Cassie G. interviewed her grandfather, Gary, a soldier who fought in the war.
By Cassie G., Grade 6

In the 1960s and 1970s, the United States sent millions of young men to fight in the Vietnam War (1964–1973). The United States feared that if communist North Vietnam conquered South Vietnam, communism could spread throughout Southeast Asia. Communism is a political system in which the government controls all property. North Korea defeated South Korea in 1975. Cassie G. interviewed her grandfather, Gary, a soldier who fought in the war.


Cassie: How old were you when you were sent to Vietnam?
Gary: I had my 21st birthday in Vietnam.

Cassie: What was your most memorable moment?
Gary: When I was shot at in the late afternoon. I was going through a village checking IDs. They started shooting at us. I jumped in one of the Vietnam huts and tried to hide. I looked over and saw a big spider beside me. Some other people that I was working with shot at the Vietnam people, and they got scared and ran.

Cassie: What kind of guns did you shoot?
Gary: I shot M16s, M79s, machine guns, four duce mortar. We carried them in our rucksacks. We only had one gun at a time.

Cassie: How long were your sleeping hours?
Gary: We slept two hours and worked two hours, but I learned to sleep in the day so I could stay up all night to keep from getting attacked.

Cassie: Did you get the right amount of food every day?
Gary: I had C-rations, and they brought us hot meals in the helicopter only when it was safe.

Cassie: How did you get to Vietnam?
Gary: I flew on a DC10 military jet plane from Seattle, Wash., to Hawaii. There we could get more gas for the plane.

Cassie: Did you ever see the enemy?
Gary: Yes, I did see the Vietnam people at night, and every third round we put in a tracer to see them, to get a better shot at them. [A tracer is a bullet that leaves a bright or smoky trail.]

A U.S. soldier readies for battle in Vietnam in 1968. Photo Credit: iStockPhoto

Cassie: What was it like at night?
Gary: It was an indescribable noise. There were tracers flying, bombs going off, it was terrifying.

Cassie: What kind of animals did you see?
Gary: I saw water buffaloes, armadillos, king cobras, lizards that weighed 400 pounds, mongoose, big spiders, and big mosquitoes, rats as big as rabbits, and lots of leaches.

Cassie: What was the temperature?
Gary: In Vietnam, it could get hotter than 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cassie: What was the weather like?
Gary: They had monsoons that you could see miles away.

Cassie: When did you get to go home?
Gary: I got to leave after 11 months. When I was leaving, the Vietnamese shot our plane, so we had to go back and get a new plane.

What Cassie Learned
I learned that you have to hear a real soldier’s story to truly by thankful for what they do. It also helps to hear this story froma close relative that you love dearly. It makes me think I’m lucky that I still have my grandpa.