Embedded Files
Time Code Speaker Narrative
00:00 Trevan Alright, so for the purposes of this interview I’m going
To have to ask you your name.
to ha
00:06 Gordon Ah, Gordon Gibbons.
00:08 Trevan Alright.. And, so, why did you join the military?
00:14 Gordon Well, I, uh, couple of reasons. I, uh, always wanted to become a police officer which is what I’m doing now. And, um, I knew that military and veterans were, um, looked upon favorably, So, um, when I got out of high school, um, I wasn’t a very serious student when I was in, at D.Y. and I, uh, didn’t get the greatest grades. I was more interested in playing sports and hanging out with my friends so I didn’t get into any colleges I applied to, uh, but I knew I still wanted to, uh, go into law enforcement and the military seemed like a really good way to spend a few productive years. So that’s, that’s why I did it.
01:01 Trevan Alright, um, was the, uh, it was the army you enlisted in?
01:07 Gordon I enlisted in the army.
01:09 Trevan Alright, um, so why did you enlist in the army.. Like?
01:11 Gordon Well I looked at all of the branches actually um, probably my second choice uh, would’ve been the Navy, but when it came right down to it the army offered me um, an awful lot of more money for college than any of the other services, um, and I knew that I wanted to go to college eventually so, uh, that really steered me in the direction um, of the army and it was basically because they, they bought me with the most college money.
01:43 Trevan Ah, um what were you doing before you enlisted?
01:46 Gordon Well I graduated high school in June and I spent the summer on the beach with my friends and come fall, all my friends took off to college and I worked at Cuffy’s folding sweatshirts for about three months before I went crazy and realized I had to get off the cape and I had to start doing something uh, so I was working at Cuffy’s, not very happy and looking for something bigger.
02:15 Trevan And how did your parents react to that, the decision to enlist?
02:18 Gordon My father was incredibly supportive. Um, was very proud um, thought it was a great move on my part. Um, my mother on the other hand was very apprehensive um, very concerned for her little boy um, but uh, I think really what it came down to is she was just gonna miss me. She knew that she wouldn’t get to see me very much over the next few years, um so it took a little while for her to come around but eventually, you know she was really happy I was doing something.
02:52 Trevan And um, what age did you enlist?
02:55 Gordon I was uh, eighteen.
02:58 Trevan (cough) And where did you grow up?
03:00 Gordon I grew up in Dennis and lived there my whole life and went to all the D.Y. schools.
03:10 Trevan What was the first thing you did when you returned?
03:13 Gordon Came home.. From the military?
03:15 Trevan Yeah.
03:16 Gordon Um.. (pause) I went to the beach and I spent pretty much a solid week on the beach just enjoying being home, catching up with old friends, and um, it was funny when I came home I thought “I’m gonna take the whole summer off and I’m gonna relax and enjoy myself and that lasted about one week and I started to go crazy and I, I ended up going to work for a friend who had a landscaping company, and, and uh worked all summer long with him.
03:47 Trevan Could you describe your life before entering the military?
03:51 Gordon Sure, I mean I was a lot like any other eighteen year old kid fresh out of high school I was, um, broke, I had no money, I had a car that ran infrequently, um, I had a girlfriend who was in high school , um a little brother still in high school, still, I still felt like a kid. Um, And really I had not a lot of direction (clock chimes) not a lot of um, ( clock continues to chime) I was ambitious but didn’t really know how to get where I wanted to go. So.. I tha-(chuckles) that’d be the best way to describe it.
04:33 Trevan And uh, how did the military change your life?
04:37 Gordon It, (pause) simply gave me a lot of drive and a lot of direction, um, and a lot of confidence that um, you know I always compared things in life that you know, if I could get through what I did in the service, I could get through a lot of things so it really gave me a lot of direction.
04:56 Trevan What did you want to do when you grow up to be an adult?
05:01 Gordon I’ve always wanted to be a police officer, that was, you know I mean that, you know early on I dreamed of being a pilot for an airline, um, I dreamed of being a commercial fisherman, um, I’ve always had something in mind (phone rings off camera) but I really landed on law enforcement when I was in high school and that was, and that was the drive really.
05:26 Trevan Um, when I say the word “Army,” what comes to mind?
05:30 Gordon Mmmm… Boy, (pause) you know just some of the best people.. Is it workin’?
05:39 Trevan Yeah, its working
05:39 Gordon It is?
05:40 Trevan Its, just.. Almost..dead…..
05:41 Gordon Is it?
05:42 Trevan Pissing me off…
05:43 Gordon Do you need batteries?
05:44 Trevan *Sigh* uh, yeah maybe in a little bit.
05:46 Gordon I have some.
05:47 Trevan Its okay, lets just let it die then..
05:48 Gordon Okay.
05:49 Trevan Um, but yeah, when I say the word “Arm…” “Army” uh, what comes to mind?
05:54 Gordon You know, the ba-.. Well what comes to mind are the people, you know, the people who I served with who are just some of the best people I’ve ever known, you know they really.. Diverse backgrounds, drverse lifestyles,… Regionally, I mean everything and you get thrown together in this unit and you become great friends I still keep in touch with probably thirty or forty of the guys I was in the army with so.. I think people.
06:25 Trevan Alright.. And what was your.. No I already asked that, dammit. What advice would you give to someone who was thinking about joining the military?
06:34 Gordon Ah.. Do your homework. Talk to a lot of people, um, ask a lot of questions. And the bottom line is no matter how many people you talk to, no matter how many people relate their experiences, you’re never going to know what its like until you get there and do it. Um, the vast majority of people I served with loved it, they had a great time, they wish they could go back and do it over again, um, and some people it wasn’t a, the right fit. Um, so I would say talk to as many people as you can who’ve done what you’d like to do and make a good decision.
07:08 Trevan What was the biggest question on your mind before joining?
07:13 Gordon (cough) Probably um, (pause) probably where I was going to be stationed, you know? That was, that was important to me. I wanted to go to some place that was a l- a little interesting so that was really, really what I was thinking.
07:38 Trevan Um, Could you describe the bonds with people that you formed during the service?
07:44 Gordon I had .. I, I was in a unique situation, I was in what was called a “Cohort Unit”. And..
07:50 Trevan What is a co.. cohort..
07:52
08:41 Gordon A Cohort Unit is a military acronym. C.O.H.O.R.T. and I wish I could tell you what it means but I just know it was a Cohort Unit and what, what that was is they filled up a infantry battalion with new people so they had all new recruits come in and we all went to basic training, started the same day together, went through basic training, reported to the unit together, served our enlistment together and we all got out at the same time. So unlike in a traditional unit where you know, you might have three or four guys go to basic training and end up in the same unit together and then people are always coming and going, we pretty much, were with the same group throughout the whole time we were there um, and I guess that’s probably why we still keep in touch, is because, um you know, shared experiences form lifetime bonds.(Camera dies.)
08:41 Trevan (Camera turns on.) Alright…(inaudible) Um, What was it like for you to adapt back to civilian life?
08:54 Gordon Um, For me, you know, it was real easy, ah.. I went straight to college I went to four C’s, earned an associate’s degree, I worked nights um, at a deli, and I painted houses, so you know, for me I, I, I’m not.. I wasn’t to stay still, so I stayed busy, fortunately um, I didn’t have any sort of um, combat-stress related stuff um, like a lot of these guys coming home have, um, so for me, it was, it was like coming back home and picking up where I left off.
09:32 Trevan And, What was the most vivid memory of the war?
09:36 Gordon Well, I was in during um, the Gulf War, the first Gulf War, and I was in a infantry unit, a light infantry unit, as apposed to a mechanized infantry unit, the mechanized had a large role in Desert Storm because obviously, the geography lends itself to mechanized tracks not so much towards foot soldiers. So while we were, when I went in, there was no conflict in the Gulf. The Gulf conflict started after I got in so for me I went from enlisting in a time of peace to suddenly, now there’s a conflict, we have soldiers in and they’re going into combat so I think the whole experience of Desert Storm is when I think back to my time in the service that’s what I remember the most.
10:29 Trevan And, I don’t know if.. Probably not, but um, what was your darkest memory of the war?
10:37 Gordon My darkest memory of time um, obviously, Like I said if you’re doing everything right and the guys on your left or right are making mistakes and you’re having to do fifty or a hundred push ups every time they don’t know their left from their right. It gets, you get frustrated, so, those type of things do happen.
10:56 Trevan Mhmm.. (pause) and what was the most life-changing event during your enlistment?
11:03 Gordon (pause) Um, you know, we had, we had a couple of, ac couple of soldiers die while I was there but they through training accidents. You know we had a, had a young guy Jake Hasteele, I still remember his name, he was in my unit. And it was right at Christmas time and we were doing land navigation at a place that we’d been to a hundred times and when you do land navigation it was kind of fun because you’d go off on your own for the day and you had to go find a number of points and you were graded if you found them.(coughs) And Jay didn’t come back at the end of the day so we searched for him a couple of days and we ended up finding him, he slipped and fell down this enormous hill and broke his neck and they found him in the water and it was tough you know, because he had a ticket in his locker he was going home in a couple days for the holidays and instead of him meeting his parents at the airport they were going to be told that their son had been killed, so that was probably, probably the toughest thing, you know.
12:09 Trevan And, that, was that the toughest day for you?
12:12 Gordon I would think so, yeah, I would think so.
12:18 Trevan And, could you describe your average day, like uh, waking up to going to sleep at night?
12:25 Gordon Sure, eh, we, since we were an infantry unit we spent a lot of the time in the field so we were in the field um, you could be training, um usually most of the missions we did were at nighttime so you’d spend the day recovering from what you did the night before, and then you know, ‘bout three, four in the afternoon you’d start getting your mission order for the night and um, you’d have to assemble the equipment that you were going to need. The squad leaders would brief their squads and um, we’d execute a mission overnight. It could be a movement to um, take a bridge, it could be to secure an airfield whatever it may be, we did it and it was generally done at night. Um, first thing in the morning we’d sort of have an after-action review of what went on the night before then you’d take, take care of your basic hygiene issues, you had breakfast, those type of things. Um, so that was what, what went on in the field. But when we were in what’s called “Garrison” we were back in the barracks. Um, it was almost always daily maintenance on equipment was what we did mostly, usually we got up at five o-clock, five thirty was the first formation. Um, We’d have, do, ah, ninety minutes of P.T. with the physical training, and um, then we’d have time to go shower and go have breakfast. And we’d meet for first formation at about nine o-clock and we’d have a mid-day lunch and then we’d break usually around five or six at night and then you were free to do whatever you needed to do.
14:01 Trevan What is um, first formation?
14:03 Gordon First formation was were the ah, then entire unit had a formation where the headquarters platoon and the first, second, and third platoons were all uh, they had to have their formation so that they could tell who was present or accounted for. So the squad leaders had to check on their squads and they reported to the platoon sergeant and then the platoon sergeant reported to the first sergeant who ran the unit so, um, it basically an, a, accountability of all persons.
14:35 Trevan And If you knew now about the war what you knew then, would you do anything differently?
14:41 Gordon Um, yeah, I mean, I , you know, I didn’t, ah, when I served it was a little different time, you know? I served in a time of peace, you know these young kids who are enlisting these days are, are incredibly brave and you know, um, I think that if I had to do things over again I’d do things drastically different. Um, I think in a lot of ways I look back on it and I wish I had done a little bit more than what I did do. Um, but I don’t regret it, and if I had the opportunity to do it again, I’d do it in a heart beat.
15:22 Trevan What was the one thing about home you missed the most during the war?
15:26 Gordon Um, the one thing I missed, um spending time with my brother. My brother and I were pretty close. And um, my mom’s cooking. She’s a great, she was a great cook. So, a, a home cooked meal and my brother.
15:44 Trevan And if you could go back in time, would you change anything?
15:48 Gordon Absolutely, I, you know, I, have two regrets about, two regrets about my time. I wish that I had gone to airborne school um, and I wish I had gone to ranger school. You know, ranger school is the leadership, really the leadership school for infantry soldiers and um, you know I didn’t get that opportunity, I wish I had and I wish I had gone to airborne school because it would be cool, now that I have a son to be saying “This is what dad did when he was in the army, he jumped out of an airplane. I think that would be kind of fun but, it wasn’t in the cards and you’re only young once.
16:21 Trevan So, airborne is jumping out of the… Parachuting in basically?
16:24 Gordon Right, um, the army has several airborne units and um, when I was in it was the eighty-second and the hundred and first airborne and they deploy by jumping out of airplanes by a static line, they hook onto it and they jump out, and the parachute is pulled out as they jump out of the airplane.(waves hand)Um, so I didn’t get the opportunity to do that and I wish I had.
16:47 Trevan What do the, um, numbers like um, eighty, eight and hundred and first, what do those, ah.. Mean?
16:54 Gordon Well, you know, I mean, the army designated different units and assign ‘em different numbers. For example, I served with the twenty fifth infantry division, and a division has about eight thousand soldiers in it. And then within a division you have a brigades which are about, about fifteen hundred soldiers. So the military has these, they’re different (waves hands) sized units under certain umbrellas, so the twenty fifth infantry division wasn’t a big, uh, unit. The twenty fourth infantry division was out of Fort Stewart, Georgia, they were a mechanized unit, they had a large role in the first Gulf war, The tenth mountain division in New York, um, is another light infantry unit, so, um, you know every unit., has their designation. Um, the eighty second is, you know, very prestigious unit, um, a lot of wartime action, um, Fort Brag North Caro- (camera dies)
17:53 Trevan (camera records) Alright, (coughs) Where were you stationed in, during the Persian Gulf War?
17:59 Gordon I was stationed with the um, like I said the twenty fifth infantry division which is based out of Schofield Barracks in Hawaii. Its on, um, the main island of Oahu. Um, probably about a forty minute drive from down town Honolulu, um, so it was a nice place to be stationed. Um, the training and the um, mission of the twenty fifth infantry division is primarily um, jungle settings in the Pacific theater, So anything from Vietnam, to um, the Philippines, (camera dies)
18:35 Trevan (camera records) So where were you stationed during the Persian Gulf War?
18:38 Gordon So, it was, you know, on the main island on Oahu, and um, like I was saying, the um, area of our responsibility is any of the Pacific rim areas. Korea, Japan, China, If any of those places had conflicts, we would have been more mobilized so, its um, it’s a very strategic location, Hawaii, is a , for the air force, for the navy, for all the armed forces, it’s a n incredibly strategic location.
19:07 Trevan How was um, how was training? Was that really difficult to adapt to?
19:15 Gordon Ah, the training was tough, it was tough because it was very physically demanding. Um, we carried, uh, rucksacks, you know, basically you would take if you went mountaineering uh for extended periods of time. That’s what we carried. And, you know, one of my specialties was I carried the, um, radio for the company commander. So it was my job to make sure that communications between my company commander and the battalion commander stayed open and the radio was incredibly heavy. My ruck was probably eighty, eighty five, ninety pounds every time we went, and we would do movements and, that were ten, twelve or more miles. Um, with M-16, radio, Kevlar helmets, so the gear was incredibly heavy. So um..
20:14 Trevan What were um what were the jobs like in, in service?
20:18 Gordon Um, I did a couple things when I first got over there. When I got to my unit I had, a , um, I was a riflemen in a , in a infantry squad, and so, I was, you’re, every day foot soldier we um, conducted ambushes, raids, anything like that. Um, at some point they moved me to be the platoon RTO. (phone rings in background) To carry the ah, the radio for the platoon, (rings again) and then I ended up doing it for the entire unit, for the company. So I did a couple of things. I ,um, was in charge of the ah, (rings) the night vision goggles for the unit which we had about two hundred of those so that took (rings) a few men.(answering machine plays) (gets up) ( silences noise)
21:06 Trevan Its, its okay.
21:13 Gordon (sits down) Sorry about that,
21:14 Trevan Its okay.. Um, what were some of the assignments you were assigned to do?( wife answers phone)
21:22 Gordon Um, the ah, (wife continues talking) the rifle, the squad men in the rifle team that was, ah, that was what I started out doing. (continues talking) I ended up doing the um, company commander’s radio which is where I spent most of my time. And that was great because I always enjoyed carrying the radio around, um, because there’s an old saying in the service, “there’s a lot of hurry up and wait” so you would get an order to move to a certain location and when you arrived there you would have to, have to stand by and at least when you had the radio you always knew what was going on and why it was happening. Um, so that was probably the best part of what I did.
22:03 Trevan Um, what was your M.O.S.? (clock chimes)
22:07 Gordon My M.O.S., my Military Occupational specialty was um, eleven bravo, eleven B, which was the um, M.O.S. for an infantry soldier.
22:20 Trevan And what kind of equipment were you using around the base or in missions?
22:24 Gordon Well, the nice thing was that um, unlike being in a, a, a tank, you know the tankers who drove M-1 Abrahms tanks for the tracks we had relatively little equipment. We had um, a Kevlar helmet, um, M-16 rifle, and my radio were primarily what I used when I went to the field a long with my rucksack that carried a change of clothes, a fresh uniform, and uh, ammunition and M.R.E.’s. So, that was pretty much what I carried to the field with me. Um, some of the other guys who were assigned to um, some of the crew served weapons like the M-60s. Um, one was a gunner one carried the bipod and the spare barrel so you had two people serving one piece of equipment. And then others would carry an M-249 Saw, which was the squad automatic weapon. And so each member of the squad had a slightly different piece of equipment. Um, but for me, my primary role was to carry that radio, and to make sure we always had communication between the elements.
23:36 Trevan What type of ammunition were you carrying in your rucksack?
23:39 Gordon Well depending on what weapon you carried, um, the M-60 machine gun, which has been around since the Vietnam War, if not earlier, shot, um, a, 7.62 millimeter belt-fed ammunition which was the stuff Rambo had wrapped around him.(gestures to shoulder around to side) That’s called a belt-fed ammunition. The M-16s carry, we carried 5.56 millimeter rounds in thirty round magazines. And we, we carried four of those. Um, The M-249 Saw was a 5.56 millimeter round. And they were drum fed. Um, so, we had some similar rounds, some similar ammunition, but a lot of times it was the mechanism that the weapon used to feed which was a little different whether it was belt-fed or.. Magazine-fed drum head. So..
24:35 Trevan Was there any uh, any time that you lost communication with your radio?
24:41 Gordon We did, um, it was interesting because when I was in, when I enlisted in 1990 we were still using these radios that literally came from the Vietnam-era and during my enlistment we transitioned to this newer form of radio that was encrypted so we could communicate secretly and the idea being that the mili.. The enemy couldn’t hear our transmissions. Um, and what this, this was a whole new technology to us, so there was a lot of learning going on while we were using its funny now because they’ve long since left that radio behind and they’re onto something new so um, yeah, there was, there was a lotta learning. A lot of times when we weren’t able to talk.
25:27 Trevan What were um, some activities or hobbies that you did in the free time on the base?
25:30 Gordon Oh boy, I loved going down to Waikiki and going to the beach, I loved going to the north shore, I mean, that was the best part of being stationed in Hawaii, is that you, you had these terrific recreational opportunities. Uh, we’d go swimming whenever we could, there were lots of great places to go running, um, go hiking in the mountains around Hawaii are unbelievable. Um, sight seeing, uh, I mean think about you being on a Hawaiian vacation and that’s what you’d want to do. Just the stuff we were able to do was a lot of fun.
26:06 Trevan Alright, I think that’s seven minutes… (End.)
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