by Garrick Moritz, Gazette
Last Tuesday, Nov. 26th when local Vietnam era veterans were honored, each spoke a little bit about their service. So, here is what they had to say, in their own words.
“I’m Larry Leitheiser and I was stationed in Phu Bai, Vietnam and was in transportation,” Leitheiser said. “I got out in June of 1971.”
“I’m Jim Kurtz and I was stationed up in Dong Ha,” said Kurtz. “I was trained as an infantry squad leader but somehow I got lucky and ended up as a battery clerk in an artillery unit. We were up at Dong Ha for about seven months then we moved down to Phu Bai for about five months.”
“I’m Bill Peters,” Peters said. “I served in Vietnam from 1967 to 1968 as a helicopter pilot. I flew about 1300 hours while I was over there and got out in January of ‘72.”
“I’m Michael Kingsley, April 1st, 1969 was when I joined the Air Force and served in Seoul, Korea during the entire time. Most difficult time was when I came back in 70 because, of course, everybody wanted to call you a baby killer and spit on you. I ended up talking to my wife, and she said, ‘Well, just don't go in your military fatigues anywhere in stores.’ So basically, I sort of got the rest of my time in McCourt Air Force Base in Tacoma, Washington.”
“My name is Steve Puttmann,” Puttmann said, “On March 6 of 1969 I was drafted and sent over to Thailand, supporting the mission in Vietnam. Our bombers would fly over and got up and bomb the trail and you could pretty much see it all from Thailand. I got out of the service in Oct. of 1970 and when we got on the plane in Bangkok, they told us that when you land in Oakland, you get out of your uniform or fatigues, because if you go out in public with your military uniform you’re not going to be very well-treated.”
“I'm Don Johnson,” said Johnson. “I was in Marine Corps. I was stationed in Vietnam from September of ‘69 to somewhere in ‘71 when I left there. And like these guys said, when you come home on leave, the first thing you did was get rid of your uniform, put something on civilian, go home. Of course, your sun tan and short haircut gave you away, but that was neither here nor there, and I was big enough I didn't have too much trouble. Occasionally I probably had to tap somebody on the chin to see it my way, but with a short-tempered Marine, guess what, that’s what you get. And we've done enough stuff in Vietnam we could hold our own. I was a jack of all trades in my company, I ran supply. I was an IP radio operator. We were our own little unit. We're probably the most hot, heavy unit in Vietnam. We probably had 110 officers and 200 enlisted men. We had spotter teams all over Vietnam, from Da Nang all the way as far as South as you could go. And I supplied them with beans, bullets and with anything else they needed. And when I wasn't doing that, I was a forward observer also.”
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