vietnam era

Red Eagle Rael’s tour started in February of 1968 in the Mekong Delta. The guys in his unit called him “Chief,” a common nickname for Native Americans serving in Vietnam. Highly decorated, Rael is a kind of living legend in New Mexico. In this episode we visit Picuris Pueblo, where Red Eagle grants a rare interview to share his story... or, at least, the parts that he is willing to talk about.

In episode 64, we introduced you to the Mobile Riverine Force, a joint Army-Navy task force that patrolled the brown waters of the Mekong Delta in an effort to disrupt the movement of enemy troops, weapons, and supplies. In this episode, we’ll go a little deeper with stories of enemy engagement, environmental hazard, the lingering effects of the River Rat experience, and of course brotherhood and healing.

Commander Task Force 117 was a joint Army-Navy effort to disrupt the movement of communist troops, weapons, and supplies through the Mekong Delta. It was the first time since the Civil War that American soldiers and sailors operated under a joint command. In this episode, veterans of the Mobile Riverine Force — known as “river rats” — share their stories.

Diane Carlson Evans picks a ten-year fight, facing enormous resistance from corners both surprising and unsurprising, resulting in the first memorial on the National Mall to honor the service of women in wartime.

From 1968 to 1972, Mobile Advisory Training (MAT) teams worked alongside the South Vietnamese Regional Forces and Popular Forces — known as Ruff Puffs — who were the units responsible for protecting their local villages and hamlets against communist attacks. Bob Blair, who led MAT Team 44 in 1971, shares his experiences in this episode.

Gus Kappler laughs a lot. If you met him in line at the grocery store, you’d never guess that he spent a year in Vietnam as a real-life Hawkeye Pierce performing unimaginable surgeries on young men with unspeakable injuries. It made him angry, and that hasn’t changed. What has changed is the way he understands his anger… and how he deals with it.

In a remote mountain town, a father turns his devastating personal loss into a place for public healing and remembrance.

While pursuing his lifelong ambition of becoming an infantry platoon leader, John Hedley overcame a lot of obstacles. His reward at the end of that long, difficult road was a tour in Vietnam starting in July of 1969, where he would lead the Army’s legendary red-scarved recon platoon known as Fox Force. John shares the story of that journey, his experiences in Vietnam, and a surprise ending that will boggle your mind and warm your heart at the same time.

In the wake of Operation Cedar Falls, tunnel-rat duties in the 1st Infantry Division were transferred to the 1st Engineer Battalion where men began to specialize in it. In this episode, we’ll hear personal stories from members of the Diehard Tunnel Rats. [WARNING: This episode contains vivid descriptions of combat, injury, and death.]

Communist forces in South Vietnam used vast networks of subterranean tunnels as hiding places, bomb shelters, weapons factories, food stores, headquarters… even surgical hospitals. In this episode we’ll introduce you to the 1st Infantry Division’s dedicated team of Tunnel Rats — combat engineers who volunteered, whenever necessary, to do their fighting underground.

There are more than 72,000 U.S. service members still unaccounted for from World War II -- a war we fought in for four years. The number missing after 20 years of combat in Afghanistan? Zero. That’s no accident; it represents a dramatic shift in policy and priorities, another unheralded legacy of the Vietnam War generation. In this episode, author Taylor Baldwin Kiland shares the incredible true story of the military wives who fought to make “no man left behind” a promise that America keeps.

December of 1967 was a pivotal time to arrive in Vietnam. A month later, the Tet Offensive would alter the course of the war, public sentiment about its prosecution, and the direction of a presidency. From his unique vantage point as General William Westmoreland’s special assistant, Joe Zengerle saw the world transform itself in the first half of 1968.

Surprises are an essential part of the Christmas experience. But in wartime, the surprises aren’t often joyful. In this episode we’ll hear stories of Christmas from people who survived the war in Vietnam, and from people whose losses nearly 50 years ago have colored every Christmas since.

Show-business legend Ann-Margret entertained troops in Southeast Asia in 1966 and 1968, and she remains an active and ardent supporter of Vietnam veterans to this day. In this episode, she sits down with Jim Knotts to talk about why she went to Vietnam and what those trips have meant to her — personally and professionally — in the five decades since.

Honor Flight San Diego takes 85 HA(L)-3 Seawolves to Washington, D.C. for a tour of memorials and museums. Along the way, men who haven’t stood together in 50 years rekindle old connections and forge new ones, remember their fallen brothers… and receive the surprise of a lifetime.

Completing the Wall of Faces took more two decades of sustained effort by thousands of volunteers around the world. In this episode, you’ll hear the story of two of them — a story that sheds some light on why this project was so important to so many people.

Originally published one year ago today, we reprise a very special episode. With audio gathered at a stop on last year’s 26-city tour of The Wall That Heals, we bring you several very personal stories that shed light on why people visit The Wall, the emotions they bring to it, and what happens when an entire community connects with its Vietnam War history.

Drafted out of high school, Alex Walker Jr. arrived in Vietnam in February of 1969 and served for more than a year. In that time he faced unimaginable threats from enemy fire, deadly predators, and a generally hostile environment. In this episode, he recounts those experiences and talks about why his younger self was drawn to danger.

Captain Dale Dye served 20 years in the Marine Corps including three tours and 31 major combat operations in Vietnam. In 1985 he founded Warriors, Inc. to help Hollywood do a better job of depicting American fighting men and women. He has worked with some of the biggest names in the business — Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, and Oliver Stone, among others — and has appeared as an actor in dozens of films, including "Platoon", "Saving Private Ryan", and "Mission: Impossible."

The United States Navy Fighter Weapons School — better known as TOPGUN — was established in 1969. Early TOPGUN graduates fanned out across the Navy’s fighter squadrons to share what they had learned about dogfighting, and the results were dramatic: according to the Navy, its kill-to-loss ratio against the North Vietnamese MiGs saw a sixfold improvement. In this episode you'll hear from a real TOPGUN graduate, a veteran who flew 150 combat missions in Vietnam.