on a dime, these Hueys. And they are going up and they are making a sweep and they are turning this thing around on a dime and my stomach is up into my throat and I am sicker than a dog. And these guys are really laughing. They finally get me down to Da Nang and I am at Camp Tien Sha. I spent my time there. My CO went out and got me so drunk that I was throwing up green bile fluid. Because he knew all the speakeasies and all this stuff, you know. All the illegal places. When you are in shipping, you get to know all that stuff. Well, he had made arrangements for me to get a ride back up there. Up back up to Cua �45 Viet. Lo and behold, I get on the chopper and these two same clowns are in there, this pilot and copilot. Same guys. (01:42:09) Veteran: Same thing. They finally set me down. And I said, “You know,” I said, “With your rank and everything being considered,” I said, “I’d like to take you on a boat ride sometime.” I said, “Come on up some time,” I said, “let me give you a boat ride.” They said, “See you later, squid.” And away they went. Never saw them again. But they knew exactly what they were doing. And yeah, you have to laugh about it now but back then I was pretty warm about that. Yeah, things like that sort of as we talk, things like that surface. Interviewer: Sure. Alright. Now are there other particular things that stand out for you, before we move you back out of Vietnam? Veteran: There probably are but I am not thinking of them. Interviewer: Okay. But you think we have kind of characterized pretty well what you were doing during that year in Vietnam? Veteran: Yeah. Oh yeah. Interviewer: Okay. So, when do you leave? Veteran: I left…When did I, gosh, when did I get back…? I got back in July of 1970. Interviewer: Okay. Veteran: We came back on July 3rd because I remember there was a guy that was getting off the plane. And of course, there were firecrackers and stuff going off and all that stuff. And this guy got off and he’s huddled down like he is dodging bullets. And come to find out, this guy was stationed in Cam Ranh Bay, which was an R and R place for— �46 Interviewer: Yeah, yeah. Veteran: And he was an admin. You know? Phony guy. And anyway, we got into…trying to think of… Interviewer: Did you go to San Francisco or Seattle or somewhere else? Veteran: No, I went to Long Beach. Interviewer: Okay. (01:44:11) Veteran: I flew into San Bernadino. Went from there to Long Beach to separate. They were going to separate us. So…which was cool. I was all about that. And it was a long weekend because of the 4th of July. Most of the base was going to be shut down, other than, you know, getting your food, stuff like medical and all that stuff. And I remember this guy from—he came out of the administration building. I think he was a yeoman, which was a Remington Raider. And he was—he said, “What are you doing, you know, over the weekend?” I said, “I am just waiting to get out of here.” He says, “Well, why don’t you…” he says, “You know, they got a thing like they have in New Jersey where they have the, you know, the Ferris wheels and all this other stuff.” Interviewer: An amusement park kind of thing. Veteran: Yeah, it was an amusement park, but it was…Yeah, but it was a smaller one, but they had arcades there. And he says, “If you’re not doing anything,” he says, “let’s go on in and screw around with that.” I said, “Okay. I am not doing anything else.” So, I went in with him and we went into this arcade, and I was playing pinball, which I never really play, you know, but I was playing pinball. And the next thing I knew, this guy was not there. Two other guys had come in �47 and they were watching me play, you know, pinball and stuff. And so, they kind of introduced themselves as, I don’t know, some kind of a name—Rocky or something. Blah blah blah. They said, “I understand that you might be looking for work.” And I said, “I am going back home.” I said, “I have a job secured at Brunswick Corporation, which incidentally, Jim, I forgot to mention this, that mortar that we did on the boat? Manufactured by Brunswick Corporation. I said, “Oh my gosh, I hope these guys weren’t taking a coffee break when they put this together.” (01:46:30) Veteran: But anyway, I said, “No, I am going—they are holding my job at Brunswick. I am going to go home.” And they said, “Well, we got work for you here.” And I said, “Doing what?” And they said, “Well, we know that you are a pretty fair marksman.” And basically, I am sifting through this, and I am thinking yeah, so what do you want? What does that mean? They said, “Well, you know…Would you like a job?” Without committing to what. I said, “No, I am going back home. I don’t want anything to do with this.” Well, after I began to think about this: who would know more about—and I don’t know whether these guys were government. I don’t know whether they were mob. I have no idea. But who else would be able to tell them that, other than the people that are working in the administration building and what you had in your records? If this guy is a marksman, we can use him for something. No. No, I am going home. I am going home. So, you know, that triggered while we were talking here. And I have told this to my wife, you know, and she…But I am here. I am here. You know, I didn’t want anything more to do with any of that business. So, came home. Went back to work at Brunswick and… (01:48:13) Veteran: Met my wife. And she knew I was a Vietnam vet. She didn’t know much about—some of her friends had come home in body bags. She’s a graduate of Mona Shores and some of her friends had come home in body bags. And she said, “You know Wes,” she said, “I used to be �48 cranked on, rah rah, United States, blah blah blah, at the beginning of this.” And she’s a schoolteacher. She’s college educated. Very smart gal. And she says, “As the war raged on and my friends were coming home in body bags,” she says, “it turned me so against that war. Not our soldiers but the war.” She says, “We could see…” I said, “One of the defining moments for me was Kent State. Fire upon your own people? Here are these people,” I said, “all they are there for was an education. Well, you gave them one.” And so, it kind of soured me that way. Like I explained to you before, it isn’t the war, the people that were involved in the war, it was the suits that put us there. And even though I have forgiven them, I will never forget about them. And I told my wife after we had our children, I said, “I will never ever allow my kids to go to war unless they are on our ground. If they are not a direct threat, there is no way on God’s green earth.” I said, “If I have to go to Alaska and raise potatoes and corn, you know,” I said, “no, it’s not going to happen.” (01:50:15) Interviewer: Okay. So, what kind of career did you go into? Veteran: I am a—actually, I went back to the Reserves. And my training officer was the union president at Story Chemical. And he had seen my progress and my stuff that I was studying and everything. He says, “You know,” he says, “there are some openings coming out at Story Chemical,” he says, “for a millwright and,” he said, “why don’t you come out and take a test.” I said, “What the heck is a millwright?” He says, “Well,” he says, “they are—” he says, “they are mechanics and,” he says, “but you have to go through a battery of tests to do that, to get into the program.” I said, ‘Well, I’ll tell you what…” His name was Darryl, Darryl Whitaker. I said, “I’ll tell you what Darryl,” I said, “I’ve got a couple weeks vacation coming from Brunswick.” I said, “If it is okay with them,” I said, “I’ll take a week out.” He says, “It’ll be about 3 days of a battery of exams over 3 days.” He says, “Not all day long.” He said, “But just—” I said, “Oh, okay.” I �49 said, “Like what?” he said, “Well, math.” He said, “General aptitudes, you know. Mechanical aptitude. Stuff like that.” I said, “Okay.” So, it was in—so, I took the exams and they called me up and said, “Well, we’d like to hire you to go through our apprenticeship.” And it was through the U.S. Department of Labor. The whole nine yards. And I said, “Well, I have another week.” I said, “If it is alright with you,” I said, “I’d like to come out there and work in it for a week and then make my decision based on that.” They said, “That’s fine.” So, I did, and I did and I, you know, got into the program and three and a half years later, I became a journeyman. And I worked in that probably for…as a mechanic mechanic…they closed down in 1973, I think. (01:52:35) Interviewer: So, not too long then. Veteran: Not too long but we worked a tremendous amount of overtime, and they applied our overtime hours. Because you have to put in a certain amount of hours to become a journeyman. And that consists of—I had ICS courses, I had Dupont courses, I had courses at Muskegon Community College. So anyway, you had to take these courses. And I completed all that before my time anyway. And the U.S. Department of Labor waived that time. They said whether its overtime or whether it isn’t, it’s OJT: it’s on the job training. You know, so I got my card. And I worked in that trade for probably 40-some odd years, Jim, but not always as a millwright. I went back to school, went back into advanced MIG and TIG welding, metallurgy, machine shop, stuff like that, because these were the fun courses. These were. And I realized that I wasn’t college material, but I wanted a higher education in technology. But I am going to say probably for the last 30 years, before I retired, I was into supervision. (01:54:11) Veteran: And some of these—and I was in supervision at—I became the maintenance manager at Brunswick. I worked at various jobs. And I was kind of—I can see where my PTSD came into it. �50 I was an angry guy. And I mean if that supervisor—if I didn’t like his tie that day, I’d just quit, go on to something else. In that day and age, you could because skilled trades were just—you could go anywhere. Walk across a street and get a job there. Well, my wife and I were figuring this out here a while back and I had—over that course—I had 54 jobs. And part of the…When you have PTSD, a lot of that accompanies that. Being very, very restless. And I didn’t need an excuse to quit or anything. Sometimes I just quit. Got fired from a couple of jobs. In fact, one of them was Story Chemical. A guy was trying my patience for probably 3 months and I finally…I mean, I busted him up pretty good. And I am sorry for that now. I didn’t get fired because he had just gotten into on the golf course with the personnel manager the night before. So, I got out easy. Well, my punishment was I couldn’t drill anybody for 6 months, but this guy couldn’t shoot his mouth off to anybody for 6 months. So, I don’t know which one was worse. I think he got the worst of the deal. Interviewer: Alright. Now, you mentioned the PTSD. At what point did you recognize that you had that? (01:56:15) Veteran: I didn’t. Didn’t recognize it until—because back then it wasn’t a buzzword. Interviewer: Sure. Veteran: We had no idea, you know, that that was a—one of the common characteristics of post traumatic stress disorder. Gotten into fights…And I mean at one time, before my wife and I were married, before I met her, I mean, my big deal was pizza, beer, and fight night. You know? And that’s kind of a sad thing to say, you know. Again, what did I turn into? You know? And you go through this elf analysis over the years, you know, of why did I become what I became? What prompted that? And but after—of course, after we had met and, you know, we had our kids and �51 all that stuff and—I think I was very nice to my kids. I was very tolerant of them. My wife and I had a very rocky first seven years. Very rocky. But the Lord bless. And I knew that I loved her. I wasn’t so sure at that time whether she liked me a whole lot, but we held it together and we are extremely happy now. Both of us are involved in ministry right now, one of them being in the Veterans Treatment Court from Muskegon County. She works with the veterans’ wives of us crazy guys that, you know…And quite frankly, Jim, they are suffering from secondary PTSD. Interviewer: Oh yes. (01:58:08) Veteran: You know, for the most part a lot of the times in self defense of the guy that—or person—that they married. We were fortunate that our marriage worked out. What breaks my heart is there are a lot of them that don’t. Sometimes you can get to them in time, sometimes you can’t get to them in time. But when I made the move—I was ordained in 2007. And at the time, the church that I was—I was a pastor of visitation in evangelism. And we had decided to start a campground ministry. And we did that. We bought a trailer and a truck, and all that jazz and we went out to the campgrounds. And I made a little display of all the flags, you know, the United States flag and the flag of Israel, and the Vietnam flag and the POW flag. And these guys would always come by, and they’d ask me about some of these flags and all that stuff. The majority of them were veterans. And of course, they’re—a lot of them were baby boomer veterans, same age as me or within a couple years one way or the other. And I told my wife, I said, “You know, I am wondering if the Lord is really directing us to minister to combat vets?” And my wife in her infinite wisdom, she said, “Well, Wes,” she said, “what a shoe in.” She says, “You are a combat vet. Who can they relate to better than someone who’d been there, done that?” Interviewer: Yeah. �52 Veteran: And the majority of them—she was right. The majority of these guys will not talk to people unless you are a combat vet because then their whole thing is, if I can quote, “You ain’t been there, you ain’t done it.” Well, okay. Interviewer: Yeah. (02:00:20) Veteran: You know? And so, a boyhood friend of mine at the time was the director of the Veterans Affairs for Muskegon County. A fellow by the name of Dave Ealing. Very good friend of mine. We were raised together. And he said, “Wes,” he said, “you have been a pastor for a while now and,” he says, “I know that you are not pastoring in that position in that church anymore.” I said, “No.” I said, “You know,” I said, “I feel my—that the Lord is directing me outside of the church.” I said, “Because you know Dave,” I said, “a majority of these guys don’t go to church.” And I says, “And I am not saying that the answer,” I said, “is in religion, but it— for me—it is in the relationship with Christ, not the church.” And I said, “I see the downfall in manmade rules, manmade things,” I said, “that aren’t really Biblical.” And I said, “And I can’t do that.” I said, “When I deal with these guys,” I said, “I am constantly reminded these are my brothers. These are souls. And I can’t help them if I don’t believe in what I am doing.” I said, “If that makes sense.” He says, “It makes perfect sense. When are you coming down?” Well, we went through that for about 3 years, Jim. I finally relented and I said, “Well, Dave,” I said, “if you got a place for me down—” he says, “I got a room for you.” And he says, “And we can set you up.” And he did. (02:02:16) Veteran: And we started ministering on a counseling basis with other vets. Then we had a new wave that was sweeping in the judicial system, dealing with vets. It was called Treatment Courts. Dave had gotten some people together to go down to—or over to—Washington D.C. It was their first boot camp. And we went and we got our prosecutor to go. We had the sheriff go. The judge �53 went. Myself, my wife went. Of course, David. And what an eye opener that was because you’re rubbing shoulders with people that want to make the difference in a veteran’s life and give them a second chance for those that are dealing with post traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injuries, or closed head injuries. And it just made perfect sense to us, and we did that. We had a group of people that would come in—before we went to Washington D.C.—we had a group of people that was doing this out in Oklahoma, you know, places like that. Which made a tremendous amount of sense to all of us. And we did that. And we were getting veterans in there and, Jim, it was making a difference in their lives. What we found over the years that—what’s happening with these guys—first of all, they go in for care to the VA. And thank God there is a VA, by the way. I have never gotten poor care from them. And I am 100% disabled through them. But what would happen is that a lot of these guys would be put on psychotropics. (02:04:30) Veteran: And they would get out and they would mix these psychotropics with alcohol or drugs or both. And that turns into a very toxic cocktail. And they run in, and they have brushes with the law. And it’s usually DUIs and all of that. Some of them are domestic disputes. We generally don’t take cases that are violent cases. Murder, rape, that type of thing. But we have taken some that have gotten into domestic violence. And we found that it made a big difference. One of our key, star guys tried to commit suicide twice by bullet. He was so drunk he said, and Dan will laugh at this time about, you know, when he talks about this. He said, “I was so drunk.” He said, “I had it in right at my head,” he says, “and I was so drunk,” he said, “I passed out. The gun fired. The bullet went into the wall.” And he said, “What I am here for is that a discharge of firearm inside the village limits.” And he turned out to be a world class guy because he is a �54 mentor now in our court. And we are getting more and more people that have gone through that court to become mentors in helping these people. (02:06:16) Interviewer: Are you dealing mostly with sort of your generation? Are you getting younger veterans now? Veteran: We are getting—oh yeah, we are getting young vets. Because now, the Iraqi vets are the older vets. Interviewer: Yeah. Veteran: You know? And the Afghan vets not—they are coming in but not like the Iraqi vets did. Interviewer: Yeah. Well, we sent rather larger numbers of people to Iraq than Afghanistan. Veteran: Yes. Interviewer: I mean, we were in Afghanistan first but— Veteran: Yes. Interviewer: But in relatively small numbers to start with but yeah, but it is still ongoing. Yeah. Veteran: And but at first it was Vietnam vets. You know, that’s what got around. Of course, we are baby boomers and that seemed to get around. But when we came to the Iraqi vets, boy, what a treasure trove of guys that was. Lots of them. Lots of them, Jim. And a lot of them are dealing with moral injury. A lot of them. One of the guys was telling me, he said he was involved in armor. And he said and we would go by, you know of course, they had this Republican guard and all this and blah blah blah. He says they didn’t stand a chance, he says, against our �55 firepower. Not a chance. He says our tanks were so much more advanced than theirs. Laser lockon and all that business. And he said, “You know, you’d go by on your way to Baghdad, and you’d go by these tanks that were just burned-out cinders. And,” he said, “sometimes the bodies were still on there and…” And I say, “You know, the sad part about that is is that that’s somebody’s brother.” Interviewer: Right. Veteran: Or…That’s the thing that I always come back to, Jim. And I know dealing with moral injury…I know how that feels. So, I can relate to these guys, how that feels. And how to approach them about that because you know a lot of these guys, they harbor that. They hold that in, and they harbor that, thinking that if I—same way I felt. If I tell that to my wife, is she going to think differently of me than when she first met me, even though I am the same guy? (02:08:28) Veteran: You know? And so, they harbor that, and they continue to live with it. And so, that’s the point of that ministry is to help. Not to beat them up with the Bible. You know, they don’t need that. They already know who they are and what they are, you know. They need to know that there is something outside of that. And the only way…And we used to hear all this business about psychology and this and that and the other thing. And I say, “And that’s okay to a certain level.” I said, “But sometimes, you’ve got to get to the inner level and that is the spirit. You can’t get there psychologically. You can only get there through faith.” And some of them disagree with me, and that’s okay. But I have seen in with my own eyes. I have seen what works. That coupled with psychology? Now you are doing something. You know? You are dealing with forgiveness; you are dealing with why you did what you did. You know, and when psychology comes into it, now we can help you from here. Now that you have recognized you have this �56 problem, now we can help you with this. And I thank the VA for doing that. And of course, the medical issues that they are dealing with. I am dealing a lot with the Agent Orange thing, which is concentrated in the rivers because of storm water runoff. Interviewer: Right. Right. (02:10:04) Veteran: So, we are dealing with that. We host a—several veterans events where they can just come and let their hair down. We were facilitators of a PTSD group for probably 7 years. And now, one of my best friends is now doing that with his wife. We just became so busy that…I attend this thing every once in a while, but, you know, and I should probably attend it more. Interviewer: Well, it’s a pretty long way from enlisting in the Navy to stay out of Vietnam and go on a battleship. Veteran: It’s a long ways. Interviewer: But you have kind of brought it around full circle and put yourself back into a good place and you can do positive things from where you are. Veteran: Well, it’s a good place for me. And I hope it is a good place for them. We try to. I am a cross between a pacifist and a patriot. I know that there is going to wars, and I know that there is going to be rumors of wars, Jim, I already know that. But where do we go from here? Where do we go with—in the wake of that? Where do we go? Do we become staunch and say we will just live with it, guys? And that’s just the way it is? Or…Are we going to be compassionate? And understand okay, I know why we went here is to protect our families and our grandkids and our freedoms, and all this business. But what about the wake of that? Because there—even though there is collateral damage, a lot of that is with our own troops. A lot of it is with our own troops. �57 Interviewer: Yeah, very much so. Alright. Veteran: But anyway, I…We are where we are, and I am where I am. And I am comfortable in that. We—I would like to see more veterans comfortable with that. And my wife and I are both working toward that. And sometimes, that’s a long struggle, Jim. That isn’t something you get over overnight, particularly when you have been dealing with it for the last 47, 48, years. 50 years for some. Interviewer: Alright. Alright. Well, thank you very much for coming in and sharing tour story today. Veteran: You are welcome. You are welcome. Thank you for having me. (02:12:37) � 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 SpykeW2350V Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Spyke, Wesley Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-02 Title A name given to the resource Spyke, Wesley (Interview transcript and video), 2019 Description An account of the resource Wesley Spyke was born in 1948 in Muskegon, Michigan. He graduated from high school in 1966. He enlisted in the Navy Reserve in April of 1968. Wesley completed bootcamp at Naval Station Great Lakes, Illinois. He became a gunner’s mate in the Navy. He received additional gunnery training in Coronado, California. Wesley did small arms training at Camp Pendleton, California. He received orders to Vietnam in July of 1969. He was initially stationed at Dong Ha, Vietnam. Wesley did river security on riverboats for about 5 months. He then was moved to a base at Cua Viet, Vietnam, where he continued to do river patrols and aided in extractions and insertions of Special Forces personnel at various points along the riverways. While in Vietnam, Wesley was involved in various skirmishes. He returned from Vietnam in July of 1970. He is now actively involved in ministry. Wesley and his wife currently work with the Veterans Treatment Court of Muskegon County. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) WKTV (Wyoming, Mich.) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States—History, Military Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975—Personal narratives, American Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries, Special Collections & University Archives, 1 Campus Drive, Allendale, MI, 49401. Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/bdb6a26bcbb1996741450d2e374893aa.jpg 918be4261aa9825ed23149cc11b8b51c 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 Otto Kuxhaus collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kuxhaus, Otto Description An account of the resource Photographs collected by Otto Kuxhaus. Materials document his tour of duty with the 81st Squadron and his leisure time activities. Some photos of family and friends are also included. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant World War II Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1941/1971 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/506">Otto Kuxhaus World War II collection (RHC-57)</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 World War, 1939-1945 World War, 1939-1945 -- Campaigns -- Africa, North World War, 1939-1945 -- Campaigns -- Italy Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-57 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-57_OKuxhaus10 Title A name given to the resource Squadron on tour of Palestine and Syria Subject The topic of the resource World War, 1939-1945 United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military United States. Army. Corps of Engineers Scrapbooks Photographs Description An account of the resource Squadron on tour of Palestine and Syria, 1943. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kuxhaus, Otto Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1943 Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Otto Kuxhaus WWII collection, RHC- 57 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant World War II 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 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/90b1983b7d2b99d03b05b0e3eb10289f.jpg b2c69ee23ea838d2eba45a6a93a7d0bd 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 Robert H. Merrill photographs Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Merrill, Robert H., 1881-1955 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1909/1950 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Robert H. Merrill papers (RHC-222) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-222 Description An account of the resource Photographs, negatives, and lantern slides digitized from the papers of engineer and archaeologist Robert H. Merrill. A Grand Rapids native, Merrill held an accomplished career as a civil engineer. He founded the company Spooner & Merrill, which held offices in Grand Rapids and Chicago. From 1919-1921, Merrill lived in China, working as Assistant Principal Engineer on a reconstruction of the Grand Canal - the oldest and longest canal system in the world. Merrill became fascinated by archaeology, and among other projects, he traveled to the Uxmal Pyramids in Yucatan, Mexico, with a research expedition from Tulane University. Merrill's photo collection includes images of his travels and projects, friends and family. 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 Merrill_FilmPacks_6_012 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1937-04-04 Title A name given to the resource Square at Sorrento Description An account of the resource Black and white photograph of the town square at Sorrento. Groups of people are walking around the square, and buildings are visible in the background. Subject The topic of the resource Italy Sorrento (Italy) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Robert H. Merrill papers (RHC-222) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Merrill, Robert H., 1881-1955 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4d704c5a2fd8b385eb98263ebdfc88bb.jpg bb5bb430cc9a86a2c6bfce4277ff4979 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 Naval Recognition Training Slides Subject The topic of the resource Slides Military education Airplanes, Military--Recognition Warships--Recognition World War, 1939-1945 Description An account of the resource Slides developed during World War II as a training tool, for top-side battle-station personnel on board ship and for all aircraft personnel, by the US Navy. In 1942 a Recognition School was established by the Navy at Ohio State University where the method of identification was developed. In 1943 the school was taken over by the US Navy. The importance of training in visual recognition of ships and aircraft became even more evident during World War II. Mistakes resulting in costly errors and loss of life led to an increased emphasis on recognition as a vital skill. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource United States. Navy Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/477">Naval recognition slides (RHC-50)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-04-04 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-50 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1943-1953 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. Source <a href="http://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/477">Naval recognition slides, RHC-50</a> 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-50_1198 Title A name given to the resource SR/A1 Seaplane fighter Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource United States. Navy Description An account of the resource SR/A1 Seaplane British fighter, October 1, 1947. Subject The topic of the resource United States. Navy Military education Airplanes, Military--Recognition World War, 1939-1945 Slides Great Britain Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Naval recognition slides (RHC-50) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1947-10-01 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/5680d86d86bcd53114a06c469733eded.jpg 62541f3abd722a4c53576de139c5d3a0 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 Naval Recognition Training Slides Subject The topic of the resource Slides Military education Airplanes, Military--Recognition Warships--Recognition World War, 1939-1945 Description An account of the resource Slides developed during World War II as a training tool, for top-side battle-station personnel on board ship and for all aircraft personnel, by the US Navy. In 1942 a Recognition School was established by the Navy at Ohio State University where the method of identification was developed. In 1943 the school was taken over by the US Navy. The importance of training in visual recognition of ships and aircraft became even more evident during World War II. Mistakes resulting in costly errors and loss of life led to an increased emphasis on recognition as a vital skill. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource United States. Navy Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/477">Naval recognition slides (RHC-50)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-04-04 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-50 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1943-1953 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. Source <a href="http://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/477">Naval recognition slides, RHC-50</a> 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-50_MX734 Title A name given to the resource SS Carbonero submarine Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource United States. Navy Description An account of the resource Balao class, SS Carbonero, US SS (submarine), May 10, 1945. Subject The topic of the resource United States. Navy World War, 1939-1945 Military education Warships--Recognition Slides Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Naval recognition slides (RHC-50) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1945-05-10 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/cb4389d125f17e3232acf427657cdf45.jpg 1a5201f2297179534a18ffb4929b0f60 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 Naval Recognition Training Slides Subject The topic of the resource Slides Military education Airplanes, Military--Recognition Warships--Recognition World War, 1939-1945 Description An account of the resource Slides developed during World War II as a training tool, for top-side battle-station personnel on board ship and for all aircraft personnel, by the US Navy. In 1942 a Recognition School was established by the Navy at Ohio State University where the method of identification was developed. In 1943 the school was taken over by the US Navy. The importance of training in visual recognition of ships and aircraft became even more evident during World War II. Mistakes resulting in costly errors and loss of life led to an increased emphasis on recognition as a vital skill. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource United States. Navy Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/477">Naval recognition slides (RHC-50)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-04-04 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-50 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1943-1953 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. Source <a href="http://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/477">Naval recognition slides, RHC-50</a> 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-50_MX738 Title A name given to the resource SS Carbonero submarine Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource United States. Navy Description An account of the resource Balao class, SS Carbonero, US SS (submarine), May 10, 1945. Subject The topic of the resource United States. Navy World War, 1939-1945 Military education Warships--Recognition Slides Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Naval recognition slides (RHC-50) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1945-05-10 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives