"You could never ask for better guys. They would give you the last drop of water, their last cigarette. If you didn't have one, they'd share it. They'd break it in half and give you half of the last cigarette. And they would give you half of their canteen if yours happened to be gone. And the food was the same way. It split everything right down the middle."
Description of Interview:
In 1968, John Wheeler got his draft notice. Rather than be inducted into the Army, he volunteered for the Marine Corps on a two-year enlistment. He did ITR (Infantry Training Regiment) at San Diego, and then the more advanced BITS (Basic Infantry Training School) at Camp Pendleton. He deployed to Vietnam that same year, where he was assigned to B Co, 1/5 Marines at An Hoa. He describes suffering for four weeks from foot cellulitis in the regimental rear while his sergeant and lieutenant were both killed on Go Noi Island. He recalls later getting shot in the shoulder in Arizona Territory trying to save a fellow Marine and being medevacked to Da Nang and then Guam for six weeks before returning to Vietnam: “I came back … went back to the company. They were on the same operation. They had never come in. … And so I'm back within a klick of where I got shot. We were still doing the same thing. … They were still shooting at us.”
Key Words: ITR, Infantry Training Regiment, BITS, Basic Infantry Training School, Camp Pendleton, Da Nang, An Hoa, Liberty Bridge, Arizona Territory, Go Noi Island, Seabees, AmTracs
Key Names: Sergeant David J. Ulmer, Lieutenant Hayes, Private First Class Quick
Unit:
Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division
Read the Complete Transcript of this Interview.