This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this edition is
retired US Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Raoul Art Sefuentes. Colonel Sefuentes served three tours
in Vietnam as a helicopter pilot. He now serves as executive director of the
Ewo Jima Association, a role which allows him to serve the surviving veterans of
that pivotal battle in World War II, raise funds for their projects, and
educate the rest of us about the heroism of those veterans. Colonel Sefuentes was
born in the small town of Lakeview, Michigan, in nineteen thirty nine.
His parents were brought to that area for work, and that's where they were
at the time he was ready to be born. But my parents were migrant
workers and during the summers they would they would bring the Hispanics up for Mexico
and Texas and the Southwest to pick the various crops there across the country,
and Michigan was known for its cucumbers and sugar beets and cherries and things like
that. So during the summer they would transport these these migrants with the old
school buses to do the crops, and they just follow follow the crops with
the time of the year, and my parents just happened to be up there
at that time and when it was time for me to come along, and
rather than returned back to San Antonio, Texas, they elected to stay there
in Michigan, and I was born and raised in the best of times.
So went days. Enlisted in the Marine Corps in nineteen fifty six while he
was still in high school. Looking back on it, he suspects there were
multiple reasons for joining. It was kind of it, kind of fun.
I was a little guy. I was, you know, I didn't date
much in high school. All the girls were taller than I was, and
they these big old farm boys were all the we're all the stars and the
football team. So I probably had a little man's complex at the time.
I was a third string, third string linebacker at one hundred and seventeen pounds
going after these big old farm boys. It didn't work for me. So
when I was eleven years old, I went to our little local theater and
so Sanza Vio gam with John Wayne and eleven years old, and I went
home and said, mom, that's what I'm going to be. That's what
I'm going to be when when I grow up. Then she patted me on
the head, she said, of course you are son to to form.
When I was eleven, I spotted a gunnery sergeant from World War Two who
just happened to be coming through time for a cup of coffee, and I
chatted with him, and he taught me to the reserves, and the rest
is history. I joined the Reserves, and graduation from high graduation from high
school, I went to boot camp. Joining the military and going through basic
training can be a culture shock to any new service man, but Marine Corps
boot camp has a well earned reputation for changing boys into men quickly and effectively.
Says it was intense, but he thinks he did pretty well. It
was interesting and it was fun. Even though I was not the biggest guy
in the in the class, I'd always been kind of I had been athletically
in good shape, so boot camp boot camp was a fun challenge for me.
I thoroughly I thoroughly enjoyed it. Uh, duck walking and things of
that nature were things that the drill instructors liked to like to put it through
where you squat down and march up hills and down hills. But the physical
activities for me were were easy. And it was something all of a sudden
that that that I excelled at so uh, marching and drilling and running up
and down hills and you know, fighting off rattlesnakes and firing rifles, to
me is it. It was exciting and so I took to it like a
duck to water. Immediately after Basic, Sefentes was assigned to a radio unit,
which he found interesting enough, but not interesting enough to keep him in
the Marine Corps. They sent me because I was able, actually able to
do to work a typewriter, they sent They sent me to a radio school
to become a radio telegraph operator they called twenty five twenty five thirty three,
and we learned, we learned and operated old World War two radios and that
was for six months. I was I was given a promotion out of boot
camp, so I did. I did pretty well there, and as as
the guy that kind of ran ran a little radio school class, I got
my choice of duty stations. So I was transferred to the territory of Hawaii
and I was there when they converted when when Hawaii went for I'm a territory
to a state. And I finished my active duty obligation with the Reserves in
nineteen fifty nine and tried my hand in college and took me five years to
work my way through, but I did that. So if one Days left
the service in nineteen fifty nine and completed his undergraduate degree in nineteen sixty four,
it was then, just as he was planning to attend graduate school and
pursue a master's degree. That's if one Days paid a simple courtesy call that
changed his life forever. Just as I graduated, the officer selection officer from
Houston, Texas, guy my name of John Geary came through, and as
a former Marine, I thought I'd go down, shake his hand and say
say howdy, because I was. I was on my way to graduate school
and on the better things. And he took me into coming back into the
Marine Corps. And as I'm walking out the door, he mentioned aviation and
kind of looked at me and said, you looked like a helico after pilot.
So in nineteen sixty four, I came back to the Marine Corps and
went to flight school and started my aviation career. But there's much more to
the story. While the idea of flying was appealing to Sefuentes, he admits
now that he was most enticed by the promise that accompanied the opportunity to fly
choppers in the Marine Corps. I was working my way through school, so
money was very dear. I was working in the cafeteria for my meals.
I'd just gotten married to this beautiful woman. And I was working in the
bookstore for my tuition and cleaning wrack cages for twenty five books a month.
So as I'm walking out at the door before he mentions aviation on my way
out, and he said, have you thought about aviation? I said,
well, sir, I get like how you see carsick You know, motion
sickness is not a thing for me. And then he said the magic words.
He said, do you know there's flight pay kaching flight? Tell me
about it. And so he told me, I should you give it?
Give it a shot. So they took me up on a flight, and
then it went pretty pretty well. I didn't I didn't feel a little brown
bag. Uh. And so went on to flight school and and and then
they assigned me to helicopter helicopter training and boa I'll tell you that I can't
see enough about a helicopter career and and uh just aviators in general. But
I love the helicopter mission. There's nothing like it. So I was I
was very fortunate that for most of my career I stayed on the helicopter community.
Soon he was off to flight training, and it would not be long
before fell in love with flying helicopters. In fact, he still remembers that
first solo flight. My first solo flight was was pretty interesting. Uh.
We took off, we took off for for my for my check, and
I remember my instructor. We landed a little base, a little outlining base,
and my instructor through through his his back seat cushion out and got in.
He said, go on, see what this. Either give me five
landings or kill yourself one or the other. So I did. I did
my landings, and then they told me to go solo. So I went
out and buzzed around in the little T thirty four mentor, which was just
it's just an absolute absolute thrill when you have an airplane all to yourself at
at at low altitude, there's I mean, there's nothing like it. You
feel so so uh so free and easy, and so that was indeed fortunate.
It was something it was fun and you did you had a career that
you just s thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed and what you were flying and what you
were doing. So the day, says after completing his flight training, there
was just a short window of assignments before receiving orders for Vietnam for the first
time. First assignment to Vietnam was it was actually three months, three to
four months after I got my wings. I received my wings at fifteenth of
April nineteen sixty six, and UH went immediate immediately to my first first squadron
in New River, Jacksonville, North Carolina in August. Then in September got
September sixty six got orders to to go to Vietnam, and UH so our
squadron was at that point stationed in Okinawa, Fatima, and the ship came
down, picked up the squadron, and we sailed to Vietnam off floated in
UH early October in just off the coast to waif Fubai, took off fload
of the squadron and we operated out of UH, out of waif Fubai for
for the entire year and UH from there, our our squadron would detach two,
three or four four birds either to Kisson or Dongha or other areas.
And and so we pretty much operated out of out of out of I Corps
area for the entire time. Looking back at it now, Sefente says he
held a very simplistic and idealistic view of war before he got to Vietnam.
It's a view that would be dispensed with quickly once he experienced war. You
know, to me, it wasn't adventure. The reality of war didn't hit
me until, uh, even on my first mission we took just offloading,
we took some some rounds of UH in an old aircraft that I've become familiar
with. UH And even to this day, it didn't really didn't really strike
me. It was more curiosity and just a happening more than anything else.
But uh, the reality of war really didn't hit until you went on your
on your first big mission, first first operation, to saw what what what
a war does? UH, And it was very, very sobering. But
the mind is a funny thing, and you can, you know, there
are things that you can cut out while they're happening, and you know,
just continue to do the thing, so God bless all Marines and aviators that
do their job. That's Lieutenant Colonel Raoul Art Sefuentes, a US Marine Corps
veteran who served as a helicopter pilot for three tours in Vietnam. Later,
we'll hear about the work Colonel Seffuentes does with Ewo Jima veterans. He'll also
discuss his work to remove the minds from Haiphong Harbor in Vietnam and share what
it was like to return to an ungrateful nation. But when we come back,
Colonel Sefuentes will take us in depth on that first tour in Vietnam.
I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles sixty Seconds of Service. This sixty
Seconds of Service is presented by T Mobile. T Mobile offers exclusive discounts for
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community. A charity in England providing gardening therapy to improve mental health among ex
military personnel has urged more people to ask for support when needed. Veterans' growth
based in Hastings said it's seen a recent rise in issues among the community due
to difficulties assessing mental health services as well as the impact of COVID. CEO
Sarah Wilson said people also struggled to come forward, but encouraged those in need
of support to please get in touch. The call comes as NHS England has
redesigned mental health support for veterans following a survey that showed about sixty percent found
it difficult to seek support. The survey of three thousand veterans and serving personnel
also showed more than half of respondent said they had suffered with a mental health
problem. This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this
edition is retired US Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel RYO. Wilson fuent Days before the
Break, we heard how Colonel Seffuentes was convinced to rejoin the Marine Corps just
after he graduated from college and the idealistic mindset that he brought to Vietnam One
that soon collided with reality. Says he was quickly put to use on a
wide variety of missions once he was in theater. Our squadron was like like
all the others. You never did just one type of mission, unlike the
army where you have dust off that does metovac. And on a given week,
one day you could do what they call working birds. You would be
assigned to a combat unit and you'd work with with that unit, and they
might have you hauling water, doing recon extracts, going from point A to
point B, taking a patrol out, pick picking patrol up. So you
would do that and perhaps the next day you were assigned strictly for emergency metava
acts. You had you had two birds and stand so if there was an
emergency metavac, you went, or if there was a metavac, you went,
whether it's an emergency or not. But you were dedicated to doing just
that. And maybe the next night or the next day you were you did
only reconnaissance flights taking taking reconnaissance patrols in or getting them back out, or
during reconnaissance overflight over flights. The next night you might be doing just You
didn't fly all day long. You got your rest because you were going to
do the night metavac, and at six o'clock in the evening you went on
standby for for night emergency emergency metavacts, and you were relieved at six o'clock
six o'clock the next morning. You might have the next day off to complete
any any long distance learning courses that you that you have just to give you
a break. Or or Mike case, I worked, uh work with maintenance,
and I might have to take some some aircraft up for uh uh for
for maintenance sets flights. Uh the system wasn't working right, the engine was
popping, popping, what whatever, So you had to do that sort.
I might just uh have an easy day of doing uh n uh doing maintenance
flights. Or sometimes uh you just get an on call flight. Ay,
we we need you to take uh General so and so to to such such
a place and bring him back. So the the missions were varied. There
was uh you never you never got bored. Or uh you might just be
on a detachment uh three birds to uh go to Fubai and we go to
uh we had uh five or six bergs at dong Hot all times to support
the DMZ and from there and you might have a two bird uh detachment.
I'd go up to Quisson and you sat there and and and uh operated out
of there. There uh, helping the the Marines either out of patrol or
out on the infamous eight eighty one or and and eight sixty one. So
you know, never a dull moment, and you never did the same thing.
Answer Fente says, there are a lot of missions from that first tour
that he remembers wow, some for their intensity and some for other reasons.
Well, there are a lot of a lot of missions that that kind of
stood out. Some some were humorous, and some were uh, some were
very very sobering and and and poignant. The worst, the worst missions were,
of course the metav acts, the emergency metavacts or in some cases recovering
UH recovering reconnaissance teams or or the night metavac or or the night recon extract
where where the team was on the move, UH they were being chased and
they they had they had to come out you had no choice, or or
an emergency metavact where there was an injury and the team had to move and
there was no choice. You had to get those guys out, UH at
least the wounded or or the casualties out so that the team could continue to
move. So there are a number of missions like that you remember, or
some zones that you went into that uh uh all of a sudden, things
what we call a hot zone or things got very very uh exciting in a
very short short period of time. So metavacts, reconnaissance inserts, things of
things of that nature and uh were are the most memorable. But it it
it's kind of funny after uh flying those missions for a year there there there
are actually very few missions that that I actually recalled, like I think the
missions in the hot zone hot zones you just you know, I I don't
remember. And there was you know, like any helicopter pilot there, there
were there were many, uh I mean that was that was what you did.
And now I was very, very, very extremely I'm one of the
looks gusman in the world. I did not get a purple heart, but
I should have, but I didn't. Just you know, I had my
my aircraft and my troops were good. We took a lot of hits,
but the Good Lord watched over me and and in my crew. That's retired
US Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Raoul art Sefuentes. He served three tours as a
helicopter pilot in Vietnam as part of a distinguished decades long military career coming up.
Sefuentes takes us along on his other two deployments to Vietnam, including a
focus on removing mines from Haiphong Harbor during the peace negotiations, and he reflects
on the poor treatment that our returning veterans received. That and much more in
just a moment, I'm Greg Corumbus, and this is Veterans Chronicles. This
is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this edition is retired
US Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Raoul Art Sefuentes. He served three tours as a
helicopter pilot in Vietnam and eventually retired in nineteen eighty five. He is now
executive director of the Ewojima Association, which we'll also talk about in more detail
in just a few moments. As we just learned, Sefuentes went from an
idealistic newcomer to Vietnam to a pilot who quickly learned the realities of war.
After a year of harrowing and otherwise memorable missions, his first tour ended and
Sefuentes came home. Soon it was on to learning new skills and new choppers
before returning to Vietnam. And while a lot of his responsibilities on that second
tour were the same as the first, there were some noticeable differences. Then
I started the normal rotation of going to peak time squadrons. We went back
to UH, I got N I got to orders back to newer Alurjactionville,
North Carolina where I started, and then we transitioned from the old H y
piston driven UH piston driven H three four that I just dearly loved to fly
to the newer model UH Boeing C H forty six uh C night tandem tandem
rotor aircraft. And UH A transition to that flew that for UH for a
couple of years, and then UH I was asked H to transition a couple
of de couple of years later, went back to UH, went back to
Vietnam, operated UH operated off off a ship and UH the same area.
But UH it was UH not quite as exciting as UH uh as the first
tour. So did UH did that same kind of missions? UH pretty much,
but UH but the UH the living conditions were were much better aboard UH
aboard ship. So UH did that tour? Went back to the States and
they were looking for for H fifty three drivers, a big old sea stallion,
completely different bird, but a good Sokrski bird. From that second tour
we went to Hawaii HM H four to sixty three with the Flying fifty threes.
When he landed that assignment in Hawaii, Sefuentes was overjoyed because he was
confident that meant the war was over for him. But it wasn't. He
would soon be back in Vietnam for another nine months, and this time the
duties changed quite a bit finely. I mean Hawaii Hawaii Squadron. Hawaii Squadron
never deploys, They've been in Hawaii for years and years and they never go
any oil. So, as it turned out, six months later, we
were back in Vietnam working with the working with the Navy to sweep the sweep
the mines up in Hifong and Hanoi Harbor's and that was a condition. The
mines had to be swept before they would release at least the prisoners of war.
Uh so uh we uh got with HM twelve the Navy squadron, and
there just had a grand time. What we thought was gonna be a three
month MISSI mission ended up being uh about about nine months. But uh it
was something different, something the Marine Corps uh had never had never done a
different type of flying uh altogether. Uh. So we uh we did uh
we did the mine sweeping and and UH we'd we'd be doing uh doing our
mine sweeping uh in these uh what they call fields uh and uh the talks
would break and the peace talks would break off, So we don't get back
aboard the aircraft carriers and go to go to the Philippines and hang out there
for a while until things got copastic with the with the peace talks, and
we'd go back out and and swoop some more, and the talks would break
down. They said get you know, get out of there. So the
ship ships would go back back and forth. So what started out as a
three month mission ended up uh ended up nine months. So went back,
we finished that up, went back to Hawaiian that I got orders to the
Naval Academy. So for just a wonderful tour. As you heard, Sefentes
mentioned, a significant part of his third tour was taking part in the effort
to remove mines from Hifong Harbor, and Sentes offered a lot more detail about
the work that he did and how he did it. HM twelve was the
Navy mind sweeping squadron, and our squad had never ever done that before,
so it was a it was a learning process, and you did it with
with two different two different devices. The Marine Corps had the more simpler device,
what they called it a MOP, a magnetic orange pole that you UH.
There was this array of of cables and wind shoes and stuff, and
you dragged this this magnetic orange orange poles about the size of a telephone pole.
You'd drag drag that and what they call clappers on the back make you
making a lot of noise. And so this magnetic gorge pool would put out
a a magnetic field and if there was a I and it's of course you're
hauling it way behind you. But but we were at a little altitude and
ostensibly if if the UH there went over a mine that had not expired,
UH, then it would it would detonate the mine. And I think during
that whole time, UH, I don't think we detonated more than one or
two minds between the Navy and the Marine Corps UH and the UH the Navy
h M twelve would haul a more sophisticated UH, a more sophisticated device to
called the sled, and it put out a whole different type of UH of
signal UH in a ray. And it was just a huge thing that UH,
a big UH on this big palette that they would that they would haul
and UH the same thing. I don't I don't think they uh, I
don't think they they detonated UH too many. I think we did Warner one
or two total. But UH. The the flying was completely different because you
were flying out of balance flight, very uncomfortable, and you were very low
altitude at a very very slow speed. But it was interesting. And I
don't think any squadron, any Marine squadtern, has ever done a sentence.
But you had a Marine squadter, a Navy squadn and we bothered, became
brothers. We had more fun with those with the Navy guys, and stayed
in contact with him for a period of time after we finished. The nineteen
seventy three Peace Agreement was eventually followed by the withdrawal of US aid for South
Vietnam and the inevitable fall of Saigon two years later. The end of hostilities
for US forces there also meant they were headed for another conflict upon their return
home, one that was far less deadly, but in many ways far more
painful. Sefente says, American forces facing the hate, the scorn, and
the abuse of other Americans was an especially deep wound. On our first tour,
we were absolutely absolutely oblivious, uh, and all we knew was was
what we got from stars and stars and stripes. But when we saw,
when we saw what was happening, the riots, Kent State, those kinds
of things, it was, uh, it was kind of disheartening, but
it was Hey, we're here to do a job, and we're going to
do the job. And that did not that did not hit us until until
we came back to the States and uh uh and that that was that was
an eye opener for all of us. Uh m hm. I remember one
one of our one of our kids was a was a bachelor, and uh
when we were in Hawaii and and and he went to the skipper and said,
Skipper, can I not Can I not wear my uniform? Uh t
uh to work. I'll change. I'll change when I get here, Uh
he said. But I walk out of my apartment building and they're they're throwing
full beer cans at me. They're throwing They're throwing all kinds of crap on
me because I'm earn, I'm wearing my uniform and I've got another another buddy,
uh, you know, back from Vietnam. He lands and and Los
Angeles, gets in a cab and the first thing the guy says, Oh,
how many babies did you kill? You know, cause you're you're in
uniform. So it was pretty pretty sobering. But but military guys are are
are pretty tough. So we just we we we shrug it off and we
did, but it it was disheartening. But I'm we we and and I
think I speak for a huge Vietnam community, you know, uh, Vietnam
veterans community. W h M. When I say it, it w We
are glad things have changed in the attitude toward uh, toward those of us
that that we're in Vietnam. Uh have changed and uh and we thanked in
the public for realizing that we did what we were what we were asked by
our country to do. And uh and UH we're glad that some folks finally
acknowledge that, both publicly and and and privately, because uh, rarely will
you see a ah, a vet with a with a hat or flight jacket
or whatever that that doesn't that doesn't receive thank you for your service. And
uh after after all the years, it's greatly appreciated. So uh, that's
that's the long answers. So you saw that the f the first time,
and then you just kind of uh through the other tours. You know it,
it didn't change, but but that that was the lay of the land,
that's where things were happening. So you just Okay, Uh, it
is what it is. You can't change it. You can't change people's minds.
Uh. But when you talk to people one on one, it might
be happening out here, but every person that you talked to, for the
most part, just uh understand who you are and what you do, and
the friendship remains. It's a fun day. Stayed in the Marine Corps for
more than a decade after American forces were brought home from Vietnam. Rising in
the ranks mean greater responsibilities, and he shares the final assignments of his honorable
career. After Vietnam, I just got a peacetime went to peacetime squadrons,
and I was fortunate enough to have command. I went to the Naval Academy
for just absolutely wonderful tour. Not not being an academy grad. It was
a different kind of kind of world to mix with the with the midshipment.
I had a company for three years, which is basically your your their leadership
instructor, and their droll instructor. For three years, I had one hundred
and twenty five midshipmen, even number of pleagues all the way up to the
to the to the first class. Had some future generals in my future Marine
generals and admirals in my company that I was very fortunate and hope that I
provided some leadership skills for them. So it did a three year tour then
and then went back to cal to California, where I was fortunate enough to
become a squadron HMH four sixty two Squadron EXO, and then fleeted up to
be the commanding officer, and it was a squadron that had been I had
been in earlier as a captain, so it was it was kind of enough
to get back to the heavy haulers. Finished that tour and then went to
the training command down of Corpus Christie in nineteen eighty two and elected to resigned
my commission and try severely in life in nineteen eighty five. Nowadaysentes as an
active veteran, not only with the Marines and other service members of his generation,
but also the greatest generation. Sef went days as the executive director of
the Ewo Jima Association, an organization serving and connecting with the surviving veterans of
that critical battle in the Pacific Theater during World War Two. The small island
was essential for the Allies to control before making a push towards Okinawa and the
Japanese mainland. The Japanese had used a tactically significant airstrip there to inflict great
damage on the Allies. Once in US hands, that airstrip then became a
powerful weapon against the Emperor and his forces. Now, nearly eighty years after
that battle, the number of veterans may be dwindling, but quite a few
still remain. So Fuente says, getting to know these heroes well is the
best part of the job, but getting so close to them makes the worst
part of the job even harder. Did I get to talk to the and
these guys on a daily basis, and they want to talk and they want
to tell their stories. And so many of them are civilive, you'd think
they were fifty years old, and all of a sudden, when you do
talk to them, you can see the years peel away. So they want
to they want to tell their tell their stories. I love these guys.
The downside, the downside of this job comes when you get the phone call
from a Valletta and say so and so, so and so has passed away.
And so for several years you've established this wonderful, warm relationship with these
guys, and like I said, they want to talk, especially to another
VAT. A lot of times you won't talk to their family, but they
will talk to another another VAT. And they've got they've got stuff that that
you know, like like like Vietnam vets, or or or or those those
guys that have found out in the desert. Sometimes you'll only talk to another
another veteran of of some things you need to get off your mind, need
to get off get out of your get out of your head. When you
get that phone call that that they've passed away, it just it takes a
little bit, it takes a little bit out of you. Arts of fun
days did not originally plan on spending his career in the military. He was
quite convinced his initial three year enlistment would be the extent of it until he
paid a courtesy call to that Marine Corps officer's selection official that led to three
tours in Vietnam and twenty one more years in the Corps in total. Sefente
says he does not regret it for a moment. I'm living the American dream
because of because of the military they offer. They offer any opportunity that you
want, that you want to, you want to take, you can join
the military as a private and if if you want to pursue that and become
a PhD or anything you want to, anything you want to from your military
career, it's there. All you have to do is have the gumption and
the initiative to take it. You will have you will have the pride,
you will have the education, you will have the contacts, you will have,
the social skills, you will have the profession professional attitude. You will
be learned. And if you pay attention and take advantage of what the what
the military has, and I've seen it time and time and time again,
it's there. It is there, and you you will see any number of
top executives that that is so successful, and they will all say, you
know, I owe so much of this, so much of this too to
the Marine Corps. That's retired US Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Raoul art Sequentes.
He served three tours as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam and he is the executive
director of the EWO Jima Association. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles.
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