Neal Morgan

I went to Oak Park High School. I started at the University of Illinois which at the time was at Navy Pier but I never really got through college. I have dyslexia and it affects my ability to read, I could never get all the information I needed to be successful in school. So I dropped and that’s why you are speaking with me because I went to Vietnam.

Question 3: Were you drafted or did you volunteer?

I was drafted but when I was drafted for the first time they sent me a disregard notice a few days later. I didn’t know it at the time but my mother was calling every politician and anyone who could help get me out of being drafted. I didn’t know that at the time. I kinda looked at it as going into an adventure, so I didn’t fight it. I called the draft board and told them I didn’t have a deferment and I was eligible. Then I got another draft notice and then another disregard notice. Then on the third draft notice I went in on. I told my mom I didn’t understand what was going on and I would go in if I had to. I didn’t have any problems serving my country and that I had a duty to do so.

Question 5: What were you doing before you went to vietnam?

I was working several part-time jobs and going to school at night.

Question 6: What was your job in the army and how long were you deployed?

I went over to Vietnam in October of 67’ and I came home in November 68’ when I went over I had been trained as a combat engineer. Which means I would be the guy who builds the buildings and road and who can fight. But when I arrived they pulled me off the front line and stuck me in an office because I had some accounting experience back in college. I was very lucky. Liam asked: Was that in battalion headquarters in Saigon or where was that? It was called Dĩ An and to my parents' dying day they always called it Diane. It was about 19 miles northeast of Saigon

Question 7: Did you get along with your fellow soldiers and did you stay in touch later?

I didn’t keep in touch with them and I have always regretted that. I have tried to look them up since but without any success. I got along just fine with those I worked with. I didn’t pal around with people from other departments. Liam asked: Were the other office workers also soldiers? When I was there they were short staffed. We were working 12 hours days, we would get there at 8 and leave at 8. It was nice working conditions. You were sitting in a nice chair with ceiling fans and it was in a screen room so there were few mosquitoes. The work was pretty easy to do. It was very simple math, I think any grade school student could’ve done was what I was doing.

Question 8: Were you excited when you heard you were going home?

I think everyone I knew in Vietnam could tell you how many days and how many hours they had left in Vietnam. When I became officially a short timer which meant I had 30 days left I became paranoid that something would happen. I extended for 46 days shortly before I could’ve gone home. If you have less than 5 months left in your service then you wouldn’t have to go to a service post or a base back in the states after. Liam asked: Was that called the early out program? Yes, a lot of people I worked with did the same thing. Liam asked: If you hadn’t done that what would you have to do back home? I would’ve been assigned to a stateside base or done the same thing I would’ve done overseas. I had enough with the army at that point.

Question 9: What was it like when you came home and did you feel supported?

When I came home I came home to a different world. When I left there were some people protesting the Vietnam war. When I came home everyone hated the war and hated the soldiers in the war. When I got to the airport at O’Hare someone spat at me. If my parents and brother hadn’t held me back I would’ve jumped him. It was a different place and I didn’t recognize it. Nobody cared about what the soldiers or veterans had done. They all thought we were baby killers. I worked in an office, I didn’t kill any babies I promise you.

Question 10: Was it hard to adjust back to normal life? And what did you do in the years after the war?

After the war I became a salesman. I did that for 40 years. I loved that. I loved traveling and seeing people, I have been all over the country but seen very few of the sights. I did write a book called Shot at and Missed. It was a story about my time over there and what I went through and whole, the process worked. It was interesting, I know a lot of people liked it, but I am certainly not getting rich off of book sales.

Question 11: What’s one way your life was changed by the war that you wouldn’t have thought of.

It really made me focus on what was important, I lived a sub-standard existence in Vietnam. Even though I had it easier than some other soldiers. When I got home I appreciated everything, you could go up to a water tap and get hot water, you didn’t have to be worried about being shot at. I was just really grateful to be home and I was really confused with the attitudes of so many other Americans.

Question 12: Have you ever gone back?

No, I would never go back. Thanksgiving of 1968 was the 5th anniversary of me coming back, I got up at the table and said how grateful I was to have made it back and not been hurt. Two months later I was diagnosed with a cancer that is caused by Agent Orange. It is in everything over there, that thing is insidious. It gets into the water and is still there even today. It has five generations in the water. Even today you don’t hear anything about that. I wouldn’t walk in that country for any sum of money. It is a terrible place. It took 50 years for Agent Orange to affect my life. But when I did it hadn't stopped yet. I am remission but I had a host of other issues caused by it. I wouldn’t eat a can of tuna that is made in Vietnam. It's scary but nobody ever talks about it. When I first came home I came down with a terrible lung problem. Then I had to have lung surgery. I blamed it on Agent Orange but the VA and the doctors said it couldn’t be. Now they have a long list of diseases that the army accepts responsibility for being caused by Agent Orange. I have Multiple Myeloma. It's the cancer of the plasma and it makes your bones brittle and broken. I am thankful for my doctor and thank god for my wife.

Additional response

During our interview I think I pretty much left you with the impression I only worked in an office. Although my primary responsibilities were those of a finance clerk, I did a lot of other things. During my tour the North Vietnamese Tet Offensive took place at the end of January in 1968 which was a country wide attack. After that I spent every third night on guard duty and on occasion made perimeter sweeps beyond our outer wire, one of which I was engaged in a fire fight with the enemy. I was shot at three other times that I know of, once while on guard duty, another time simply walking to the PX, and the other while acting as the door gunner on a chopper run to another base camp. I honestly do not think my experiences were particularly exceptional or unique, but they were the impetus for me to write my book. I firmly believe if you were stationed in Vietnam during the Vietnam War Era, regardless of where you were stationed or what you were doing, you were most assuredly in harm’s way.

Because of my cancer the Veterans Administration has awarded me with a disability rating of 100%. I was very lucky, it took 50 years for me to become sick. By the end of the war the number of severely injured and disabled veterans matched those killed in action; and many more suffered partial disabilities for the rest of their lives. Believe me there are so many others that have suffered much more than I ever have.