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This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg
Corumbus. Our guest in this edition is

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retired US Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Raoul
Art Sefuentes. Colonel Sefuentes served three tours

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in Vietnam as a helicopter pilot.
He now serves as executive director of the

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Ewo Jima Association, a role which
allows him to serve the surviving veterans of

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that pivotal battle in World War II, raise funds for their projects, and

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educate the rest of us about the
heroism of those veterans. Colonel Sefuentes was

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born in the small town of Lakeview, Michigan, in nineteen thirty nine.

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His parents were brought to that area
for work, and that's where they were

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at the time he was ready to
be born. But my parents were migrant

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workers and during the summers they would
they would bring the Hispanics up for Mexico

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and Texas and the Southwest to pick
the various crops there across the country,

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and Michigan was known for its cucumbers
and sugar beets and cherries and things like

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that. So during the summer they
would transport these these migrants with the old

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school buses to do the crops,
and they just follow follow the crops with

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the time of the year, and
my parents just happened to be up there

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at that time and when it was
time for me to come along, and

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rather than returned back to San Antonio, Texas, they elected to stay there

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in Michigan, and I was born
and raised in the best of times.

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So went days. Enlisted in the
Marine Corps in nineteen fifty six while he

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was still in high school. Looking
back on it, he suspects there were

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multiple reasons for joining. It was
kind of it, kind of fun.

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I was a little guy. I
was, you know, I didn't date

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much in high school. All the
girls were taller than I was, and

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they these big old farm boys were
all the we're all the stars and the

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football team. So I probably had
a little man's complex at the time.

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I was a third string, third
string linebacker at one hundred and seventeen pounds

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going after these big old farm boys. It didn't work for me. So

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when I was eleven years old,
I went to our little local theater and

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so Sanza Vio gam with John Wayne
and eleven years old, and I went

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home and said, mom, that's
what I'm going to be. That's what

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I'm going to be when when I
grow up. Then she patted me on

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the head, she said, of
course you are son to to form.

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When I was eleven, I spotted
a gunnery sergeant from World War Two who

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just happened to be coming through time
for a cup of coffee, and I

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chatted with him, and he taught
me to the reserves, and the rest

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is history. I joined the Reserves, and graduation from high graduation from high

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school, I went to boot camp. Joining the military and going through basic

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training can be a culture shock to
any new service man, but Marine Corps

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boot camp has a well earned reputation
for changing boys into men quickly and effectively.

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Says it was intense, but he
thinks he did pretty well. It

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was interesting and it was fun.
Even though I was not the biggest guy

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in the in the class, I'd
always been kind of I had been athletically

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in good shape, so boot camp
boot camp was a fun challenge for me.

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I thoroughly I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Uh, duck walking and things of

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that nature were things that the drill
instructors liked to like to put it through

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where you squat down and march up
hills and down hills. But the physical

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activities for me were were easy.
And it was something all of a sudden

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that that that I excelled at so
uh, marching and drilling and running up

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and down hills and you know,
fighting off rattlesnakes and firing rifles, to

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me is it. It was exciting
and so I took to it like a

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duck to water. Immediately after Basic, Sefentes was assigned to a radio unit,

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which he found interesting enough, but
not interesting enough to keep him in

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the Marine Corps. They sent me
because I was able, actually able to

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do to work a typewriter, they
sent They sent me to a radio school

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to become a radio telegraph operator they
called twenty five twenty five thirty three,

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and we learned, we learned and
operated old World War two radios and that

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was for six months. I was
I was given a promotion out of boot

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camp, so I did. I
did pretty well there, and as as

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the guy that kind of ran ran
a little radio school class, I got

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my choice of duty stations. So
I was transferred to the territory of Hawaii

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and I was there when they converted
when when Hawaii went for I'm a territory

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to a state. And I finished
my active duty obligation with the Reserves in

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nineteen fifty nine and tried my hand
in college and took me five years to

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work my way through, but I
did that. So if one Days left

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the service in nineteen fifty nine and
completed his undergraduate degree in nineteen sixty four,

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it was then, just as he
was planning to attend graduate school and

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pursue a master's degree. That's if
one Days paid a simple courtesy call that

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changed his life forever. Just as
I graduated, the officer selection officer from

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Houston, Texas, guy my name
of John Geary came through, and as

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a former Marine, I thought I'd
go down, shake his hand and say

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say howdy, because I was.
I was on my way to graduate school

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and on the better things. And
he took me into coming back into the

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Marine Corps. And as I'm walking
out the door, he mentioned aviation and

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kind of looked at me and said, you looked like a helico after pilot.

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So in nineteen sixty four, I
came back to the Marine Corps and

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went to flight school and started my
aviation career. But there's much more to

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the story. While the idea of
flying was appealing to Sefuentes, he admits

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now that he was most enticed by
the promise that accompanied the opportunity to fly

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choppers in the Marine Corps. I
was working my way through school, so

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money was very dear. I was
working in the cafeteria for my meals.

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I'd just gotten married to this beautiful
woman. And I was working in the

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bookstore for my tuition and cleaning wrack
cages for twenty five books a month.

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So as I'm walking out at the
door before he mentions aviation on my way

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out, and he said, have
you thought about aviation? I said,

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well, sir, I get like
how you see carsick You know, motion

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sickness is not a thing for me. And then he said the magic words.

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He said, do you know there's
flight pay kaching flight? Tell me

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about it. And so he told
me, I should you give it?

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Give it a shot. So they
took me up on a flight, and

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then it went pretty pretty well.
I didn't I didn't feel a little brown

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bag. Uh. And so went
on to flight school and and and then

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they assigned me to helicopter helicopter training
and boa I'll tell you that I can't

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see enough about a helicopter career and
and uh just aviators in general. But

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I love the helicopter mission. There's
nothing like it. So I was I

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was very fortunate that for most of
my career I stayed on the helicopter community.

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Soon he was off to flight training, and it would not be long

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before fell in love with flying helicopters. In fact, he still remembers that

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first solo flight. My first solo
flight was was pretty interesting. Uh.

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We took off, we took off
for for my for my check, and

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I remember my instructor. We landed
a little base, a little outlining base,

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and my instructor through through his his
back seat cushion out and got in.

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He said, go on, see
what this. Either give me five

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landings or kill yourself one or the
other. So I did. I did

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my landings, and then they told
me to go solo. So I went

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out and buzzed around in the little
T thirty four mentor, which was just

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it's just an absolute absolute thrill when
you have an airplane all to yourself at

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at at low altitude, there's I
mean, there's nothing like it. You

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feel so so uh so free and
easy, and so that was indeed fortunate.

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It was something it was fun and
you did you had a career that

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you just s thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed
and what you were flying and what you

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were doing. So the day,
says after completing his flight training, there

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was just a short window of assignments
before receiving orders for Vietnam for the first

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time. First assignment to Vietnam was
it was actually three months, three to

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four months after I got my wings. I received my wings at fifteenth of

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April nineteen sixty six, and UH
went immediate immediately to my first first squadron

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in New River, Jacksonville, North
Carolina in August. Then in September got

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September sixty six got orders to to
go to Vietnam, and UH so our

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squadron was at that point stationed in
Okinawa, Fatima, and the ship came

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down, picked up the squadron,
and we sailed to Vietnam off floated in

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UH early October in just off the
coast to waif Fubai, took off fload

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of the squadron and we operated out
of UH, out of waif Fubai for

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for the entire year and UH from
there, our our squadron would detach two,

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three or four four birds either to
Kisson or Dongha or other areas.

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And and so we pretty much operated
out of out of out of I Corps

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area for the entire time. Looking
back at it now, Sefente says he

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held a very simplistic and idealistic view
of war before he got to Vietnam.

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It's a view that would be dispensed
with quickly once he experienced war. You

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know, to me, it wasn't
adventure. The reality of war didn't hit

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me until, uh, even on
my first mission we took just offloading,

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we took some some rounds of UH
in an old aircraft that I've become familiar

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with. UH And even to this
day, it didn't really didn't really strike

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me. It was more curiosity and
just a happening more than anything else.

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But uh, the reality of war
really didn't hit until you went on your

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on your first big mission, first
first operation, to saw what what what

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a war does? UH, And
it was very, very sobering. But

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the mind is a funny thing,
and you can, you know, there

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are things that you can cut out
while they're happening, and you know,

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just continue to do the thing,
so God bless all Marines and aviators that

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do their job. That's Lieutenant Colonel
Raoul Art Sefuentes, a US Marine Corps

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veteran who served as a helicopter pilot
for three tours in Vietnam. Later,

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we'll hear about the work Colonel Seffuentes
does with Ewo Jima veterans. He'll also

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discuss his work to remove the minds
from Haiphong Harbor in Vietnam and share what

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it was like to return to an
ungrateful nation. But when we come back,

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Colonel Sefuentes will take us in depth
on that first tour in Vietnam.

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I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans
Chronicles sixty Seconds of Service. This sixty

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Seconds of Service is presented by T
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a veteran and military families and are
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Visit tmobile dot com slash military to
learn more about how they support our military

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community. A charity in England providing
gardening therapy to improve mental health among ex

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military personnel has urged more people to
ask for support when needed. Veterans' growth

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based in Hastings said it's seen a
recent rise in issues among the community due

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to difficulties assessing mental health services as
well as the impact of COVID. CEO

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Sarah Wilson said people also struggled to
come forward, but encouraged those in need

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of support to please get in touch. The call comes as NHS England has

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redesigned mental health support for veterans following
a survey that showed about sixty percent found

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it difficult to seek support. The
survey of three thousand veterans and serving personnel

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also showed more than half of respondent
said they had suffered with a mental health

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problem. This is Veterans Chronicles.
I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this

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edition is retired US Marine Corps Lieutenant
Colonel RYO. Wilson fuent Days before the

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Break, we heard how Colonel Seffuentes
was convinced to rejoin the Marine Corps just

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after he graduated from college and the
idealistic mindset that he brought to Vietnam One

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that soon collided with reality. Says
he was quickly put to use on a

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wide variety of missions once he was
in theater. Our squadron was like like

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all the others. You never did
just one type of mission, unlike the

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army where you have dust off that
does metovac. And on a given week,

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one day you could do what they
call working birds. You would be

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assigned to a combat unit and you'd
work with with that unit, and they

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might have you hauling water, doing
recon extracts, going from point A to

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point B, taking a patrol out, pick picking patrol up. So you

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would do that and perhaps the next
day you were assigned strictly for emergency metava

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acts. You had you had two
birds and stand so if there was an

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emergency metavac, you went, or
if there was a metavac, you went,

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whether it's an emergency or not.
But you were dedicated to doing just

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that. And maybe the next night
or the next day you were you did

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only reconnaissance flights taking taking reconnaissance patrols
in or getting them back out, or

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during reconnaissance overflight over flights. The
next night you might be doing just You

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didn't fly all day long. You
got your rest because you were going to

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do the night metavac, and at
six o'clock in the evening you went on

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standby for for night emergency emergency metavacts, and you were relieved at six o'clock

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six o'clock the next morning. You
might have the next day off to complete

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any any long distance learning courses that
you that you have just to give you

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a break. Or or Mike case, I worked, uh work with maintenance,

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and I might have to take some
some aircraft up for uh uh for

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for maintenance sets flights. Uh the
system wasn't working right, the engine was

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popping, popping, what whatever,
So you had to do that sort.

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I might just uh have an easy
day of doing uh n uh doing maintenance

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flights. Or sometimes uh you just
get an on call flight. Ay,

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we we need you to take uh
General so and so to to such such

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a place and bring him back.
So the the missions were varied. There

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was uh you never you never got
bored. Or uh you might just be

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on a detachment uh three birds to
uh go to Fubai and we go to

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uh we had uh five or six
bergs at dong Hot all times to support

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the DMZ and from there and you
might have a two bird uh detachment.

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I'd go up to Quisson and you
sat there and and and uh operated out

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of there. There uh, helping
the the Marines either out of patrol or

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out on the infamous eight eighty one
or and and eight sixty one. So

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you know, never a dull moment, and you never did the same thing.

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Answer Fente says, there are a
lot of missions from that first tour

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that he remembers wow, some for
their intensity and some for other reasons.

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Well, there are a lot of
a lot of missions that that kind of

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stood out. Some some were humorous, and some were uh, some were

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very very sobering and and and poignant. The worst, the worst missions were,

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of course the metav acts, the
emergency metavacts or in some cases recovering

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UH recovering reconnaissance teams or or the
night metavac or or the night recon extract

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where where the team was on the
move, UH they were being chased and

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they they had they had to come
out you had no choice, or or

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an emergency metavact where there was an
injury and the team had to move and

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there was no choice. You had
to get those guys out, UH at

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least the wounded or or the casualties
out so that the team could continue to

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move. So there are a number
of missions like that you remember, or

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some zones that you went into that
uh uh all of a sudden, things

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what we call a hot zone or
things got very very uh exciting in a

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very short short period of time.
So metavacts, reconnaissance inserts, things of

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things of that nature and uh were
are the most memorable. But it it

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it's kind of funny after uh flying
those missions for a year there there there

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are actually very few missions that that
I actually recalled, like I think the

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missions in the hot zone hot zones
you just you know, I I don't

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remember. And there was you know, like any helicopter pilot there, there

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were there were many, uh I
mean that was that was what you did.

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And now I was very, very, very extremely I'm one of the

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looks gusman in the world. I
did not get a purple heart, but

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I should have, but I didn't. Just you know, I had my

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my aircraft and my troops were good. We took a lot of hits,

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but the Good Lord watched over me
and and in my crew. That's retired

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US Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Raoul art
Sefuentes. He served three tours as a

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helicopter pilot in Vietnam as part of
a distinguished decades long military career coming up.

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Sefuentes takes us along on his other
two deployments to Vietnam, including a

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focus on removing mines from Haiphong Harbor
during the peace negotiations, and he reflects

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on the poor treatment that our returning
veterans received. That and much more in

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just a moment, I'm Greg Corumbus, and this is Veterans Chronicles. This

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is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this edition is retired

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US Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Raoul Art
Sefuentes. He served three tours as a

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helicopter pilot in Vietnam and eventually retired
in nineteen eighty five. He is now

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executive director of the Ewojima Association,
which we'll also talk about in more detail

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in just a few moments. As
we just learned, Sefuentes went from an

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idealistic newcomer to Vietnam to a pilot
who quickly learned the realities of war.

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After a year of harrowing and otherwise
memorable missions, his first tour ended and

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Sefuentes came home. Soon it was
on to learning new skills and new choppers

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before returning to Vietnam. And while
a lot of his responsibilities on that second

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tour were the same as the first, there were some noticeable differences. Then

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I started the normal rotation of going
to peak time squadrons. We went back

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to UH, I got N I
got to orders back to newer Alurjactionville,

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North Carolina where I started, and
then we transitioned from the old H y

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piston driven UH piston driven H three
four that I just dearly loved to fly

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to the newer model UH Boeing C
H forty six uh C night tandem tandem

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rotor aircraft. And UH A transition
to that flew that for UH for a

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couple of years, and then UH
I was asked H to transition a couple

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of de couple of years later,
went back to UH, went back to

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Vietnam, operated UH operated off off
a ship and UH the same area.

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But UH it was UH not quite
as exciting as UH uh as the first

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tour. So did UH did that
same kind of missions? UH pretty much,

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but UH but the UH the living
conditions were were much better aboard UH

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aboard ship. So UH did that
tour? Went back to the States and

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they were looking for for H fifty
three drivers, a big old sea stallion,

255
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completely different bird, but a good
Sokrski bird. From that second tour

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we went to Hawaii HM H four
to sixty three with the Flying fifty threes.

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When he landed that assignment in Hawaii, Sefuentes was overjoyed because he was

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confident that meant the war was over
for him. But it wasn't. He

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would soon be back in Vietnam for
another nine months, and this time the

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duties changed quite a bit finely.
I mean Hawaii Hawaii Squadron. Hawaii Squadron

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never deploys, They've been in Hawaii
for years and years and they never go

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any oil. So, as it
turned out, six months later, we

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were back in Vietnam working with the
working with the Navy to sweep the sweep

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the mines up in Hifong and Hanoi
Harbor's and that was a condition. The

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mines had to be swept before they
would release at least the prisoners of war.

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Uh so uh we uh got with
HM twelve the Navy squadron, and

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there just had a grand time.
What we thought was gonna be a three

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month MISSI mission ended up being uh
about about nine months. But uh it

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was something different, something the Marine
Corps uh had never had never done a

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different type of flying uh altogether.
Uh. So we uh we did uh

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we did the mine sweeping and and
UH we'd we'd be doing uh doing our

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mine sweeping uh in these uh what
they call fields uh and uh the talks

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would break and the peace talks would
break off, So we don't get back

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aboard the aircraft carriers and go to
go to the Philippines and hang out there

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for a while until things got copastic
with the with the peace talks, and

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we'd go back out and and swoop
some more, and the talks would break

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down. They said get you know, get out of there. So the

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ship ships would go back back and
forth. So what started out as a

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three month mission ended up uh ended
up nine months. So went back,

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we finished that up, went back
to Hawaiian that I got orders to the

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Naval Academy. So for just a
wonderful tour. As you heard, Sefentes

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mentioned, a significant part of his
third tour was taking part in the effort

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to remove mines from Hifong Harbor,
and Sentes offered a lot more detail about

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the work that he did and how
he did it. HM twelve was the

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Navy mind sweeping squadron, and our
squad had never ever done that before,

286
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so it was a it was a
learning process, and you did it with

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with two different two different devices.
The Marine Corps had the more simpler device,

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what they called it a MOP,
a magnetic orange pole that you UH.

289
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There was this array of of cables
and wind shoes and stuff, and

290
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you dragged this this magnetic orange orange
poles about the size of a telephone pole.

291
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You'd drag drag that and what they
call clappers on the back make you

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making a lot of noise. And
so this magnetic gorge pool would put out

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a a magnetic field and if there
was a I and it's of course you're

294
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hauling it way behind you. But
but we were at a little altitude and

295
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ostensibly if if the UH there went
over a mine that had not expired,

296
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UH, then it would it would
detonate the mine. And I think during

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that whole time, UH, I
don't think we detonated more than one or

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two minds between the Navy and the
Marine Corps UH and the UH the Navy

299
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h M twelve would haul a more
sophisticated UH, a more sophisticated device to

300
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called the sled, and it put
out a whole different type of UH of

301
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signal UH in a ray. And
it was just a huge thing that UH,

302
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a big UH on this big palette
that they would that they would haul

303
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and UH the same thing. I
don't I don't think they uh, I

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don't think they they detonated UH too
many. I think we did Warner one

305
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or two total. But UH.
The the flying was completely different because you

306
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were flying out of balance flight,
very uncomfortable, and you were very low

307
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altitude at a very very slow speed. But it was interesting. And I

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don't think any squadron, any Marine
squadtern, has ever done a sentence.

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But you had a Marine squadter,
a Navy squadn and we bothered, became

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brothers. We had more fun with
those with the Navy guys, and stayed

311
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in contact with him for a period
of time after we finished. The nineteen

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seventy three Peace Agreement was eventually followed
by the withdrawal of US aid for South

313
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Vietnam and the inevitable fall of Saigon
two years later. The end of hostilities

314
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for US forces there also meant they
were headed for another conflict upon their return

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home, one that was far less
deadly, but in many ways far more

316
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painful. Sefente says, American forces
facing the hate, the scorn, and

317
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the abuse of other Americans was an
especially deep wound. On our first tour,

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we were absolutely absolutely oblivious, uh, and all we knew was was

319
00:26:12.799 --> 00:26:18.680
what we got from stars and stars
and stripes. But when we saw,

320
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when we saw what was happening,
the riots, Kent State, those kinds

321
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of things, it was, uh, it was kind of disheartening, but

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it was Hey, we're here to
do a job, and we're going to

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do the job. And that did
not that did not hit us until until

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we came back to the States and
uh uh and that that was that was

325
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an eye opener for all of us. Uh m hm. I remember one

326
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one of our one of our kids
was a was a bachelor, and uh

327
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when we were in Hawaii and and
and he went to the skipper and said,

328
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Skipper, can I not Can I
not wear my uniform? Uh t

329
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uh to work. I'll change.
I'll change when I get here, Uh

330
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he said. But I walk out
of my apartment building and they're they're throwing

331
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full beer cans at me. They're
throwing They're throwing all kinds of crap on

332
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me because I'm earn, I'm wearing
my uniform and I've got another another buddy,

333
00:27:17.880 --> 00:27:19.559
uh, you know, back from
Vietnam. He lands and and Los

334
00:27:19.599 --> 00:27:22.400
Angeles, gets in a cab and
the first thing the guy says, Oh,

335
00:27:22.400 --> 00:27:26.039
how many babies did you kill?
You know, cause you're you're in

336
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uniform. So it was pretty pretty
sobering. But but military guys are are

337
00:27:30.960 --> 00:27:36.359
are pretty tough. So we just
we we we shrug it off and we

338
00:27:36.400 --> 00:27:40.400
did, but it it was disheartening. But I'm we we and and I

339
00:27:40.440 --> 00:27:42.799
think I speak for a huge Vietnam
community, you know, uh, Vietnam

340
00:27:42.880 --> 00:27:45.920
veterans community. W h M.
When I say it, it w We

341
00:27:47.000 --> 00:27:49.880
are glad things have changed in the
attitude toward uh, toward those of us

342
00:27:49.920 --> 00:27:55.279
that that we're in Vietnam. Uh
have changed and uh and we thanked in

343
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the public for realizing that we did
what we were what we were asked by

344
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our country to do. And uh
and UH we're glad that some folks finally

345
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acknowledge that, both publicly and and
and privately, because uh, rarely will

346
00:28:10.880 --> 00:28:14.039
you see a ah, a vet
with a with a hat or flight jacket

347
00:28:14.160 --> 00:28:18.960
or whatever that that doesn't that doesn't
receive thank you for your service. And

348
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uh after after all the years,
it's greatly appreciated. So uh, that's

349
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that's the long answers. So you
saw that the f the first time,

350
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and then you just kind of uh
through the other tours. You know it,

351
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it didn't change, but but that
that was the lay of the land,

352
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that's where things were happening. So
you just Okay, Uh, it

353
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is what it is. You can't
change it. You can't change people's minds.

354
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Uh. But when you talk to
people one on one, it might

355
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be happening out here, but every
person that you talked to, for the

356
00:28:49.240 --> 00:28:53.240
most part, just uh understand who
you are and what you do, and

357
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the friendship remains. It's a fun
day. Stayed in the Marine Corps for

358
00:28:56.359 --> 00:29:02.359
more than a decade after American forces
were brought home from Vietnam. Rising in

359
00:29:02.400 --> 00:29:07.839
the ranks mean greater responsibilities, and
he shares the final assignments of his honorable

360
00:29:07.960 --> 00:29:15.880
career. After Vietnam, I just
got a peacetime went to peacetime squadrons,

361
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and I was fortunate enough to have
command. I went to the Naval Academy

362
00:29:21.279 --> 00:29:26.799
for just absolutely wonderful tour. Not
not being an academy grad. It was

363
00:29:26.839 --> 00:29:32.160
a different kind of kind of world
to mix with the with the midshipment.

364
00:29:32.240 --> 00:29:37.160
I had a company for three years, which is basically your your their leadership

365
00:29:37.200 --> 00:29:40.960
instructor, and their droll instructor.
For three years, I had one hundred

366
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and twenty five midshipmen, even number
of pleagues all the way up to the

367
00:29:45.480 --> 00:29:51.359
to the to the first class.
Had some future generals in my future Marine

368
00:29:51.400 --> 00:29:56.839
generals and admirals in my company that
I was very fortunate and hope that I

369
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provided some leadership skills for them.
So it did a three year tour then

370
00:30:03.799 --> 00:30:07.200
and then went back to cal to
California, where I was fortunate enough to

371
00:30:07.240 --> 00:30:15.400
become a squadron HMH four sixty two
Squadron EXO, and then fleeted up to

372
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be the commanding officer, and it
was a squadron that had been I had

373
00:30:18.519 --> 00:30:22.039
been in earlier as a captain,
so it was it was kind of enough

374
00:30:22.119 --> 00:30:27.319
to get back to the heavy haulers. Finished that tour and then went to

375
00:30:27.359 --> 00:30:36.200
the training command down of Corpus Christie
in nineteen eighty two and elected to resigned

376
00:30:36.200 --> 00:30:41.519
my commission and try severely in life
in nineteen eighty five. Nowadaysentes as an

377
00:30:41.559 --> 00:30:45.359
active veteran, not only with the
Marines and other service members of his generation,

378
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but also the greatest generation. Sef
went days as the executive director of

379
00:30:52.119 --> 00:30:57.960
the Ewo Jima Association, an organization
serving and connecting with the surviving veterans of

380
00:30:59.000 --> 00:31:03.680
that critical battle in the Pacific Theater
during World War Two. The small island

381
00:31:03.720 --> 00:31:08.480
was essential for the Allies to control
before making a push towards Okinawa and the

382
00:31:08.559 --> 00:31:15.400
Japanese mainland. The Japanese had used
a tactically significant airstrip there to inflict great

383
00:31:15.480 --> 00:31:21.920
damage on the Allies. Once in
US hands, that airstrip then became a

384
00:31:21.960 --> 00:31:26.880
powerful weapon against the Emperor and his
forces. Now, nearly eighty years after

385
00:31:26.920 --> 00:31:32.200
that battle, the number of veterans
may be dwindling, but quite a few

386
00:31:32.319 --> 00:31:37.359
still remain. So Fuente says,
getting to know these heroes well is the

387
00:31:37.400 --> 00:31:41.119
best part of the job, but
getting so close to them makes the worst

388
00:31:41.160 --> 00:31:45.559
part of the job even harder.
Did I get to talk to the and

389
00:31:45.599 --> 00:31:48.839
these guys on a daily basis,
and they want to talk and they want

390
00:31:48.880 --> 00:31:52.640
to tell their stories. And so
many of them are civilive, you'd think

391
00:31:52.640 --> 00:31:56.319
they were fifty years old, and
all of a sudden, when you do

392
00:31:56.480 --> 00:32:00.680
talk to them, you can see
the years peel away. So they want

393
00:32:00.680 --> 00:32:05.480
to they want to tell their tell
their stories. I love these guys.

394
00:32:05.839 --> 00:32:09.400
The downside, the downside of this
job comes when you get the phone call

395
00:32:10.440 --> 00:32:15.559
from a Valletta and say so and
so, so and so has passed away.

396
00:32:15.079 --> 00:32:20.880
And so for several years you've established
this wonderful, warm relationship with these

397
00:32:20.920 --> 00:32:22.319
guys, and like I said,
they want to talk, especially to another

398
00:32:22.480 --> 00:32:27.000
VAT. A lot of times you
won't talk to their family, but they

399
00:32:27.000 --> 00:32:30.720
will talk to another another VAT.
And they've got they've got stuff that that

400
00:32:31.000 --> 00:32:36.799
you know, like like like Vietnam
vets, or or or or those those

401
00:32:36.839 --> 00:32:39.799
guys that have found out in the
desert. Sometimes you'll only talk to another

402
00:32:40.359 --> 00:32:44.880
another veteran of of some things you
need to get off your mind, need

403
00:32:44.920 --> 00:32:49.680
to get off get out of your
get out of your head. When you

404
00:32:49.720 --> 00:32:53.839
get that phone call that that they've
passed away, it just it takes a

405
00:32:53.880 --> 00:32:58.359
little bit, it takes a little
bit out of you. Arts of fun

406
00:32:58.440 --> 00:33:01.920
days did not originally plan on spending
his career in the military. He was

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quite convinced his initial three year enlistment
would be the extent of it until he

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paid a courtesy call to that Marine
Corps officer's selection official that led to three

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tours in Vietnam and twenty one more
years in the Corps in total. Sefente

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says he does not regret it for
a moment. I'm living the American dream

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because of because of the military they
offer. They offer any opportunity that you

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00:33:30.720 --> 00:33:32.200
want, that you want to,
you want to take, you can join

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00:33:32.240 --> 00:33:38.240
the military as a private and if
if you want to pursue that and become

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00:33:38.279 --> 00:33:45.160
a PhD or anything you want to, anything you want to from your military

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00:33:45.200 --> 00:33:49.880
career, it's there. All you
have to do is have the gumption and

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00:33:49.920 --> 00:33:53.079
the initiative to take it. You
will have you will have the pride,

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00:33:53.160 --> 00:33:57.640
you will have the education, you
will have the contacts, you will have,

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00:33:57.680 --> 00:34:01.920
the social skills, you will have
the profession professional attitude. You will

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00:34:01.960 --> 00:34:07.799
be learned. And if you pay
attention and take advantage of what the what

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00:34:07.839 --> 00:34:13.480
the military has, and I've seen
it time and time and time again,

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00:34:14.480 --> 00:34:19.960
it's there. It is there,
and you you will see any number of

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00:34:20.039 --> 00:34:24.599
top executives that that is so successful, and they will all say, you

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00:34:24.639 --> 00:34:29.719
know, I owe so much of
this, so much of this too to

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00:34:29.800 --> 00:34:35.320
the Marine Corps. That's retired US
Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Raoul art Sequentes.

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He served three tours as a helicopter
pilot in Vietnam and he is the executive

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00:34:40.639 --> 00:34:47.719
director of the EWO Jima Association.
I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles.

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00:34:59.199 --> 00:35:02.000
Hi, this is great Columbus,
and thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicles,

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00:35:02.199 --> 00:35:07.119
a presentation of the American Veterans Center. For more information, please visit

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00:35:07.159 --> 00:35:14.239
American Veteranscenter dot org. You can
also follow the American Veterans Center on Facebook

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and on Twitter. We're at AVC
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00:35:20.039 --> 00:35:24.400
YouTube channel for full oral histories and
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00:35:24.400 --> 00:35:30.840
subscribe to the Veterans Chronicles podcast wherever
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00:35:30.920 --> 00:35:34.440
listening, and please join us next
time for Veterans Chronicles