Vietnam Biography

Robert Peterson arrived in Vietnam in the fall of 1966, a young American ready to serve his country and seize his destiny. What happened in that jungle war would change his life forever. Peterson vividly relives the tense patrols in the Viet Cong-infested Central Highlands, the fierce firefights along the Cambodian border, the ambushes and enemy charges.

The men who served with in the 1st Infantry Division with F company, 52nd Infantry (LRP), later redesignated as Company I, 75th Infantry (Ranger), engaged in some of the fiercest, bloodiest fighting during the Vietnam War, suffering a greater relative aggregate of casualties that any other LRRP/LRP/ Ranger company. Their base was Lai Khe, within hailing distance of the Vietcong central headquarters, a mile inside Cambodia, with its vast stockpiles of weapons and thousands of transient VC and NVA soldiers. Recondo-qualified Bill Goshen was there.

I had a memory of wearing a sidearm when I escorted Miss Missouri in Viet Nam. Upon examining photographs of that occasion, I found no evidence of a pistol. This memory of taking a sidearm, I think, was a memory that drifted in from a later event. Nevertheless, this “false” memory carries the truth of how important the safety of Miss Missouri meant at the time. On the other hand, my memory, tested against other evidence like photographs or other accounts, has often proven more accurate than some written records.

Tex, as his comrades called him, was not the same man he once was upon returning home from 'Nam. No, that man died over there with thousands of other soldiers. He was a casualty of war, sent home with a broken mind and invisible wounds that were impossible to mend.

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy was an American politician who served as the 35th President of the United States from January 1961 until his assassination in November 1963. He served at the height of the Cold War, and the majority of his presidency dealt with managing relations with the Soviet Union. At age 43, he became the youngest man to be elected as U.S. president as well as being the first (and only) Roman Catholic to occupy that office. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the state crime, but he was never prosecuted.

On March 13, 1971, LT Bart Creed, USN launched from the deck of the USS Ranger in support of Operation Lam Son 719, the ill-fated invasion of Laos by ARVN forces. Shot down while strafing an enemy truck on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, LT Creed lay injured and surrounded by enemy forces. Despite heroic attempts to rescue him, the 25 year-old husband, and father of two young children was never recovered. To this day, his fate remains a mystery.

Unlike most childhoods, mine was far from being a happy one. My siblings and I, as well as the generation before us, were born at a time when warplanes, gunfire, foreign men in uniform, constant evacuations, and locals hiding under bunkers or war tunnels were commonplace. Now, whenever I see playgrounds that are lush with trees and green grasses and filled with children on swings, who are laughing while being pushed by their parents, I cannot help but feel a tinge of envy.