Encoded for the Experiencing War web site for the Veterans History Project.
The recording of the interview with Sunday Bason, Jr. was digitized.
This transcription was encoded with minimal changes to the original text in an effort to preserve original content and idiosyncrasies of the person interviewed. Period language and terminology are also retained. Encoding is literal with regard to the transcriptionist's capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. Spelling errors are indicated with [sic]; however, recurring errors in spelling within a single document have been marked the first time and not subsequently.
All right. Good morning. Today is October 23rd, 2014. My name is Phil Weaver. I'm a retired Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Air Force. I'm the interviewer. Today we're going to interview a veteran of the United States Army, service in the United States in Vietnam, a gentleman named Sunday Bason. Mr. Bason was in the U.S. Army from August 27th, 1967 to August 27th, 1970. Good morning, Mr. Bason.
Morning.
I'd like to talk a little bit about some of the initial things in your life as far as where -- where were you born?
I was born actually in Grandview, Texas in 1948.
What's your date of birth?
[birth date redacted]
Okay. Who are -- were your parents?
My dad, which is -- I'm a junior -- was Sunday Bason, and my mother was named Nellie Lara. They were all originally from Hill County, you know, in this area here. My dad was mostly a sharecropper. He farmed. And my mom was just a housewife.
All right. And you said your mother's name was Lara, last name?
Yes, sir.
How do you spell that?
L-A-R-A.
Okay. And are they still living?
No. My dad passed -- was killed in a farm accident in July of 1957. A tractor overturned on him and pinned him under. And my mother passed away about ten years ago, just, you know, mostly medical reasons, you know, but -- and I have a brother and two sisters.
Are they still living?
Yes.
What's your brother's name?
My brother actually works here in Hillsboro. He works for Oncor Electric Company here in Hillsboro. And one of my sisters is retired, the oldest one, and my youngest sister works for a co-op electric in Itasca.
What are their names?
Angelina Cervantes and Abby Bason. And my brother's name is Daniel Bason.
Did any of them serve in the military?
No.
All right. How old were you when you entered the Army?
I was -- actually, I was 18. I turned 19 in -- I went in the Army in August. I turned 19 in September.
Had you just graduated from high school?
I graduated right out of high school. I graduated in May and I went in the military in August.
And where did you sign up for the military?
Actually, they used to have a selective service office here in Hillsboro.
You walked in one day and --
A friend of mine, we went into the Army on a buddy system more or less, which it didn't work out that way, but that's the way they approached it. And we just -- all our friends -- you know, back then everybody was getting drafted. If you wasn't in college, you know, more than likely you were going to get drafted. So we just -- one night we decided, Well, let's just go into the military. And I guess we were fortunate because we decided to go into the Marines and it just happened that that day we went to the selective service office the Marine recruiter was not there. And the lady said, Well, there's an Army recruiter. Well, you know, let us talk to him. And, of course, they were eager. You know, they needed, you know, people in the military at that time, you know. Vietnam had been going on for, what, three years, something like that, and, you know, there were -- a lot of people were getting drafted.
What -- how long did you spend at the office with the recruiter that day?
Well, probably -- he explained everything to us, told us, you know, more or less what we were -- you know, what military was like, where we'd go. Of course, Vietnam was never mentioned, you know. It was just -- you know, they were just telling you about military life and the opportunities. And probably the next day he was knocking at my door at home, and my mom was kind of disappointed because I didn't tell her I was going to do that, but I -- but I just -- one of the main reasons, I guess, that I joined was I was the oldest of the family, and, you know, my mom was raising four kids, you know, everybody except for my daughter -- except for my youngest sister. My mom at the time was four months pregnant when my dad was -- died in the farm accident. So she was the little one. The rest of us were in school, and it was hard for her. You know, she didn't have much of an education, and so it was hard for her to raise her. And I felt like I needed to, you know, get away from home and, you know, get on my own, and I made arrangements to send her a little allotment, you know.
Uh-huh.
You didn't make much money, but, you know, I sent her a little bit of money and help her out with --
From your Army pay?
Yes, sir.
Now, when you saw the recruiter, did you actually sign up that day or did you take tests or what?
No. No. Actually, he -- actually, they -- he come to the house the next day, and, you know, he explained everything to my mother and what, you know --
You signed --
-- basically the same thing. Yeah, more or less made an agreement, and, you know, you signed, you know, and then it took a few days for them to go through your records and stuff like that, you know --
Uh-huh.
-- and get all the paperwork started. Probably within three or four days, you know, they had already made arrangements for us to -- you went through Dallas. You took all your tests and everything in Dallas and --
Then came back here and waited or --
Yeah. I think we -- about a week later we left.
So the 27th of the month --
That was the actual day I went --
-- that's the actual date --
-- the day I was inducted into the service.
-- you were signed up, and then you got on a bus and left.
Right.
Where did you go?
Fort Polk, Louisiana.
And what did you do there?
There I took my six weeks of basic training. I was there through -- I think it was the middle of November, and then I took AIT training in Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
And AIT, Advanced Individual Training?
Right.
At Fort Sill you were in the artillery?
Yes, sir. But --
And, what, your MOS was 13 Alpha something or --
13B40.
13 Bravo 40?
Yeah.
Okay. And how long did you stay at --
Actually, they cut my AIT pretty short.
Both places or --
No.
-- at -- just at Fort Sill?
Mainly at Fort Sill because the 15th of December they closed the post down for Christmas and they stopped all training and people that had leave time and -- so what happened, they sent me home on the 15th of December, saying that I would return back there after the first of the year. And I knew something was wrong because I hadn't been in the Army three months and here I am getting ready to leave already. You know, I said, Well. But while I was home I got orders to report to Fort Lewis, Washington, Tacoma, Washington. Then I knew I was already headed for Nam.
So you reported to Fort Lewis when?
In January.
Of?
Probably January the --
1968?
Yeah, '68.
Okay.
'68. Right.
And how long were you at Fort Lewis?
I was there probably maybe a week or two. Everybody was going to Nam. You just made three formations a day. They'd take about 150 people out of each formation and they'd make arrangements to get on a plane to Nam.
Okay. And when did you leave for Vietnam then? Do you remember?
Probably about the first or second week of January, somewhere in there.
Where did you go and -- where did you land in Vietnam?
I landed in Cam Ranh Bay down south, about as far south you can get in Vietnam there.
How long did you stay there?
I was just there probably a couple of days. They -- from there they assign you a unit, which mine was the 1st Cav Division. And within a few days I caught a chopper out of there, well, actually, a C-130, and flew into An Khe, which was the main base camp of the 1st Cav.
And what part of Vietnam was that in?
That's in the southern part.
Okay.
Yeah.
And then do you have any recollections of your assignment when you got there and --
There was mostly -- again, mostly a lot of paperwork. Did a -- I went to repel school, just a few -- couple of days of additional training, you know, to repel off helicopters, if needed. A lot of paperwork. You were going -- you were assigned an actual unit. I was with the 1st and 21st Artillery Battery, and I was there from -- they issued -- you got all your issue of your -- all the equipment you were going to need, your rifle, your clothes, your, you know, boots, everything you needed. You know, in Vietnam, you know, it's all really -- a little bit different than stateside. You know, you had your jungle boots and stuff like that, and then they actually send you to your unit, which was in Camp Evans, and I was assigned to a gun crew.
Where was Camp Evans at?
Camp Evans was probably in the mid -- in -- on the -- it wasn't --
Wasn't that up around Hue someplace?
Yes, sir. It was actually in between -- I would say a little past the southern part, you know. I mean, not this -- not north --
Up towards the northern part of South Vietnam.
Right, right. But actually, it was close to the South China Sea.
Okay.
I mean, it wasn't very far.
And what did you do at Camp Evans?
Camp Evans I was actually in my artillery unit. I was assigned to a gun crew, which consisted of -- actually, it was supposed to be seven people. Most Vietnam you were shorthanded. You probably had five people. You had a gun chief, a gunner, assistant gunner, two, actually, ammo humpers, they call that. That's people who prepared our -- the ammunition for you. And so you just went by fire missions. And we had a fire direction center, which, you know, they assign you a mission. You fire so many rounds into a certain location, and, you know, sometimes you do it. And, I mean, it was a 24-hour operation. You just -- you were just on call all the time. Sometimes we set up -- Camp Evans, we were probably there maybe -- not even a month. We moved to a -- right outside an ARVN village.
ARVN means what?
They was South Vietnamese. They were -- actually, they were nationals. They were -- they didn't really believe in the fighting. They were just more or less just a group of people that -- you know, that lived together. They -- you know, when I say a village, you know, it -- they called it a town, but actually, it was just a little old village. And it was an old airstrip. Actually, it wasn't even asphalt. It was just a dirt airstrip for small aircraft. And we set up on the airstrip, and the villagers --
Your artillery unit?
Yeah.
Okay.
And the village was probably a couple of miles away. And they were getting orders and, you know, stuff like that, you know.
Now, when did you -- when you -- when did you actually get -- as best as you can recall, get to Evans? What month?
Camp Evans?
Camp Evans.
Probably about February.
February? Okay.
Yeah.
What rank were you then?
I -- well, actually, you -- when you got to Nam -- I was a private when I left the States. When you entered Vietnam, you automatically made PFC.
Okay. So that's an E3?
Right.
Okay. And then the -- you said that you set up at the airstrip --
Right.
-- near Camp Evans?
Uh-huh.
And then how long did you stay there?
We were probably there, you know, maybe a week or so. Not even -- may -- probably about a week, and then we actually moved in into the ARVN camp because they were getting a lot of mortars, you know, incoming. And we moved into the camp, an actual camp. I mean, it was more or less a village, you know. They had little --
And ARVN means, if you recall, Army of the Republic of Vietnam.
Right.
Okay.
Right. And, you know, they -- and these people, they were just -- I mean, they just protected themselves, you know. They were -- they fought, you know, if they had to, if they didn't have no choice. You know, they'd get artillery fire. They'd get -- you know, they tried to overtake them, you know, and this -- and, of course, this -- you know, this is -- we're talking down south, which was mostly Viet Cong. It wasn't a modern army or nothing, you know. There's -- these were people just -- you know, it was kind of mixed up, that -- actually, you're talking about the same people, you know, same nationality, same, you know, everything, but they're fighting for two different reasons, you know.
What do you recall about the missions and the service that you had while you were at Camp Evans. You said you were only there a couple of weeks. Is that right? Did I understand that --
Yeah.
So what did you do? You did fire missions?
We had fire missions. We had six guns. Actually, there were six guns to a unit.
An artillery battery?
Right.
Okay.
Yeah. There was -- you got -- you had six guns, you know, and so --
And what type of -- these are the 105 Howitzers?
106s.
Called them 106s?
Right.
And this -- those were not the split trail?
No. These actually had 360 degrees firing rotation without resetting the gun.
Okay. And what was your job on that crew?
Actually, when you were first assigned to a gun crew, you were -- you started at the bottom, ammo humper. You know what an -- and, you know, you prepared the ammunition. You had something to do all the time. Of course, you always -- if you didn't have a firing mission, you were building bunkers to protect yourself, you know. We normally dug into the ground about three or four feet, and we'd set up a sandbag wall another couple of feet where you could actually sleep in. And down in the southern part you mostly got small arm fire, small mortar fire. I'm talking about 60, maybe 80s. And you could build a bunker, you know, and fortify that thing enough where it would actually take a mortar, you know, and you'd protect yourself from --
And you had -- what did you have for a side arm?
M16s.
Okay. How long did you continue as an ammo humper?
Well, it was like -- sometimes it would be maybe a week, maybe -- and then maybe two or three months. Depend -- see, most of your men in the unit -- there was never a group of -- that actually went into a unit together and left together. You know, you'd have people rotating all the time. You'd have four or five come in. You may get into a place where you take a lot of casualties, and, you know, they'd bring in three or four people, whatever they had -- you know, they could to reinforce what you lost.
Did you have casualties among the people you worked with?
Oh, yes. I mean, it was just -- and it wasn't really -- there was very few small arm fire casualties. When I'm -- I'm talking about 16s, AK47s, stuff like that. Most of our casualties were artillery type --
Mortars and artillery?
Mortars.
Where did you go from Camp Evans?
Camp Evans --
Or did you stay there the whole time?
No. No. We -- you know, I don't think we ever stayed in one place no more than two or three weeks at a time, and you constantly moved because we actually supported infantry units and, as they moved, we moved in behind them and supported them, you know, when they went out on patrol. And that's why we were always on call 24/7, because, you know, they went out on patrol two or three times a night, sometimes twice a night, sometimes twice a day. They'd go out six, seven miles, and we'd support them, you know, with artillery fire.
Did you ever fire the weapons? The ar -- the field artillery, the howitzers that you were with, those are what they call indirect fire weapons, correct?
Right.
And you would fire it and it would be at a high angle.
Right.
It would go out and you often would not see where the rounds came down, correct?
Right. Right.
Did you ever fire direct fire with those weapons?
We actually did a few times. I can't recall exactly where it was at, but it was more or less a mountain range within three to four miles from where we were at. And we were set up and every afternoon, you know, we'd line up for chow, you know, to eat, and we'd get sniper fire from the side of the mountains. And, of course, a lot of it come from the jungle, you know, and everything. You couldn't really tell where, but --
Did you have casualties from that fire?
No, we never did. It was just funny that -- you know, that -- actually, we thought they were actually too far away to really hurt anybody as far as -- they -- you would have to be pretty accurate to shoot that far small arms fire, you know. And then -- so they tried to -- they tried everything. Of course, they were dug into the rock. You know, it was mostly all rock, side of that mountain. They'd bring in bombers. They'd bring in helicopters. We'd fire direct fire into it, but, I mean, it --
And so you could see where the rounds were hitting.
Right. You could see when it hit, yeah.
Yeah.
And -- but most of the time when we fired, like I said, it was indirect fire. The only ones that could see it would be the forward observers, which it -- with the infantry unit. And they're the ones that called the fire mission anyway, you know, so they could see -- actually see where the round landed and which way you had to move over to hit the target and --
Did you see any enemy up close? Did any enemy actually pass --
Which they would bring in -- a lot of times they would bring in prisoners and we'd set them up in our unit, mostly to be transported somewhere else.
That would be after they were captured.
Right.
But what about -- did the enemy --
No. Actually -- no.
-- ever attack your position?
During combat, no. Not actual hand-to-hand combat or anything like that, no.
Okay. Did you ever use your rifle?
No. We'd -- I mean, the only time we used it was we'd -- our ammunition during the monsoon season which -- was very humid. You know, it rained all the time. Your ammunition got wet. We tried to dispose of our ammunition as much as we could, tried to -- what happened, you know how brass gets -- turns green, gets corroded? You know, and humidity causes that, and we'd go out -- we'd set up a place where we could go have a target shoot, you know, and -- but for actual combat, a small arm, we didn't.
You never had to --
No. No.
-- personally defend yourself --
No. No.
-- with your side arm or M16?
Not with that.
Okay. Did -- well, describe the living conditions where you stayed when you were at Evans or other places.
At -- you know, that -- right.
You talked about building bunkers and things.
Right.
Did you build sandbag bunkers and --
Right.
-- protected areas for you to sleep in?
Right. You know, most of the time the gun crew, we'd get together and build a bunker for -- enough for four or five of us or whatever it was. If you wanted to -- couple of guys wanted to get together and build their own bunker, you know, you're welcome to. You know, you didn't have to obviously live in the same bunker. Like I said, we fortified them the best we could, you know, made them strong. We -- they brought us in like engineer stakes and we used them to put up on the top, and then we'd sandbag, two or three layers of sandbag. Sometimes you'd have days to work on it, you know, and sometimes your fire missions were -- you know, you were busy, you know. Like I said, most of the time, like in the summertime, it was so hot that you couldn't hardly work outside unless you had to, but, you know, we slept during the day. You'd get -- you dig down three or four feet in the ground. It's pretty cool down in the -- you know, in the dirt. So we'd sleep during the day and we'd work at night, you know.
Did you stay in the same gun unit the whole time you were in Vietnam?
I was with the same unit, yes, the 1st and 21st Artillery.
And that's a battery.
Right. I was on different --
The battalion and a battery --
Right.
-- is the six-gun --
Six-gun unit.
-- size of --
Right.
So you stayed in the same artillery --
Right.
-- battery the whole time.
Right.
And what's the -- (Interruption, phone ringing)
Okay. Sorry about that.
When you were in that organization, that battery moved around or did just a couple of guns move around or did -- or how -- describe that for us.
Most of the time we moved all six guns at one time.
Okay. And you were on a one-gun crew.
Right. Now, you could move around from gun crew to gun -- a lot of times -- say a gun chief, which was normally -- a gun chief was an E5 or E6, which he was the head the whole -- that -- of that gun. If he rotated or something, come back to the States, his time was up in Nam - you know, we had one-year tours - they'd move the next rank up from maybe another gun crew into his spot, you know, depending -- of course, they all went by rank. It didn't -- you know, it didn't matter how much experience you had. You could have two days' experience if you need -- if you were an E5 and you had an E5 spot open, I mean, you were trained for artillery. You know, you should be able to move up into his spot.
Okay. What other places do you remember being at besides Evans?
From Camp Evans, like I said, we -- we always -- Camp Evans was a pretty good-sized camp where they could -- they issued you -- a lot of your equipment and stuff that you needed come from Camp Evans. And then we'd go -- we'd move into what they call LZs, which was landing zones where a helicopter could land, set your guns down, and you had an area big enough for all six guns. Every once in a while you get into a place where the jungle was so thick or -- you wasn't able to set up all six guns. If we was -- if it was just going to be a temporary operation where, you know, you were just going to be there a few days, they may just send in three guns, you know.
And so they -- the helicopters would fly the guns in.
Right.
They also flew the crew in.
Right.
And did you ever move the artillery pieces by vehicles?
We convoyed one time the whole time I was in Nam probably about four or five miles, and they pull it with three-quarter ton trucks they'd hook onto the gun.
So the rest of the time it was all moved, though, by helicopter.
It was all -- right. The gun could take a Chinook. You could come in and hook onto the gun and put the gun crew in the Chinook and you could, you know, move in and set up and --
Now, the 1st Calvary Division in Vietnam, that was an air cav, right?
Right. It was all air mobile, you know.
Yeah.
That's -- I think that was the first time they used the -- the cav went into the -- you know, before -- well, Korea, it was mostly all --
Did you -- you met a lot of soldiers, then, in your units as they went in and --
Oh, yeah.
-- went out. Do you remember any of those people? Do you have any contact with them today?
Oh, yeah. I don't have -- I've been working on -- my computer went out, but I've been working on trying to contact -- they've got some pretty good ways that you can contact people in our organizations where you can get in touch with and they try to contact you with -- as far as the -- as far as Nam people, actually, there was probably three of us that -- I know there was two of us that took AIT together and we ended up in the same unit in Nam. A couple of more guys -- there was one guy from basic training that ended up in the same unit, and other than that, you know, they were all -- I had never met them before I got to Nam.
Okay. You stayed in Vietnam for 12 months?
Yeah.
From January, February '68 until January, February '69 --
Right.
-- something like that? What rank were you when you --
I left --
-- did you get promoted over there after PFC?
Right. Right. Actually, I made all my rank in Vietnam. I didn't make any rank in the States. I left there as an E5, Sergeant E5. I was a gun chief.
All right. So you were the -- one of the noncommissioned officers that was a supervisor of a particular gun --
Right.
-- by the time you finally --
Right.
-- had your year in Vietnam.
Actually, I took over -- I remember precisely. It was a Gun 6. A friend of mine - his name was Sergeant Weeks - he took some shrapnel. Actually, he got part of his cheek blown off, and I took over his gun. And he actually was treated at a -- it was a medical ship right off the coast.
So he was -- he got shrapnel in the hip?
Right.
Okay. And then he was medivaced out?
Right.
And then you took over his job as a 6 --
I took over his gun.
-- as a gun chief?
Right. And, actually, he come back and -- but there was another guy that left and he took over another gun crew and I kept his and --
Okay. And that -- how long did you serve as the gun chief?
Oh, I was probably -- actually, it was probably about four months after I had been in Nam that I actually took over.
So for about eight months you were a gun chief?
Yes, sir.
And then -- and your responsibilities were what?
Actually, I was in charge of the whole gun crew. Actually, the gun chief operated the radio from the fire direction center, which was on location with our unit right there. They took the fire mission from the forward observers out in the field, you know, the infantry unit. It was relayed to the fire direction center. The fire direction center had everything mapped out, and they communicated where they wanted so many rounds fired to and the distance and the elevations and all that. They relayed the message to the gun chief, and then I relayed the information that they gave me to the gunner and the assistant gunner.
And your responsibilities also included making sure the gun was properly --
Serviced.
-- the battery was laid properly, correct?
Right.
And as part of that, then, you also were responsible for -- to make sure your men were fed and whatever housing of bunkers --
Right.
-- they built and that sort of thing?
Right. We -- you know, once you're -- I mean, when you've got five or six people like that, you know, everybody is close. I mean, everybody -- you know, you like -- you live together every day 24 hours a day.
You lived right where the gun was.
Right. I mean, our bunkers are right outside our gun pits, you know. We built actually a round bunker around the gun pit and -- so we could keep our ammo and everything inside and protect it from the weather.
Have you seen any of those fellows that you were with during that year in Vietnam since you've come back?
No. I only -- the only guys that I'm in touch with is people that I went to high school with, friends of mine that -- locally that were in Nam at the same time that I was. There's quite a few around here in Hill County. And I've got some friends that I grew up with. Actually, one lives in Elm Mott, Texas right close to Waco. He's in pretty bad health now. He was -- he wasn't with the cav. He was with another unit. He was a door gunner on a helicopter. And I see him quite often. Some of my other friends, they come back from Nam and they -- you know, they -- couple of them were highway patrolmens. One of them was a private investigator. He was in law enforcement. I see them every once in a while. But actually guys that I was there, you know, in my unit or nothing, I don't -- I haven't been with any of these people.
After you came back from Vietnam -- or is there anything else about Vietnam that you want to tell us while we're doing our interview, things that were significant?
I'd just -- I'd just like it to be known that -- you know, it was -- people ask me today, What was it like? You know, people see it here -- that never been in combat or never been in the military, they see life in a war zone like you're out fighting every day. You know what I'm saying? Like you're -- get up in the morning and you've got to fight all day long, which it's not like that, you know. I try to explain that to my grandkids, and, you know, they find it hard to comprehend that, Well, how come you didn't do nothing on that day? I mean, why -- y'all just stopped fighting that day or -- and you know. So, you know, it was just a way of life for a year or whatever your tour was. You know, you did things to protect yourself. You did things to make things better for you. You did the best you could with what you had, which wasn't much, but, you know, it was just a way to get by and, you know, it was just an experience that is very hard to explain, you know, the -- unless you actually have been in the combat and -- or served in the military.
And there weren't any -- in Vietnam there weren't really any front lines. They were --
No.
You were out among the people and the other soldiers in the countryside.
Right. I mean, you'd go into villages or close to them. We never did actually -- except for that ARVN village, we never did actually move into a city or a large village or anything. We were always, you know, away from them, you know. We may be close, but we wasn't, you know, actually in. And we'd move into sometimes a village, and when we were at that ARVN village, the -- it was -- you know, it was amazing how them people had to live, you know, that you wouldn't think, you know, that -- it was kind of hard to comprehend, you know. They -- actually, what you -- the way you lived for a year, they lived like that all their lives, you know. There was people, there was children, you know, with legs, you know, gone or arms or scars on their faces where they actually had been hit by, you know, mortar fire and stuff like that, wounded. They worked hard every day just to survive. They made the best -- what really got me was a lot of times we'd move out of a place that we'd been, and all our ammunition came in a box. It was two rounds to a box, 37 pounds apiece, and these boxes was made out of one box. And it was a pretty big box, probably about 30-something inches wide and -- you know, big enough to hold two rounds side by side. We used those -- we'd fill them with dirt, sand, whatever we could get. We'd build them for our bunkers. We'd build -- put sides on them, then put sand bags on them. And if we ever moved out, the last chopper that left, if you ever got in the last chopper, you could see Vietnamese people coming from everywhere, from these small villages, and they'd pick up wood, plastic, anything that they could use. They'd go through all the rubbish and, you know, they'd haul it off. You know what I mean? And you'd go to these villages, and they had bunkers that you wouldn't think that you could build a bunker out of sand bags and you could make it waterproof, you know, but they did because inside them boxes was pieces of plastic. They'd take that plastic and lay it, layers of plastic, sandbags, layers of plastic. And, I mean, they -- that was their life, I mean, to protect themselves some way or another.
And did it -- in the part of Vietnam where you were, did it rain a lot in various parts of the --
Monsoon season, especially down south, you know, it -- sometimes it --
What do you remember the dates of the monsoon season?
It was -- actually, it would be the -- what I say is spring type -- springtime here. You know, it was -- you know, and sometimes it just -- it wasn't a rain where it just poured down. A lot of it was just a mist, you know. It was just cloudy all the time and misting rain and just a miserable, you know, situation. You know, everything was -- but then you -- you know, and then you'd get the humidity. You know, if you got down in the coastline, it was mosquitoes, insects.
Uh-huh.
It was bad. You know, it --
Now, looking at your awards here, you received the Army Commendation Medal for action on May 2nd, 1968 for heroism. Would you tell us a little bit about how you got the Army Commendation Medal?
Well, actually, we were -- actually, we had moved up north. We were in the A Shau Valley, and the A Shau Valley was mostly pipeline from North Vietnam to South Vietnam. It was a very wooded area. It was -- the Vietnamese, they could move through the jungle, and, you know, you couldn't -- they were hard to see. They were hard to find. They knew the -- you know, they knew the jungle well. They could transport ammunition. They could transport just about anything through them jungles. And the -- up on the side of the valley, which was mostly mountains, we moved in there. I think you said -- what was it? May?
May 2nd.
Around May, yes.
May -- it says May 2nd, 1968.
Yeah. That actual day right there, we had moved in. It was on the side of the mountain. It was hard to set up our -- all six of our guns because of the slope. We could get three or four, and then the other one we had problems because you can't really set it on a slope area, you know. You need to be an area flat enough where you can -- the thing can be level. And then you got the mountain range on one side that you -- kind of took away your direction of fire on that side. So we set up there, and we were there about maybe two or three days. We started getting hit with mortars. And then one night -- you know, we'd get hit every afternoon. We'd get hit with a few mortars, and then it would quit, you know, so -- but actually what they were doing, they were getting our location set up. You know, they'd spot mortars around.
Figuring out where you were.
Yeah. I mean, they knew where we were. They just wanted -- it was hard to hit a target.
They were calibrating their guns --
Right.
-- and getting the distances, is what you're saying.
Right. And it was hard to hit the target on a slope on the side of a mountain, you know. You either overshoot it or undershoot it, you know. So finally they put some in there -- put some mortars inside of our -- where our gun unit was. And we figured out that we needed all six guns, so we moved up higher. I say higher, maybe a half a mile up the side --
Up the side of the mountain?
-- up the side of the mountain. And there was a pretty flat area where we could set up all six guns.
And the helicopters flew those guns up --
Right.
-- another half a mile?
Just moved us up. We had a chopper pad where, if we had casualties, anything, they could land the helicopter, medivac, you know, and get our people --
Do you remember the name of the mountain or anything?
It was a -- we call it -- it was a landing zone, again, that we actually opened up. It was -- the bottom one, we call it Tiger 1; the top one was Tiger 2.
Okay.
I'm not sure, but I think that later on that location was actually renamed, but I don't know exactly what it was. I found out -- and from what I read, one of them - I think it's Tiger 2 - became actually a place where they had a -- they set up a pretty good-sized camp there. They moved in an engineering group, engineering unit. They'd come in there and level off and set it up pretty nice, you know. But I think we were actually the ones that actually opened it up because I know when we moved in, nobody had been there before.
Well, what happened on May 2nd?
Okay. When we got to Tiger 2 one afternoon before dark, we noticed we started getting rounds in, and most of the time before that down south we were getting mortars, like I said, mostly 80s, 60s. That day we started getting some rounds that actually whistled, you know, and we wasn't familiar with that. We never had gotten anything like that. What it was, it was 90 millimeter rockets, and they had a -- they could set up a launcher off the back of a five-ton truck. And I don't know what kind of range they had. They had a whole lot more range than they could with a 60 millimeter mortar, and --
Were they above you or below you or --
They were below us.
Below you. Okay.
And, actually, when they first started, they were overshooting. They were going over the mountain again, you know, and finally they landed one inside our perimeter. I had gun six. I already had my gun, my unit, my gun unit, and actually, I had the -- had taken it apart, servicing it, had the bridge block all laid out, had a canvas cover that we set everything on, keep the dust and everything off. And about that time a round hit maybe, oh, I'd say, 30, 40 yards from where I was at, and --
That was inside the perimeter of your grounds?
Inside the perimeter. They -- once they landed one, they -- I guess, you know, probably about four or five landed inside the perimeter in different locations and blew dust all over the place and knocked me down. I laid there. I got up and I looked at myself. I wasn't hurt. I wasn't bleeding. I wasn't -- and then I looked around and everybody had scattered, you know, and -- but my gun -- all my men had gone to the other -- because my gun was out of action at the time, I had called into my fire direction center, said I was going to be asking for 20, 30 minutes --
Something was inoperative with your gun.
Right.
Not because of those rounds --
No. It was mostly maintenance-type stuff.
Some sort of equipment problem.
Right. So my guys, they all spread out to the other gun units to help them out, you know, because we were getting fire missions and trying to locate where they -- to fire to. And I looked up and there was the ammo -- we had a bunker where we kept all our ammo. It was on fire. The sandbags had caught on fire. There was probably maybe 50, 75 rounds in them bunkers that we had ready to --
Artillery rounds.
Right. 37 pounds apiece.
And that's where -- and the powder for each round was in there with them.
Right. They're put together, and when you fired, they had different charges inside. You fire charge 37, you leave all the powder in there. You fire a charge five, you take two out, you leave five --
And these are powder bags that you take out.
Right. And we had these together and whenever we fired a mission, they'd say charge three. Okay. We'd take out four. They'd slap it back together, put it in the artillery. Well, I saw that fire and it was a pretty good size. It was building up. We had some of the ammo boxes in there. Of course, they were wood and they were starting to burn.
And this is from the rockets that came in.
Right. It's -- you know, the shrapnel, you know, it's hot. It -- some of it is red hot. Some of it -- you know, you start a sandbag. It don't take much. If -- you know, if it's dry, it's going to -- so it was just something you do out of you -- you ain't got no choice. I mean, that's the first thing you would think of, put this fire out, you know, and you don't have nobody else to help you. And then you start hearing people that were hit. You started hearing people in pain. You're going to panic. I mean, I -- you may say you didn't, but I guarantee you you did. And -- but my first priority is, well, you know, if that thing goes off, you know, that's a lot of ammunition. That's a lot of TNT, you know. And so I grabbed a -- actually, it was that piece of canvas that I had my -- all my parts laid out on, and I started putting that thing out.
Like a fire beater or something?
Yeah, just lapping on it, you know, just trying to get the flames down at least. You didn't have a whole lot of water other than drinking water, you know, to spare. Outside the gun pit we had a -- what we call a powder pit. We took all our chargers that we didn't use and we put it in this powder pit.
The extra bags you took out of the rounds.
Right. And we'd keep a board on top of it, you know, to keep it dry because we actually burned it up. At the end of the day we had a man who come around, picked it all up and burned it, went off and started a fire somewhere and threw a few bags at a time. The fire pit caught on fire. The fire actually spread to the fire pit and started -- and when it did, it shot a flame, I mean, just like gunpowder.
And you didn't burn that stuff there.
No, we didn't --
That was just safekeeping
-- burn it there. We just kept -- we safekeeped it just --
Yeah.
-- because we had a man that come around and he'd pick it up. Well, when that went off, you know, I just told myself, You know, there ain't no way I can control this thing here. You know, there was no way you're going to put out powder. And so I just did the best I could. I got the fire out on the ammo. This was behind the ammo about 15, 20 yards. And I got that out. Then I started hearing some guys that were in pain, you know, so -- actually, that powder went out pretty fast. I mean, powder burns fast. It shot up a flame and then it just died down to almost nothing. I grabbed some old boards. I threw it up on top just to -- you know, just to cuff it out, you know, keep air from getting to it. And, actually, it went out. The powder went out. Smoke started coming out and --
Did anybody else help you do this?
No, because like I say, I had -- I think I had four or five people then and they had all spread out. I had told them, you know, if it comes down to it, you know, help the other gun crews. Some of them were shorthanded. Help the other gun crews, you know, and --
Now, you don't -- you didn't bring the citation that accompanies this, but that citation, based on what the award was for, heroism, would have recited something about the -- probably the risk of your life. You put the fires out in both the ammunition storage --
Uh-huh.
-- area and then you --
Yeah. Actually, the --
-- dealt with the other fire as well.
Right. Actually, with the powder, I never did -- it, you know --
It just went out, but --
Actually, I didn't know nothing about the medal, the citation on this paperwork. It was probably months later. I think there's a picture -- I think there's a -- one of the pictures actually shows when they awarded -- I think it was the general that come out. I don't remember. He may have been a major that come out and actually gave us a medal out in the field.
Uh-huh.
I think it's in one of them little small pictures somewhere.
Did anyone else -- somebody must have seen it because you got an award for it.
Yeah. Like I say, I -- and I never did know anybody put me in for this medal or nothing like that. Later on they told me one day that they were going to have a high-ranking officer come out to the field.
Uh-huh.
And, actually, there was a couple of other guys that got medals, Purple Hearts, Bronze Stars, you know.
Uh-huh.
And --
Now, you ultimately received the Bronze Star Medal also --
Right.
-- for your service and the --
That was -- yeah.
-- the Army Commendation Medal was for heroism, so that's with the V device for valor.
Right. Right.
And then the Bronze Star was for meritorious achievement --
It's for meritorious service, yeah.
-- and ground operations against hostile forces.
Right.
And that was for your whole tour --
Right.
-- for that.
And, actually, there's a -- in the -- in one of the DD 214s there's other -- (Interruption, phone ringing)
Go ahead.
Actually, in one of the DD 214s there's a -- other campaign ribbons that were awarded to our unit, you know, that actually was a unit-type award.
Well, let's see. Your DD 214 says that you received the National Defense Service Medal --
There you go.
-- the Vietnam Service Medal with four Bronze Service Stars, Vietnamese Campaign Medal with a 60 device, the Army Commendation Medal with a V device and that V stands for valor, and then the Bronze Star Medal also. And that was -- all of these medals were for your three-year period of Army service --
Right.
-- except for the -- the Army Commendation Medal was a specific award for the --
Right.
-- for the heroism incident.
That was probably the main reason that I kind of wanted to do this because, you know, it's hard to explain to your grandkids, you know, today. I got them everywhere from seven years old to 19, and sometimes you get them together and you -- they'll ask you questions, you know, and it's hard to explain to them, you know, what it was like or -- even if you tell them, I don't think they really comprehend.
Well, you'll get a copy of this transcript --
Yeah. That's why --
-- and then they can --
Yeah. That's why --
-- read it and you can talk to them about it.
And that's why I told my wife that's why I would like to have this or they can be able to come and read it whenever they want to later on or --
When you left Vietnam, where did you go in the service?
I was home for a month. I took -- I went to Fort Carson, Colorado, and I spent the rest of my time, which is -- I had a year and a half left in the military.
And what did you do during that time?
I was in the A Track Unit in Fort Carson, Colorado, Colorado Springs.
And what did you do in the --
It was artillery on tracks. I wasn't real familiar with it.
Like the M-109 Howitzer.
Right. These were -- I think they were 16-inch guns.
Oh, okay.
And, actually, you know, that was 1970. '69, '70. And they were doing mostly training. Like I said, I was doing a lot of -- I wasn't on the guns a lot because I didn't -- I wasn't really that familiar with a track unit, you know. I was on a --
And you were an E5?
Right. I was an E5.
Did you then just spend the rest of your time of your -- you enlisted for three years and then you finished your three years.
Right.
And then at the end of that time, did you stay in the reserves or anything?
No. You wasn't required to do any -- I was in the reserves, yes. I think it was -- I had two years left.
For the rest of your six-year obligation.
Right, and -- but I didn't have -- I wasn't in -- you didn't have to do no guard. You didn't have to --
You didn't have to be in reserves is what you --
Right.
Okay. Well, then -- so when you went to Fort Carson, you left Fort Carson from active duty and you came back to Texas?
Right.
And did -- and you didn't participate in any reserve activities here?
No.
Do you belong to any veteran organizations?
Actually, at one time I was post commander of a veterans organization in Itasca.
Which one? The VFW, the --
VFW. I believe it was -- 2758 was the number.
Okay. And --
I took it over. I had it about a year. We had problems. At the time most of your veterans, Vietnam vets especially, there wasn't that many located close. Most of our members were World War II veterans, Korean veterans, and they were pretty much up in age, you know, and bad health. And as much as I hated, I ended up having to close the post down about a year after I took over.
So that unit is inactive now.
Right.
Did you participate in any other veterans organizations after that? Do you belong to the American Legion, for example?
I'm a member of the veterans -- you can go to any post and join. I'm a member in Alvarado of the VFW post.
Of the VFW?
Yeah. I'm not an active member. I pay my dues, you know, and --
Okay. How do you think that your experiences in the Army and your experiences in that year of combat in Vietnam, how did they affect your life?
Well, I -- I mean, I was a country boy. I mean, I lived here most of my life. I never -- I don't think I'd ever been out of the state of Texas before I went in the military. I had flown in a little private plane before. I never had flown, you know, in a commercial plane or anything like that. I was kind of -- at the beginning when I was young, I want -- you know, I wanted to experience things. I came from what I call a military family. My mom, she was -- come from a large family. There was 12 in all, and she had four or five brothers. All of them, you know, were in the military at one time or another, and as a kid, I grew up going to people's houses and seeing them in uniform, you know. And some of them were in Germany. My dad's brother was actually in the military during World War II.
Was he overseas?
Yes. He was in -- when the -- December the -- December 2nd when they bombed Pearl Harbor.
December 7th, 1941?
He was in Pearl Harbor. Uh-huh.
Was he -- he was at Pearl Harbor?
Yes, sir. And the thing about it -- what always amazed me about him is he -- you know, he was a farm boy that got drafted during World War II. He -- I don't think he had maybe a fourth grade education.
Was he at Pearl Harbor when the --
Yes.
-- Japanese attacked?
Yeah. I never did really talk to him. I was young, you know, when he passed away. I never did actually talk to him about his experiences.
Uh-huh.
And I wished I had, you know, but he never did talk about it much. He was kind of quiet. And my dad was a Korean veteran in the late '40s. My mom's brothers, all of them -- two of them were in Germany. And so, you know, there was always cousins, older cousins that I have, you know, they were all in the military, and so, you know, it was more of a tradition-type thing, you know, being in the military. I kind of wanted to follow in their footsteps. I wanted to experience it. And -- but, you know, like you say, it was a different type of life once you got in there. I mean, I think the main thing was that it was the age thing that you kind of grew up overnight, more or less. You know what I'm saying? You're -- you know, you're a high school kid one day and then a month later you're --
Walking around --
-- in a uniform and on your way to Nam, you know. It just --
Right.
But --
What have you done since the service? What -- you came back to Hill County. You said you came back to Texas. I assume that's Hill County.
Yeah. I lived in Waco for a while. I lived -- I worked construction mostly when I got out of the service. I was -- I worked around, and finally I ended up here in Hillsboro at Certain Teed Corporation right here outside of town. It was a --
You spent some time there, I understand.
17 years.
You retired -- you're now retired?
I'm retired now. Actually, that plant in -- here in Hillsboro closed down in 1987. I was a crew foreman there for -- I had planned really to retire from there, but it was -- actually, they -- the material they made had asbestos in it --
Uh-huh.
-- which the government phased it out. They had to shut all the plants down, and Hillsboro closed in '87. I stayed with them for three more years with the maintenance department as an industrial mechanic. We took all the equipment out, cleaned it all, cleaned the plant up. I believe now it's some kind of foam company. So I jump around for a while. Finally I ended up in Cleburne, Texas at James Hardie Building Products as an industrial mechanic and --
Are you married?
Yes.
And your wife is still living?
Yes.
And do you have children?
I've got a son and a daughter.
Do they serve in the military?
No.
Okay.
No. They're --
What would you like to -- how would you like to end this interview? What do you want to tell us about your experiences in the military and the service and the -- and so forth that you want to leave --
Well, I --
-- your last words that are transcribed?
I guess today what I'm really -- I mean, it was a hard situation then because of the -- you know, the way Vietnam ended. There was never actually a victory, and I've always felt like a lot of people do, that the Vietnam veterans were treated a little bit -- a whole lot different than they're being treated now. You know, as they return back, back then it was -- for one thing the war was so long, you know, it -- that it dragged on for years and years and then it got to be a -- it got to be -- more or less it was a common thing to do. I mean, the war, there was not that much publicity. There was not that much -- veterans were not getting the help that they were -- that they needed to get. Some of them are still having problems getting them, you know. And it's --
Have you had that experience? Are you a disabled veteran?
Fortunately, I haven't. I was always in pretty good health. I never, you know, had any medical problems till probably the last seven, eight, ten years. I'm a diabetic.
Have you been to the VA to see them?
Yes. I had bypass surgery last year, last December.
From the VA?
Yes.
Okay.
And, actually, I've been -- I'm service connected disabled. And I -- that, I don't have no problem with. I've been treated -- I work with a gentleman out of Waco, service also, and he's helped me a lot. He -- you know, it's took me about eight years to get it all done. In fact, I didn't get my disability till last December.
Well, Mr. Bason, it's been an honor talking with you this morning. I want to thank you for your service to our country and thank you for sharing your experiences here with us and God bless you. I'll help you finish the -- filling out the rest of the forms --
Okay.
-- in a few minutes. Thank you.