Thomas Redich

Question 1 Where did you go to school? What was your experience there?

I was a highschool graduate and I attend 2 years of college at Washington Jefferson college.

Question 2: Were you drafted or did you volunteer?

I was drafted.

Question 3: What was your response when you were drafted/why did you volunteer?

My response was “oh man I can’t believe it” It was such a surprise I was hoping it wouldn't happen but it did. I was attending school and I dropped out for a semester. I just didn’t know which way I wanted to go with my education. So I dropped out and when I dropped out I lost my 4 year deferment, that’s why I was drafted.

Question 4: What were you doing before you went to vietnam?

I was working in a factory near the Pittsburgh area. I didn’t have any plans, that was my problem. I didn’t know which way my future should go and that's why I dropped out of school

Question 5: What was your job in the army and how long were you deployed?

My job in the army was an infantry man attached with an intelligence unit so my job was infantry intelligence. And when I was in vietnam I was assigned to a reconnaissance platoon. Liam asked: Where are you in the same platoon as Alan Krause? Yeah, a long time ago. We both had the same job. He’s talked to a few of the guys about the class presentations he does and how smart you guys are. I’m glad you guys are interested in this.

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

I got along with most of them, there were a couple unusual guys in our platoon that I kinda stayed away from. They were usually career guys in the army, so like soldiers of fortune. They were a little bit older and it was their second, third, or fourth time in Vietnam. They liked being in a warzone, so their discipline was more lax. You have this idea of an infantryman being in danger all the time. But that’s not necessarily the case there was a lot of downtime and a lot of time just laying on the ground waiting for something to happen. That kind of atmosphere kinda fueled these guys. So some of them I was careful with so I stayed away from them. Between us, they didn’t seem like the smartest guys in our platoon. Liam asked: How many people in your platoon were drafted and how many volunteered? I would say it was around 60% drafted and 40% volunteer.

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

Yeah I was very excited and everybody there that was all we talked about was going home, once we got there it was such a dismal situation that all we thought about was geez when can I get out of here. And how the hell did I end up here? And how soon can I leave? Hearing I was going home was great news. I had a countdown calendar, everyone did. Some days you wouldn’t know what day it was, when you were in the jungle you wouldn’t know if it was monday or friday. Every day was just like the next. I got there was a guy in our platoon who was named Lloyd from southern California and he said to me “you know what Christmas is like here?” And I said “no what’s it like?” And he said “just like the next” Every day was the same. It didn't matter if it was Christmas or Thanksgiving it was exactly the same. Liam asked: Did you write home? Not as much as I should have. My mom wrote to me every week or so. I tried to get a letter off once or week but we weren’t always in a situation where we could write a letter. Sometimes in really wet condition with no shelter, so it really wasn’t a situation where you could get a pen and paper and jot down a letter. We were dirty and muddy quite a bit.

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

I felt like I had been dropped into a different world when I came home. It felt like in the 1960s and the early 70s the country changed at lightning speed. There was the women's right movement, there was a civil rights movement, and there was a lot of civil unrest about the war. Half the country was against the war and half was in favor of the war. The country really went through a lot of change, the music was changing, the amount of people who were smoking pot was changing, dress code were changing, and attitudes just changed so much so it felt like I had been dropped in a completely different country. So I felt a little uneasy for quite awhile. Back home a lot of veterans weren’t received well, and a lot of people hated the war. They thought anyone associated had done so voluntarily, people didn’t understand that I didn’t choose to go. We were really looked down upon and we were losing the war. Older veteran also looked down upon us because we sorta dropped the ball.

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

It was hard for all the reasons I just mentioned it took me a while. Yeah it was hard. We’ve had a couple reunions with the guys from my company. It seemed like the guys who came back to wives and kids adjusted better. When I came back I really had no routine. I was really looking for something to do and it took me a while to get my life back together. I went back to school part time and I went to school part time and the GI bill helped pay for my college. My parents couldn’t help me anymore because when I initially went to college they had paid for it but after I quit, they weren’t going to do that anymore so I was kinda on my own. I eventually got a job railroad area inside a steel mill and went to school at the University of Pittsburgh.

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

I guess it opened my eyes, the war opened my eyes to things that I would’ve never thought about. You see things in a war, you see people displaced by war their lives affected, you see people killed. It makes you think that life is precious and fleeting that anything can happen. And that life is something to be cherished. And that governments aren’t always right, you shouldn’t blindly trust the government, and you should try to find out the truth about what you government is actually doing.

Question 12: Have you ever gone back?

I thought about it but I don’t think I want to. I'm not comfortable with what our country did there, and I don’t think I would be a welcome guest. I would feel uncomfortable about going there. Although I do support a charitable organization that supports young kids there. I wholeheartedly support them through the year, I wish them all the well. But I really don’t want to go back.