John Smith

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San Mateo Middle College High School

John Smith
Marine Veteran

Now a manager a National Car Rental, John Smith (A.K.A. B**** S******) was a Marine officer in the Vietnam War, part of the ground and air troops. John joined the Marines in 1964, with the war well supported by the country, and came out in 1968, when half the country was against it. Even though his time in the war was nearly twenty years ago, the man still broke down in tears remembering the horror of the war.
I went into the war thinking that it was my duty. I was just out of high school and joined the Marine Corps. I wasn't recruited; I joined for my preferences and the Marines Corp was something a little more dangerous and manly for me. My family understood why I went, especially my father. My father was in World War II and knew what war was like. Maybe it was in my blood to join, who knows? He told me about it, but these things you want to find out for your self like I did at the time. I want to see what it was like.
When I joined the Marine Corp, the war had just began, in 1964. At the time no one was really against the war. It hadn't really escalated to what it became. I served four years of my life in the war. Back here in the States, I heard about the things that were happening. Some of the name calling, some fist fights, and also riots. When I came back I was stationed at Bay Naval Shipyard at Hunter's Point. When I came back to the States my plane landed in Travis; there wasn't any demonstration or protesting. After Vietnam I hadn't seen anything like that. I have seen riots; I saw the race riots in Hunter Point but it was over the Civil Rights Movement.
In Vietnam I remember a few places where I was stationed. I was sent to Danauy at first. When I first arrived, I guarded the air base. That's what the new soldier's did at first. A month later we moved five miles in front of Danauy. Then later into Saigon, pretty much all over. I would tell you more places, but over there the maps we had been mostly mental. We drew our own maps to get around. We went out on patrol. We learned our area. Most of the time we were never told where we were. The village people there acted like they'd never seen troops. They'd never seen a man with red hair, blue eyes. Most of them had never seen a white man before.
The war was never really a war. When I first went there it was called a 'Police Action.' The war was more political than anything else. We would be fighting one day, and the next day it would be, take your bullets out of your gun. It went back and forth. Some days you would be fighting; others you wouldn't. The main reason for the war was communism. They told us that we were in the service to stop this communist action. The communists had tried to infiltrate North Vietnam to turn them to communism and were trying to take over South Vietnam by force. That was the reason they told us when I was in boot camp. I know that Russia and China were involved because I had found weapons that were Russian and Chinese. I found grenades, rifles, not so much land mines, but they were there.
I did a lot of jungle work. My job was to search for things like land mines and booby traps. Traps like pansy pits, pits that were dug with bamboo at the bottom of it like spikes. Sometimes they were metal spikes; they used anything they could find. Sometimes they had grenades rigged in. They used any kind of explosive they could get. They had something like black powder, which is highly explosive. You plan which way you go because there were a lot of them. I personally fell in one that had steel spikes. I was lucky, because I landed on my feet. The jungle boots have a metal plating on the bottom of their sole which saved my life. I came out with only a cut on the side of my foot where the spike slid in.
I did hand-to-hand combat once. I really don't like to talk about it. After you have been there six months you learn not to make friends. Most of your close friends died. You don't make friends, you stop. It became a professional job.
The Viet Congs used tactics like hit and run. They would attack and then vanish. They had under-ground caves, tunnels they would vanish to. They picked the area they wanted to fight. They knew their backyard like you know yours. This was Vietnam.
The Marines gave me an opportunity to go to collage. I went to City Collage in San Francisco for two years. In collage I didn't want anyone to know that I was in the war. I grew out my hair and my beard so I would fit in. Most of the students here were against the war. After the war I lived my life in secrete, not showing the four years I spent in the Vietnam. The only way I would go to war now would be for my freedom.

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