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Phone Interview With Walt |
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Listen to Part 1 of the interview (transcript below)
Sean-What was high school life like in the 1960’s? Walt- What was high school life like in the 1960’s…. compared to now we we’re pretty laid back, it was a country school, it was different. Its hard to… that’s a question I wasn’t prepared for. Basically no drugs, drugs started in the late 60’s, it had a lot to do with the Vietnam war, school wasn’t as hard as it is now I don’t believe, growing up in the country we didn’t have the teachers that they have in your inner cities, and educational stuff, you know, and my complaint was I wasn’t as smart as a lot of the other kids. I was a little bit behind especially in reading skills. And when you got into high school where we were at, there was no help for you in high school. So I kind of got farther behind that’s probably one of the reasons I did what I did when I got out of high school. Because I had a hard time reading, I could read but I was definitely a lot further behind than every one else. Sean- Okay, so you were in high school in the 1960’s when this was mostly going on with the war and everything? Walt- Yes I graduated in 1969, then I volunteered, I got in a fight with my father, and I knew welcome at home, and I volunteered for the draft that summer, and got drafted in October right after Halloween in 1969. Sean- So were you very aware of what was going on politically Walt- No not at all.. Not until after I got over there did I realize what was going on. Sean- But you volunteered right? Walt- I volunteered yes I just felt that it was my duty, it was a way to get a way from home you know having a place to stay. It was military, my older brother was in the military. So I just you know just decided it was what I was going to do. a friend volunteered the same day with me so we registered together. Sean- What branch were you in? Walt- Army. Sean- So they called your name or did you go somewhere and sign up? Walt- I went some place and signed up. And when you volunteer and you sign up you’re going to get drafted Sean- Was there a lot of influence, like signs or propaganda motivating people to help out in the military? Walt- No, not that I remember. I remember a little bit of that in the end of high school. And watching the news, we only had one channel up north, and that would be the only news we’d get. That would come from the Bay City area. So there was not a lot of news, and I was never one for watching the news. So I didn’t know a lot about what was going on. But I had a lot of friends that were in Vietnam. As they were coming home, and I was volunteering for the draft and some of them were wounded, and so I had some idea about what was going on. But as far as propaganda goes there really wasn’t any of that. Sean- But you knew that the war was mostly about the spread of communism in Vietnam? Walt- Yeah that’s basically what I felt it was about, we knew a little bit about that. But they didn’t really talk about that in school. I knew more from friends than anything else. Sean- Did you think that if there wasn’t a war in Vietnam that the communism would eventually affect America? Walt- Yeah I think I probably thought that from some of the information that I got prior to friends coming back. Sean- Did you take any part in the Peace Movements? Walt- No. Sean- What was it like in Vietnam once you were there? Walt- I was in the central highlands of Vietnam and it got from very hot and muggy to pretty cold at night from the mountainous area we were in. it was scary at times, it wasn’t bad at times, you know the comradary between people, they had a lot of the black power movements that was going with the blacks and the Hispanics, that was mostly the only thing that upset me a bit. You know the fact that they were just in their own little groups. But there were some that didn’t want anything to do with it, and like you protect my back and I’ll protect yours, and that’s the way I thought it should have been with everyone, and not to go in power movement and have little meetings. Back then a lot of the blacks and Hispanics, because of being poor and undereducated, were drafted into the war. I think that’s why a lot of people in my community, you know we were not as educated as other people and we didn’t have the money to go to college to get out of it. So besides for a couple of us that volunteered, there were 13 other people that were drafted from our county and the surrounding area. Sean- do you think the war changed you, like mentally or spiritually, at all? Walt- I grew up a lot. Yeah, the things that I saw over there, the kids eating food that we throw away like its candy. A question that was asked of me when I came home “did I kill anybody?” upset me. You know, they’re just as human as we are. Then I realized that we really didn’t need to be there we weren’t trying to win anything, to me I felt at that point that it was a political war. We weren’t aggressors we were just there to mostly police things. And its kind of like what’s going on in Iraq right now and I don’t like the situation. Sean- You sort of touched on what I was going to ask next, but, what was it like coming home? Walt- Bad. Basically, people did not like you, we were called baby killers, there was a lot of protest with people screaming at you. You’re not a proud American, I’m not proud of what I did, of where I went. There was very little recognition, I basically have kept quiet, I have yet to join the VA. Though I know I need to, I talk about this more and more now, I am a veteran, but its hard to be proud about something that, you know, nobody wanted. And its sad the way they treated us, the troops. It wasn’t our fault that we went over there, we did a job that we were sent to do, you know, I didn’t chicken out from doing that job. I didn’t go into hiding, I didn’t run to Canada. I didn’t have parents that were rich enough to put me in college, so I kind of kept quiet about what was, you know… I still don’t talk about it a lot. I know people at least thank me now, and it has a lot to do with what going on in Iraq. And at least realizing that we did fight and we were proud at one point to stand up and fight for America.
Listen to Part 2 of the interview (transcript below)
Sean- For the people who join these Vietnam veterans clubs, how do you think they feel about it, do you think they’re doing it to make themselves feel better? Walt- No, I don’t think its to make them feel better. We are veterans, we have rights and there are benefits and stuff and its mostly to protect our benefits. And this is one of the reasons I know that I have to put my name on that list so that we, as veterans, can receive what the government promised they would give us for being veterans and fighting in a war. I have to do it and I know I have to do it. People are at least thankful now when they hear I was in Vietnam. I have a lot of people that at least pat me on the back for serving our country and it does make me feel good. But I’ll be honest with you, I am partly jealous about all the press that everybody’s getting from Iraq, and I believe that it has a lot to do with the support of the Vietnam veterans, because of what we went through and we know how it is. It wasn’t our fault we didn’t ask to go over there, we were given a duty and we performed it, and that’s what these guys are doing now and I’m awful proud of them. But at the same time honestly I’m jealous to a certain extent of all the, you know… Sean- the press coverage… Walt- Yeah, the press coverage Sean-…and the support the troops stuff. Walt- the support the troops things, yeah there wasn’t any of that when we were over there. Sean- Yeah, I heard you were lucky if you got any news back from America. Like it wasn’t very safe for newscasters to come into battle like some do now. Walt- There were some that went in there and they got right into the mix of it but a lot of people didn’t want to hear what they were saying. And it was tough Sean- You said it earlier, but what did the government promise you as a veteran? Walt- It was all in the medical benefits, and being a veteran of the war, I should be able to go into a VA hospital and be able to be taken care of. And there’s the educational level that I took advantage of for two years, I could’ve had four years but with my studying habits were not real good so I didn’t waste the governments money. I probably belonged more in trade school. But I didn’t know what trade I wanted to get into. There’s that VA loan and I did take one of those when I was in Alaska. Most of it right now is medical benefits. And they’ve been taking some of that stuff away from us lately from what I’ve been hearing, so the more troops that sign up, the better. And at least the politicians now are talking about protecting the VA benefits. That has a lot to do with taxes, those are my taxes now, they’ll be your taxes down the line. Its things like that that the public has to pay for that they don’t realize. Sean- So lately politicians call the Vietnam War more of a conflict, how do you feel about that? Walt- Well, they’ve always called it a conflict, I don’t think it ever been justified as a war. But we lost 58,00 people, you know, people were killing people. To me that’s war. There was no real… we never really declared a war on Vietnam. We were over there fighting but they didn’t declare it as a war so that’s how they justify calling it a conflict. Sean- When were you first aware of job opportunities on the Alaskan Pipeline? Walt- In 19… well… I wasn’t really aware of it. In February of ‘75, my friend asked me if I wanted to go to Alaska. And I told you earlier that I went through there on my way to Vietnam and on my way back and they were both, one was in May on the way over, the other was in June on the way back. And getting near their longest day and I landed… and I think during the day, it was sunny and gorgeous. And on the way back it was like three in the morning. We landed in Burbank, and the sun was out, and I had a hard time dealing with that. And you got mountains in the background. And I didn’t really know about the Pipeline then till we got up to Alaska. And then we went up there to just work for the summer. And in 75 we started going to work around the people in Alaska, and in 76 I got my first job in Frudo Bay. I was there for about nine months. Sean- and you worked on the oil fields not the Pipeline itself? Walt-I worked on the oil fields, not the pipeline. Sean- So what did that job entail? Walt- I started out running machinery, what we called “pick-up lay-down” machines. They were machines that would pick up pipe to the rig floor for the drilling rigs. It would make the process go by a lot faster. And we had machines that would put down all the drill pipe and then we’d pick up tubing to run the gas and oil through. And that probably made that job go by a lot faster, an out there time is money. So that’s what we started out doing. And they started upgrading machinery in 79, making my job obsolete. And then I started working on the rigs themselves in ’79-’80. It was all labor, and physical work there was nothing easy about it. Sean- Now, most of the people working there, were they like you, coming from the mainland America? Walt- Yeah, most of them really were. A lot of them were from Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, and that’s where most of the oil field people come from. Some come a little bit from California because they were doing some drilling down in California but most of them came from the first three states. I worked with a lot of different people Sean- This is one of my final questions. Walt- Okay Sean- Do you think that the war in Vietnam and Alaskan Pipeline could be connected? Walt- For me? Sean- Like in political and economic needs. Walt- The Vietnam War and the Alaskan Pipeline? No I don’t think so. Iraq, yes. Vietnam, no. |