Glen Heinold: ‘The Good Lord looked after me’

By Al Rodriguez, Honor Flight Chicago Veteran Interview Volunteer

Glen Heinold spent a year in Cu Chi, Vietnam, without being fired at by the enemy. He was an ambulance driver on the Army base, and when asked, drove the medics to the local villages.  All these years later, he has had no ill effects from the chemicals sprayed in Vietnam.  He said: “The Good Lord looked after me.”

Glen was born in Valparaiso but was raised in Kouts, Indiana. He is the youngest son of nine children. His father owned a farm that grew crops and also had dairy cows so there was plenty of work for all of them. Two of his brothers were in the military, one serving during the Korean War and one other brother serving during the Vietnam War. As Glen got older he learned to drive the farm equipment and he worked at his cousin’s hog market, prepping and driving the hogs to the packing houses. In 1967, Glen graduated from high school. He attended Indiana University in Bloomington but after his freshman year he decided to go back home to help his dad with the farm. Losing his college deferment, he was drafted in the Army.

In June of 1968, Glen was sent to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, for basic training. He thought he was in good physical shape from working on the farm but the daily calisthenics made him sore. The drill instructor asked the platoon how many of them were sore. Glen and others raised their hands and they were told to push Texas soil and give him 100 more pushups. That wasn’t the only time he was on the Texas soil. If you didn’t stand at parade rest during chow, they put you in the dying cockroach position, lying on the floor with your arms and legs up. This position doesn’t sound harsh until you’re about five minutes into it and your body starts to ache. In September he finished basic and signed up for truck driver training at Camp Bullis, Texas. It taught him how to drive all types of military vehicles, M-35 2 ½ ton troop transports, jeeps and ambulances. After driving combines and other big trucks, these were a piece of cake. He was sent for his Advanced Individual Training as a medic back to Fort Sam Houston. He completed this six-week course in time to go home for Thanksgiving before he had to report to Vietnam. 

On the first week of December, Glen travelled to San Francisco and then to Oakland to be processed for Vietnam. He flew out of Oakland Army Base with a one and a half hour layover in Hawaii. Wanting to see Hawaii, he walked up to the airport observation deck. He breathed in the Hawaiian air that was a little muggy with a sea smell. After a stop in Japan, he arrived at Long Binh the major hub for the Army in Vietnam and was assigned to the 25th Infantry Division at Cu Chi. Newly arrived and without an assignment, every morning they had him police the battalion grounds, picking up cigarette butts and garbage.

One morning a sergeant approached the group and he noticed some of the guys around him disappeared. Glen soon found out why, the sergeant assigned them to clean out the barrels underneath the outhouses. He said it was the worse job he ever did, even worse than cleaning stalls on his dad’s farm. The next day he kept an eye out for that sergeant. After a few days he was assigned to the 25th Medical Battalion as an ambulance driver.  The helicopters flew in with the injured and sick. He was assigned to transport anybody unable to walk and take them to sick call. One of the more unpleasant duties was to transport the bodies brought in for the doctors to examine and pronounce dead. He was also asked to drive the medical team into the local villages so they could treat minor injuries and illnesses. He said going outside of the gates made him nervous but he made it back without incident.

In April the battalion commander sent for Glen to interview for the battalion mail clerk position. The most important question he asked Glen was if he was an illegal drug user. The last few clerks were ‘druggies’ and he was looking for someone that didn’t use them. Glen didn’t and promised he wouldn’t and got the job. He said it was a sweet assignment. He was his own boss and could run the office in his own way. The job also came with a promotion to corporal E-3.

Mail call was after the evening meal and the enlisted personnel would come by his office to pick up their letters and packages. Glen delivered the officer’s mail since his office was located in the Headquarters Building. The officers had their own mess hall with a professional cook. The officer’s cook worked evenings and could not make mail call. He asked Glen if he would deliver it to him and Glen said yes. The cook gave him a plate of what the officers were eating that night and every night after. Often time it was a steak dinner, a definite upgrade from the enlisted meals. The cook and Glen made a little extra money, cooking and selling pizza to the enlisted.

When Glen wasn’t on duty he played volleyball and after dark they would watch movies. In September he was interviewed by the Battalion Commander and was awarded Soldier of the Month. He said it was an honor to be recognized but the promotion to E-4 and the bump in pay didn’t hurt. In December of 1969 his tour ended. The Army flew him to Japan and from there to San Francisco. Landing in San Francisco the plane encountered turbulence and the wings were swaying from side to side as they got close to the runway, everybody held their breaths. After landing, he said half of the guys that deplaned kissed the ground. He wasn’t sure if it was because of the rough landing or if they were just happy to be back in the U.S. The Army gave Glen an early out from his two-year service and he was honorably discharged.

Glen waited at the San Francisco airport for a flight home as he was flying standby. This was dicey since it was at the height of the anti-war protests but no one bothered him. When he thought he would get on a flight home he called his parents to let them know he was stateside and when he would arrive at O’Hare. When he returned to Kouts he went back to farming with his dad and transporting hogs for his cousin. In 1973 he drove to Kansas on vacation with his brother and his friend, John, who lived in Elgin, Illinois. They dropped John off and that’s the first time Glen met Sandra. They started a long-distance relationship with Glen driving 113 miles to see her. Sandra was attending nurses training in Elgin pursuing a registered nurse degree. On April 20, 1975 they married.

Glen’s dad sold him a portion of the farm so he could raise a family. Sandra worked in Home Health Care until they had their first son Eric in 1976. Their daughter Melinda was born in 1977. Glen’s uncle owned a farm in La Crosse and in 1979 he retired. Glen and his family moved there to farm his land. Glen farmed both his and his uncle’s land for a few years. He also worked part time for Gingerich Trucking hauling live stock to packing houses all over the Midwest and sometimes further. In 1984 their son Mark was born. Glen became the La Crosse Township Trustee for the school system. In 1994 he joined the Westville Post Office. Twenty one years after they had their first child, in 1997 their daughter Megan was born. You would think someone who was as busy as Glen wouldn’t have time to go on vacation but he made time to go fishing throughout the Midwest and traveling with his family to the Southern and Western states. 

In 2005 he applied for and was granted the La Crosse Postmaster position. He worked there until his retirement in 2015. Retirement is a relative word because he’s a school bus driver for the East Porter County School Corporation which busses children to three different school systems. There is such a high demand for bus drivers that he still works part time and as a bus aide for the special needs children. Glen and his wife have sixteen grandchildren. Well, the sixteenth will be born before Glen’s flight this month. They volunteer with Meals on Wheels and Hanna’s Pantry that distributes food to local needy families. The Apostolic Church in La Crosse is an important part of his life. He served as a trustee and a Sunday school teacher there. He is a member of the La Crosse Lions Club and the American Legion Post 301 in Kouts. 

Glen has been to D.C with his family before the WWII and Korean Memorials were built. He’s looking forward to seeing all the memorials this time.

Thank you Glen for your military service and for feeding America!