U.S. Army Vietnam War Tinley Park, IL Flight date: August, 2019
By Al Konieczka, Honor Flight Chicago Veteran Interviews Volunteer
While growing up on the west side of Chicago and attending Austin High School, Tom never imagined he would spend his 21st birthday serving in the Army in Vietnam. He was drafted by the Army at age 20 and spent eight weeks in Basic Training at U.S. Army Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. The Army was in desperate need of artillery personnel so Tom was sent to Fort Sill in Oklahoma for eight weeks of artillery training. During his time at Fort Sill, Tom asked to be a gunner and never left that position. He loved it and was quite good at it as well. As the gunner, he was in charge of three things: N – F – L (Near Sight, Far Sight, Line). After his training was completed, he was given about ten days of leave to return home and visit with family and friends before his life would change forever.
Around September 20, 1968, Tom flew to San Francisco and then on to Vietnam via Guam. He spent 2-3 days at Bien Hoa Air Base, a military airfield located in South-Central Vietnam. From there he travelled to Củ Chi Base Camp as part of the 25th Infantry Division. He remembers having a week of Do’s and Don’ts training to understand more about Vietnam before being put to work. For example, they were told to watch for local villagers who would try to walk with carts past the guns to count the steps marking the distance between the guns.
Tom was in the 3rd of the 13th A Battery and their group was nicknamed “The Clan.” They had a total of six guns in the battery and they would fire 100 pound rounds every night with 4-5 shots fired by each gun. Tom recalled, “It seemed like we were always firing in the same location every night into an area with trees about 1,000 feet out from our location.” Their unit would receive mortar fire from the enemy every night, just before and just after dinner. One night during one of those mortar attacks, Tom recalls being behind a guy who took the brunt of it and they both fell backwards into a bunker. Tom recalls being hit in the face and couldn’t see at first, but luckily he took mostly dirt to his face and didn’t sustain any significant injury.
The infantry group assigned to their camp was nicknamed “The Wolfhounds.” “There were many times where we would have to lay down cover fire to prep the area so helicopters with infantry could come back to base camp. Our job was to pump out as many rounds as possible in five minutes. It sometimes became a competition between the different guns. One gun would do 18 rounds, another 22 rounds and our group would do 35 rounds!” Tom recalled. There was a guy in their unit named Creighton who could throw the round in so hard and fast that it would seat in the gun and they were able to bypass the step of ramming the projectile, thus allowing their group to fire off more rounds. Tom was assigned to the 155SP which meant he was inside the track so he was more protected than the guys on the 105 which was fired from outside. He was very grateful that he was inside the Howitzer; it took a lot of stress off his mind during his tour in Vietnam.
Tom recalls having very little free time. Each day consisted of simply sleeping, eating and working. They did eat very well though. They had full-time cooks in camp and ate good meals every day in the mess hall. Tom remembered that when the infantry soldiers would return to base camp, they would say, “We ate C rations out in the field; coming here is like being at the Holiday Inn compared to what we normally have to eat!” For sleeping quarters, they used bulldozers to dig holes for bunkers and lined them with 105mm wooden ammo boxes and slept on cots. Tom recalls having difficulty sleeping at first. “Rats would run between the wooden boxes all night long making it very difficult to sleep. My dad sent me some rat traps and we finally caught the whole family to at least get them out of our bunker.”
In looking through some old pictures from his unit, Tom said that the comradery between the guys was great, although he really can’t remember many of the guys’ names. He did however recognize all of their faces and what role they served. One of the problems with getting close to guys in his unit was that they would constantly rotate out every few months so you never served with anyone for very long. On April 27, 1969, Tom celebrated his 21st birthday. He remembers his dad sending him a case of Old Style beer even though they weren’t allowed to have beer in the field. He admitted sharing beer with his buddies anyway.
Communication with home was primarily through letters. While Tom received letters from many people, he didn’t write a lot. He recalls only two times when they brought in a semi-truck with a satellite dish on top and they would make short calls back home. “The calls were relayed through several locations so we had to always remember to say OVER when we were finished talking. Each guy had only about two minutes to talk.” The one person he did call was his girlfriend Marikay as they were planning to get married upon Tom’s return from Vietnam.
Tom left Vietnam in late September of 1969 and never went back. He married Marikay, his high school sweetheart, on October 4, 1969. This year they will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. Tom went back to work at Hall Printing Company where he had worked prior to being drafted. He was there a few years and then worked for several plumbing companies, working the sales counter. Tom and Marikay have three children – one son and two daughters and now enjoy six grandchildren.