Life to the Max Podcast
"Vietnam War Stories" Ft Ted Biever
Did you ever wonder what it takes to survive a war? Experiences that leave scars, yet foster unbreakable friendships, and tales of bravery that can't be forgotten. Join us in our recent conversation with Vietnam War veteran Ted Biever, as he walks us through the gripping chapters of his life in the military. From the stringent discipline of boot camp, navigating through lethal attacks, to the dramatic changes he noticed in the military, Ted's journey is a testament to the courage and endurance of our brave servicemen.
Our conversation with Ted is not just a retelling of war times, but also a reflection on heroism, camaraderie, and survival. Listen to how he became an A-gunner, his encounter with personal demons while navigating through the traps of Vietnam, and how he lived to tell the tales. Discover the story behind his miraculous survival after being injured, the importance of honoring those who served, and his intriguing recount of teaching English to a Korean Marine using a Playboy magazine.
This episode is a salute to the courage of our veterans and the indomitable spirit of survival. Join us, as we ride along in Ted's American flag-emblazoned vehicle, honoring the brave hearts who remain timeless heroes of our nation.
Did you ever wonder what it takes to survive a war? Experiences that leave scars, yet foster unbreakable friendships, and tales of bravery that can't be forgotten. Join us in our recent conversation with Vietnam War veteran Ted Biever, as he walks us through the gripping chapters of his life in the military. From the stringent discipline of boot camp, navigating through lethal attacks, to the dramatic changes he noticed in the military, Ted's journey is a testament to the courage and endurance of our brave servicemen.
Our conversation with Ted is not just a retelling of war times, but also a reflection on heroism, camaraderie, and survival. Listen to how he became an A-gunner, his encounter with personal demons while navigating through the traps of Vietnam, and how he lived to tell the tales. Discover the story behind his miraculous survival after being injured, the importance of honoring those who served, and his intriguing recount of teaching English to a Korean Marine using a Playboy magazine.
This episode is a salute to the courage of our veterans and the indomitable spirit of survival. Join us, as we ride along in Ted's American flag-emblazoned vehicle, honoring the brave hearts who remain timeless heroes of our nation.
So we're in this bunker and also we heard the artillery coming in. So we all got in the bunker, you know, got down. I want to see one of these fuckers, you know what. That's gotta be cool, you know. So I'm standing up looking out the bunker, in this rock it's coming. All of a sudden it blows up and shwing got there, a piece of shrapnel like that comes flying right by my ear and stuck in the wood in the bunker. But I would have been over a couple inches, I would have lost my face.
Speaker 3:Welcome back to another episode of life to the max. Look at the quad father. You know you can't even tell he just pulled an all nighter, maybe a one hour nap before Ted got here. You know he was just so nervous anticipating this interview. He was so excited he couldn't go to sleep. We're gonna get right in the Ted's interview right after the intro.
Speaker 2:If anybody's going through something bad right now, anybody's going through something that's where they feel like they're not worthy, like, just remember you are. A lot of things have happened in my life. I've had a shitty guard dealt to me, but you know I'm so persevering and moving on. So can you. So I, analyzed from a neck down, read through a machine, but that doesn't stop me from following my dreams, to doing what I love to do. I don't have any excuse on how they should do. Let's get into this episode. You fucking grudge. I'm proud of it.
Speaker 3:We don't. We don't get many, many other soldiers on the show, so, max, is definitely excited.
Speaker 1:I'm not a soldier.
Speaker 3:You're a veteran.
Speaker 1:I'm a.
Speaker 3:Marine, all right, soldiers Army. Okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 1:I stand corrected.
Speaker 2:I know nothing. I need you to educate me.
Speaker 3:I need you and Max to educate me. I'm just the average Joe.
Speaker 1:He's a soldier no no soldiers are Army man. You know that, max.
Speaker 2:You know what?
Speaker 3:You're a devil dog there you go.
Speaker 2:You're a devil dog. You're the few that you know. The Marines are called the few and the proud, just because you're fucking a stretcher.
Speaker 3:That's what happens when you don't sleep, max you miss the punch lines.
Speaker 2:I know, come on, try again.
Speaker 3:People want to hear it. No I can't Well, ted, introduce yourself to me and the people. I've only seen you around a couple parties. I noticed you driving up in an American flag ramp to vehicle.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that my vehicle. It's the side of it's got a section of Vietnam wall. And the day I got hit over there, september 26th, I got seven of my men were killed and their names are all in bold on there. Then I got the PLW flag on there for my dad. He was a PLW World War two.
Speaker 3:So you got the people that you served. With that, you lost on your awesome I like that Some of them. It's more than just a decoration.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's. You know, I had it on my first car. I had the wall on there and when I bought the second car I felt guilty. You know, I go up to grab the car handle, get in the car and I didn't see the guys on and I felt guilty, man, nice, weird.
Speaker 3:So I did it again. Oh man, so so getting this, rap it, you don't feel guilty anymore?
Speaker 1:No, I don't know, I don't know, it makes me feel good, exactly Nice.
Speaker 3:Think of them every day. I like that. I consider to that I like that.
Speaker 2:It's truly awesome of you to let their legend live on, even though it was a shitty war.
Speaker 3:Yeah, tell us a little about Vietnam.
Speaker 1:Oh, I don't know what you want to know about it. It was hot the women, the women. Never touched them. I was, we were trained in boot camp Hate, the Vietnamese, the gooks, and I never touched them. I'd rather shoot them.
Speaker 2:It's a glove, turkey.
Speaker 3:Yeah, be truthful in life to the next. That's what it's about.
Speaker 2:So when did you join the military? When did you join the Marine Corps?
Speaker 1:I went in December 19th 66.
Speaker 2:So that's like towards the end of Vietnam. Right Vietnam ended in like 70s.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 74.
Speaker 2:74 with the next one. Yeah, so what were you? And you didn't get drafted. You said there was a lot of people who got drafted right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I went in when I was 17. I had a little problem in high school. I was asked to leave early. So what the heck? I was going to go on Marines when I graduated, so I just went in early.
Speaker 2:So why the Marines? What about the army?
Speaker 1:The best.
Speaker 2:Screaming Eagles.
Speaker 1:The best, nothing but the best. I wanted to go to NAMM and fight and I wanted the best train I could get.
Speaker 3:So I wanted the Marines when people got drafted. Could you tell the difference between the?
Speaker 2:people that, yeah, I was literally just about there On the same level.
Speaker 3:Could you tell the difference between the people that want wanting to be in the military and the people that are forced to be in the military? Because I would imagine if a bunch of people got drafted were forced to go in the military, then you'd be fighting alongside a bunch of cowards that really didn't want to do it.
Speaker 1:You know that's a good question. I don't know. I know when I was in NAMM we ran into one of the guys and I don't know if he was drafted or not, but he was he was a coward, I guess.
Speaker 3:when, when shit hits the fan, you know you got to do what you got to do, yeah.
Speaker 2:What about boot camp? Like you know, were there any people that you can tell, or you got drafted.
Speaker 1:No, not really.
Speaker 2:Really. Well, I thought there would be. I thought there would be like some like pompous bitch, just like sitting around, like saying why, am I doing this?
Speaker 3:I think, that'll be the case if we got drafted today, I think these generations, but I think back then everybody was pretty much on the same page, like we're fighting for our country.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, our parents all did it and we felt that that was our obligation to go on when this war broke out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like in world war in history and world war two, when we ended the war in world war two there were people coming home and kissing in New York City random girls when people came home from.
Speaker 3:Vietnam and the random girls are kissing back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and when people came home from Vietnam, they were spending on soldiers. Do you know that?
Speaker 3:No, I thought you were talking about the same thing. Coming home from.
Speaker 2:Vietnam. No, it was a whole different side. You don't, you don't know about.
Speaker 3:Kent State.
Speaker 2:I don't know anything, I'm just you don't know about the tell me about it. I mean I don't know much. I mean I know I know the history of it, kent State University, that they were doing a protest on the Vietnam war and like, I guess, like a few people got shot.
Speaker 1:On your hippies.
Speaker 2:On your hippies. Yeah, like they were basically saying like make love, not war, you know. And then it was at Kent State University and they were, they were saying they were. They were like it's sort of like saluting soldiers and saying thank you for your service. They were like spinning on it and stuff I didn't.
Speaker 3:I didn't pay attention too much in my history class but I did watch for his gump.
Speaker 2:The Vietnam war is very controversial, especially because of the way it out happened. Oh yeah, because JFK dies right. So JFK dies in 1963. Okay, the war. The war is like brewing in 1961, I believe.
Speaker 2:Right so the reason why we invaded Vietnam is because of the Gulf of Tonk and resolution, which is where there's this conspiracy that a Vietnamese ship shot down an American ship and that was an act of war and that's why we went to Vietnam. And it was because of Lyndon Johnson. Lyndon Johnson was JFK's VP, vice president, and then, when JFK died, lyndon Johnson took over and all of a sudden there was a draft and all these Americans were going to Vietnam.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I heard that that conspiracy about that Gulf of Tonk, that it wasn't Vietnamese that shot that.
Speaker 2:I don't know why he wanted to go to war. Why, well, it's because of the Truman doctrine. The Truman doctrine is we will not let other countries fall to communism.
Speaker 1:They started that war because of the money they made on it. There are a lot of politicians that made buku money on that war.
Speaker 2:Well, 100%, I agree, war makes money, especially if you're the person making the money. But so JFK was focused on the space race. He wasn't focused on, you know. But Lyndon Johnson was focused on the Truman doctrine, which basically was we won't let other countries fall to communism. Hence like going to Korea in 51-53. We did that because we didn't want them. We didn't want South Korea to fall to communism from.
Speaker 2:North Korea from the, the North Vietnamese army and the Viet Cong. You know, when you guys were over there, because it wasn't fair, when you were over there, because you had you had people in uniforms and then you had people that were regulars, that could be the Viet Cong, so you could get ambushed by people there being nice to you.
Speaker 1:It was.
Speaker 2:It's fucked up, like with the things I've read about Vietnam, where it just makes me so angry because there's like I mean like, yeah, you got an experience and stuff, but it was a war that we shouldn't have done and it's just like the Korean War. So like the Korean War is always looked at as the forgotten war, right, no one talks about Korea.
Speaker 1:And that was a hell of a war too. It was a hell of a war?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was and it's still a war, but it's still going. They just stopped. There's a ceasefire. I mean the war is still going on Korea. There's a ceasefire. That's why there's demilitarized, that's like the most guarded place in the world.
Speaker 3:Really.
Speaker 2:Yeah, max knows his history.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sounds like it.
Speaker 2:So when you went and saw you join the Marine Corps, did you join for three?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, you know, I got out of boot camp and they sent me to the air wing and I hated it. My instructor was a sergeant and I kept telling him. I says you know, I hate this shit. I says I'm going to be on a boat with a bunch of squids. I says I joined Vietnam to go over to Naman fight. I want to be a grunt. And he told me he says if you go to Vietnam, I'll see you back here in the hospital someday, because that was, you know, they only had two big hospitals down there in Memphis, tennessee and Great Lakes. So anyways, I had a week to go and graduate and I would have went to a squadron.
Speaker 1:I found out guys that were flunking out of school were getting sent to Lijun for the grunts. So you flunked, no brainer, I flunked, and you know this is a God's truth. After I got blown away, I was back in a hospital in Memphis and I ran into that sergeant. He was a staff sergeant. I said, hey, staff sir, do you remember me? He says yeah, you're beer, I remember you. I told you I'd see you back here.
Speaker 1:That's hilarious yeah.
Speaker 2:So bootcamp now is considered like mediocre in the United States. In my defense, like and I was just wondering like, what was bootcamp like back then when going into Vietnam? Like what was the protocols where drill sergeants allowed to hit drill instructors? I'm sorry, that's what Marine Corps people call the eyes. Yeah, yeah, I got it right. Were they allowed to like hit soldiers, like where was it long days? Did you guys rock a lot? Did you bleeding, like your boots? Were they bleeding?
Speaker 1:No, they, you know they were legally back then. They weren't allowed to hit you either. You know when I went in 66. But they weren't supposed to hit you because we had this one D I come up and he'd start yelling in your face. Then he'd stop. He looked to his left and look to his right. We knew we're going to get nailed Because he was looking to see if they're running officers around. You know, but they beat the hell out of us. Every day we get hit for something.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, that's crazy because I mean, it's not allowed and right now, I don't know if you know this, but the army is paying for a person to, if they wanted, transition into a man or a woman, and they're paying for them and they don't have to deploy.
Speaker 1:You know, Trump stopped that shit. He stopped that, but I don't know it. It must have came back again because the Navy's got one of them transvestite or whatever is a poster on a poster.
Speaker 2:You believe that? No, that's unreal.
Speaker 3:People don't believe me.
Speaker 1:Yeah Wow, people don't believe me when I tell them that, but it's, it's the truth.
Speaker 2:No, I believe you because I mean, like when I was, when I was in, I mean I saw a few guys you know in the military and like I mean, like I didn't get to like the transfer to see any of that, but I we didn't get to the point where like people could make, like people can make a complaint and it could be a false complaint and they could get someone that has worked their hearts out and like blood, sweat and tears throughout the military and get them kicked out without retirement just by filing a filing a sexual harassment charge, sexual harassment awareness responsive program, like it's insane.
Speaker 2:That's why, that's why Colonel Smith got out.
Speaker 1:That's wrong.
Speaker 2:The Army changed, you know.
Speaker 1:I, oh, when I, when I was working with the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs, I had a lot of guys that come to my office and have been in for six, eight, 10, 12 years and they get out, I was like why the hell did you get out after that much time? And, you know, just couldn't take all the BS they were putting out. Now, you know, as far as the gays and all that stuff, I never saw any of them in the military, in the Marines. I never, I never knew they were in there. I mean, when I was stationed down in Memphis they had, you know, it was a Navy base and there was a girl on that base. She was a squid and she was dropped at gorgeous, prettiest girl on the base and everybody said she was gay. Man, you gotta be kidding me, but I never ran across that one. I was in.
Speaker 1:I mean, yeah, it's different times, but now like now now the military is proud of it.
Speaker 2:The others they're. They're basically promoting it, which is wrong, because I'm not saying it's wrong because, like the person's gay or straight or whatever. I'm saying it's wrong because you're there to do a mission.
Speaker 1:You're there to do a job.
Speaker 2:You're there to serve our country, to make sure we're safe. That's all reason. So I brought that up because back I mean back then, like that was like all frowned upon and stuff you know I just wanted to like see, like your boot camp experience. You know it was 16 weeks.
Speaker 1:Yeah and right. When I went in the, the group of guys that came in right after I went in, they graduated before we did because they cut the boot camp down, because they needed the guys over and not so it was like 14 weeks that was.
Speaker 2:That was kind of scary because you wouldn't know, like the protocols maybe have a radio or something like RTO, like your RTO. Maybe you fuck up during, like you know, patrol. I mean I don't know. I mean we still do a Nalgir 1 Alpha, which is the the Vietnam basically. It's basically the Vietnam Nalgir. It's where you, you, you, fire your machine gun. That's that's the hot minute with the machine gun. And then after that, alpha, alpha, yeah, Alpha Squad, which starts shooting, shooting, shooting, and then they would do a ceasefire. There would be a flank on the right or the left and that would be Bravo Squad and they would do that. And then they would do a, a lease to see you know liquid and casualties and you know equipment after, after the, and then they had to, you had to like, burn, like all the weapons to right, is that? Is that true?
Speaker 1:Burn them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Like their weapons. You weren't like you know hell.
Speaker 1:No, we didn't burn them.
Speaker 2:That's what we we have to do now.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so so you get, you get deployed to Vietnam. What year? What year is?
Speaker 1:this 68.
Speaker 2:68. Okay, so you joined in 66. It takes two years for you to get to the top.
Speaker 1:Well, I was. I was, you know, 67. I was in boot camp because you know, I went in 66 a week before Christmas. I was in boot camp at 67. I went on a. I was down in Memphis for a while and got kicked out of there. So I went to a LeJune and I was in a weapons platoon in 106. And I went on a cruise and all the guys on the cruise they'd all been a career or a nom, they're all old salts, you know. And then after the cruise was over with I was 18. So I got orders for nom, so I went to the Vance Infantry training again, you know and and got shipped over, not when you went through the advanced infantry training, was that at a fourth bulk?
Speaker 1:No, no, it was a hill down Pendleton. No down Pendleton.
Speaker 2:Where's Pendleton?
Speaker 1:Camp Pendleton in California.
Speaker 2:California, it was still okay.
Speaker 1:When I was on the cruise, I went through a jungle warfare school that the army ran.
Speaker 2:You're welcome, that was pretty cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's funny, man, and I've got a picture of it too. They had the the green ray were running, they were all the instructors, you know, and they had this one guy standing there telling them had a snake. You know he's talking to us, telling us how you know, if you ever get bit by a snake, don't jerk your hand back because as fangs going this way and it'll rip your hand apart. Sucker got bit. But I enjoyed that. That was a lot of fun. I learned a lot there, okay.
Speaker 2:It's so made of that you deploy when, where do you go?
Speaker 1:South California went to Hawaii. We stopped there. Something was wrong with the plane. We were on a tiger airlines plane. Something was wrong with the plane. So we're, uh, got laid over for about an hour or so there, couldn't leave the the airport. You know, we're all right there in the lounge. And then we left there and landed in the name and, looking out the windows, you see all these Vietnamese run around and tell what the fuck? There's a goose. I don't even have a weapon, man, I didn't realize it, you know.
Speaker 1:But, uh, we got off the plane, went into this big hangar. There was a gunnery star, a sergeant, stand up on his table. He says all right, where does everybody want to go? Me like an idiot. I want to go where the action is. You're going to three nine, all right. So we spent the night there and next day myself, another guy, got on a six by and they took us up to quandary where our rear was, and we're staying outside the CEO's office listening to this guy tell them how they just got an ambush. You lost half the platoon. Holy fuck, what am I doing here?
Speaker 3:That's the action. Oh man, that's the action.
Speaker 1:So we got on a chopper, got our you know, our weapons and everything got on a chopper and it went to uh, uh, where is it? Where we weren't supposed to be? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:We weren't supposed to have been in Laos and that's where they took us. Chopper took us to drop this off there, on top of this hill, it's raining out, we were on the trees around and we took our ponchos on and put on a weapon. All of a sudden, this guy comes climbing up the hill. He says take that poncho off, that weapon, the rain ain't going to hurt it. And it was our squad. We started there and we did nothing but hump all day long.
Speaker 1:I'm telling you, the first night I drank all my water right away in my canteens and got sick. And then, uh, my squire told me I didn't have to have watch that night because, you know, I had a bad fever and stuff. I got sick because I drank all my water Interesting. So he told me I didn't have to stay up and have watch that night. Well, one the guys in the hole fell asleep and Right before that this one guy, miller, one of his good buddies, got killed by a gook because somebody was sleeping on watch, you know, and they cut his throat and he thought it was me. So him and I started getting in a fight and then the squire broke it up right away. Well, later on. It turned out good he was, good buddy he was. He was from LA lower Alabama.
Speaker 3:The guy that fell asleep and got it.
Speaker 1:No, no, the guy that accused me of falling asleep, that we almost got in a fight, that I almost got in a fight with, and Real hillbilly hell of a nice guy, though man, he knew his shit, you know, yeah, and His dad used to make moonshine and him and his brothers ran it. That's what he did before he came into the Marines Nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so so now you're in Europe, you're in your platoon, you're in Europe. Did you have a triangle Patrol base?
Speaker 1:Quantry was our rear. But, we only never been back there, you know. So I was only there six months when I got hit and got sent back to the states.
Speaker 2:Was it? Was it like 50% security at night, or was it like 80?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, it was pretty secure back in quandary.
Speaker 2:I'm sure you know I'm talking about when you were in the field. Oh hell, no forest, oh no.
Speaker 1:It was never secure. You know, we had a setup make a perimeter and dig our fighting holes and sit them in all night.
Speaker 2:Okay, so it's a hundred percent security, like I said, like everybody was off.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, hell yeah yeah, we had to keep people awake. I mean we were, we were up north, you know, down south they got via Kong. You know they're farmers and that and they farm during day and go out and fight at night.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you have the north of North.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's north of Vietnamese and and they're trained, they're good, they know what they're doing. I was in a Fighting hole one night and we'd set up claymores out in front of us, you know, and I'm sitting there in the hole and I heard this noise and I grabbed a hellbox. I was getting ready to fire it, you know what's a hellbox? Yeah, that's how you fire the claymore.
Speaker 3:Okay, okay.
Speaker 1:And the guy in the hole with me says beaver, get your ass down, this is just get down. So I got down firing on, we fired, it came flying back towards me.
Speaker 3:So they do. They switch the claymores around.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they turn around Face, face us, and then they make noise and if you're boot, like I was, you know you get blown away.
Speaker 3:How did they? I thought claymores go off when you get close to them. How did, how did they somehow?
Speaker 1:No, you got a wire. It's got a little square box yeah it's not like all hey hey, max, what I say in the beginning, I don't know anything.
Speaker 3:All right, talk to me, talk to me. You want to be a history professor, but you're over here insulting the students. What's going? On Fucking moron, I'm not insulting you.
Speaker 2:What you think it was blue to you know you did censor.
Speaker 3:It's fucking. You get near it, it blows up. I don't know damn. I'm sorry, I'll stay quiet.
Speaker 1:Well, they got trip flers to it. You got it. You know, yeah, have a line out and you got to step through it for it to go off. You know, but these are ran by a cordon.
Speaker 2:So so you're in your patrol base to you. Do you have vehicles or you just?
Speaker 1:Know hell?
Speaker 2:no, we walked so you walked, so you walked to where everywhere.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just you know it was stupid. We we'd be walking and we get hit and we take a hill, maybe lose a guy. We take a hill, set there for the night, set up, dig our hole and then next morning fill a hole up and move on again and the gooks will be right back on that hill.
Speaker 2:You say that like so easily, maybe you lose a guy, like was, that's just like so Just easy to think about, like eat, like it could just brush off your shoulder. They're like when you're there because you're like maybe lose a guy, you know. I mean like that's like huge. Now you know we were talking about the Vietnam War.
Speaker 1:Well, we didn't have time, you know you, you just call them FNGs, fucking new guys, you know, and you didn't want to really Get to know them really well, you know, because you figured out he's just gonna be gone.
Speaker 2:You know, that's good you know what was your Job like where you are.
Speaker 1:When I first got there, I Was on the machine gun. I was an eight gunner.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm to ammo. I did a little bit of everything, carried mortars and then towards the end I became a squalor.
Speaker 2:But uh, we have team leader squalor squalor.
Speaker 1:Well it's not so different Well we know, and you got teams, you know, you got teams and then you got a squad, you know, but we didn't have that many men all the time. You know, we were always shorthanded.
Speaker 2:We're you always overmatched with that.
Speaker 1:Yeah no, it didn't bother us. No, we took care of it. So you got the job done.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so with the attack more at night or the day, Uh.
Speaker 1:It is both. You know, a lot at night was kind of cool because They'd smoked that opium and you could smell that. And when we smell that night, knew we knew we were gonna get hit first thing in the morning. You know, and I was on the 61 time machine gun. I swore to God when they started charging us. I Swear to God I had to put 20, 30 rounds in this gook and he just kept coming. I was scared to death. I got to stop this dude. That's crazy. They get high on that, you know, and they just keep coming.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're in the middle of the jumble, right? Yeah, you're not like even close to like Open land, it's just trees and general and what elephant go to rest?
Speaker 1:Yeah, they have elephant grass seven, eight feet tall and there's a lot of traps everywhere, right, well, that's mostly down south. They got some, but most of those are all down south.
Speaker 2:I know a lot of people got dictates, drugs.
Speaker 1:No, we set outside of bill one time is clue. It was a little river going through and we set out there one night and we got new ammo and everything. And the gooks came in, be it, or I mean the Vietnamese came in. They were selling pop and stuff like that, you know, and I bought a quarter smear no vodka for five bucks. I emptied out my canteen and filled up my canteens, you know, and all sudden I Got a five minute nose. My squalor said beaver, take these men and go across the river and set up an ambush. Well, I thought we're gonna get it because we were half in the bag, you know. Yeah, you don't drink over there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, really easy perfect timing, but afterwards, In the next morning I guess. So the guys bought some dope and they were smoking it. The CEO found out and he had a meeting. He says if I ever see anybody smoking dope in here, I'll shoot you. How's it?
Speaker 3:I mean that was it nobody smoked up again.
Speaker 1:We're up north and we're in this shit all the time and you can depend on each other if you're right, yeah no doubt, no doubt, holy fuck.
Speaker 3:He said that was it. Nobody smoked up again.
Speaker 2:All right, it's like If anybody Again, I'll shoot you Whole squad.
Speaker 1:You ain't gotta tell us twice, that's crazy so if the guys were doing it after that I didn't know about it because I never did it. You know, we used to get newspapers from home and the headlines are always about the hippies protesting war. So I hated the goddamn hippies. I want nothing to do with them. I so I wouldn't. Even when I got out and I was going to college I didn't smoke dope. Yeah one, nothing to do with it.
Speaker 2:My dad smoked dope.
Speaker 1:I know he's a dope.
Speaker 2:So You're in the what into. When you were in the ship, basically, your CEO made it clear that there's no smoking and he has to give a fuck about the UCMJ Uniform uniform coat of military justice.
Speaker 1:What the hell's that? Yeah, I know, but still what the hell? No just like the Keneva convention. We got a file it, but the enemy don't have to exactly.
Speaker 2:No, it's, it's crazy because it's probably, it's probably true, Like you know, like do we really follow these rules when you're out there alone? And like it's you against them, like oh, I have to wait until. I have to wait until I see contact and then I can, then I can return fire or something like no, yeah.
Speaker 3:What's the Keneva convention? Is that?
Speaker 2:Cheneva, cheneva.
Speaker 1:Rules that we're supposed to file for prisoners and all that shit.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean you probably, you know like, fuck with the dad though, right.
Speaker 1:The first goo guy got. I wanted to cut his ears off, putting them on my dog tag, but one of the guys found me, says don't be right. So why? He says because if you do, they're gonna know who we are and they'll get back at you.
Speaker 3:So who's they?
Speaker 1:the NBA? Yeah, yeah, because they got a thing with Buddha and they got to have their body intact to go to heaven or whatever.
Speaker 2:So, so. So you worked your way up to a sergeant. That's squalid, right.
Speaker 1:Well, I just became a squaddle here, pointed squaddle here for a while because you know they needed one.
Speaker 2:guys were killed, you know did you ever do point where you ever oh, I used to?
Speaker 1:walk point a lot. My first got there new guys always walk point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's horrible because, you guys, if they walk point, they don't know where they're going because they have to use a protractor, a freaking.
Speaker 1:Down the compass and a big bayonet man Chopping your way through, to taking that half hour to get from here to the wall and all through that elephant grass and stuff.
Speaker 2:So Well, let's talk about something that you were Very disappointed. You said that you were gonna get Navy Cross.
Speaker 1:No, no silver star.
Speaker 2:Silver star we're.
Speaker 1:We had the whole battalion Up on line on the DMZ one time and our company had point and you know, up there it's like a tree line hundred meters dried up, rice paddies and another tree line, another hundred meters dried up. So we're walking along Double column and we had a tank with us too. That was in front Also and all hell break loose and everything. We had small arms fired machine gun, rpgs, mortars and a mortar and RPG hit the tank and it couldn't move. So we all hit the tree line right away and I was a Gunner on a machine gun, a gun or on a machine gun at the time and we set up in a big crater there with the machine gun.
Speaker 1:All of a sudden my squad or squad leader will key Albert Wilkinson, black dude, best guy in the world, him, charlie Brown, phillip D to myself. He called us over. He says come on, miller's laying out there in the middle. He was the guy almost got in a fight with the first day. You know, miller's laying out in the open, he can't move. Every time he moved he got shot. He got shot six different times. So we got up in line and charged the machine gun and we'd run around 10, 15 meters and hit the deck and reload and throw a grenade.
Speaker 2:I'm up, he sees me, I'm down. That's how I'm shooting. You're running, you're running, I'm up, he sees me, I'm down, you get down right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm up, he sees me, I'm down.
Speaker 1:What.
Speaker 3:It's a. I'm up, he sees me, I'm down.
Speaker 1:It's a drill.
Speaker 2:It's a drill in the military that you're basically talking about. Oh, okay.
Speaker 1:So we're running and when we hit the deck to throw another magazine, somebody throw a frag. And all of a sudden the guy ran out of frags. He says Wilkie. He says who's got a frag? I says I got one. He said throw it. So I pulled it off my belt. I couldn't get the cotter pin out Cause we used to bend the ends around the spoon so it wouldn't come out when we're walking through the jungles, you know. So I'm pulling, pulling. He says throw the frag. So I bit the ends together to straighten the cotter pin out. Throw the goddamn frag. So I threw it.
Speaker 1:And then we we were closing up we got in there by the machine gun and there was one there and I don't know if I got him or one of the other guys got him, but we shot him. Another one started taking off down the trail and I started to chase him. My squalor called me back. He says forget it, beaver, they're going to have an ambush set up down there. So we went back with our group. They called the chopper and met it back, miller, and they brought us more ammo. We're sitting there reloading our magazines and I was thinking about it. I could hear the bullets cracking by my ear when I was running, you know charging machine gun Pew, pew, pew and I'm standing there shaking so bad thinking about it. And I looked at Wilkie my squalor. I says them, son of a bitches, were trying to kill me. He started laughing. I'm probably gonna be a non beaver.
Speaker 1:But some guy came up to us and said hey, you guys did a good job. I thought he said you're going to get a medal and one of the other guys says you're going to be put in for a Silver Star. What the hell? What's a Silver Star? We didn't know what that meant, you know. Well, nobody ever got anything. I checked into it because I worked for the VA, you know. I got everybody's records, you know, and checked into it. None of us ever got anything.
Speaker 1:Wilkie the squalor he died about a year after I found him. He's dead. Charlie Brown died in school, decent I are the only ones left and I checked everywhere. I had a senator check out. I've had people check on it.
Speaker 1:I even got, when I was in a hospital, the Colonel of the base of the Marines and the Navy base. The name was Colonel JP Bruce. I even got a whole of him called him because he called me and Charlie. Charlie Brown was in the hospital too At the same time. Me and Miller were ran into him and this Colonel called me and Charlie Brown in and said all of us were put in for the Silver Star.
Speaker 1:I even got a hold at Colonel. This is 20, 30 years later and the day I got a hold of him his wife told me I'm sorry we just call hospice in on the Colonel so, but I talked to one of the other, one of our officers. He was a Brigadier General. The time when I talked to him I told him the story and he I think he was the guy to put us in for it. But he doesn't remember it and he told me he says you know, after you got hit, we had a big flood back in Coantrain. A lot of records were lost. If the records were lost, how would this Colonel know it back in Memphis, tennessee, and be able to tell us who we were put in for it? So no, we. I checked everywhere. I even have two senators check on it for me. They can't find, nobody can find anything.
Speaker 3:Do you know if Miller made it, since he got evacuated?
Speaker 2:That's why I was in a religious house.
Speaker 1:Well, funny asset, because I know he was living in Florida. I was down in Florida one time. My sisters lived down there. We were down in Florida and I was thinking about him. I called him up here. He only lived about 10 minutes away from my sister. Wow. So he came over, partied with us that night.
Speaker 3:What a Hollywood story you start off.
Speaker 1:You get in a fight with the guy, you save his life, and then you party with him, 10 minutes away from your sister's house.
Speaker 3:That's crazy.
Speaker 2:A few years later.
Speaker 1:Yeah, more than a few years later, yeah, and then we were all going, my family was all going down to the keys to celebrate. My nephew was getting engaged with his girlfriend, so he went down there with us and partied with us. So we had a great time. And then next time I went to Florida, I went over to his house and his wife says oh I'm sorry, dan, I got divorced. All right, do you know where he's at? No, but I got ahold of him and he was doing really bad and he just passed away here about a year ago.
Speaker 2:No, yeah, it sucks. Sorry to hear that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, nice and peace.
Speaker 2:Nice to meet you. That's all I mean. It's crazy all that. First fire you know, oh really. So is this when you got hit.
Speaker 1:We were taking a hill that evening and the gooks were dug in good and we couldn't get up the hill and it started getting dark, so we set in. Well, next morning we had a squalor I mean CP group and all of a sudden a mortar round came in laying on the other side of the hill, or I mean on the other side of our CP group. So we all took off and ran to our fighting holes. I'm in my hole. I got my helmet on my flag jacket. Halfway on I stand up, one of my men's standing up and I'm yelling at him get his ass down about that time. And round one off right next to me.
Speaker 1:It blew me over on top of a kitten, my radio man, and I got up and I see just dust flying everywhere and dirt. You know, I looked at my arm and I thought I was gonna lose my arm because all you could see was meat and blood hanging all over it, you know. And all the guys came over to see how I was and I started you know, get the heck out of here, man, because they see a group of guys. They're gonna throw another round there, you know. Well, that time I passed out. I was only out for about a minute or two and kid, my radio man, bandaged me up right away. He had me all bandaged up and then the, the corpsman, came over and shot me up with some morphine. Well, kid helped me up to the, the CP group on top of the hill, and they called in a chopper to medivac me out. And all the guys are coming by saying, hey, corp will be over, don't worry about it. Man, you're going back to the world or you're going aboard a hospital ship with the nurses and all this stuff. You know, everybody said something decent.
Speaker 1:We call in some artillery and about 10 clicks away with Camp Carol artillery and three short rounds landed right on top of us. That's when it killed some of my men, wounded 13 of them, as you were getting evacuated. Yeah, before the chopper came out, I was sitting there and I know this is humanly impossible, but our flag jackets we had the old ones with the pieces of flak in it, like tile, you know, and we go through the jungles. They'd always rip out and that would fall out, you know. So we used to cut them and pull that shit out cause it was so damn heavy, you know. But we had to wear them, you know. But I swore to God when we got hit with that artillery I swore I had my whole body underneath my helmet cause that shit was just flying every goddamn worm. It was crazy.
Speaker 3:That's unbelievable that that happened.
Speaker 2:So they got shot and you were slowing down.
Speaker 1:Huh.
Speaker 2:So you got shot. They said they were giving you all praises and you're about to go see some hot nurses and then you're going back to mainland. All this stuff. Something terrible happens.
Speaker 1:All right, all right.
Speaker 2:And that's why they're wrapped on your car.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's the guys that got killed.
Speaker 2:So when you went to the hospital and everything, oh, was everything all fine, or did you have like that guilt that some times people feel like they killed, like, oh, I wish I was oh hell yeah, they took me, they'd chopper it up.
Speaker 1:you know they call them more choppers, obviously. Take all the guys out, you know. Then, finally, I got chopped out and they took me to the rear and quandary and I guess they operate on me there, all's I last thing I remember is right after I got hit and all the guys got killed, you know. But they took me quandary and operated on me there and then took me out to the USS repose hospital ship and I'm laying on a rack and all of a sudden I wake up and there's this nurse sitting on the end of my rack and I wake up and I see her and she says how are you doing, marine? I said ma'am, I wouldn't be sitting there if I were you. And she said why? I said you know how long has been since I seen a round eye? And she started laughing.
Speaker 1:And then the officer the Navy officer came up to me. He says I got some good news for you, marine. I said what's that, sir? He says you're going back to the world. I said excuse my language, sir, but bullshit bandaged me up. I want to go back with my men. Hell, yeah, I didn't want to leave. Well, I had all my buddies back there.
Speaker 2:And that was a negative rate. You were allowed to do that. Oh, I should say that well, I didn't get it.
Speaker 1:I was in the hospital three months. I went to from the repos. I went up to the Philippines a hospital up there and I was in the room with another Marine in a Korean Marine. That guy was crazy man.
Speaker 2:Tell us about him.
Speaker 1:He couldn't speak English. And the Korean Marines are bad, you know. Their officers have to have a certain degree in karate. They've got to know a couple of different languages and all that. He was an officer but he couldn't speak any English. We got had a playboy from downstairs so we'd teach him how to say certain words on the female body, you know. And I had bandages all over my arm, my side. I got hit from my knee all the way up in my face and they used to come in and have to change the bandages three times a day. And the nurses they'd come in and they'd soak them down, take the bandages off, put new ones on. But the Air Force nurses guys, they come in and just rip them off. Kind of goddamn hurt, you know. And that Korean Marine, whenever he'd come in, he'd look at him and he'd go you number one, heck off. I'd go, you know.
Speaker 1:I'd go you know number one, so we taught him, teaching him, teaching him lingo. And we used to have these squirters, you know syringes full of water. We'd shoot them at each other and one of the guys got them really good one day. So he was. He was sitting under John and the Korean Marine got a bucket of water, opened up the door and just drowned it up.
Speaker 2:Oh, he was so rude boys, he was he was.
Speaker 3:He was like a friend of mine. Yeah, he was a friend of mine.
Speaker 2:That's why we can't have nice things.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's what he is that's crazy.
Speaker 2:So after that did you get out?
Speaker 1:I went back to. They flew me back to the States Clark Air Force Base. My parents and sister came and saw me. Then they took me to hospital Memphis. That's where I ran into Miller. He was there and Charlie Brown, one of the guys that got put up for the Silver Star. I mean, that's when that colonel called me and Charlie and told us we were getting put up for Silver Star. I was there for about three months. Miller's sister came to see us one time and his girlfriend. They brought us a bottle of moonshine and him and I yeah, nice, him and I snuck out of the hospital one night and went over to the YM club with the girls, had that moonshine with us, oh man. Well, we got in a fight that night and next morning, when the doctors had come by, my eye was all bloody and shut, you know, and the doctor says what happened to you? Marine Tripped over my footlocker, sir.
Speaker 2:That's funny.
Speaker 3:That's funny, isn't it that moonshine gave you strength. Oh man.
Speaker 2:So it's so like so I was.
Speaker 1:after that I got stationed out at TBS, the basic school in Quantico. Okay, I was an instructor for boot DIs. I used to give classes on all the weapons in Marine Corps head.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And that was skating duty. I really liked that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, teaching people is like the greatest thing. When I was in the military, I loved teaching and, like you know, motivating people to like, not be like me, but to, you know, get physically fit, you know, be proud of yourself, be proud of how you shoot, you know, like because I want to make sure the dude next to me is confident that he's going to be able to hit the guy.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:And he's going to try and kill me as well. Oh yeah, you know so that I mean that's the same thing. I mean I've been in stands, a whole different animal compared to Vietnam. Vietnam was insane, like from the books I read, like the things they carried. I don't know if you've read that book.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:You know a clear person that reads books? No, yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't like reading. I fall asleep when I start reading. Yeah.
Speaker 2:You like party. And yes, it's kind of crazy because my dad met you and I'm a vet, I'm a vet, I'm like kind of a vet.
Speaker 1:You're a vet period. Want to be kind of.
Speaker 2:I didn't go overseas man.
Speaker 1:So what? You're still a veteran. A veteran is a person that served in the military and got arm-lead discharge.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you got to understand. Like I felt like I was practicing for football, right, like I felt like I was practicing for football and I never got to play football game yeah, I never started.
Speaker 1:Well, I know how you feel, but a lot of guys used to always say that to me oh, I'm not a vet, I wasn't in combat and that don't matter. You spent your time, man. But that's. I know how you feel, cause if I couldn't have gone now I'd be so mad, cause that's the reason I went in, you know.
Speaker 2:That's the reason I went in. I literally kind of seemed like you, like I literally went up to the. I was at maps and you know, rose Maul, I went up to the freaking guy.
Speaker 1:So where I went in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I went up to the guy and he said what do you want to do? I said I want to blow shit up. And he was like oh so you want to be a love of Bravo? Like, yeah, whatever that is, let's fucking do it Cool.
Speaker 1:Right so.
Speaker 2:Cool. And then I didn't realize when I was getting myself into and. I was like who came up? And like we, we get the shark attack. You know all this stuff. And then I started like learning a bunch of things you know, and I loved the physical fitness. I loved like the army made me a runner, which was insane, oh.
Speaker 1:God, I used to hate running. I loved it.
Speaker 2:We had to do it every day. Yeah, me too, but I mean it was. It was a good experience and I wish I was able to go on to see what I was gonna achieve, cause I was trying to do everything possible to go special forces, go ranger, to go ranger.
Speaker 1:now, that's what your dad told me.
Speaker 2:Like ranger battalion, you know, like I was doing everything possible to do this Like and I was trying to stay physically fit. I shot expert all the time, you know my long rifle Like I wasn't a sniper but I was a long rifle so I was able to like shoot snipers and I was able to hit shots or like hard to hit for a normal person, you know. So I felt gifted.
Speaker 1:Oh, hell yeah.
Speaker 2:And I was like I can't wait to get over to Syria or Afghanistan, like I can't wait to get there, you know. And then we finally orders and I get this car accident and it's just freaking, just blew my mind, blew my mind. And then my best friend in the military he's the one who gets to go to the show, the one that crashed my car, you know that's just bad. Yeah, I heard that Just.
Speaker 1:You know, I had my best friend over there was kitten the guy in the hole with me. You know, when I was down in Quantico, I was coming out of the bar one night and I ran into our old platoon sergeant and we got talking and he said, right after I left him they got in a big ambush and a lot of the guys got killed and I asked him. I said how about Kitten? Did he get it? He says yeah, I think he did so all these years I thought he was dead. Finally, one day when I was at work I wasn't really busy, so I called the VA. I had his copy of the DD 214 and his service number and birded all that stuff. Called the VA, I said they had a file on him because he had two purple hearts. And he says yeah, we got a file. I said I need his name or phone number. We can't do that because of privacy locked. I says what state does he live in? They said Connecticut. So I called the Connecticut Department of Veterans of Paris. I asked the guy you see, yeah, we got him. I says I need his phone number or address or something. I can't because of privacy locked. I said hey, listen, man, this was my best buddy in NAMM For the last 40 years. I thought he was dead. I just found out he's alive. I got to get ahold of him. He says where were you in NAMM? When were you and where were you? I says I was over there in 68. K-sign canteen, quandary, leathernecks Square. He says you're a Marine? I says yeah. He says so, am I Give me your phone number and I'll call you back? He called me back about 10 minutes later, gave me everything.
Speaker 1:That night when I got home I called him up. His daughter answered the phone. I said is Mike there? She said he's asleep and I said wake him up. She said who is this? I said tell him it's Ted. He comes in the phone. I says how the hell you doing Mike? He says good, and he started talking. I said you know who this is. He says yeah. I said who. He said Ted. So and so I said no, it ain't Well. Who the heck is this? I says were you over NAMM with the Marines with three, nine and 68? He says yeah. He says who is this? I said first platoon, first squad. He said yeah, who the heck is this? And I says did you have a nickname named Kitten. He said God damn, it Is this beaver and man. I almost started crying. We talked for about an hour. He came out to visit me one time and I've got a buddy that I met through my office. He was a. He was in lead Humvee on a 50 cal in Mogadija, so you know what the hell he saw.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do.
Speaker 1:But he's a really good friend of mine. So when Kitten came to see me I had a party and he was there too, you know. And back then I had a fight and hold dog in my backyard right by the lake there and next. Well, we had a big party that night. Next morning, kitten stand by the back door. You say beaver, come here, look at this. I looked out there there's Brad, brad Paulson. He says there's your buddy laying in a fighting hall. He slept there all night. And he says to me I'm going to call him Darby. And ever since then you know from Darby's ranges, ever since then his nicknames Darby.
Speaker 2:Darby Queen. That's the, the course, or whatever, the physical course, obstacle courses. It's called the Darby Queen.
Speaker 1:Oh really.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I learned a few things for the year and a half.
Speaker 1:Well, they had some Darby Rangers or something, didn't they that go to work?
Speaker 2:too. So there's a Darby, and then there's Mountain Faze, and then there's Florida Faze. So there's three faces of Rangers school, so Darby and the Darby.
Speaker 1:Queen? No, no, I mean they had a group of guys.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's probably why it's called Darby's Rangers, that's probably why it's called Darby then.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it's been great to have you here.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thanks for sharing your story. That was definitely impeccable. I feel like Hollywood could make a movie out of that story yeah. But life to the max got it first, so we thank you for that.
Speaker 2:So are you living life to the max?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, hell yeah. You know, I'm very fortunate. There were four different incidents in Namor. I should have been killed and I'm here and I've got a really close family and really good friends. Like your old man, I love the hell out of that guy and I'm very fortunate.
Speaker 3:We're all glad you're still here and we're glad you're at this table sharing your story. Well, thank you. Do us a favor, look in this camera, say your name and say you're living life to the max.
Speaker 1:Chad Beaver is living life to the max.
Speaker 2:Such a crunch, I'll break down Barney's sound.