Vietnam War Veteran
Craig Field

Interviewed by:

Emily Schiffenhaus and Ashley McGrath

"If this country's being threatened in any way, I would go in a minute,
I wouldn't think twice about it."
~ Craig Field (21:42)

Craig Field's Story:

Devoting part of his life to defend the United States in the Vietnam War, Craig Field became one of the many heroes of our nation. Born in 1947, Craig grew up in Detroit with two brothers, a sister, his mother, and his father, who served in World War II. Craig enlisted in the United States Army at only 17 years old, and arrived in Vietnam when he was 18, in 1967. Craig’s father was his biggest influence on his decision to join the military, while his mother was completely against it. When Craig first enlisted, he was enthusiastic but was not fully aware of what his experience was going to be like in Vietnam.

After Basic and Advanced Individual Training for four months, Craig's training time was cut short and from there, he was sent to Vietnam. Craig went to school to train to be a nuclear technician after his basic training, but four months into school, the military informed him that he couldn't pursue that job since he was colorblind. He arrived in Vietnam as a heavy equipment operator, which is working with bulldozers, bucket loaders and other heavy machinery, but while Craig was there, he transferred over to a demolitions expert, which is mine sweeping and blowing things up. Some of Craigs missions were something called Search and Destroy.This is where the military leaders would drop him and his team into the jungle and they would go around for a couple weeks and would look for enemies or their base camps. Sometimes during the search and destroy missions, they would get into firefights which could last anywhere from 15 minutes to 24 hours. The firefights that he was in were intense and sporadic, ending with air support coming to drop bombs on the enemies. His main mission was to find the enemies base camps and destroy them, to keep the enemies on the run.

After Craig completed his service in the military, he was really excited to see his family again. Although he was happy to fight for our nation, the military had a negative impact on him and many other veterans. Coming home from war was difficult for a lot of the soldiers that served in Vietnam because they weren't accepted or appreciated for risking their lives to defend our country. Like many of the other war veterans, Craig was withdrawn and had a negative outlook on his experiences at war. It took him about 10 to 15 years before breaking out of the mold that he was in. It was hard for the Vietnam veterans to come home and not be recognized for their service to the U.S. Eventually, Craig along with veterans got tired of not being appreciated. They started forming their own organizations to help make it better for future soldiers when they come home from war.

It took a while for the military to become a positive experience for Craig. The main thing that he took away from war was the camaraderie, the relationship he formed with the other soldiers, becoming friends for life. So, all in all he had a positive experience in the military. If this country was being threatened in any way, Craig would go back to war without hesitation.