Veterans' Voices: Vietnam

Retired Army Veteran Lee Walker sustained multiple injuries when his squad walked into an ambush in Vietnam. He explains how he has learned to live with the pain.

And, Kevyn explores a terse and tough four word catch phrase that bubbled up and stuck as a coping mechanism and mantra.

Serving in Vietnam left Ronn Easton with a combat injury and searing memories. Decades after his Army hitch was up, the former soldier shares how he found comfort and resolution when he visited the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC.

Former Marine infantry soldier Fletcher Hinds speaks about his own struggles with reintegrating after returning from the war zone. As part of his healing, he’s returned to southeast Asia on humanitarian missions and co-founded a charity that rebuilds the country that was once the enemy.

Peter Molenda talks about his assignment in Vietnam as a motion picture photographer, for the Department of Defense’s photo team. His job was to document the positive actions of the US military in the country, but what he saw through his camera’s lens changed his attitude about the war.

Valerie Buchan tells about being recruited by the Army, and serving as the head nurse in an emergency room in Vietnam, caring for soldiers who endured life threatening injuries. After coming home, Buchan became an early supporter of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial, devoted to the contributions of military nurses.

Fifty years after his service, veteran Michael Medina returned to Vietnam as a tourist. Medina shares how the journey helped him come to terms with his experiences as a Navy Seabee, after many years of grappling with PTSD before anyone had a name for it.

Trudell Guerue, a Lakota who grew up on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, speaks about how military service is part of a rich cultural tradition, and how he barely escaped being a combat casualty, after being wounded in Vietnam.

Former Army Officer Jerry Newton talks about his most difficult and dreadful assignment, notifying families when their soldier sons were killed in combat, and how this experience prompted him to volunteer to go into the war zone of Vietnam.