Military service in Vietnam

   The famous fighting Fourth Infantry Division, their motto is "Steadfast and Loyal"

 The Fourth distinguished itself in WW-I and in WW-II, hit Utah beach, in Normandy with a vengeance. It took 26 days to establish a beachhead, their first objective. And the Fourth paid for it with the lives of 5000 thousand men.  Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Junior, was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honour posthumously for his heroic courage during the assault for actions above and beyond the call of duty on June 6, 1944.

    Twelve of my Fourth Infantry Division comrades in Vietnam received the "Congressional Medal of Honour", nine posthumously and one was the only conscientious objector to ever receive the award. You will find the names of these brave men at: http://www.4thinfantry.org/medal.html

    We have visited the memorial and the cemeteries in Normandy on several occasions, and I have visited the Vietnam memorial   http://www.nps.gov/vive/index2.htm  and the "Wall" http://thewall-usa.com/  http://www.thevirtualwall.org/ on the Mall in Washington, to pay homage to my good friends, Jerry Miller, from Baldwin Park, and Brent Swabby, from El Monte, and the many other school friends and army buddies who paid the ultimate price. El Monte lost over thirty of its sons and Baldwin Park sixteen. When you count the other towns of the San Gabriel Valley, the death toll exceeds three hundred. There are close to sixty thousand names on "The Wall" and it has been estimated that if we were to add the veterans who died from the effects of dioxin "Agent Orange"  http://www.va.gov/agentorange/default.htm  and the suicides of those suffering from "PTSD", (post traumatic stress disorder) another two more walls need to be built! 

    "VA presumes that all military personnel who served in Vietnam were exposed to Agent Orange, and federal law presumes that certain illnesses are a result of that exposure. This so-called "presumptive policy" simplifies the process of receiving compensation for these diseases since VA foregoes the normal requirements of proving that an illness began or was worsened during military service.

Based on clinical research, the following diseases are on VA's Agent Orange list of presumptive disabilities: chloracne, Hodgkin's disease, multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, porphyria cutanea tarda, respiratory cancers (lung, bronchus, larynx and trachea), soft-tissue sarcoma, acute and subacute peripheral neuropathy and prostate cancer. A regulation is being developed to add diabetes mellitus."  Other useful links regarding herbicide exposure and Veterans Administration regulations can be found at;  http://www.vba.va.gov/bln/21/benefits/herbicide/AOno1.htm and http://vabenefits.vba.va.gov/vonapp/default.asp

    I start to shudder when thinking about the number of "Walls" the Vietnamese people would need to erect for their heroes from north and south, both military and civilian, and who died for their country.  Even if the allies would have applied a "scorched earth" policy as the Russians have done in Chechnya, the Vietnamese people with their great strategic thinkers Ho Chi Minh and General Giap would have prevailed. I wish the Vietnamese people the best, and hope that someday soon, they will enjoy the same prosperity and democratic freedoms, we mostly take for granted in the west.

    I received my draft papers in September 1966, and did as Robert and Edward, before me, joined the U.S. Army. As a Dutch resident alien, I was obliged by law as all other legal residents to serve in the U.S. military. This was to avoid becoming a foot soldier in Vietnam, which was the destiny of most draftees. By becoming a professional soldier, we were allowed to chose our occupation and first duty posting. I chose for the Combat Engineers, since I was interested in construction and had  dreams about going to the Gulf or Africa to work on large engineering projects.

     For me, it meant an additional training of four months in the Virginia countryside, a one hour drive from Washington. 1967 was a good year to be in the vicinity of Washington, with the anti-war protests, the "Black Power" and the "Flower Power" movement, we got riot duty one day, and joined the rioters the next. The power of protest had become a force to be reckoned with, and by the summer of "67" all sorts of people were protesting about all the social ills of that time.

    In September, I received my orders for Germany and ended up in a small south German village, Knielingen near the French border and the Rhine. The summer of 1968, brought the anti-war protest  to Europe and it was  quite strange, attending the first riots in Paris, Amsterdam and Zurich as a U.S. soldier, but passing as Dutchman.

    After my Christmas holiday of 1968, I returned to my base to find orders for the 2nd mechanized brigade of the 4th infantry division based close to the provincial capitol of Pleiku in the central highlands of Vietnam.

     The good times, parties and manifestations stopped here.  I did my job well, and was able to distinguish myself, as my brother Edward, did the year before and my cousin François, did the same year with the Marines. Amongst other decorations, I received the Republic of South Vietnam Gallantry Cross. Edward and François returned to fight a second year. Edward who was artillery officer and pilot, received a chest full of Distinguished Flying Crosses, Bronze and Silver Stars, and is the most decorated soldier in our family.

    The four Haye's gave a total of thirty years of their lives to the Armed Forces of the United States and three of us collectively spent   five years actively  involved in the Vietnam conflict.  We did what was expected of us, and left our blood, sweat and tears, all over that country, from the Mekong Delta in the south, all the way up north to Hue at the demilitarized zone.

    Our father survived a Japanese P.O.W. camp, where he lost both his father, and father in-law and all of his uncles. Dad distinguished himself everyday for four years, and that was a very difficult act to follow, but the three of us did what we could. We were all lucky and returned home with all of our limbs intact. Or was it home? The three of us who fought, all settled in Europe after receiving our discharges from the armed services.

    I served the shortest time in Vietnam, thanks to a rocket propelled grenade which left me hearing impaired and with tinnitus, but would not wanted to have missed it. Vietnam is a very beautiful country, and its people warm and charming. At night however, that warmth turned to rockets, grenades, satchel charges and  hot AK47's, but that was "Cool", after all, it was their country.

    The first month was difficult, but after a while you adapted to the hostile environment, and became indifferent to the situation. The phrase most often used was; "Don't mean nothing man". Pretty hard to believe if your buddy just bit the bullet, or "point" fell into a pit of poisonous stakes and was skewered. But that was our reality and most of us dealt with it. We all lived from day to day, doing our jobs, wondering who would be next, and hoping to get out in one piece.

    On  my off days, I would at times volunteer for civil affairs duty, that was working with the local indigenous people and helping them help themselves in dealing with Charlie! We build protected hamlets and enclaves for them, and we taught them to use WW I issue M-1 rifles and Claymore mines for their village perimeters. These people were very warm and generous with a great sense of humor. They hated all Vietnamese from north and south and many of them worked as guides for the Allies.

    I am a life member of the Disabled American Veterans chapter 144, San Francisco, California. http://www.dav.org/