Richard Stevens - Interview Transcript

Okay uh we’re interviewing Richard Stevens he was in the Vietnam War uh,

Good morning, everyone.

What were your family’s reactions before you left for war?

Uh well i don’t think they were too wild about it. I don’t know how much you know about Vietnam but it wasn’t a very popular war. So, although my father was a world war 2 veteran so you felt like you had to do your part. So, a few guys went to Canada. I don’t know if they were more patriotic or what. But it wasn’t a popular war so the family wasn’t very happy about it but there’s not much you could do it was either go to - I was drafted so you either went in the army, or wherever they sent you, or you went to jail. So, those were the alternatives.

(laughter)

How did you like where you were stationed?

It was nice. Originally I was in New Jersey for basic training and advanced training they called AIT and then I went to Germany. I was in Germany for the whole time. I didn’t go to Vietnam so, I was lucky in that respect.

Did the culture there impact you at all?

Hmm not really because you’re with your military group most of the time you interacted with the local rarely, when you did get out and leave around the German country side. I did go to Switzerland and Italy one time, I believe. And that was quite an experience.

So, for someone whose never been in war, like us, hah can you describe what it was like for you?

War?

Yeah.

Well, again I didn’t go to Vietnam. Not everyone went to Vietnam so uh it was a pretty tumultuous time it was- no war is good- and Vietnam was very unpopular especially for the guys that went there and came home they were looked upon as being patriots serving their country

.What’s the first thing you did when you came back?

(pause) Uh, what did I do? I’m not sure. It’s kinda of a blur. And it goes by so fast. Two years is just a blink of the eye when you, when you think about it. You know at the time you go “Wow, two years, wow, what am I gonna be doing here? Will I ever get home?” But uh, I don’t know. (pause)

After the two years, after you’re in for that long—again which isn’t a long period of time—but you’re, you’re, you’re just accustomed to everything and uh, you know the military way and uh, I guess I was surprised by the way people looked at you when you came back I you were in a uniform. Again, because Vietnam was unpopular. And even though I didn’t go, you’re in a uniform people look at you a little differently.

In a bad way?

Uh, a lotta people did because a lot of things happened in Vietnam that were very bad. Between drugs, and you know there were a lot of uh military actions that were, uh, a lot of innocent people were hurt. So…

Uhm (coughs) did you get to write to your family while you were in Germany?

Yes, I think Grandma has my letters! (laughs) Uh, yep, you could write all the time. We got, uh, mail service was very good. It would, it goes to uh a, or it would go to uh, if you were on the West coast it went to uh I think it was the uh…FPO it was called, something Post Office. And the East coast was APO. I don’t know what the designation was, but we had mail all the time. You’d get mail call, just like you’d see in the movies. You know they’d go out and call out your name and hand your letters. So that was good. But we didn’t have uh, didn’t have cell phones. I don’t think I ever called home. Not from Germany anyway.

(pause) Uhm (coughs), (pause) What were your biggest challenges after returning home?

Mmm, none really. I, I think I had uh, again with the discipline from being in I decided I did want to go to school. You know I applied for college and (pause) went back for a short period of time. Uh, (pause). No real challenges. Just getting your life back together, getting home, and get back into the civilian way of life.

Do you feel like you were rushed into growing up because of it?

huh?

Do you feel like you were like rushed into growing up because of it?

No. No. but it did make you grow up.

Were a lot of your friends from high school drafted along with you?

Quite a few. I didn’t end up with any of my friends we went to basic training together but that was it after basic training everybody went to different - they would give you your- after basic training - it was mostly physical. Building you up physically. Marching . Learning the ins and out of the military and after basic they would send you to advanced training. Which was when I went to signal school. Other people went to different schools. Medical school, armor, infantry. Depending on what they- they would- when you were in basic training they did determine what your best attributes would be and they would send you to where ever they thought would be best suited for the army or- in my case the army.

have you spoken to any of them since then?

Uh, I don’t think so. I did run in to someone on the beach in Welfleet, many years ago, that I was in the service with . I did try to write one person when I was stationed in Germany, he lived in New York but he never got back to me.

what kinds of things did you learn in the school where they sent you off to?

Uh telegraph, the Morse code ,I learned that. How to set up teletype machines, they were - we had - it was a called a, uh I guess I could say, it was a KW7. It was a unit. You would put in different codes - in when you would type something it would go into this machine and it would come out all garbled so the enemy wouldn’t be able to tell what you were typing. But over all I guess the Morse code was probably the most intense thing that I learned. But after training - never used it again. So you wonder- if you were in school for eight weeks learning the Morse code. But that was pretty interesting. I don’t know why they picked me for that because I’m not musically inclined.

so you were drafted. What kinds - er, what - what am I trying to say. Uhm what was drafting like, how did that work?

Uh, well when you’re eighteen you have to register with the draft, even now. There is no draft now, per say but in that time you had to register for the draft at 18 and they would just pick your birth date I guess. After I was drafted they had a lottery system. I don’t know exactly how it worked, but you were less likely to get drafted than when it had to do with your birth date, and they just sent you a letter saying, ‘Greetings, you have been selected’ and you had to report and take a physical and if you passed the physical you just had to do two years of active duty. It went very quickly though.

With the physical, were they strict or were they just sort of-

The physical? Uh no but I didn’t really have anything wrong with me. If you really wanted to get out and avoid the draft you could have a letter from a doctor and they would follow up. There were ways to avoid the draft other than going to Canada. But I didn’t have anything wrong and was healthy so I had to report.

What kind of drills did you go through in training?

Uhm what did we do. Well, A lot of marching. Firing a weapon. Different kinds of weapons. All the weapons you would use hand grenades, rifles, bayonets. Uh, let me see you had (10:00) to break down your weapons and be able to clean it, put it back together in a certain amount of time uh training for gas attacks uh military justice and drilling for just basic marching and we would have inspections all the time you’d have afoot locker where everything had to be in a specific place and spit shined your boots and it was very very regimented you had to look perfect all the time and if you didn’t you were called out and you would either get kp where you had to peel potatoes or uh night duty or night watch or something that wasn’t very palatable.

Okay we’re going to pause for a second.

Do you think that going into the service gave you the motivation to go to college, or do you think you would have anyway?

I think I would have anyway, eventually. I, it, it did give me that uh, opportunity. They had what is known as the G.I. Bill so that if you, if I went to school the government would pay for it.

So…I didn’t, I went back uh…what’d I do when I first got out…? I went back and took some refresher courses at uh, Newman Preparatory School in Boston, I don’t even know whether it’s still there. Uh, I did that for a while and then went to a community college in Newton, and, but I didn’t do that well. And, I was gonna transfer from this community college to a four-year school and my grades weren’t that great so I, I dropped it at that time. But I did go back later on and I ended up getting a, a four-year degree, so. I went to Cape Cod Community College nights for six years (laughs).

(laughs) (coughs) Uhm…

No, I didn’t go there for six years. I went there for four years and then I went to Boston for two. But I graduated with high-honors from both schools, so.

Uhm, (cough) (pause) How was life different when you got home from when you left?

Mmm, (pause) it wasn’t that different. Again I think I’d grown up a lot from…You know you’d meet friends that, who hadn’t been in the service and uh, see that they were still stuck in the same time as when you left and nothing had changed for them, where I had been away and gone to Europe and done a lot of travelling and…You meet a lot of different people when you’re in the service and…Uh, it wasn’t, wasn’t much of a transition to get back into civilian life.

Did you have a different outlook when you came back?

I think so, yeah.

Like a major difference?

Uh, yes. Again, just growing up. It changes your life. Uh, you’re away from home and you’re under the control of the uh military, the, the higher-ups and…You have to do what you’re told all the time, uh, or you pay the consequences. So yeah, it was a, it was a growing up experience that’s for sure.

Okay we’re gonna take another pause (laughs).

Okay (laughs). (Takes a drink)

(Coughs). (Pause). Okay, uhm, was there ever any fears that you had while you were in Germany, or, that like the war was gonna move or anything?

Uhm, no…Something happened in Europe while I was there. They had uh, I don’t know whether Russia was gonna invade Czechoslovakia, I think that’s what it was at the time. I forget it was 1968 or ‘69. So we had to mobilize...they would have what you call an alert, and they’d make everybody get ready for a war basically and we’d go out into the field and set up…and I think that was the only scare at the time, in Europe (pause) And I think that was it. Either Russia was gonna invade Czechoslovakia or, I’d have to go back and look at the history books. It was a long time ago (laughs).

Uhm, what kind of things did you have to do to prepare for war, or, get mobilized?

Uh, make sure you had all the supplies on the truck and all the equipment that you needed, uh, fuel in the vehicles, uh your weapons. (pause) Just make sure that everything, we’d be responsible for one truck, and make sure that everything you needed to go out and do your job was on the truck at the time. Taking inventory of everything. Be prepared pretty much, like the Boy Scouts.

How big were the groups of people that you had to be with?

Hmm, (pause) I think in my own vehicle or unit there must have been uh maybe six of us together. In that one particular unit. There’d be the deuce and a half truck and a smaller truck that when we would go out into the field we would all be in the…Uh I was in the 123^rd Signal Batallion and we were all members of that battalion, but my personal interaction would just be with six of… well six other people all the time.

Did all of you make it out, make it home safely?

Yes. Germany was pretty safe. (Laughs).

Uhm.

But a lot of good friendships, I’ll say that. That was one of the best things. A lot of uh, very good people from all over the country. It seemed like the people from the uh East coast and West coast would uh, make the best friendships for some reason. The people in the middle just, I don’t know, Oklahoma or Iowa just really…there were a few but it, it seemed kind of interesting at the time that most of the, the West coast guys and East coast guys hung out together.

Uhm (pause), if some, if your daughters, (laughs) uhm if any of us were going to join the war what would your feelings be on that?

Uh, I would hope you would—I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the military, again it’s, it has a, there are a lot of opportunities. But I think uh, it could be used, rather than fighting wars and killing people, there could be better uses for the military. More like a peace corps-type uh, organization rather than fighting. (Pause) Again, nothing’s gonna be solved with what’s going on, so.

But I wouldn’t, uh, I wouldn’t say anything negative about it if you wanted to join the service. There are again, there are a lot of opportunities. Uh, educationally, and travel-wise, and a lot of people make good careers out of the military.

When you hear someone talk about the war in Vietnam what’s the first thing you think of?

Uh, what the times were like then. It was just uh, a very different time in the country. A lot of you know, hippies uh, a lot of changes going on. Hippies, drugs, uh, free love; it was a, it was a (laughs) a very interesting time to grow up. And then the war, unfortunately. So…

Uhm, so, the war in Vietnam was all about money? Or…

Uh (pause). It was about power. I don’t know why we were there to begin with. They say it was for, uh, democracy, uh, saving you know, the people of Vietnam from communism (shakes head). Uh, some people don’t wanna be, live like we do, and some countries are, are best suited to have other types of uh, governments. This country is great; it’s the greatest country in the face of the Earth, but it may not be for everyone. So we can’t go and impose, although they say the, the Vietnamese may have wanted us there, but I don’t believe that’s true, it’s the… The average Vietnamese person was a rice farmer. He had, he could care less. He just wanted to be left alone and uh raise his family, and live. And we went in there and ruined the country, basically. And 50,000 uh U.S. kids got killed.

Was that a lot compared to other wars?

Yes, quite a bit (pause). Well I don’t know the statistics but I’ve heard them before. I, I don’t know whether it was even more than, it couldn’t have been more than World War II because that lasted for six years, so…I think the Civil War was the most costly war we’ve ever had as far as death.

Uhm

Did you have any say in what you wanted to do? Like did you choose to be someone who was with the telephone or could you have chosen to do something else?

Uh, as far as what I did in the service? No, uh, again you’d go to I think it was eight, six weeks of basic training and after that they would give you uh what is called a M.O.S., your Military Occupational Specialty. And through testing they would determine what you were best suited for. If I had joined, I might possibly have been able to pick something, but uh, they determined what you would do. And that was it. I don’t, (laughing) I would never have told them “Oh, I don’t want to do that”. Uh, I’d rather be a chef or a mechanic, or whatever, so… Again, when you’re 18, I don’t know how mature you guys will be at 18 but it’s, I was, I was probably immature too. Uh, and that factored into the way I reacted when I got drafted and how I did my tour. You just did what you were told, and that was it pretty much.

How did you react when you were drafted?

Uh, I was shocked at first. But again there was nothing you could do. The only alternatives were to you know go to Canada, or go to jail here. So… and again, my father, you know, you, you think you’re doing the right thing.

My father was in, again, in World War II and uh. You think you’re doing the right thing.

Were you scared at all?

Initially, until I found out where I was gonna be sent. You know, I did, I did not want to go to Vietnam that’s for sure. Again, those snakes in the jungle. (laughs)

So… uh. But I did, when, when we were stationed in Germany a lot of people they called, uh, what did they call it, you’d uh…Oh they rotate. You could only do a year of service in Vietnam, and then you had to leave. Uh, a lot of guys that I was stationed with in Germany had been in Vietnam for a year. And, but they had, they had joined the army, and they had joined for 3 years. So they, they would come to Germany, and a lot of them went back to Vietnam. Some of them liked being there.

There was a lot more freedom in Vietnam, uh, it wasn’t as spit-and-polish, and a lot of things were a lot looser than you were, than they were where we were stationed in Germany and other barracks around the…Cause we have barracks everywhere for army bases or navy bases or air force. They’re all over the world. So depending on where you are at the time uh, depends on how rigid the place is. They didn’t have a lot of inspections in Vietnam I’m sure, they were just trying to survive.

Would you prefer to have more freedom and be in danger, or be safer and have a stricter regimen?

Uh, I preferred being safe (laughs). Although, I don’t, you know again you have no, at the time you had no say in where they would send you. So, I don’t know why I got sent to Germany as opposed to Vietnam, but everybody didn’t go to Vietnam.

Were there other places that people went besides Germany and Vietnam?

Oh sure. Italy, France, uh England…some people never left the U.S., they’d get stationed here for their whole tour of duty. Because you need people to back up everybody else, so… It’s a big, big machine, lotta people.

Ohkay, well, I think we are done now, thank you.

(laughs) Thank you girls.