Broadcasting because of those hearings. Now that being the news hour and everything else. You can watch this and other American History programs on our website where all of our video is archived. Next, a panel of five vietnam war veterans selected by the u. S. Army command and general Staff College at Fort Leavenworth discusses their experiences during more. This event is hosted by the Kansas City Public Library as part of a National Endowment for the arts series on the vietnam war. This is about one hour and 15 minutes. Tonight, we have a distinguished panel, and jim wilbanks will introduce them in a moment. I proud to introduce jim wilbanks. He served 23 years in the army, retiring as lieutenant colonel. He was an infantry advisor to a 70gument during the 19 sev offensive in vietnam. He has a ba in history from texas a m. He has an ma and phd from the university of kansas. He has been on the command and general Staff College faculty of the department of military history for since 1992. He chaired the department for 11 years. During that time, it has come to be known i quote from the front , page of the New York Times 10 years or so ago as the intellectual center of the army. In fact, he puts that at the bottom of his email signature. That is appropriate. Its required . Ok. Came down from on high, i guess. Well, its appropriate in his case, because no one has done more to make that true. He is the author or editor of 14 books, including the book, great commanders. Its origins are a series of lectures that command historians given here at the library. He is an author of books on the tet offensive and the battle of anlock. Etc. , etc. Advisor to editorial modern more studies at the university of kansas press. He is on the Editorial Board of armchair history but is himself no armchair historian. He now holds the highest honor in Army Historian can have. He is the general of the army george c. Marshall chair of military history at the u. S. Army command and general Staff College at Fort Leavenworth which is, by the way, the , longest title you can hold as an historian outside of the austrohungarian empire, which doesnt exist anymore. His most important title here is friend of the Kansas City Public Library. Over the last 15 months, we have won eight awards national, state, and local. We won them because we have fabulous staff, a supported board, and supportive community. But bring much because we have great partners. Our first partner when i arrived at this library was jim wilbanks. They are the best, year after year, great, thoughtful lecturers from a truly fine faculty at the command school. They are the intellectual center of the army. Full of men and women who have given Great Service to their country. Above all else, they are leaders. Jim is certainly a leader, but most importantly, for the last 25 years, he has educated current and future leadership of the United States army. Jim wilbanks. [applause] jim thank you for that introduction. Usually, those kinds of introductions come when you are in a coffin looking up. But i will take it. I have taught for 15 or 20 years, and i taught a similar course at ku for five or six years. The most popular part of the course in each case is the panel you see before you. With a few exceptions, this is the cast of the usual suspects. I am fighting off a cold, so if i fall into coughing fits and roll into the hallway, they will drive on. And if one of them falls apart, the guy next to him will tell his story. We have done it enough. We were asked to talk about the experience of vietnam from a soldiers perspective. That is problematic, to say the least. In 1950 with the establishment of the First Advisory group the , first u. S. Soldiers on the ground were actually during world war ii in 1946. But after the beginning of the first indochina war, we found ourselves there assisting the french. Over time, the french will depart and it becomes our mission to assist the south vietnamese government. One of the key dates is eight and nine march of 1965 when the Third Marines land and the first Ground Troops are there. Then very, very quickly, as he left as westmoreland continues to refine his strategy, he asks for more Ground Troops. The first army unit is sent to vietnam. H. C. Palmer will tell you the First Infantry Division was the first full division, right . Big red. It was followed by the first cap, brigade, and by late fall, there were 185,000 u. S. Troops there. Very quickly, these numbers ramped up with a high point of use Ground Combat coming on april 30, 1969 with a total of 563,480 u. S. Personnel. Over the course of the war, approximately 2,900,000 americans served in country during the war from beginning to end. Capturing the vietnam experience is problematic, to say the least. These experiences run the gamut. I could not even list all of the experiences here. From truck drivers, to cooks, to clerks, to people who flew aircraft of various kinds, to nurses. To the navy. Two women who served as nurses. I want to give a shout out to one of the angels of mercy at the hospital there. [applause] i would be remiss if i did not mention that hc was a surgeon. We like our medical folks. [applause] in a very real way, when you ask a vietnam veteran what it was like, its sort of depends on a number of things. Where was he or she . When were they there . What were they doing . As an example, in 1972, my best friend, who remains my best friend today, we were located on the same map sheet. That basically said we were close enough to be between here and legend at the most. He was a Company Commander. I was an advisor with the south vietnamese. Whewe might as well have been on different planets even though we occupied the same map. Thats the way it was. We do not purport to provide the whole vietnam experience. But what we can do is give you a feel for our own individual experiences. Rather than me introducing them individually i will let them , introduce themselves in turn so we can get through to discussions about what they did and get to questions and answers. Well start with Brigadier General retired cemetery. Good evening. My name is sam cherry. I 1964 rutgers graduate, am a commissioned the same day i graduated, commissioned Second Lieutenant. After airborne school, i went to port louis, washington, had to do a year on the ground in a cavalry squadron. I entered Flight School in april of i became a rotary wing 1966. Aviator and helicopter pilot december 7, 1966. On the way home to new jersey for christmas, i stopped in at fort bragg. They said you have to sign in here. We are putting together a new Helicopter Assault company. Of thes the beginning helicopter company. We deployed from fort bragg, north carolina, in early may of 1967 and went northeast of saigon. A place called bearcat. It was about 15 to 20 kilometers northeast of saigon. It was the headquarters for the ninth infantry division, the old reliables. We had two assault helicopter companies. They lift company of chinooks. In the ninth division headquarters. Most of our flying was in the south of saigon in the mekong delta. That means a lot to a pilot because if you get shot up or lose in engine, you always have a place to land. You dont have the same problem as aviators when you are upcountry. An assault helicopter companys mission is to pick up troops. From their home away from home, load them up, you can get eight americans in the old huey. Its the symbol of vietnam, if you will. We fly them from point a to point b, which is wherever they want to go tactically. And operate that day. I happened to be an armed helicopter pilot. We flew in light fire teams, two helicopters. It was our mission to escort. We did not show them where to go. But if they took any kind of fire, we were to protect the lift or transport helicopter. Most of the time, when we inserted troops into a landing zone, there may be preparatory fire, artillery, air, or gunships. They would prep based on the intelligence picture we had. From may until august, not much happened. I can remember the first time i really got into it was 10 august, because thats the day my son was born, my first child. From august until the end of summer, routine acts, and it did not heat up until december of that year. Early december, we had a couple of very large scale fights. Where you saw large numbers of they were not north vietnamese troops. They were viet cong who were willing to stand and fight. We did not pick up the nuance they were fighting in larger numbers. That was the forerunner of the tet offensive. Morningarly february when i got up and went to the shaving trough, i could tell something was wrong. Something was different. When we took off, the villages and jungle we thought were peaceful, there were viet cong, hundreds and hundreds of vietcong flags. As we turn to go south, my crew chief called me on the intercom and said saigon is ablaze. They had jet planes dropping bombs on the outskirts of saigon. Something we knew was wrong. We had a tough mission that day. That was the beginning of tet. After that, things kind of called down and then they spiked again in early may, the first week of may. I left on the 17th of may to come home after my 363 days. That is in a nutshell what i did for my first year in vietnam. I went back for a second tour later on. I will turn it over to bud. He is our resident marine. He will tell you about his tour. Thank you for coming out. Of this august group, i am the only guy who went to vietnam as an enlisted fellow. I always wanted to be a marine. As a child. I was going to do that. Why, i dont know, but i did. On graduation day, 24 may, 1965, arizona, we had graduation ceremonies that night and i marched down that day and signed up. Met innest man i ever the marine corps was my recruiter. He said we are going to cut your hair off and send you to boot camp, polish you up and send you to vietnam. And he did. Twice. 24 months worth. My experience was completely different from anything any of these gentleman saw. I was a Marine Security guard at the American Embassy as we were building the new embassy that eventually was attacked during the first day of tet. Our mission was primarily the protection of classified, sensitive information. Our Second Mission was the protection of life and property. I will tell you the first year there was like a hollywood script. You knew you were in a war zone. The danger was always more real than was apparent, if that makes sense. You could always hear the airman the war going on. They were always in a fight someplace. But my life the first year there was actually very comfortable. We could see the influx of the war and refugees coming into the city, that sort of thing, but as a general proposition, until the tet offensive came about, life wasnt that bad. Long hours. But life was not that bad. In the morning on 1968, january 31, everything turned upside down. Things changed. First rocket the explosions blew a hole in the wall of the embassy, and the fight at the embassy takes place. A lot of people reported that the embassy was taken. I think washington initially thought the embassy was taken. The embassy was never taken. The compound was but the embassy was not. Up second year, i wind having a most unusual assignment. I was put on a personal Security Unit for ambassador bunker. In that capacity, it was the ultimate fly on the wall, Young American g. I. In a combat zone doing what his government said to do, but in a most unusual situation. Their frequent occurrences were meeting daily with the ambassador. The people you always read about. As a youngster at the time, i knew i was in the presence of something great that was going on in the world. If that makes sense. I left on the 24th of january of 1969, having served my time there. 24. 5 months. I look back on it now with much pride. Would i do it again . I would. I would have no reservations about signing up and going. I thought it was the right thing to do then. I think its the right thing to do now. But the world has changed. Things have moved on. So have they and so have we. My name is dave drummond. For those of you i have met my , name is dave drummond. I was commissioned out of the United States military academy at west point in 1968. Back then, you were a Second Lieutenant for 12 months and a First Lieutenant for 12 months, so you became a captain 24 months into your service. I was a captain at 24 years old. If you look around at 24yearold kids today i consider them kids that was a lot of responsibility. I was supposed to go to the americal division. It seemed such a nice place i asked if i could stay there. I was in signal corps. We provided communications. They said you are going to take a helicopter and head to the golf course up there. I said maybe thats not too bad. I was only 23. I did not know any better. I will tell you another thing. The 24 months it took to become a captain, most of that i spent in school. Airborne school, ranger school, signal school. I only spent six months with the stateside unit. I went to the central highlands. You have to realize that communications back then were different than they are now. Today, we pull out our little cellphone and communicate via satellite. Back then, it was line of sight communication. The company i commanded over there was called the 167 signal company. We were authorized 302 enlisted and six officers. Thats pretty big for a company, typical Infantry Company was about 110, 120. We covered about the size of connecticut in terms of where we were. A whole bunch of places. As a matter of fact, you didnt want to drive around too much. Fortunately, i had my own helicopter and two 19yearold pilots i would not let drive a jeep. But they flew me around. We got shot down once, but that is another story. Communications, like i said, were different then. Typically, because it was line of sight, in other words, to two antennas had to see each other, you had to put your antennas up on high ground. I used to call the antennas aiming stakes. Thats basically what they were. You could see them from quite a distance. Although we were not offensive in nature, we got hit a lot, and we had to pretty well try to protect ourselves. It was a very interesting year. I will be honest with you. We only looked at the 50 meter targets. In other words, i wasnt concerned about what was going on in saigon. I was not concerned about what was going on in my battalion. My Battalion Commander was 130 miles away by helicopter, so he didnt get up to see us too often. 24 years old, i didnt have a lot of adult supervision. We were very fortunate. We did have a couple People Killed and several injured while i was there, but that happens in those kinds of wars. I closed out my unit. In october of 1970, they said youre going to shut down. By november 20, we had everything brought in from the connecticut sized terrain and have everything turned in, which was difficult, because our people had to turn in equipment through quite a different place. Of course, our beds and things like that, we had to do it in a specific timeline, very challenging. I was fortunate when i left vietnam. I went to europe for four and a half years. I was at nato. Then i came to Fort Leavenworth and resigned my commission and faculty at the command college. I spent four years there and thoroughly enjoyed it. And im glad to be with you tonight. With that, i will turn it over to my friend. Staff of theto the library. This has been an incredible series. Thank you for enlightening the whole kansas city area on these variable topics on vietnam, and thank you for allowing me to participate in this event. I am rich kuyper. I graduated from west point in 1967. Served 26 years active duty, was commissioned infantry. After commissioning, i went to the army ranger corps, airborne corps, parachute or court, and parachutist core and the special forces. I went to germany, and at the age of 23, i was a First Lieutenant and was commanding an airborne Infantry Company. It happened to be at the time the russians invaded czechoslovakia, so we had a little excitement there. I went to vietnam and commanded an infantry Rifle Company. Having completed a special forces course, i was able to transfer to being an officer at the fifth special forces group. After coming back to the states, i had a number of different assignments. Among them was teaching military history at west point and at the army command and general Staff College. I then went to fort bragg and became the Operations Officer and the deputy g3 of the special Operations Command at fort bragg. I went to the pentagon, where i served as a special forces force Development Officer at the pentagon developing future doctrine and material for army special operations. I retired and got a phd, and in early 2002, i went to afghanistan as an Army Contract historian with the army special Operations Command. I should mention that at the time i became the g3, i had transferred to special forces because, up until then special , forces had not been a branch. It had just been a specialty. So i took up my cross rifles as infantry put them on a special forces, and did that for the rest of my career. I went to afghanistan as an historian for the