JOHN HOGAN

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San Mateo Middle College High School

JOHN HOGAN, NAVY PILOT

A Professional Physical Education teacher at College of San Mateo, Jon Hogan. He was in the Navy patrol during Vietnam War. Today he's a strong-looking man with a gentle smile and graying hair, a man who knows informational connection of the Vietnam War. However, Hogan was 19 when he joined the Navy when he did not want his parents to know by not telling them he joined the army. But his parents found out when they received the letter from the government.

“A particular unit I was in was a patrol squad in Vietnam. Overland, we did troop movements and checking on torpedoes. Basically, I was a flyer. Did I have a view of the action? (Laughs) Well, in my particular situation from the air, I did observe and was involved in some air combat. I had a view of what the aircrafts were doing and took a view of what the Vietnamese were doing at their home bases.

At first I was really scared when I first started in Vietnam, but flying in the air everyday, you'll become numb of it. When you see others getting hit, you'll be `okay, this is real'. You have to kind of remember why you are there. Anyway, when we were gone to fly, we marked a target. At that point, it was the bombardier that did the bombing. It would be a surprise. We would come in very low across the treetops. Do what we did and we're gone. We did take pictures but one time they wanted another look. So, that is like the kiss of death because the enemy has seen you. And you're on a second run.

“Yes. Met some of my old friends during the war. Actually, I met a guy that I grew up with, not actually grew up with, but I was in Japan, turns out him and me were friends, but we don't remember each other. But we both remember the place where I used to live was a rental. And we remembered the owner of our rentals lived in a mansion. We remembered the mansion's owner's son because he was a brat. (Laughs) So, it was a neat situation...I did not maintain any friendships. After I did my job, I left. But I did see my high school friends when I was there.

“The most horrible memory? It was when I got shot at when flying. But we landed and we all walked in the commander's office and told him I would quit. I got a lot of them, you know, horrible situations and stress. We told him we would go home because we never had been told we would get shot at by going in on the second run. There were patrols that stopped us from quitting. They stood outside the dorm after we told we wanted to go home. So, the next day, we got back on force.

“What were the horrible images? I saw the stacks of body on land and I saw the body counts. I know this guy that got shot at and was psychologically affected by it. We still stay in contact. There is an expression you will hear called “The Threat” that is in this relationship. At this point I will have this relationship with that man because we share the experience that no one had. We had our language. (Smiles)

“I heard about the Tokin Incident. In the Gulf of Tokin Incident, I remember none of us knew and there was rumors about that none of this had happened. They were going to pass the War Act, so they could send army to Vietnam, which was a reason for U.S to fight. It was proven completely false that the second hit of the Tokin of Incident was false.”

“What use to bother me was that nobody wanted to be known as officers. Office would be working alone because nobody wanted to talk to them. There's a term for it but I can't tell you what it is. And you would be in an outfit, on patrol and you were the new guy; nobody would be talking to you because they know you don't have experience. Because officers were making poor decisions. An officer needs to rely on a sergeant, not on his own skills. Hey, you don't wear your lieutenant outfit like that. So, there was that kind of stuff. There were officers trying to act like they knew everything, silly like that. That wasn't often the case but the people like that didn't last very long.”

“What happened when I came home after the war? And then there was the coming home. It's like, keep in mind, ten hours before the combat, we weren't there on our duty. We were there because the government sent us there. (Chuckles) The anger actually comes ten years later, when we were actually thought of as `heroes'. We weren't thought as a hero when we came back; there was no parade and celebrations. (Shakes head) When I first came back from the war, the time I went home, I was at the airport and this guy came up to me and started flicking my pin, and said, “So, how many babies did you kill?” At that time, I was on that guy and I got arrested for it. Nobody would want to come back and be known as a veteran of the Vietnam War.”

“I had effects after the war especially in the political side. I actually became very cynical, like I did not trust anyone easily after I came back from the war. And today, I'm still like that. Politically, I did not believe the government was doing the right thing. Like the people in Israel, I understand how they feel in their situations because we've been in a real war. Also, it's different talking to someone who was once in a war. One time, when my old friend and me were talking, this guy would not know what we were talking about. We had our own language. Because we'd had many connected experiences together. We simply had our own language. The war affects how I see things. I won't let my niece play with guns because war is not like that.”