Vietnam vets in their 'last dance' - Airman's World

Airman, August, 2002 by Sonny Staff Sgt. Cohrs

OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM -- Eight reservists in the 320th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron have some war experiences to pass on -- from the Vietnam War.

The men are Chief Master Sgt. Merritt Porter, Senior Master Sgts. Sonny Cannon, Gerald Gullett and Tim Hiott, Master Sgts. George Aldrich, Ronald Gore and John Murray, and Tech. Sgt. George Frazier. All are with the 315th Civil Engineering Squadron, Charleston Air Force Base, S.C.

All volunteered for service during an unpopular war and returned home to a nation that largely shunned them. Despite this, all opted to serve again. Each had a break In service, with some taking as long as 15 years before donning the uniform once more.

Now in their 50s, they all said the growing sense of patriotism that has swelled the nation since Sept. 11 will help them end their careers on high notes.

It's their "last dance."

It's quite a change for Cannon. He Joined the Air Force 10 days after his high school graduation. When he returned home from a tour at Clark Air Base, Philippines, he was on a San Francisco cable car and people spit on him three times because he was in uniform.

It's a different story today. Thirty years after Vietnam, Americans thank them and shake their hands for their service.

Murray, the "grunt" of the group, spent three years, seven months and 29 days in the Marine Corps -- though he wasn't counting. He was a "ground pounder" in Vietnam from May 1966 to June 1967. He patrolled from Da Nang to the Demilitarized Zone.

"I spent about 14 months horrified," he said. "Time resolves it all. You don't bring back bad memories all the time, so you just try to put them out of your mind the best you can."

Like most of the eight vets, Murray doesn't talk much about his combat time. But he does like to recall the good times with friends.

"Almost every memory I have of that whole experience is good -- because of the people and because of the country," he said.

Aldrich doesn't believe in telling war stories "because there's no thrill to it or remembering the pain that goes with it."

The day before Frazier arrived "in country" in March 1969, his unit's gunnery sergeant was killed while rescuing an aircrew from an aircraft that crashed at the end of the runway.

"We got rocketed every night I was there," he said. "When somebody lights a firecracker, I still jump. A lot of things you never get over."

Hiott was a door gunner on a Huey helicopter gunship with more than 900 combat hours.

"I saw a lot of unpleasant things. Lost many friends. If I saw somebody trying to hurt our guys, it was my job not to let that happen."

Gore, a retired industrial mechanic and self-employed plumber, worked with the 40th Air Rescue Recovery unit.

"I reckon the one [memory] that sticks out to me is when we picked up survivors and kept them out of the hands of the enemy." At the time, Gore was a helicopter mechanic at Royal Udorn Air Base, Thailand, where he served from December 1968 to December 1969. He kept the choppers -- often a soldier's only lifeline to safety -- in the air.

Porter, who was in Thailand from February 1967 to February 1968, said though he and some of the others weren't actually in Viemam, they were still close to the action.

"Our pilots were there every day, and we saw the results of plane crashes and the loss of lives," he said.

"If I had to do it all over, I would," Aldridge said of his 1969 tour in Vietnam. "Without people being able to do that, our country would be in a world of trouble."