Young Men in Harm’s Way recounts combat, leadership, loss, and the brotherhood of Charlie Company, preserving the men and memories that stayed with him long after the war. Why was it important to document not only your personal story but also the history of Charlie Company?

Almost everyone who served in Vietnam, especially in a combat role, never considered keeping a diary or records of their tours. Decades later, in interacting with the men I served with, they often could not recall where they were nor the details of what took place. This was true for myself as well. Upon much reflection, I decided to create a strawman chronology of my own experience. This evolved over time via conversations, reunions and my creation of the website www.212warriors.com into my book. History is important and I wanted to capture both my personal experience and that of the 12th Infantry Regiment I served in. My website contains the full history of the regiment and the 4 ½ years it served in Vietnam.

What do you most want readers to understand about the everyday experience of an infantryman in Vietnam?

Most people do not understand the complexities of a war and everything that takes place from day to day. The gauntlet of emotions a soldier goes through just within a 24-hour period adds to the mental strain aside from what takes place in combat. It is singularly the highest rollercoaster ride one can take in life of extreme feelings. Anyone who has served in the military is NEVER the same person who entered service when they come out. You never leave the battlefield of war, any war. The memories and scars never leave you. They live with you every day. This is why so many struggle to live a normal life and why so many cannot comprehend what we experienced. This book tries to share with the reader what we went through, the highs and lows. The pains, stress, fatigue, and loss of life set against a backdrop of attempting to escape that side of war by the creation of distractions. Listening to the radio, writing home, or sharing stories of past lives lived in a peaceful setting, and sprinkled with an occasional laugh to relieve the tensions.

What did you learn about leadership that military training alone could never have taught, and what qualities distinguished the leaders you trusted most during your service?

For the most part, leaders are born, not created. It is an inherent part of our DNA. They react to situations presented to them throughout the process of life, growing up. I don’t believe they seek out this part of their character; it just comes out. Most people are passive and default to those who seem to always be leading or sharing thoughts that allow those around them to be comfortable in being led. This is a bonding process of life: those who lead and those who pass on the responsibility of leading to others they trust in either character or affirming actions. We had few leaders, officers, or NCOs who had combat experience. Certainly they had experience in Army life, but that is vastly different than making decisions that are grounded in life-or-death outcomes. Those new to Army life and to combat had to quickly judge those leading them. It was easier for the “leader types” to ascertain who to trust than the followers. The officers, for the most part, had enough technical and leadership training. What they had to demonstrate was the confidence and quick decision-making ability that gained the trust of the men they were leading.

Because of how this war was carried out in Vietnam, the turnover of troops and officers evolved around a 12-month tour. This meant we were constantly dealing with new faces, officers, and the enlisted men within the ranks of the companies, platoons, and squads we were assigned to. If you demonstrated any leadership, you quickly rose in rank and were positioned to replace the very NCOs who were leading you because they would soon be going back to the States and home. For me, I arrived a private first class and went home a staff sergeant in a short 11 months in Vietnam. Leadership mattered among an ever-evolving landscape of new faces. That leadership, the trust built, created bonds within the troops that stabilized young men into a fighting force determined to keep everyone safe as best as could be possible in an unpredictable war.

What would you most like younger readers, particularly those with no personal connection to the Vietnam War, to understand about the men who served?

Much has been written about Vietnam. We have analyzed it by age, ethnicity, level of education, and what state we came from. For the most part we served and did what was asked of us in a trying time. What I want, as do other veterans of that war, is for it to have mattered in some way for the sacrifice many endured, especially those who did not come home. Many of us were drafted and may have trained together, but that only lasted through eight weeks of basic training. When we left basic, we individually headed off to AIT (Advanced Individual Training), where we, once again, were in the midst of strangers and trained for another eight weeks before being sent individually to Vietnam. Upon arriving in Vietnam, we, again, were sent out to various units (divisions, battalions) that needed replacement, only to, once again, be in the middle of strangers. Over time, these strangers, like ourselves, became our friends and comrades. People we may have loved or loathed, respected or tolerated, but all bound to us by blood, sweat and tears, theirs and ours. Just about all of us were there when one or more of these men died. In some cases, we held them as their last breath escaped. In other cases, we learned of their passing after the fact. We learned how in war death happens, but life goes on. For these men, it was about duty. When our country called, each of these men answered – some voluntarily, some not – but each man went doing his duty as he saw it. Years later, these relationships manifested into friendships, just like high school friends. They have grown over time and remain a core foundation of brotherhood and love. Forged in battle and never to be forgotten.

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