Encoded for the Experiencing War web site for the Veterans History Project.
The recording of the interview with Robert Patrick Bleier 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.
Hello, my name is Andrew Huber, and I am with the Veterans History Project. I have the privilege and the honor of sharing the veteran's story of Rocky Bleier of the United States Army. He is also an NFL four-time Super Bowl champion for the Pittsburgh Steelers. And today is December 1, 2016, and we are sharing and recording this story in the Library of Congress building in our nation's capital, Washington, D.C. Rocky, take us to the beginning - where were you born?
It's very nice to be with you, Andy. Anyway, I was born in Appleton, Wisconsin back in 1946 to the parents Bob and Ellen Bleier. I grew up there in a bar, called Bleier's, and we lived above the bar. Actually, we lived behind the bar and then we remodeled it years later and lived above it. But it was a great upbringing, and a great city. I went to St. Joe's Catholic--great school--there, and then I went on to Xavier High School - brand new Catholic high school that was built in Appleton. And I played sports there, played in the band there, and then because of the success of the sporting teams--football specifically--I got a scholarship to go to the University of Notre Dame.
That was back in 1964, and a brand new coach came in that year by the name of Ara Parseghian. And by the time of my junior year, we won a national championship with the university. And then I was voted captain of the football team for my senior year, which was really quite an honor. Because of that experience, I got a chance to be drafted into the National Football League by the Pittsburgh Steelers - then a very low-base team, not winning a whole lot of games at that period of time - we only won two that first season in 1968.
And it was during 1968, of course--as the conflict was going on in Vietnam, we were at war at that time--I got my draft notification after ten games of that season to be inducted into the armed services. So I was snatched out of Pittsburgh, and within a 24--maybe 48 hour period found myself going to Basic Training at Fort Gordon, Georgia, went to Advanced Infantry Training at Fort Gordon, Georgia.
Got my orders--like thousands of other young men--soon thereafter to report to San Francisco and be shipped over to Vietnam. And so I flew home, said "hi, goodbye," went to San Francisco, flew out of there and landed in South Vietnam at that time. Got there in May of 1969, and I was attached to the Americal Division, the 196th Light Infantry Brigade, the Fourth of the 31st Regiment, and it was with Charlie Company, 1st Platoon, 1st Squad. And we were out of Hep Duc through that period of time. Hep Duc was about 40 klicks--maybe west--of Chu Lai. We worked out of a landing zone. For those who have not served in Vietnam - we worked out of an area of operation, and our area of operation was Hep Duc.
Out of Hep Duc, it was LZ West--Landing Zone West--and LZ Siberia which was north of us. So how it really worked at that period of time is that there was a battalion attached to that area of operation, and so you rotated in the field and you then rotated up to the landing zones. So a company would be on each one of the landing zones pulling security guard for the artillery that was there. And then the other two companies were in the field, doing search-and-destroy, and movements as intelligence came down. So I was in-country four months I guess, just about, and we were up at LZ Siberia specifically at this period of time, when all of a sudden word came down to be on 24 hours alert, there was something going on.
As a private, you didn't know what necessarily was going on, although we finally figured out that a sister company had been hit--under attack--and we were on alert to fly out. So by the time they got our helicopters--us--off that hill into the valley to get our sister company out of the hot spot as it was probably early evening. By the time we humped to that area it was dark, so it had to be around maybe ten o'clock, nine o'clock-ten o'clock, maybe nine o'clock at night. So we came in, and what had happened was that there was a Chieu Hoi--and what a Chieu Hoi was--was an "I surrender" of a North Vietnamese soldier. And came in, and then through interrogation found out there was a big cache of weapons somewhere in the hills. So about half of the company or a third of the company went out to find this cache, leaving the rest behind.
When--as they were out in the field--they got hit, and they got hit heavy. So they were in a big firefight that had taken place, as we were now coming to try to get them out of there. By the time we got there, the enemy had dispersed. Helicopters had been shot down, we saw that in the night, there was a night firefight going on, so you could see tracer bullets going back and forth. We didn't know what we were getting into. So we got there, and now we were trying to get them out of that hot zone. And so we did, we were to pull front and rear security, we had to carry out the dead that were left behind, the bodies. And so as one of the tasks that I did, we had a--at that time you take an old bamboo pole, take their boot strings, tie them around the knees and tie them under the chest--and carry them out on your shoulders. And so we were doing that out of that spot at night, when all of a sudden we had to cross a stream. And in the stream--in the moonlight--there was a machine gun nest that opened fire.
So we were in a quick firefight ____+. And so--I don't know how long we were there, maybe 45 minutes or longer--but the word spread down "okay, leave the bodies, and let's get out of this area." Because during that period of time, they could figure out what our location was, and we knew that we were going to get mortared to death if we stayed there. So we then got out of that area. And now two days reinforcements came back, we are now going back. Our mission, our reinforced platoon was to retrieve those bodies that we had left behind. So we had been humping the hills since the break of dawn--maybe about eight o'clock in the morning--and we took a break, to find our location as I recall.
Temperature was probably 102, 103, humidity was about 86 percent. For us it was a welcome relief, trying to figure out where we were. Then the word was to spread out, we were moving out onto an open rice paddy. And keep five yards distance between one another, as the commanding officer said. Keep your eyes and ears open as we know the enemy are around. And so as I stepped out--I was probably eighth in line, maybe ninth in line, I was carrying a grenade launcher--that was the weapon that they had assigned to me. And as I stepped out onto the open rice paddy, my point man, who was now maybe 40 yards in front of me, saw movement across the berm. And he hollers "gook, gook." All of a sudden some shots break the stillness. And he starts moving, and chasing the NVA that he saw, pulling everybody out into this open rice paddy. And as he did, all of a sudden the machine gun--you could hear it popping, leveling the area.
Guys were diving left and right into the rice paddies. And so as I hit the rice paddy, went down, crawled to the end of that rice paddy, found another one lying below us. There were four guys who were pinned down in that rice paddy. I did see the machine gun, nestled up in that berm--maybe 75 meters away, maybe 100 meters away. Well my responsibility was to be able to get some firepower on that position as quickly as I possibly can. I roll over on my side, I breach the grenade within my launcher, and as I went to fire all of a sudden "bam!" I get hit for the first time. I feel this thud in my leg. And so I discharge my round, and a medic was behind me, he threw me a bandage, I wrapped it around my leg, got behind some protection.
So we got enough firepower onto that position so that the four guys that were pinned down, they got out of where they were. And so we're in this firefight that took place, finally a medic came over, and everybody else was to the right, we were on the left, almost the left flank of where we were. A couple interesting incidents had taken place there. One, never being shot before I didn't know what was going to take place, or whether I could run, or anything like this.
Secondly, as I viewed the situation I'm thinking to myself "okay, what's going to happen here?" You know, "if you're the enemy on that side, are they going to flank us on this side?" Most of the firepower was to the right of me--our guys, over here [motions to his right]. And so the radio man had dropped his radio, I could hear them talking back and forth. I could hear whoever was hollering over there on the other side about enemies seen, a couple guys had got hit, guys were down. So they were getting most of the firepower over there. And all of a sudden I thought to myself "what if they came to my side? I mean what if they flank me over here?" I got a grenade launcher, I'm a one-shot wonder, I don't have an automatic weapon with me at this time. So I popped my--they give you a canister, like a big shotgun shell, just in case of a situation like this. So I think to myself "okay, if they come up this side, I hope they're as scared as I am." Because I'll give them this one shot, then I'm running as best as I possibly can out of this situation.
Well the medic comes over and he goes "come on, let's head back to our commanding officer." And he was maybe forty yards behind us. So we went back there. And about twenty minutes later the rest of that platoon came crawling in on their hands and knees, filled with mud and much from those rice paddies, and we set up another defensive position. So we started to--we didn't know what was happening--they probed our perimeter, got close enough to where a grenade comes flying through the air, it hits my commanding officer in the middle of the back.
He's lying prone on this little roadway, looking out over this berm to see what was taking place. And I see it out of the corner of my eye as I'm huddled up against this roadway, and it hits him right in the middle of the back but it doesn't go off. And it bounces off of him and rolls toward where I am, so I get up to jump out of the way. And as I do, it blows up--and I'm standing on top of it, and it blows up through my right foot, right knee, and right thigh. So I've been hit for the second time that day. Now we're in a firefight for most of that afternoon. We finally get on the radio and get some air coverage--we got a helicopter to come in, a gunship that comes in.
So we don't know exactly what happened, whether we had either injured their commanding officer, but all of a sudden they retreated and allowed us to get out of there. We had a sister company--or a sister platoon--that finally fought its way down to pull security for us. So they pulled front and rear security for us and got us out of the area. So now we had to hump back to a secured area, and honest to God it probably took us--I don't know--four or five hours through the darkness of the evening to finally get to a secure place where helicopters could get in and take us out of there.
So I was wounded in both legs and they dragged me out of there on a poncho liner as best as they possibly can. And those guys got tired. And in the circumstances, it was pretty much this--they had been up as long as we had, from six o'clock in the morning. They had to fight their way down, they were carrying their own rucksacks and everything else on them. And now they're dragging all the wounded out as best they possibly can. They're dragging me, just dead weight, and they said "don't worry we'll get some guys to come back." And so finally a couple other guys picked me up, and they carried me fireman-style until they got tired of lugging my butt around, and so they put me down.
And then another guy picked me up and carried me the rest of the way, and finally got me on a helicopter with everybody else. We flew out of there and went to an aid station, and then went to Da Nang. Ultimately as my story goes I wound up in Tokyo and spent three weeks there, and then came back here to the States and spent nine months in the hospital, and went through three more operations.
So what was your experience like as a football player in the military? Did you get recognized? Did you ever get special treatment?
In the beginning--I was at Fort Gordon, Georgia--everybody thinks that they're important, until they go into the military, as you well know [laughs]. So everybody's got an equal playing field when they get there. And maybe some of the people that came in from Pittsburgh knew who I was, but you have to understand this - this was 1968, this was playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Nobody knew who existed on the Pittsburgh Steelers at that time. As I may have mentioned earlier, they had only won two games, for forty years they were known for losing. So you weren't necessarily a household name coming out, the fact that you might have played, or the rumor is that you were with a professional team, you know boiled down.
It wasn't as if I was a Heisman Trophy winner, or a perennial All-American where everyone might have known your name. I was just a football player, so I don't think I got any special attention for being a football player. I think the expectation was "well you're a football player so you've got to do this and you've got to do it more" or "you've got to do it better, give me more pushups," whatever it might be [laughs]. So no, I didn't think that I got any special attention at all.
Now do you have any friends, or relationships, or antagonists that you particularly remember from your time in the military or in Vietnam?
You know, here's the sad thing about Vietnam--or at least from my experience. And I think maybe for the majority of people, that at least a generation needs to understand that Vietnam was a replacement war. When I went over and was assigned to my unit I didn't know anything about my unit. It wasn't a "heralded unit" as you might say--it wasn't the 82nd, or the 101st, or the 7th Cav, that you might have recognized out of movies that you saw.
I was with the Americal Division, I don't even know where that came from. I was with the 196th, I didn't have any idea what that was, or the Fourth of the 31st, or the 31st Infantry, or what they ever did. That [knowledge] didn't come until later.
So anyway, you came in as a replacement soldier. Unlike today, where our young soldiers train as a unit, go over as a unit, and come back as a unit. And a lot of times--coming out of the Reserves or the National Guard--they come out of the same locale. So there's time and they understand and know you better than being a replacement. So all of a sudden I was the first new guy in our unit within four months that had been there. And so the only thing you have in common is that experience, of being where you are.
It's not as if you come out of the same background--state, college, or high school. So you know people by what? By a nickname, or a place that you might recall, you don't become really closely attached. You talk about what happens on a daily basis, because this is the only experience that you have that you can share. So as you come in, you also leave as an individual.
In my case, I wasn't there for the 12-month period--I came in, "bam" I get wounded. And so, I'm off--all of a sudden you're extracted, you go to an aid station. You're extracted, you go to Da Nang. You're extracted, you go to ____. You're extracted, you come back to the States--and I go to Fort Riley, Kansas, and I spend the rest of my time in Fort Riley, Kansas.
Now the people I met at Fort Riley, Kansas I have more relationship with than those who I served with in Vietnam. And that's kind of a shame, as I now think about it--those guys and what they do, and where are they? I recently--and it's just recently--I ran into a gentleman. I was in Nebraska--who was in my unit in Vietnam, in my company in Vietnam. And he didn't go with us, he was with another--in a different squad, different platoon--but he had been sick, so he wasn't with us on the trip going out into the boonies. But he remembers everything that had taken place, so it was just out of the blue, it goes "oh okay, fine." So it's somebody that you connect with, that was a nice experience to talk about.
So when you went to Fort Riley that was for recovery and rehabilitation?
Right.
Are you okay speaking about your experience there?
Oh yeah, sure. So Fort Riley, Kansas--I go to Fort Riley, Kansas--and one of the reasons that I think I got attached to Fort Riley, Kansas was my uncle, my mother's sister's husband, Uncle Bill, was a colonel. He was with the 25th Infantry, so they were stationed there at Fort Riley, Kansas. He might have put a word in, whatever it was, and he got me at Fort Riley--at Irwin Army Hospital in Fort Riley, Kansas. So I was attached to that hospital. My experience there, it was basically recovering from my injuries.
There's only so much you can do, some of it just has to be time, and healing. So they put me together as best they possibly could, then we had to wait, then they had to decide what they were going to do with some of my joints, especially in my foot. The biggest damage I had was with my foot--as that grenade blew up through the bottom of it--with muscle tissue, but also nerve endings. I had an infection--so they had to let the injury heal, and in healing I had all this scar tissue that affected the movement of my foot and so on. So we had to go back in and handle that, they had another operation trying to get tendons out of the scar tissue, and loosen that scar tissue, and I still had shrapnel in my foot, it was just a process I was going through.
But the biggest thing actually--I had a job at Fort Riley, Kansas even though I was attached to the hospital--because I couldn't go back to active duty, so you know you had to do something. So I got a job in Plans, Operations, and Training for the hospital, it was a great experience. And the reason I got this job was because they had an IG inspection coming, so the big general was coming to look at Fort Riley. So there was a major, and then there was a lieutenant--there was two lieutenants--two E-8s, an E-6, an E-5, and me--a PFC, soon to be a Spec-4, that ran this whole operation. Oh, and a civilian, a secretary who ran the whole operation [laughs].
Anyways, so I met some great guys through that period of time, but that was my experience. And then, so it's like okay I'm there, I'm there, I'm there. And what happens in 1970 was "alright, what are we going to do with what's happening over in Vietnam?" So all of a sudden, the Department of the Army is downsizing with what's going to happen. So anybody who was on combat active duty could get an early out. Because what are they going to do with you? This was always like the Army.
So I ran into this other Spec 4, and he said "hey did you know that you could apply for an early out?" I said "you're kidding me! No." I said "when can I get out?" He said "tomorrow." I go "when?! What? What do you mean?!" He said "oh yeah, just give me your paperwork and I'll process you, and you'll be able to get out of the service."
I go "oh, okay!" And so I started getting the paperwork, and he said "oh, but you need to have a release from the hospital." So then I had to go back to my doctor, and I said "can I get a release from the hospital?" And he said "oh do you have that job in Washington, D.C.?" I had one time said to him "I might get a job through my uncle" as a possibility in Washington, D.C. And I said "so you can't send me back to active duty right away," he said "okay, fine." Well he said "did you get that job in D.C.?" I said "no, I'm going to get out of the service." He said "oh, can I see your charts?" I go "okay, fine" and I go get his charts. And this probably was in June--probably June, yes--and he goes "hmm, is this the last day I saw you, in April?" And I go "yeah" [shrugs shoulders]. "Did I tell you anything about when I should see you again?" "No." He goes "oh, okay." So he signs my release, I hand it in, next day I'm on my way home back to Appleton, Wisconsin.
So what did you do from there?
So then I went to training camp. Then I--I'd been working out, trying to work out as best I possibly could, getting my body in shape because I wanted to go back and play football. So I went back to training camp in 1970 and tried out for the team. And in all honesty it was too soon, my injuries just needed time, and it needed time. And it took a beating in training camp, by the time training camp was over I was limping through training camp.
Ultimately what the good Steelers did--and the Rooney family specifically--was that they put me on injured reserve that year for whatever reason. I had another operation, I still had shrapnel in my right foot they needed to get out. And so they paid me a salary, I was there for that year recuperating, I had to have another operation. So I came back in '71, and went through training camp again, and made the developmental squad as they call it, like the "taxi squad."
So they bought me two years, basically. There's some interesting stories or parallels that had taken place. One of the things was that when I was in Tokyo--when I spent three weeks in Tokyo before I came back to the States here--my real reason I was in Tokyo was to find out my injuries, and could I play football again? And so I had talked to the doctor at the time, I said--eventually, not right away--but I said "what do you think? What do you think, Doc? Do you think I can play this game of football again?"
Now his response, given my injuries at that time, and as doctors do, they always "___ don't worry about it, you're going to have a normal life. Don't expect to get back and play, because you won't have the strength or flexibility as I see it, because of your injuries."
Well in all honesty, to some degree it was like he's sucking a little hope right out of those dreams that you might have. But the interesting thing then is two days later I get a postcard in the mail, a simple postcard. It's got two lines on it, it said "Rock - team's not doing well. We need you. Art Rooney." Who was the owner of the team. I go "wow." I mean, they didn't need me, but it was that kind of a family concern, that somebody had an interest in you. And so I tell you that only because they really when I came back bought me two years.
They really didn't need to put me on injured reserve, they didn't need to put me on the developmental squad. They could have just cut me and said "good luck, we hope you become a good fan" or whatever, but they didn't, and they gave me an opportunity. So I came back in 1972 after two years of development, getting bigger, stronger and made the team in 1972. And then for us, '72 changes, there's a whole new story about the Immaculate Reception and winning the first time in 40 years and going to the playoffs, and it was an exciting period of time, and being part of that.
By 1974 I finally break into the starting backfield. And that year was a magical year for us, as we win the division, go to the playoffs, win the playoffs, and go to the Super Bowl for the first time. And then we get to play six more years after that, and so I get to play and win three more Super Bowls. And then after twelve years of playing I finally retired from the game of football.
Now were any of your other teammates drafted for Vietnam as well?
None of my other teammates were drafted for Vietnam, although some of my friends were--I mean other football players. So it was kind of a triangle of connection, there was a classmate of mine at Notre Dame - he played safety, his name was Tom Schoen, and he was from Cleveland, Ohio. Tommy Schoen was an All-American out of Notre Dame as a defensive back, and he got drafted in the second round by the Cleveland Browns. So the last time I saw Tommy was that year, we had scrimmaged one another as rookies--we had a rookie scrimmage. So by August, though, he gets drafted and he's off into the military. There was another guy, when I get drafted, by the name of Tom Sakal. And Tommy--Tom Sakal was from Pittsburgh--so we get drafted together out of the same unit, we go to Basic Training together. Tom Sakal went to the University of Minnesota to play football, was drafted by the Vikings, and much like me--we get drafted at the same time--he was a rookie with the Vikings as I was with Pittsburgh and we get drafted and we're in the same Basic unit together.
Although I didn't know him in Basic Training, I didn't meet him until the end of Basic Training, because he was in another building. But we got a chance to meet, and he went--I stayed at Fort Gordon, Georgia--he went off to Fort Polk, Louisiana, and he goes to Vietnam. Doesn't get injured, but he spends twelve months in Vietnam and comes back, and tries out for the Vikings, as I tried out. And Tommy [laughs]--what a great story, it's just like the military--so Tommy Schoen, my good friend, gets his orders out of Basic Training to become a medic. So he's down at Fort Sam Houston, and he's checking in, he's got his papers.
So he's processing in, and the processing personnel goes "hmm, let me see, Tommy Schoen, Thomas Schoen, Thomas Schoen--are you the Thomas Schoen that played football at Notre Dame?" And he goes "yes." He goes "oh, I went to Notre Dame. Do you want to be a medic?" He said [shrugs shoulders] "no, those are my orders, those are my orders that came down." He goes "oh, I don't think you should either. I'm going to put you in Special Services." [laughs]
So he goes off--and so I run into him at Fort Gordon, Georgia at the end of my Basic Training, when we have to do a half a day or a day at the end where you have to be available to do clean-up duty. So I'm sitting there, and who walks in? Tommy Schoen walks in, and so he needs some people, and he says "Rock, what are you doing here?" So he said "Well, I'll take this person [points at himself], and I'll take these other three guys and you come with me."
Well he was managing the officers' campgrounds at Fort Gordon, Georgia, that was his job. I was going "how'd you get this job?" Anyway, he told me how he got the job. He ends up ultimately going to Korea and playing football in Korea on one of the Army bases over there. And then he gets out, comes back and tries out for the Cleveland Browns--well I just thought it was, you know, how lives go in different directions, that's all.
So what did you do after your football career?
So after my football career I had a couple opportunities. I worked for a television--local NBC network in Pittsburgh--did the evening news, did sports. It was a great experience, it was a great experience only because it helped me make a transition from playing all those years into normal life. Because transitions are hard, I don't care where you are, and especially coming out of the military. People who have been in the military, you make a transition--that's a tough transition to get back to "normalcy."
So in this case my transition from the military was with the Steelers, so that was something. And then after those years playing with the Steelers, to make a transition back into normal life was, you know. So I got this job and it was great because it allowed me to stay in touch with the team, be a part of it--not having to practice. But also it fed my ego, because you're on TV and you're still kind of known for being involved with the Steelers. And so that was important. So I did that for about four or five years, and then I had always developed--on the "speaking circuit" as they say--I had done that and continued to do that all these many years later. Besides doing that, I have a construction company back in Pittsburgh, and that's been my life.
The construction company--is that RBVetCo?
Yeah, RBVetCo. So RBVetco materialized about 14 years ago when the government opened up contracting for service-disabled veteran-owned businesses. So this opportunity came, so we started the construction end of the business, and we do a lot of work--and have--with the military--not with the military, with the VA specifically as it morphed into areas of expertise. We do a lot of health care work--and it's now morphed into private industry as well--within the hospital system of western Pennsylvania, we do work there.
And you wrote a book as well?
Oh yeah, so I wrote a book during--we wrote a book called Fighting Back. I wrote a book with a gentleman by the name of Terry O'Neil. Terry was from outside of Pittsburgh, went to Notre Dame--was behind me, I didn't know him at Notre Dame. But he was working on his Masters at Columbia University, but was doing sports for Monday night television, he was a statistician. So he knew all these guys, and he was the one who approached me about doing the book at Super Bowl IX, our first Super Bowl--right before.
I thought "well, okay fine." So we did the book, and he did a great job of writing the book and putting it together as we collaborated on all the stories in the story. And so then that morphed into a movie--we made a movie out of that. In 1980 it came out--Monday night, remember Monday night movies? They were big at that time. So it was a made-for-television movie, and Robert Urich was the star. And Robert Urich was Dan Tanna in a series called Vegas, and so he was a popular actor at the time.
But he was also from outside of Pittsburgh, he was from Toronto, Ohio, which is down by Steubenville, Ohio, and so he was a big Steeler fan and so on, and so we got him involved. So we got that made, which was a nice little ego thing you know, to have a movie made about you. Ultimately, that then morphed into a play, which we did last year, and the play was called The Play with Rocky Bleier. It's about my experiences as we've talked about--it's about growing up, about being in the bar, about going to Notre Dame--it's about going into the military, and coming back, it's about the Steelers and what kept the Steelers together. And it's really about the randomness of life, and why things happen--they don't happen for a reason, but they happen and then you make a reason why they happened out of it. We are performing it this year again in Pittsburgh at public theaters, so I am very excited about that.
Speaking of the randomness of life, how do you think that your military experience affected your life? Did it affect it in a positive or negative way?
For me, it was very positive. I think it was--for me, it was a very positive experience. It was a part of my life, it was part of the experience you go through, whether you liked it or not, and the circumstances that that happened. But it kind of is what you do with it. And we talked about this, it's kind of what you do with that experience. I could have not gone back and played, I could have said "oh, poor me." I could have said "well I'll never be able to do this again, you know."
But I think it's how you face your life and reality, and you have to deal with those circumstances as you go through them--as we deal with being in combat, as we deal with going through Basic Training, as we deal with every one of those daily aspects. And so for me--and I'm sure it's easy for people to say "oh yeah, but look at all the success that you've had, blah, blah, blah." And that's part of it, but I think that it's what you take away from that experience that becomes very important. And I took a lot away--an appreciation for the world we live in, an appreciation for my fellow man, an appreciation for my fellow soldiers and what they had to go through and the sacrifices that they made, and especially those who did not return. All those things become very important--not just lip service, but because you were a part of it. And so it was a very good part of my life.
So are there any other particular experiences you would like to share, or any other final comments you would like to make?
I think the biggest--there is--and I suppose if there's something I could say, and it really is to my Vietnam veterans. And maybe all veterans, but Vietnam veterans specifically. Because Vietnam was an era that--it was a time in our lives where you weren't appreciated for serving, you weren't appreciated for what you had done, you weren't appreciated for being in Vietnam, or Korea, or wherever it is. You were attached to a war that was unpopular, and because of that you were a baby-killer and people disliked you because you were attached to that war and to everything else that was going on socially within that period of time.
So you came back as an individual, and you repressed all those feelings, you didn't go to the VFW, they didn't want you at the VFW or the American Legion. You didn't go over as a unit and you didn't come back as a unit. So you had nobody to talk to, nobody understood who you were or what you had gone through, unless it was another veteran. But where are you going to find another veteran when you were a replacement to begin with?
So whenever I have the chance, what becomes very important, is to at least get across to veterans, and especially Vietnam veterans--is to be able to tell the story, to be able to tell your experience. To talk about it--to your family, and to your kids, and to your grandkids--so they have an understanding and an appreciation of what being in the military is all about. Of what you did, because that's part of the history, that's part of the story. And given today, is that one percent of our population serves, so there's no relationship from generation to generation of what the military really stands for and why you should be proud.
We have patriots that serve--okay, that's one, we'll always have that percentage of people that'll serve. And we got "the poor" who can't make ends meet or whatever it is and will find a life within the military aspect. But for everybody else in between, they have no idea of what happens--or that commitment, or all those stories. So they need to be told--I mean the stories need to be told and to be shared so that generation understands what you went through. And it doesn't have to be about combat, it just has to be about being in the military. You can be in Siberia, you can be in New Jersey, or wherever it might be, but you have stories, and you have comments, and you have opinions, and I think they need to be shared with--your family, more importantly, and with everybody else--so that's my comment.
Well thank you very much for sharing your story, and thank you very much for being with us here today.
Thank you, Andy.