Randy Beal enlisted in the Marines when he was 17 years old in 1966. After initial training at MCRD, San Diego and the Infantry Training Regiment, he trained as an M50 Ontos mechanic at Camp Pendleton. Then he was sent to Camp Lejeune, where he put in for a transfer every week until he finally got his wish to deploy to Vietnam in 1967. He was assigned to B Co, 1/5 Marines. He remembers a lot of patrolling and firefights around Hoi An especially, but also north of Phu Bai, and near Bach Ma. He describes ambushes, calling in a Puff-the-Magic-Dragon C-130 gunship, blindness and powder burns from being shot in the head, grenade shrapnel wounds in his legs, medevacs, recovery time on the USS Repose (AH-16) and another time in Yokosuka, Japan. Sergeant Beal received three Purple Hearts on his first tour. He returned home, but “had two brothers die and another brother was getting drafted. And … Mom was going crazy, so I waived my disability and volunteered to go back to Vietnam so my little brother wouldn't have to go if he got drafted.” He spent his second tour with Mike Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, working with CUPP (Combined Units Pacification Program). He recalls receiving “a Marine Corps Achievement Medal with Combat V for the way I was able to bring the villages in our area together and protect their rice and everything.” He was also awarded a Navy Commendation with V for fighting off a force of 200 VC with only 12 Marines and 30 Popular Forces when their villages were attacked. He tells an intriguing story of the husband of a village chief’s 18-year-old daughter, who was found murdered one morning. The man turned out to be a VC operative. The case was never solved. In 1971, Beal returned for a third tour, now with the Army because the Marines Corps thought he had had enough. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division out of Bien Hoa, and remembers having to learn the hard way that the Army did things differently, particularly with regard to charging the enemy and taking prisoners. Sergeant Beal was medically retired in 1975.