"Generally, the days were pretty uneventful. But it happened frequently where something would erupt that wasn’t planned for. And then you’d have to drop all your other planned activities, and go over and support that. And we did that a lot."
Description of Interview:
Bill Schroder was 21 years old when he landed in South Vietnam on April 15th, 1969, after the Army drafted him in 1966, and after attending Basic and Advanced Infantry Training at Fort Ord, California, and Officer Candidate and Infantry Schools at Fort Benning, Georgia in 1967. He attended the Army flight schools at Fort Walters, Texas and Fort Rucker, Alabama, and eventually qualified as a CH-47 Chinook pilot. His living conditions at Phu Loi were relatively posh and he describes them in detail. He also paints a vivid picture of flying around South Vietnam and the various missions for which Chinooks were used, and he explains how his Chinook company was unique in that they predominantly supported allies rather than American units, i.e., Koreans, Australians, and Thais. They also had fire buckets to suppress fires. A self-proclaimed egalitarian, his support for the war waned after he had been there a few months. He missed his new bride and the daughter he didn’t meet until an R&R in Hawaii. His most vivid memories of the war are “the nighttime firefights and the nighttime flying duties.” He was divorced less than two years after his return from the war, and he says mild-PTSD symptoms have stayed with him through the years. His advice to future generations is “to look long and hard before granting a blind and fear-filled obedience to political leaders.”
Key Words: The draft; Advanced Infantry Training (AIT); Fort Ord; Officer Candidate School (OCS); Fort Benning, Fort Walters, Texas; TH-55 Osage; CH-47 Chinook; 90th Replacement Station in Bien Hoa; Phu Loi; hooches; Koreans (ROK); Australians (Aussies); Thailand (Thais); Pipesmoke; Tan An; Tay Ninh Province; Hooch Maid; officers efficiency report (OER); 174th Assault Helicopter Company (AHC); 187th AHC 3rd Platoon Guns (RatPack); “rocket central” or “artillery central”; automatic direction finder radio (ADF); Nui Dat; Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS); American Forces Vietnam Network (AFRN); Ho Chi Minh; post-traumatic strss disorder (PTSD).
Key Names: William Somerset “Willy” Maugham.
Unit:
205th Assault Support Helicopter Company, 11th Battalion, 12th Aviation Group
Specialty:
Pilot (CH-47 Chinook) Company S-3 (operations officer) and Group assistant S2 (intelligence officer)
Read the Complete Transcript of this Interview.