Speaker 1: Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
Speaker 1: this edition is David Rodriguez. He's a US Army veteran
Speaker 1: of the Vietnam War. He received a Bronze Star with
Speaker 1: a V for valor for his actions to put an
Speaker 1: end to an enemy ambush in December of nineteen sixty seven.
Speaker 1: He was also wounded on three separate occasions. And David,
Speaker 1: thanks very much for being with us. You hear my, sir,
Speaker 1: where were you born and raised?
Speaker 2: I was born in Santase, California.
Speaker 1: And was there a history of military service in your family?
Speaker 2: My father was in the army. My uncles were all
Speaker 2: in World War II, one was in Korean War, my
Speaker 2: uncle was all my father's family were in a military.
Speaker 1: Did that influence your decision to join?
Speaker 2: No, because we were a farmer. Well, we worked in farms,
Speaker 2: and so I didn't want to work in the farm anymore.
Speaker 2: So I was seventeen years old and I told my dad,
Speaker 2: I go, hey, I don't want to do this anymore
Speaker 2: and I want to go into the army. And he said, well,
Speaker 2: don't you know there was a war going on? And
Speaker 2: he said yes, and so are you sure, you want
Speaker 2: to go.
Speaker 1: I go.
Speaker 2: It's easier to stay alive and to maybe get you know,
Speaker 2: get shot and killed. Oh no, I don't.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: The farm is just not for me. So I decided
Speaker 2: to go into the military and he signed the paperwork.
Speaker 2: My mom cried, she didn't want to do it, but
Speaker 2: my dad did it because that's what I wanted. I
Speaker 2: went into the military.
Speaker 1: So how old were you and I was seventeen.
Speaker 2: Years old, nineteen sixty six.
Speaker 1: Where did you do your basic training.
Speaker 2: In Fort Lewis, Washington. Oh, that was during the time
Speaker 2: of meningitis and there was a lot of things going
Speaker 2: on that we so it was all our barrags were
Speaker 2: separated when we had to go to training. We trained
Speaker 2: not individually, but as a as a unit from H
Speaker 2: Barracks only because of because of the meningitis that was
Speaker 2: going on at the time.
Speaker 1: You were later assigned to be a combat engineer.
Speaker 2: Yes, I did. I was a combat engineer and I
Speaker 2: went to Fort Lyndwood, Missouri to get trained as EUD specialist.
Speaker 2: I was an explosive specialist.
Speaker 1: And tell me what the role of a combat engineer is.
Speaker 2: Well, combat engineer is usually is going out and doing
Speaker 2: you know, building bridges, things that need to be done
Speaker 2: in a combat situation. They say, a road gets blown
Speaker 2: up and they need to continue going through that road
Speaker 2: while we repair the road and put it together. But
Speaker 2: my job was usual was mostly explosives. I blew up things,
Speaker 2: you know. Sometimes we will find mortar rounds or shells
Speaker 2: that wasn't wasn't exploded, or bunkers that we needed to explode,
Speaker 2: especially enemy bunkers, or even some of the foxholes and
Speaker 2: stuff like that where they used to go, you know,
Speaker 2: and we used to blow them up so they couldn't
Speaker 2: be used again by the enemy.
Speaker 1: When were you deployed to Vietnam.
Speaker 2: In nineteen sixty six. What were your.
Speaker 1: First impressions of Vietnam, both in terms of the war
Speaker 1: and just the country itself.
Speaker 2: I landed in benvoeh It was hotter than hell. It
Speaker 2: was actually jungle. I've seen nothing but banana trees, and
Speaker 2: I kept saying, Wow, this is almost like if you
Speaker 2: were going to Panama or some place like that. And
Speaker 2: it was something different because I've never been out of
Speaker 2: California before, so I really wasn't prepared to see a
Speaker 2: lot of stuff like that. We used to go to
Speaker 2: Texas where my families that come from. And so of
Speaker 2: course Texas is half desert and half you know, by
Speaker 2: the ocean, so it you know, Vietnam is a beautiful place.
Speaker 2: Let's put it that way. It's a very beautiful place.
Speaker 2: It's got everything you can think of. It's got bananas,
Speaker 2: it's got pineapples. They got mongos and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: When we used to go through the through the jungle,
Speaker 2: s intuff that, you know. We used to cut wild pineapple,
Speaker 2: you know, and we used to eat them when we're
Speaker 2: walking and stuff like that. Or we used to get
Speaker 2: the bananas from the banana trees and we used to
Speaker 2: sometimes we used to carry a whole stock of bananas
Speaker 2: when we're out there in the jungle. Because I used
Speaker 2: to be attached to the infantry as an explosive specialist.
Speaker 2: That's what we do. That's what I did. So I
Speaker 2: was attached to the infantry. We would carry C four
Speaker 2: and explode do it. You know, we would find you know,
Speaker 2: mines or ordnance that wasn't exploded or you know, bombs
Speaker 2: that were dropped from the planes and didn't explode. Whether
Speaker 2: that was our job is to make sure they were exploded.
Speaker 2: Or got rid of.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: It's not like the time when John Wayne would tear
Speaker 2: apart a bomb, you know, and use all these equipment. Though.
Speaker 2: We would turn on and actually put C four on
Speaker 2: it and exploded in place so nobody would get hurt.
Speaker 2: And then we were in charge making sure that booby
Speaker 2: traps and stuff like that were disarmed. And that was
Speaker 2: our job.
Speaker 1: How tricky was that?
Speaker 2: Well, I got blown up. I kept going up. Once
Speaker 2: I ended up breaking my back. I ended up going
Speaker 2: to the Saigon. It wasn't as bad as I thought
Speaker 2: it was going to be because they stitched me up,
Speaker 2: fixed me up, and now I was back in the
Speaker 2: jungle within two weeks, So it wasn't that bad. But
Speaker 2: I thought I had booken my back, but it was
Speaker 2: just sprained and so they just fixed me all up
Speaker 2: and I was back.
Speaker 1: Where were you based?
Speaker 2: I was based in downtown South Vietnam, and I was
Speaker 2: based in the French fort h east of or west
Speaker 2: of Vietnam, next to the Cambodian border. We used to
Speaker 2: go into a Cambodian border and do a lot of things.
Speaker 2: I worked a little bit with the mountain yards. I
Speaker 2: ended up doing some stuff up north towards Latian border,
Speaker 2: and we worked with CIA in Laos for a little while,
Speaker 2: so my job was kind of you know, diversed.
Speaker 1: Are you allowed to tell us what you did in
Speaker 1: Cambodia and Laos.
Speaker 2: And Lous I can't tell you because we wasn't even beither.
Speaker 2: We wasn't wasn't being Combolia. But it wasn't really a
Speaker 2: big secret because everybody and you were there. Well, we
Speaker 2: would go in there there in the middle of the
Speaker 2: night and look for enemies and then destroy their camp,
Speaker 2: getting artillery or playing dropping exprosives from planes and stuff
Speaker 2: like that.
Speaker 1: And what unit precisely were you with.
Speaker 2: I was with the seventh of the forty seventh.
Speaker 1: And when I was attached to them, what type of
Speaker 1: weapons other than explosives were you using?
Speaker 2: I was using an M sixteen, AR fifteen and a
Speaker 2: forty five. I carried a forty five.
Speaker 1: Do you have a favorite of those that you're most
Speaker 1: comfortable with?
Speaker 2: Well, they were doing the recall. I don't know if
Speaker 2: you remember, or at one time they were doing the
Speaker 2: recall of the M sixteen because they were they were
Speaker 2: getting they were jamming. But you know, you get a
Speaker 2: favorite to well, it becomes part of you. It's like
Speaker 2: your second arm, you know. And so they were trying
Speaker 2: to take my memory. They were trying to take my
Speaker 2: M sixteen, and so no, you either got shot or
Speaker 2: you left me alone. So my M sixteen was one
Speaker 2: of my favorite ones. The forty five was just for
Speaker 2: in case, and so you know you used it for
Speaker 2: How can I tell you? It was close combat situations?
Speaker 1: How close this was the.
Speaker 2: Between me and you. I didn't take my M sixteen
Speaker 2: at those time when we had to go in into
Speaker 2: a special missions and stuff like that, and we would
Speaker 2: just take forty fives and once we got close enough,
Speaker 2: then we just turned around and took your business.
Speaker 1: Other than the familiarity of the M sixteen, what did
Speaker 1: you love about it? So much?
Speaker 2: Very accurate? It was my buddy, my friend, and it
Speaker 2: kept me alive.
Speaker 1: Do you remember the first time you engaged the enemy?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it's the first time I j engaged. In fact,
Speaker 2: we would. I had just landed and it must have
Speaker 2: been my first month and we were in Bearcat and
Speaker 2: we went out into a night patrol out of the burm.
Speaker 2: We got hit by a small venom hesa can unit
Speaker 2: and I was green. I mean, I was so green,
Speaker 2: and you know, my fatigues, all my greens were still
Speaker 2: all my greens were still so green, they were brand new.
Speaker 2: And you know, I said, you know, I got was shocked.
Speaker 2: I was scared. Didn't know what to do. First thing
Speaker 2: I did was hit the ground and didn't know where
Speaker 2: to fire, because, you know, you were just like, where's
Speaker 2: it coming from? And even though all get training that
Speaker 2: you get, you get training in the military at home,
Speaker 2: so it's not real combat, you know, situations. So when
Speaker 2: it really hits, it's like what's going on. You don't
Speaker 2: know what's happening, and you're trying to figure out what
Speaker 2: to do, and no matter how much training you have,
Speaker 2: you kind of forget it. But then after a while,
Speaker 2: I starts coming back and you started thinking. You know,
Speaker 2: it's all about thinking before you know, because the first
Speaker 2: thing you start thinking about it just got kill me.
Speaker 2: Especially when you start hearing around a lot of people
Speaker 2: don't understand that when a bullet goes by your head,
Speaker 2: it actually zings just like a bee, and it sings
Speaker 2: bring zing zing, you know, and you hear the bullets
Speaker 2: just going by, so you don't know where to fire
Speaker 2: at because you're you're too afraid. So that was my
Speaker 2: first experience and it was over real fast. We called
Speaker 2: in artillery surprise, so you know, and it was over
Speaker 2: within it in a couple of minutes and it was done.
Speaker 2: But after that I found out that I'm in the war.
Speaker 2: This is real. This is not a joke, This is
Speaker 2: not what you see on TV. Now, you're this guy
Speaker 2: here is trying to kill you. So either you get
Speaker 2: it together or you're gonna wind up dead. And so
Speaker 2: after that, things just started getting a little bit more easier.
Speaker 2: Then when I got into my next firefight, and this
Speaker 2: was in actually, and when they shipped me to Long
Speaker 2: Time and I got attached to the seventh of the
Speaker 2: forty six infant unit and so we were out on
Speaker 2: patrol and then we got hit with a small unit
Speaker 2: and so then I startedly know what to do. So
Speaker 2: now then I started turning on and actually aiming to
Speaker 2: shoot and to turn and take care of and you know,
Speaker 2: take care of my job. When you first get there,
Speaker 2: it's all about confusion, and that's confusion within you. After that,
Speaker 2: it's all about you starting to learn about you, being
Speaker 2: protective about you and your friends around you, and you
Speaker 2: start seeing that this guy here is trying to protect
Speaker 2: you as well as he's the other guys trying to
Speaker 2: protect you, and you're all trying to protect each other
Speaker 2: and fighting for what you feel is right. You know.
Speaker 2: I used to when I got used to it, and
Speaker 2: it took me a few months because every time we
Speaker 2: went out, we always got hit. I mean it was
Speaker 2: like day and night, you know, you went out, we
Speaker 2: all got hit by a small uh you know, called
Speaker 2: Vietnam unit or patrol. And it wasn't very they were
Speaker 2: never very big. They usually are ten or fifteen men
Speaker 2: and basically just for destructive, you know situations, So they
Speaker 2: were sort of shooting at you and then they would run,
Speaker 2: so it would be one of those situations. But after
Speaker 2: a while I used to yell at them, well, if
Speaker 2: you're going to shoot at me, I'm gonna shoot at
Speaker 2: you and I'm going to kill you. And then that
Speaker 2: became my model. I got to the point where I
Speaker 2: knew if they were going to shoot at me, my
Speaker 2: job was to find them, see him and shoot them.
Speaker 2: And I wasn't going to die. So it was his
Speaker 2: life or my life, and that's that's all it took.
Speaker 2: And so I think that was my survival thing. And
Speaker 2: that's what the whole time I was the three years
Speaker 2: I was because I was three years in Vietnam. The
Speaker 2: whole time I was there, they ever had a problem.
Speaker 1: That's David Rodriguez. He's a US Army veteran of Vietnam,
Speaker 1: where he was wound three times. He also received a
Speaker 1: Bronze Star for his actions to thwart an enemy ambush
Speaker 1: in December nineteen sixty seven. That dramatic story is next.
Speaker 1: I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles.
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Speaker 1: This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
Speaker 1: this edition is David Rodriguez, who served as a US
Speaker 1: Army combat engineer and served a total of three years
Speaker 1: in theater in the Vietnam War. He was wounded three
Speaker 1: times there, including two bayonet attacks, and we'll discuss all
Speaker 1: of that in detail later in our conversation, but Sergeant
Speaker 1: Rodriguez was also awarded the Bronze Star for his actions
Speaker 1: in December nineteen sixty seven. As we pick up his story,
Speaker 1: Rodriguez explains how he and other soldiers were ambushed almost
Speaker 1: immediately after stepping off their boat. The dire situation the
Speaker 1: Americans soon found themselves in, and how his actions helped
Speaker 1: to neutralize the enemy.
Speaker 2: We were in the world long Land Province at the time.
Speaker 2: It was this was Operation Cobra Uh in December of
Speaker 2: December fourth. What basically happened, we were we were on
Speaker 2: the lst Navy ship and we were working off the
Speaker 2: Mekon Delta at the time, so we were on these
Speaker 2: barges uh uh. It was a river reinforce that we
Speaker 2: were working with, actually with the fourth or the forty
Speaker 2: seventh at the time, and we had disembarked off the
Speaker 2: ship and so as we got off the LSTs, we
Speaker 2: turned around and we we we marched maybe for about
Speaker 2: a mile or so, and it was jungle area and
Speaker 2: then we got into a rice paddy area where it
Speaker 2: was all out of rice paddy. It was very open
Speaker 2: and the jungle was on our left hand side, and
Speaker 2: we were walking towards the sun. And as we were walking,
Speaker 2: all of a sudden we got hit and we got
Speaker 2: into it. It was what we call a U shaped ambush,
Speaker 2: and then right in the middle of the machine gun
Speaker 2: was there and and you know, they were just at
Speaker 2: that point and we just got moved down. I mean
Speaker 2: they were just because we were all standing up at
Speaker 2: the time. So they started just shooting and shooting and shooting.
Speaker 2: And we were in a U shaped ambush. So we
Speaker 2: couldn't go this way, we couldn't go that way. You
Speaker 2: only way we can go this backwards. And you're trying
Speaker 2: to run against bullets. It just doesn't work. So everybody
Speaker 2: just you know, jumped down and got onto the rice
Speaker 2: patties and so a lot of rice patty has little
Speaker 2: these little mounds, and so you're trying to hide behind
Speaker 2: these mountains, but they're just not high enough. You know,
Speaker 2: there's you got water, and then you got the little mound,
Speaker 2: and so they're shooting at you. And they were killing
Speaker 2: quite a few people. Our point man was Washington, was
Speaker 2: a black gentleman, a good friend of ours. And when
Speaker 2: we got hit, we got hit so hard that you know,
Speaker 2: when he fell and he just had a nervous breakdown
Speaker 2: because there was just so much bullets going by. And
Speaker 2: I at that time, I think that they were not
Speaker 2: trying to kill him because they were interested in the
Speaker 2: rest of the party. And he was just stuck in
Speaker 2: the middle. Saw me and one of the other guys
Speaker 2: from the seventh or the forty seventh. We got together
Speaker 2: and we snuck out there and we pulled them back,
Speaker 2: and man, we were getting then, we were getting all
Speaker 2: kinds of fire, and for some reason we just lucked out.
Speaker 2: We got back and we hid behind the little mound
Speaker 2: on the on the rice patty and we were just
Speaker 2: getting hit. I mean, we got to the point and
Speaker 2: so Don got killed. He was operator. He was the
Speaker 2: radio operator. He got killed. And the radio operator was
Speaker 2: there and by lieutenant. We used to call him Friendship
Speaker 2: because he was from Louisiana and he was he had
Speaker 2: red hair and so but we used to call him
Speaker 2: Friendship because from Louisiana. So he kind of got that nickname.
Speaker 2: And one year with officers, especially when you're in a
Speaker 2: war situation, you get pretty close to even your officers,
Speaker 2: you know, especially if they're a good a good officer,
Speaker 2: and so to call him Frenchy. And he got separated
Speaker 2: from the RTO and you know, we needed to get
Speaker 2: the radio to him so we can get air support.
Speaker 2: They were just shooting us, like all of those gallery things,
Speaker 2: you know, and arcades you know, they were just killing
Speaker 2: us pretty bad. So Frenchie, my lieutenant, turned and says,
Speaker 2: you know, geez, we're in trouble man. You know, I
Speaker 2: need to get the radio. So we ended up getting
Speaker 2: the radio to him and he's trying to call him
Speaker 2: air support and he goes, hey, Dave, you know, is
Speaker 2: there any way that you can get and moved to
Speaker 2: the side and see what you can get. So I
Speaker 2: moved to the side, and every time I moved to
Speaker 2: the side, I was getting more fire coming at me.
Speaker 2: So something happened and I just can't figure out what.
Speaker 2: I jumped up and I started running, and I started
Speaker 2: shooting at this one little section where this Vietnamese was
Speaker 2: at and boom, boom, boom up. You know, I shot
Speaker 2: him up, you know. So I got in there and
Speaker 2: there was I don't know, maybe about four many meters
Speaker 2: or twenty five meters or so, I can't remember exactly.
Speaker 2: There was another one and so I was able to
Speaker 2: take him down. So I took him down and he
Speaker 2: was out of the way. And so I got to
Speaker 2: a point where I ran out of Ammo. You know,
Speaker 2: two stories. I ran out of Amlan. I didn't know
Speaker 2: what to do. I go, what am I going to
Speaker 2: do now? I'm gonna I had no more clips and nothing.
Speaker 2: So I ended up picking up one of the rifles
Speaker 2: at the viacom hat and the riffles. The rifle doesn't
Speaker 2: make no you know what kind of it is, and so,
Speaker 2: you know, I made sure that we had some AMMO,
Speaker 2: and so I ended up, you know, taking down the
Speaker 2: machine gun. One of the guys that was sitting in
Speaker 2: the other other bunker jumped up and he ran and
Speaker 2: he got fired. He got killed by some of the
Speaker 2: fire that we were that we were shooting from the guys.
Speaker 2: And then I started targeting the other the other foxhole
Speaker 2: that they were in like a foxhole, and I started
Speaker 2: firing that. I ended up killing another guy there. And
Speaker 2: then by that time everything started now and then we've
Speaker 2: seen that there was two other Vietnam He's just jumped
Speaker 2: up and just ran and basically was old with it
Speaker 2: was but by the time it was over with, there
Speaker 2: was only seven of us left.
Speaker 1: That's David Rodriguez. He's a US Army veteran of the
Speaker 1: Vietnam War. He received the Bronze Star for helping to
Speaker 1: stop an enemy ambush on his position in December nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty seven. In Just a Moment, Rodriguez reflects more on
Speaker 1: what happened that day, his decision to charge a machine
Speaker 1: gun position, and how he somehow emerged unscathed. We will
Speaker 1: also hear about the three times he was wounded in Vietnam,
Speaker 1: including two bayonet wounds, and how he managed to get
Speaker 1: himself in trouble while recuperating in Japan. I'm Greg Corumbus,
Speaker 1: and this is Veterans Chronicles. This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm
Speaker 1: Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this edition is David Rodriguez,
Speaker 1: a US Army veteran who served in the Vietnam War
Speaker 1: as a combat engineer. In a moment, you'll hear how
Speaker 1: Rodriguez suffered three injuries, including two different bayonet wounds, within
Speaker 1: a matter of months. But right now we pick up
Speaker 1: his story with deeper reflections on his actions to thwart
Speaker 1: the enemy ambush in late nineteen sixty seven, including how
Speaker 1: he was able to take out a machine gun position
Speaker 1: with just a rifle.
Speaker 2: It's not hard if you got. If you got, you
Speaker 2: got a guy shooting with a machine gun, and you
Speaker 2: see a hit, you you hit the hit, And so
Speaker 2: I was aiming at the head. I ended up hitting
Speaker 2: them right about here. I think when we were we
Speaker 2: went out there and it was it was a good hit,
Speaker 2: and it was, you know, one bullet, one shot and
Speaker 2: there it took care of business. And the other vauxhole
Speaker 2: we ended up getting another one. And I'm going to
Speaker 2: be honest with you, I don't know. I was shooting there,
Speaker 2: so I don't know if it was me to kill
Speaker 2: somebody the last one that was there, or or somebody
Speaker 2: else did. And then the other two they were in
Speaker 2: the foxhill, jumped up and they ran, but I was
Speaker 2: shooting shooting there, so I think I got him. But
Speaker 2: you know, I'm always going to always be in I
Speaker 2: was kind of guy and say maybe he was lucky
Speaker 2: and got shot by somebody else.
Speaker 1: I know, it all happened so quickly. But when you're
Speaker 1: running into a hale of bullets to rescue your friend Washington,
Speaker 1: or when you're running while under fire to the first
Speaker 1: position in the U shaped ambush to take out the enemy,
Speaker 1: do you remember anything specific that was running through your
Speaker 1: mind at that point.
Speaker 2: Oh no, it was like just happened. I don't know
Speaker 2: if you would understand this, but it just happened all
Speaker 2: of a sudden, you know, French, you said, hey man,
Speaker 2: we're in trouble man, you know, we need to get
Speaker 2: that guy. And then all of a sudden I just
Speaker 2: jumped up like a crazy guy and firing away and
Speaker 2: boom and got the guy, you know. And then once
Speaker 2: I got there, I got it was just like I
Speaker 2: was just doing it just normally. It was just boom boom,
Speaker 2: boom boom, you know. And it was just like a
Speaker 2: like a like a train, you know, moving on boom, boom, boom.
Speaker 2: And that's all I kept doing. And I didn't even
Speaker 2: know I did anything until it was old with, you know.
Speaker 2: The only thing I thought was that I want to survive,
Speaker 2: you know. And we were trying to get our dust
Speaker 2: stops coming in and they were shooting down the helicopters.
Speaker 2: Two helicopters got shot down during that time, so they
Speaker 2: couldn't get dust tops in to pull the guys off.
Speaker 2: So the more I was out there shooting up and
Speaker 2: getting these them, especially the machine gun. The machine gun
Speaker 2: was the most important out of all of them, because
Speaker 2: without that one going away, it would have been even worse.
Speaker 2: But it was that was aiming for the guy's head,
Speaker 2: trust me, and you know, I know I took them
Speaker 2: down and so and he had a big chest wound,
Speaker 2: so it was it was a clean shot.
Speaker 1: Did you ever think about how none of those bullets
Speaker 1: hit you that day?
Speaker 2: Well, my wife and I know about it, you know,
Speaker 2: every once in a while we talk about it. You know. Man,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm a Catholic, so you know we're believe
Speaker 2: in you know, I believe in God and the whole
Speaker 2: nine yards. But either he was covering me or he
Speaker 2: was thinking about, man, I got a reason for you
Speaker 2: to continue living, and you're just not going to die today.
Speaker 2: I just don't know. I mean, it was just it's
Speaker 2: just like I said, everything happened so fast, and maybe
Speaker 2: there was just like an umbrella over here or some
Speaker 2: kind of a what they call it in Star Trek
Speaker 2: when they have the cloaking device around me or something,
Speaker 2: you know, because I don't know why they didn't shoot me.
Speaker 2: I mean, there was a whole bunch of bullets going
Speaker 2: all over the place and you should have seen it.
Speaker 2: It was just like and then you can see the
Speaker 2: tracers as I was running, because it becomes like a
Speaker 2: ray gun, so many tracers firing from a machine gun,
Speaker 2: and it was like a ray gun. And so I'm
Speaker 2: running and I'm seeing all this red stuff going by,
Speaker 2: and I'm just running and running, and then boom, when
Speaker 2: I hit the foxhole where the first one was at.
Speaker 2: Then they continue firing at the rest because of course
Speaker 2: they couldn't hit me, you know. So then I that's
Speaker 2: when I ended up taking out the second foxhole, got him,
Speaker 2: you know, And then that's when I ended up. I
Speaker 2: was able to be in a better position to take
Speaker 2: out the machine gun. Once I got the machine gun
Speaker 2: out of the way, everything else was okay, because the
Speaker 2: machine gun was our worst enemy. Then that that's machine
Speaker 2: gun knocked down two helicopters. When you got two helicopters
Speaker 2: that went down and their dust off helicopters there, they're
Speaker 2: you know, they got the big red cross on them.
Speaker 2: That's the lifeline for all of us. There had to
Speaker 2: be some kind of or something going around. I mean
Speaker 2: when I was running, but uh, I never got hit once,
Speaker 2: not once, you know. And man, there was a whole
Speaker 2: bunch of them.
Speaker 1: So you mentioned there were only seven of you still
Speaker 1: able to fight of the other eighteen, Uh, did many
Speaker 1: of them recover?
Speaker 2: I don't know, because a lot of them went back.
Speaker 2: We had a lot of body bags, a lot of
Speaker 2: them were wounded. I don't know, because we regrouped and
Speaker 2: then we continued with our mission. General two star General
Speaker 2: O'Connors flew in his helicopter and he came in. He
Speaker 2: assessed the situation that happened, and well, actually always expect
Speaker 2: for at the time, so he gave me automatically, he
Speaker 2: made me into a sergeant ride away as you and
Speaker 2: so I got a field promotion as a sergeant right there.
Speaker 2: And then let's put it, it was an interesting day.
Speaker 1: So you still continued with the mission even though you
Speaker 1: lost almost three quarters of ye.
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, because the only thing we were going to
Speaker 2: do is basically God, there was a couple of huts
Speaker 2: that they were thinking that they had weapons, and so
Speaker 2: our units, you know, after everything happened, when the plane
Speaker 2: they brought in air support, they brought in napalm and
Speaker 2: so most of that stuff got burned down. And so
Speaker 2: like General O'Connors, you know, called us and talked to
Speaker 2: the tennis says, can you guys continue the mission? You guys,
Speaker 2: you know, everything is basically clear, but we just wanted
Speaker 2: to make sure that whatever it's left behind, you guys
Speaker 2: can take care of it, and we did. I actually
Speaker 2: the following day they picked us up in the morning
Speaker 2: and we went back to the ships.
Speaker 1: Well, mister Rodricoz, you were wounded three times in Vietnam, miraculously,
Speaker 1: not that day in December of nineteen sixty seven, but
Speaker 1: the first time was late January, early February, around the
Speaker 1: time of the tet offensive. Right, explain what was happening
Speaker 1: that day and what happened.
Speaker 2: Oh, we were out in we were actually out in
Speaker 2: the jungle. We were in northern Vietnam in tours Way
Speaker 2: City and we were in the jungle area there and
Speaker 2: then we got ambushed. And as we were kind of
Speaker 2: falling back a little bit to get ourself positioned, there
Speaker 2: was some Viet coom there and one of them rose
Speaker 2: up and bend ated me on my right side, punctured
Speaker 2: by lung and pulled out. But my partner spooke, you know,
Speaker 2: we've always worked together. I mean we were together for
Speaker 2: the whole three years. He lives in Santa Rosa, California.
Speaker 2: I live in Oakdale, California. Said we're still good friends,
Speaker 2: and he turned on it. You know, because I yelled,
Speaker 2: I go wow, you know, and this guy was trying
Speaker 2: to caut his rifle to shoot me, and I spooked
Speaker 2: torn and shot him and he pulled back and and
Speaker 2: he died. You. So that was my first one. And
Speaker 2: it was just, uh, he just came out of the bushes.
Speaker 2: It was something that was a surprise because we were
Speaker 2: actually right in the middle of a small unit of
Speaker 2: Vietcom so we were you know, it was all about
Speaker 2: it wasn't hand to hand, but it was pretty close
Speaker 2: to it.
Speaker 1: What's that like? Being that close to the enemy?
Speaker 2: Scary because you have to remember if you turn and
Speaker 2: you see somebody there and this guy's trying to cauck
Speaker 2: his rifle to shoot you, you know, and he's just
Speaker 2: as scared as you. Uh, And then you you're nervous
Speaker 2: because all of a sudden, he wasn't expecting him to
Speaker 2: be that close. You're you're nervous, and then you're getting
Speaker 2: yourself to prepare to shoot him. So it's all about
Speaker 2: you shooting him before he shoots you.
Speaker 1: How long did it take you to recover from the bayonet?
Speaker 2: Oh? This one here, I ended up going to Osaka.
Speaker 2: They I went to Saigon, and then from Saigon I
Speaker 2: went to Osaka. They ended up putting a little rubber
Speaker 2: holes in in the wound and they put it into
Speaker 2: my lung and then blew my lung up and then
Speaker 2: they turn to put this is what the doctor told me,
Speaker 2: and so what they're going to do. And then they
Speaker 2: blowed my lung back up, and then they put some
Speaker 2: crazy blue to glue the my lung, and then of
Speaker 2: course they sealed me up after they did that. And
Speaker 2: then of course I remember the doctor says, whatever you do,
Speaker 2: don't inhale real deep, okay, do small? You know, He's like,
Speaker 2: you're patting like a dog. I go, what are you
Speaker 2: talking about? He goes, if you do it in hell,
Speaker 2: you're gonna open that sucker back up and we're gonna
Speaker 2: have to go back into her. So and but you
Speaker 2: know that, you know how crazy glu is, right, it
Speaker 2: seals up pretty fast. So you know he said, because
Speaker 2: he said ten minutes, just don't be breathing real hard,
Speaker 2: you know, just pat like a dog. He goes for
Speaker 2: ten minutes that you'll be okay. And that was that
Speaker 2: was fun because I was in Japan at the time,
Speaker 2: got in trouble in Japan too.
Speaker 1: I want to know about that. In just a second.
Speaker 1: I'm still marveling at the fact that they literally crazy
Speaker 1: glued your wound.
Speaker 2: Yes they did. That's that's actually they do that. Now.
Speaker 2: You know, when they don't want to use stitches, they'll
Speaker 2: they'll seal you up with with some crazy glue, or
Speaker 2: they'll put those little tea patches on you.
Speaker 1: Okay, how did you get in trouble in Japan?
Speaker 2: Well? After I got I was in the hospital. And
Speaker 2: this is the this is the fun part. Okay, we
Speaker 2: were in the hospital and we needed to you know,
Speaker 2: me and this other guy were I was feeling fine
Speaker 2: and he was being fine. We didn't have no clothes,
Speaker 2: we were just in hospital clothes and the robes, right,
Speaker 2: So we snuck out and got out from the gate,
Speaker 2: and we went to a pub. So we're drinking and drinking,
Speaker 2: and finally the guy spoke broken Englishes. How you pay?
Speaker 2: I said, yeah, we're gonna pay. How you pay? Yeah,
Speaker 2: give us a couple more beers. You know, we were
Speaker 2: drinking those those big old long pine bottles of what
Speaker 2: was it called not sporo, And I'll never forget this.
Speaker 2: So the guy got all mad and he called the
Speaker 2: MP's on us. So and PTE comes in. He goes,
Speaker 2: what are you guys doing here? I said, well, we
Speaker 2: decided to take a walk and we've seen this pub.
Speaker 2: He goes, well, you guys ain't got no money. How
Speaker 2: you guys are going to pay this? I go the
Speaker 2: military is going to pay for it. So they put
Speaker 2: us in the jeep, took us back to the base,
Speaker 2: and that mart center was so mad. I mean he's
Speaker 2: so mad that he came out yelling and yelling. Of
Speaker 2: course I didn't know what he was saying. I don't
Speaker 2: know if the army ended up paying for it, but
Speaker 2: we drank about four or five beers, and it's you know, hey,
Speaker 2: when you're in Japan, you do what did japan people do? Right?
Speaker 2: So I had a ball, got in trouble at.
Speaker 1: A little bit, just a little bit. You were ban
Speaker 1: at it again around September of nineteen sixty eight.
Speaker 2: It was in September. Well, that was a good one.
Speaker 2: That was probably one of the most interesting ones because
Speaker 2: I got banned it. We were in a jungle. We
Speaker 2: were in Longland Promise next to the French fort, and
Speaker 2: we were working around the fort because we were getting
Speaker 2: some info that we were getting the one hundred of
Speaker 2: the five hundred five first North Endomease regulars were going
Speaker 2: to be coming in there. So we were turning around
Speaker 2: scoping the area and getting our bearings and things ready. Well,
Speaker 2: all of a sudden we ran into a few vname
Speaker 2: but there was a couple of them hiding and we
Speaker 2: didn't know it. So when we were passing through the
Speaker 2: through the trail, one of them jumped up and stabbed
Speaker 2: me around my left hand side. And he stabbed me
Speaker 2: and he stuck me all the way so hard. He
Speaker 2: didn't reach my lung, but his his band that got
Speaker 2: stuck between my ribs. Well, as he pulled pulled back,
Speaker 2: it wouldn't come out. I pulled back and again my
Speaker 2: partner spooke. I go, hey, spool, get this guy. So
Speaker 2: I go. So he grabbed my arm. I go. He goes.
Speaker 2: If I pull you and he goes forward, you're gonna
Speaker 2: go through you. He goes. And this guy keeps pulling
Speaker 2: and if you'll go back, it's gonna go through you.
Speaker 2: So I go, man, I don't care what you do.
Speaker 2: Get your foot pull him off of me. So when
Speaker 2: he ended up putting his foot in his chest and
Speaker 2: pulled me, pulled me out, and then we ended up
Speaker 2: shooting this guy. Uh. I was so darn mad. I
Speaker 2: filled him full of holes. I mean, this gentleman was
Speaker 2: he wasn't gonna move for forever. I got so mad
Speaker 2: because I ended up. It hurt so damn bad. I
Speaker 2: could have died because if I would have went forward,
Speaker 2: he the rifle would have went through me. If I
Speaker 2: would have went backwards, the rifle would have went through me.
Speaker 2: You know, the band one way or the other, I was,
Speaker 2: I would have been dead. But again, remember I was
Speaker 2: telling you, you know, there's always somebody that protecting you,
Speaker 2: putting that that uh that dog on a cloak around you,
Speaker 2: so you you know, you get killed. And so it
Speaker 2: was funny afterwards because everybody started the story went through
Speaker 2: the whole ship, and everybody started laughing about it and saying,
Speaker 2: so you kept telling Spook to pull you, and he
Speaker 2: kept telling you to, uh, be careful because if it
Speaker 2: can go through you, I go. Well, I didn't know
Speaker 2: what else to tell me. So everybody, and you know,
Speaker 2: it was a it was a good story. When we
Speaker 2: were in based, everybody started laughing and it was a
Speaker 2: joke thing for a little while, you know.
Speaker 1: Did it take long to recover from that one?
Speaker 2: Oh? No, I would actually well, And I ended up
Speaker 2: getting the medic came in, you know, he patched me up,
Speaker 2: He cleaned it out and stuff like that, put some
Speaker 2: stuff on it. But when I got back to base,
Speaker 2: they ended up swollowing up and it was all read
Speaker 2: for a while. It got infected and it was indeed,
Speaker 2: it just hit the bone and got caught within the
Speaker 2: bone between the two bones, you know. But what happened
Speaker 2: against the band that was just dirty and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: So it got infected. And about three weeks later I
Speaker 2: was fine. I was out there again like a demy.
Speaker 1: And a couple of months later you got wounded again.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like, but that one, wasn't it? That one? Wasn't
Speaker 2: that that? Remember, I was telling you that was like
Speaker 2: a bumble bee hitting you. We were we were in
Speaker 2: h where was I We were in the rice petty.
Speaker 2: I think at that time we turned around. We were
Speaker 2: we were out there in the bush and they had
Speaker 2: some snipers out there, and I don't know, as I
Speaker 2: was walking, I guess I must. I guess they were
Speaker 2: aiming for my head or something, and my arm must
Speaker 2: have went up or something and they hit me. I
Speaker 2: got the little hole right there. You shook and see
Speaker 2: you can still see the little ho where it went
Speaker 2: through and it came out to this other side. But
Speaker 2: that was I mean that one. It was really nothing.
Speaker 2: I mean I didn't even get those stitchers or nothing.
Speaker 1: It's amazing that you just take it all in stride.
Speaker 1: When did your deployment end.
Speaker 2: Oh, I got out of there in late sixty eight,
Speaker 2: almost in fact December, I think just before Christmas. I
Speaker 2: came home just before Christmas.
Speaker 1: Many Vietnam soldiers, as you know, were treated horribly when
Speaker 1: they came home. Did you experience any of that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I tried to stay away from it. We came
Speaker 2: back to California. I was at home for thirty days,
Speaker 2: and they had a lot of the protests, but in
Speaker 2: San Jose it was more you didn't have a lot
Speaker 2: of the big major colleges that they were doing this stuff.
Speaker 2: So I really didn't get involved with it. When I
Speaker 2: you know, I went back to I had thirty day
Speaker 2: leave and I went to Fort in Inward, Missouri as
Speaker 2: a DII in training and I was training explosives. We
Speaker 2: used to have a lot of protesters, and then I
Speaker 2: got moved back to Fort Campbell, Kentucky where the Green
Speaker 2: Beret units are at, and that's armor MAO were with
Speaker 2: one hundred and sixty eight Special Forces I was attached to.
Speaker 2: Went back there and I with a di there for
Speaker 2: a little while, and then I got out of the military.
Speaker 1: That's US Army veteran David Rodriguez, who served as a
Speaker 1: combat engineer during the Vietnam War. Up next, mister Rodriguez
Speaker 1: tells us about his work with the American GI Forum
Speaker 1: and why he says the care of our veterans still
Speaker 1: has a long way to go. I'm Greg Corumbus, and
Speaker 1: this is Veterans Chronicles. This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus.
Speaker 1: Our guest in this edition is David Rodriguez, a US
Speaker 1: Army veteran who served three years in the Vietnam War,
Speaker 1: endured three different wounds, and received the Bronze Star for
Speaker 1: his valor in ending an enemy ambush against him and
Speaker 1: his fellow soldiers in December nineteen sixty seven. Mister Rodriguez
Speaker 1: is now the National Commander for the American GI Forum,
Speaker 1: which serves as a voice for Hispanic veterans. He told
Speaker 1: me about the advocacy the American GI Forum does for
Speaker 1: our veterans and why medical care for them still needs
Speaker 1: to improve a lot.
Speaker 2: Our job is to drone and help our veterans. I
Speaker 2: think that our veterans are still getting treated pretty bad.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: I'm a of course a disabled bet myself, and the
Speaker 2: treatment that we get. See the VA always saying that
Speaker 2: we're progressing on how we're treating our veterans in the
Speaker 2: hospital and stuff like that. But it's easy for them
Speaker 2: to say on TV and senor that this is what
Speaker 2: we're doing that, but when you actually go to the
Speaker 2: hospital and you see some of the other veterans, and
Speaker 2: for you to go see your doctor, it takes one
Speaker 2: whole year. If you had a primary doctor at the VA,
Speaker 2: you could not go see him. You can go to
Speaker 2: the emergency room, but you could not. If you call
Speaker 2: to say I need appointment with my primary doctor, they
Speaker 2: would say, I tell you to go to the emergency room. Well,
Speaker 2: then why do you need a primary doctor for. And
Speaker 2: so we were talking just a few days ago with
Speaker 2: some of the veterans reps that came to visit us,
Speaker 2: and I asked them the same thing, and I go,
Speaker 2: we're getting too much bow and not enough answers. You know,
Speaker 2: in California, they broke the state up and three partials.
Speaker 2: You got Southern, Central, and Northern. I'm in northern California.
Speaker 2: I used to be in central California. So when they
Speaker 2: transferred me, I mean, I used me as an example.
Speaker 2: When they transferred me, they told me they had to
Speaker 2: go to the northern part of uh California, uh Medical
Speaker 2: Hospital for the VA. So okay, So my primary doctor
Speaker 2: is in San Jose where I used to go all
Speaker 2: the time. So then I had a transfer to it.
Speaker 2: And I'm gonna use this for an example. To the
Speaker 2: modesto clinic. Well, I go and went to go see
Speaker 2: my doctor there, and you know, they get my medications.
Speaker 2: But instead of getting my medications, sees they tell me, well,
Speaker 2: call your old doctor and to get your medications. So okay, simple, right,
Speaker 2: call my old doctor. Well I called my old doctor.
Speaker 2: Oh you're not part of us anymore. You got to
Speaker 2: go back to your doctor over here. And so I
Speaker 2: called my doctor over here. He goes, oh, we have
Speaker 2: to make another appointment, but your appointment ain't scheduling the
Speaker 2: next year. So medication. So what I did, cause I'm
Speaker 2: on SOL security, I went ahead and got Kaiser. So
Speaker 2: now I go to Kaiser. I'd rather pay the money
Speaker 2: and get my medication and see my doctor when I
Speaker 2: want to see him. And so when we ask the
Speaker 2: Department of Veterans Affairs some of these and it's sad
Speaker 2: because they can't answer those questions for you. You know,
Speaker 2: they come and they speak in front of the audience,
Speaker 2: but they can't answer that question. You know, Well, you
Speaker 2: know you have to go back and talk to the
Speaker 2: primary doctor and if he can't do it, you got
Speaker 2: to talk to the assistant manager or the director or
Speaker 2: the director and on or not. Well, why should I
Speaker 2: have to go to the director, the assistant director that
Speaker 2: want to be director, or the in between director. Why
Speaker 2: do I have to go see him when I should
Speaker 2: be able to get the treatment that I want. It's
Speaker 2: including other veterans that I that I see and I
Speaker 2: talk to. I don't think the veterans are getting treated
Speaker 2: very good and positions like mine are able to turn
Speaker 2: and talk to the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Speaker 2: Last year I had a chance to go visit with
Speaker 2: the Undersecretary and we brought some of these things up.
Speaker 2: And it's easy for them to say because remember, they
Speaker 2: get paid high dollars and they got beautiful benefits, they
Speaker 2: got good medical they've got the whole thing. But what
Speaker 2: we got is not what they got. So when you
Speaker 2: ask them, oh, we're going to check into it. So
Speaker 2: it's easy for them to have a legal pad and
Speaker 2: write all these things down. But then I'm not there
Speaker 2: to see it happen or if it goes into the
Speaker 2: trash can, I don't know. So I never seen anything
Speaker 2: really happen. So what we do again, we try harder
Speaker 2: to try to get more of our programs seen by
Speaker 2: the Department of Veterans Affairs. If not, we try to
Speaker 2: make sure that our congressmen and our centers know that
Speaker 2: we're not getting treated good. But you know what politics is.
Speaker 2: Politics is all about numbers. And if you don't have
Speaker 2: enough numbers to shake your hand and they want to
Speaker 2: kiss your baby and make sure you vote for me.
Speaker 2: People like me as a commander, and people in the
Speaker 2: American Legion in VFW and some of the other organizations,
Speaker 2: and I belonged to all of them. The sad part
Speaker 2: about it is that we're getting pushed to the back,
Speaker 2: and our poor veterans are not getting the treatment that
Speaker 2: they need. So we got to continue fight and work.
Speaker 2: That's what the American JF form is doing. We're fighting
Speaker 2: homeless veterans is a big deal in Stockton, California. I
Speaker 2: live in Oakdale in Stockton, California. We finally got opened
Speaker 2: up a small apartment complex that was going to be
Speaker 2: demolition and we were able to get them to not
Speaker 2: demolish it and they refabbed it and so now we
Speaker 2: got some homeless veterans in it. But the thing is
Speaker 2: that what is the Apartment of Veterans Affairs doing for
Speaker 2: homeless vet Oh? Yeah, I can show you a whole
Speaker 2: bunch of PSAs about what they're doing, But man, I'm
Speaker 2: in the field all day long, and I sure don't
Speaker 2: see it. You know, they're saying that they're they're giving
Speaker 2: money to these people, but I'm trying to figure out
Speaker 2: what people they're giving the money to. Congloments, people that
Speaker 2: live on this kind of thing that yeah, they have
Speaker 2: maybe some apartment complexes, they get paid big bucks, but
Speaker 2: do they really treat the veterans like the way it's
Speaker 2: supposed to be? These are the things that the American
Speaker 2: GF Forum is fighting for, making sure that homeless veterans
Speaker 2: don't be just you know, thrown out in the street.
Speaker 2: A lot of them right now are working from the
Speaker 2: counties and stuff like you know, Section eights and stuff
Speaker 2: like that, and they're they're they're going out there and
Speaker 2: getting Section hs because they don't got any money and
Speaker 2: they're allowed to by by the federal government to be
Speaker 2: able to get a home to sleep in. If they
Speaker 2: don't have any money, they go to the county and
Speaker 2: apply for a Section eight and if they get if
Speaker 2: there's a home to get it, nine times out of ten,
Speaker 2: the people that own the homes or or the apartment
Speaker 2: complex that they're going to rent, they don't want to
Speaker 2: runt into veterans. And I can't understand that. Yeah, they'll
Speaker 2: runt into a fact. I understand the family needs it too,
Speaker 2: but so it is a veteran. He's the one that
Speaker 2: went out there and fought for you. So those are
Speaker 2: the things that we're fighting for right now. And it's
Speaker 2: and it's and it's hard because the amount of of
Speaker 2: of help that we're getting is not the help that
Speaker 2: we need. And no matter how much anybody says you can.
Speaker 2: You can look at all those PSAs and smile and say, Wow,
Speaker 2: they're doing a fantastic job. But it's not true, and
Speaker 2: I see it every single day.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you for the work that you're doing. Veterans
Speaker 1: not getting the care they need when they need it
Speaker 1: from the vas is something thing everybody should be demanding,
Speaker 1: and that that that improved drastically. What are you most
Speaker 1: proud of from your service?
Speaker 2: I think what I'm most proud of is said my sons,
Speaker 2: because they always ask me questions about the military, and
Speaker 2: I tell them all the things that we'd done. And
Speaker 2: I always tell them that, you know, even though we
Speaker 2: were in the war, some of the children when I
Speaker 2: was in Vietnam, we used to help. We used to
Speaker 2: give them some of our money and and we used
Speaker 2: to buy clothes and and the p X and when
Speaker 2: we went out we would give them clothes and stuff
Speaker 2: like that. We did a lot of stuff in some
Speaker 2: of the small villages. There was a lot of us
Speaker 2: that would go out there and help, you know, build
Speaker 2: some of the churches. A lot of the churches, especially
Speaker 2: because there was a lot of Catholic churches there, they
Speaker 2: would be you know, bombed and stuff like that, and
Speaker 2: we would fix them. And there would be a lot
Speaker 2: of orphan homes there, a lot, I mean a lot,
Speaker 2: a lot, a lot, and so we would go in
Speaker 2: some of the time times we would get our sea
Speaker 2: rations and stuff like that, and we would take them
Speaker 2: to the orphans' houses and we were given to them.
Speaker 2: So I used to tell my kids that, go, yeah,
Speaker 2: we used to take care of those kids because they
Speaker 2: didn't have anything. Their fathers were dead or something. Some
Speaker 2: of the kids were amputee, they didn't have a leg
Speaker 2: or something because of a mine or something. And so
Speaker 2: I've always told my kids that I felt obligated to
Speaker 2: try to help them, and so they always say, you know, Dad,
Speaker 2: you did pretty good when you were there. I go, well,
Speaker 2: I sometimes I think I did. I think I'm hoping
Speaker 2: that I changed some people. I can never say that
Speaker 2: I changed everybody, but I'm just hoping that I changed
Speaker 2: a few, you know, young people that you know, didn't
Speaker 2: look at us like monsters, because I'm sure everybody thought
Speaker 2: that we were bad people, you know. So my kids,
Speaker 2: I think see that my time in the military was good.
Speaker 2: You know, there's some rough times, but I am proud
Speaker 2: of what I've done. I think I served my country
Speaker 2: and I think I'm still serving my country as a
Speaker 2: national commander for an organization that you know, it's trying
Speaker 2: to help other veterans, and it's something that you know
Speaker 2: in your heart, you feel that, hey, I'm doing something
Speaker 2: good and I really believe, and I'm one of the
Speaker 2: persons that I believe if I can help, I can
Speaker 2: make a change. It's very very important because without those changes,
Speaker 2: nothing can ever be accomplished. And so we got to
Speaker 2: turn on and make changes. And you know, like me
Speaker 2: and Ernesto and Leona went to see the under Secretary
Speaker 2: last year. You know, the first thing we were asking
Speaker 2: what changes can you do? Where can you help us
Speaker 2: to help you? And so that makes me feel good,
Speaker 2: That makes me feel proud that I'm trying to do
Speaker 2: something because I'm old. I'm old, and I'm getting older
Speaker 2: before you know, I'm gonna die, and so the next
Speaker 2: generation is going to have to turn and pick it up.
Speaker 2: I know that Iraq and Afghanistan were a real bad
Speaker 2: situation because you see it, I mean you actually see it,
Speaker 2: because you see all these people with no legs, no arms.
Speaker 2: I mean, just look at wounded warriors and all the
Speaker 2: help that they're doing. Look at the tut T two
Speaker 2: t all the things that they're doing building homes. You know,
Speaker 2: I donate money to all of those because I feel
Speaker 2: that it's important because if we can help one veteran,
Speaker 2: it's one veteran that doesn't need help, and that makes
Speaker 2: me feel proud. So me being in the military, I
Speaker 2: think it gave me a foresight to say I can
Speaker 2: do good.
Speaker 1: And lastly, sir, what does it mean to you to
Speaker 1: have us capture your stories so that the present generation
Speaker 1: and future generations can learn from it?
Speaker 2: Well, I think it very much. I wasn't really expecting
Speaker 2: it something different. I'm nervous. I never had nothing like
Speaker 2: this done before. So I hope whoever gets a chance
Speaker 2: to see this get something out of it, because being
Speaker 2: in war, you know, it's not like a like TV.
Speaker 2: TV can make it good and ugly, but reality is
Speaker 2: totally different. So if somebody can turn around and say, Okay, hey,
Speaker 2: you know I'm listening to this gentleman's story, you know
Speaker 2: it's you know, he was laughing about, you know, in
Speaker 2: Japan and what he did in Japan. Because there is
Speaker 2: good and there is bad. You know, there's fun in
Speaker 2: the military and there's not the whole idea. If they
Speaker 2: can understand what it's all about and where it's going
Speaker 2: to take them, then it's important. If they want to
Speaker 2: join the military, just understand what they're joining. And I
Speaker 2: do believe because too my boys to h they Junior
Speaker 2: and Michael joined the army and then they did their
Speaker 2: time and it got out. They never got a chance
Speaker 2: to go to war. So I was happy. But the
Speaker 2: thing is, if these young people see my story, let's say,
Speaker 2: and they turn on and say, wow, this guy went
Speaker 2: to all this, I don't want to go there. But
Speaker 2: it's not always bad because there's parts in the military
Speaker 2: that are good. You don't have to be an infantry person,
Speaker 2: you don't have to be an engineer, you don't have
Speaker 2: to be a green Beret. You don't have to be
Speaker 2: any of those things. Because the military is changing so
Speaker 2: much that you can actually get a lot of benefits
Speaker 2: from it. Because the military is not a bad situation.
Speaker 2: The only thing that you have to understand that there
Speaker 2: is bad too, because if you go to war, you
Speaker 2: have to understand that war is not good. And I'm
Speaker 2: just hoping that anybody anybody, especially the young, because the
Speaker 2: young for some reason, they don't understand the military, and
Speaker 2: with all the things that are going on and maybe
Speaker 2: World War IIE coming around the corner. You know, none
Speaker 2: of the none of the young people are prepared, not
Speaker 2: mentally or even physically, because if something happens, what are
Speaker 2: they going to do. Physically, they're not fit for being
Speaker 2: in the military. Mentally, some of them are not mental
Speaker 2: to be in the military. So I really believe that
Speaker 2: if the young person sees this, start working your way
Speaker 2: in case something happens, because the future is going to
Speaker 2: be theirs, not mine no more, because I'm done, and
Speaker 2: they got to be makeing. They got to make sure
Speaker 2: that they can take care of that future because without that,
Speaker 2: what's going to happen to you or me? You know,
Speaker 2: because you're at a certain age, the young people are
Speaker 2: going to have to pick up the baton. So are
Speaker 2: young people, and that's who I feel that should watch
Speaker 2: a lot of this stuff so they can understand that, hey,
Speaker 2: I gotta I got to be prepared, and being prepared
Speaker 2: is going to take you around the world.
Speaker 1: David, thank you so much much for your time with
Speaker 1: us today. I greatly enjoyed our conversation and most of all,
Speaker 1: thank you for your service to our country.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you very much, thank you for having me
Speaker 2: in it, and I hope I did a good job.
Speaker 1: He did a fantastic job. David Rodriguez is a US
Speaker 1: Army veteran of the Vietnam War. He received a Bronze
Speaker 1: Star with a V for Valor for his actions to
Speaker 1: put to an end an enemy ambush in December of
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty seven. He's also a Purple Heart. Recipients, I'm
Speaker 1: Greg Corumbus. This is Veterans Chronicles. Hi, this is Greg Corumbus,
Speaker 1: and thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicles, a presentation of
Speaker 1: the American Veterans Center. For more information, please visit American
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