Local Vets Share Deployment Memories By Chuck Mahaleris
Approximately 200,000 American troops are poised in the Persian Gulf region and prepared to invade Iraq when those order come. Local veterans from earlier military conflicts share memories of their deployments.
Richard Prince of Gray was sent to Korea in the early 1950s. "I know when I got ready for war I was really frightened. I didn't know what to expect. I had never been to war before but you get acclimated real fast." Prince was 24 years old and worked in the battalion headquarters supplying ammunition to the front lines during the Korean Conflict.
He recalls that there wasn't as much news coverage during that conflict as there is today. "It wasn't as newsworthy evidently as it is today. News coverage was nothing like it is today. Everything was quite secretive. When I left the United States I couldn't even tell my folks. We were given uniforms like we were going to a warm climate but we went to a cold climate. It was very secretive."
When asked how he had been prepared for his assignment he said: "They handed me a rifle that I had never fired before and I fired five rounds. They informed me that within a week I would be in South Korea." He spent 18 months there but the most difficult experience came during one episode of the campaign.
"The Chinese intervention came in and they were overrunning our troops up north and we were ordered south. We could hear the gunfire and cannon fire. We had to go forty miles east to get to the road before we could head south and that was my most anxious moment." Looking back on the experience he says: "It didn't appear that we had done much good because we are almost in the same condition as we were then with North Korea," When asked what advice he has for today's soldiers he said: "They have their new modern warfare and their leaders know what they are doing. They should do as they are told and get it over with."
Prince made the military his career staying in for 26 years before retiring at the rank of chief warrant officer w-4.One Vietnam War vet shared his deployment experience. "You think of your family. You think about how they are going to make out while you are gone. You don't think about yourself. I didn't know where I was going.
At that time Vietnam was not a popular war. You also had restrictions on what you could do and what you couldn't do. Personally, I think it was more of a political war." He served as 1st Sgt maintaining firebases that included ten locations with men stationed at each one. Of his buddies who went over with him, he said: "I think most of them could handle it. As long as they stayed away from drugs they could handle it." What was coming home like? "Nobody was at the airports when we came back. I guess we all sort of knew it wasn't too popular back here but we were sent there to do a job and we did it."
About today's combat soldiers he said: "You just hope that things turn out ok. They all have been trained on what to do. You also need a little luck too, probably."
Dan True also served during the Vietnam War. "I was drafted originally. I then enlisted so I could sign up for what I wanted but ended up serving as a linguist." True had taken French in high school and Spanish in college. "They put me through Vietnamese school stateside for just about a year. We pretty much knew when they sent us to the school where we were going." In 1972, during the peace accord negotiations, True was sent to Vietnam. "I was in country for seven months."
When asked about his memories of deployment he said: "I was nervous as hell. My parents were concerned. I had a brother who had just come back from over there and I had a brother in law who was killed there. I don't know if you can prepare yourself. You spend a lot of time thinking about what could happen. You end up just going over and you hope for the best."
After seven months, rumors circulated and soon True and his buddies began heading stateside. "I wasn't the least bit disappointed at all to be leaving. It's always fun to come home." True supports those who are serving their nation today. "God bless them. We support them. No matter how you feel about the war- we all support the troops."
