I was a platoon sergeant in Vietnam from May 1967 through May 1968. I was Regular Army and had 8 years of active service before I arrived in Vietnam. I served in the same platoon during my entire tour. I was wounded with one week left in my tour and was medically retired as a result of my wounds.

I want to share some of my experiences with the members of this site. First, I want to affirm that the old adage of “a unit fights as it trains” is entirely true. My experience in Vietnam was that units that took shortcuts or otherwise neglected the fundamentals of tactics, patrolling, etc., almost always took higher casualties than units that routinely performed fundamental tasks well. Little things like ensuring that weapons are well maintained, radios have the correct frequencies set and the RTO has brought a spare mike and batteries, starlight scopes have new batteries in them, etc. These things often made the difference between life and death and it is the responsibility of the leaders, enlisted and officer, to ensure that they are taken care of.

I saw a lot of leaders in Vietnam who confused taking care of their men with being easy on them. I say that taking care of them means you train them and prepare them for the brutal reality of war while weeding out those who cannot hack it. Taking care of them is not seeing that they get hot chow or a shower every day to the point that it creates security issues in the field. Failure to conduct hard PT or conditioning hikes in training often resulted in units who could not move effectively and experienced heat casualties to the extent that the unit had to be evacuated from the field. Again, the leaders are responsible for ensuring that the unit is properly trained and this calls for strong leaders who care more about mission accomplishment and preserving their soldiers’ lives than they do about how popular they are with the men. Soldiers will always respect and obey leaders they know can get them through combat.

Supporting arms, specifically artillery and close air support, can literally save your unit from being decimated if used properly and at the right time. In my unit, it was SOP for all NCOs and officers to be fully qualified in the use of these assets and we practiced their use often. I can honesty say that most of the NCOs were as good as any of the officers were at actually calling for and adjusting mortars, arty and CAS. Some units in Vietnam did not stress NCO competence in these skills and relied on the officers to handle them. Fortunately, our commanders recognized the need for ALL leaders to be able to employ ALL weapons systems. I can think of several instances in which officers were killed or disabled and a Corporal or Sergeant got on the radio and called in supporting arms to great effect.

Individual discipline is a critical aspect of survival in combat. Tired men tend to take shortcuts or unnecessary risks that endanger the entire unit. Lighting a cigarette at night, falling asleep on an OP/LP and failing to maintain personal equipment and weapons are just a few examples of how one person can affect the entire unit in a negative way. I saw the best results when unit leaders established common sense rules and SOPs, explained them to the men and rigidly enforced them.

I think this site is a great resource for combat soldiers. I’ll be back soon to share more of my experiences and opinions.