Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this edition is David Rodriguez. He's a US Army veteran of the Vietnam War. He received a Bronze Star with a V for valor for his actions to put an end to an enemy ambush in December of nineteen sixty seven. He was also wounded on three separate occasions. And David, thanks very much for being with us. You hear my, sir, where were you born and raised?
I was born in Santase, California.
And was there a history of military service in your family?
My father was in the army. My uncles were all in World War II, one was in Korean War, my uncle was all my father's family were in a military.
Did that influence your decision to join?
No, because we were a farmer. Well, we worked in farms, and so I didn't want to work in the farm anymore. So I was seventeen years old and I told my dad, I go, hey, I don't want to do this anymore and I want to go into the army. And he said, well, don't you know there was a war going on? And he said yes, and so are you sure, you want to go.
I go.
It's easier to stay alive and to maybe get you know, get shot and killed. Oh no, I don't.
You know.
The farm is just not for me. So I decided to go into the military and he signed the paperwork. My mom cried, she didn't want to do it, but my dad did it because that's what I wanted. I went into the military.
So how old were you and I was seventeen.
Years old, nineteen sixty six.
Where did you do your basic training.
In Fort Lewis, Washington. Oh, that was during the time of meningitis and there was a lot of things going on that we so it was all our barrags were separated when we had to go to training. We trained not individually, but as a as a unit from H Barracks only because of because of the meningitis that was going on at the time.
You were later assigned to be a combat engineer.
Yes, I did. I was a combat engineer and I went to Fort Lyndwood, Missouri to get trained as EUD specialist. I was an explosive specialist.
And tell me what the role of a combat engineer is.
Well, combat engineer is usually is going out and doing you know, building bridges, things that need to be done in a combat situation. They say, a road gets blown up and they need to continue going through that road while we repair the road and put it together. But my job was usual was mostly explosives. I blew up things,
you know. Sometimes we will find mortar rounds or shells that wasn't wasn't exploded, or bunkers that we needed to explode, especially enemy bunkers, or even some of the foxholes and stuff like that where they used to go, you know, and we used to blow them up so they couldn't be used again by the enemy.
When were you deployed to Vietnam.
In nineteen sixty six. What were your.
First impressions of Vietnam, both in terms of the war and just the country itself.
I landed in benvoeh It was hotter than hell. It was actually jungle. I've seen nothing but banana trees, and I kept saying, Wow, this is almost like if you were going to Panama or some place like that. And it was something different because I've never been out of California before, so I really wasn't prepared to see a lot of stuff like that. We used to go to
Texas where my families that come from. And so of course Texas is half desert and half you know, by the ocean, so it you know, Vietnam is a beautiful place. Let's put it that way. It's a very beautiful place. It's got everything you can think of. It's got bananas, it's got pineapples. They got mongos and stuff like that. When we used to go through the through the jungle, s intuff that, you know. We used to cut wild pineapple, you know, and we used to eat them when we're
walking and stuff like that. Or we used to get the bananas from the banana trees and we used to sometimes we used to carry a whole stock of bananas when we're out there in the jungle. Because I used to be attached to the infantry as an explosive specialist. That's what we do. That's what I did. So I was attached to the infantry. We would carry C four and explode do it. You know, we would find you know, mines or ordnance that wasn't exploded or you know, bombs
that were dropped from the planes and didn't explode. Whether that was our job is to make sure they were exploded. Or got rid of.
You know.
It's not like the time when John Wayne would tear apart a bomb, you know, and use all these equipment. Though. We would turn on and actually put C four on it and exploded in place so nobody would get hurt. And then we were in charge making sure that booby traps and stuff like that were disarmed. And that was our job.
How tricky was that?
Well, I got blown up. I kept going up. Once I ended up breaking my back. I ended up going to the Saigon. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be because they stitched me up, fixed me up, and now I was back in the jungle within two weeks, So it wasn't that bad. But I thought I had booken my back, but it was just sprained and so they just fixed me all up and I was back.
Where were you based?
I was based in downtown South Vietnam, and I was based in the French fort h east of or west of Vietnam, next to the Cambodian border. We used to go into a Cambodian border and do a lot of things. I worked a little bit with the mountain yards. I ended up doing some stuff up north towards Latian border, and we worked with CIA in Laos for a little while, so my job was kind of you know, diversed.
Are you allowed to tell us what you did in Cambodia and Laos.
And Lous I can't tell you because we wasn't even beither. We wasn't wasn't being Combolia. But it wasn't really a big secret because everybody and you were there. Well, we would go in there there in the middle of the night and look for enemies and then destroy their camp, getting artillery or playing dropping exprosives from planes and stuff like that.
And what unit precisely were you with.
I was with the seventh of the forty seventh.
And when I was attached to them, what type of weapons other than explosives were you using?
I was using an M sixteen, AR fifteen and a forty five. I carried a forty five.
Do you have a favorite of those that you're most comfortable with?
Well, they were doing the recall. I don't know if you remember, or at one time they were doing the recall of the M sixteen because they were they were getting they were jamming. But you know, you get a favorite to well, it becomes part of you. It's like your second arm, you know. And so they were trying to take my memory. They were trying to take my M sixteen, and so no, you either got shot or you left me alone. So my M sixteen was one
of my favorite ones. The forty five was just for in case, and so you know you used it for How can I tell you? It was close combat situations?
How close this was the.
Between me and you. I didn't take my M sixteen at those time when we had to go in into a special missions and stuff like that, and we would just take forty fives and once we got close enough, then we just turned around and took your business.
Other than the familiarity of the M sixteen, what did you love about it? So much?
Very accurate? It was my buddy, my friend, and it kept me alive.
Do you remember the first time you engaged the enemy?
Oh yeah, it's the first time I j engaged. In fact, we would. I had just landed and it must have been my first month and we were in Bearcat and we went out into a night patrol out of the burm. We got hit by a small venom hesa can unit and I was green. I mean, I was so green, and you know, my fatigues, all my greens were still all my greens were still so green, they were brand new. And you know, I said, you know, I got was shocked.
I was scared. Didn't know what to do. First thing I did was hit the ground and didn't know where to fire, because, you know, you were just like, where's it coming from? And even though all get training that you get, you get training in the military at home, so it's not real combat, you know, situations. So when it really hits, it's like what's going on. You don't know what's happening, and you're trying to figure out what to do, and no matter how much training you have,
you kind of forget it. But then after a while, I starts coming back and you started thinking. You know, it's all about thinking before you know, because the first thing you start thinking about it just got kill me. Especially when you start hearing around a lot of people don't understand that when a bullet goes by your head, it actually zings just like a bee, and it sings bring zing zing, you know, and you hear the bullets just going by, so you don't know where to fire
at because you're you're too afraid. So that was my first experience and it was over real fast. We called in artillery surprise, so you know, and it was over within it in a couple of minutes and it was done. But after that I found out that I'm in the war. This is real. This is not a joke, This is not what you see on TV. Now, you're this guy here is trying to kill you. So either you get
it together or you're gonna wind up dead. And so after that, things just started getting a little bit more easier. Then when I got into my next firefight, and this was in actually, and when they shipped me to Long Time and I got attached to the seventh of the forty six infant unit and so we were out on patrol and then we got hit with a small unit and so then I startedly know what to do. So now then I started turning on and actually aiming to shoot and to turn and take care of and you know,
take care of my job. When you first get there, it's all about confusion, and that's confusion within you. After that, it's all about you starting to learn about you, being protective about you and your friends around you, and you start seeing that this guy here is trying to protect you as well as he's the other guys trying to protect you, and you're all trying to protect each other and fighting for what you feel is right. You know.
I used to when I got used to it, and it took me a few months because every time we went out, we always got hit. I mean it was like day and night, you know, you went out, we all got hit by a small uh you know, called Vietnam unit or patrol. And it wasn't very they were never very big. They usually are ten or fifteen men and basically just for destructive, you know situations, So they were sort of shooting at you and then they would run,
so it would be one of those situations. But after a while I used to yell at them, well, if you're going to shoot at me, I'm gonna shoot at you and I'm going to kill you. And then that became my model. I got to the point where I knew if they were going to shoot at me, my job was to find them, see him and shoot them. And I wasn't going to die. So it was his life or my life, and that's that's all it took.
And so I think that was my survival thing. And that's what the whole time I was the three years I was because I was three years in Vietnam. The whole time I was there, they ever had a problem.
That's David Rodriguez. He's a US Army veteran of Vietnam, where he was wound three times. He also received a Bronze Star for his actions to thwart an enemy ambush in December nineteen sixty seven. That dramatic story is next. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles.
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This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this edition is David Rodriguez, who served as a US Army combat engineer and served a total of three years in theater in the Vietnam War. He was wounded three times there, including two bayonet attacks, and we'll discuss all of that in detail later in our conversation, but Sergeant Rodriguez was also awarded the Bronze Star for his actions
in December nineteen sixty seven. As we pick up his story, Rodriguez explains how he and other soldiers were ambushed almost immediately after stepping off their boat. The dire situation the Americans soon found themselves in, and how his actions helped to neutralize the enemy.
We were in the world long Land Province at the time. It was this was Operation Cobra Uh in December of December fourth. What basically happened, we were we were on the lst Navy ship and we were working off the Mekon Delta at the time, so we were on these
barges uh uh. It was a river reinforce that we were working with, actually with the fourth or the forty seventh at the time, and we had disembarked off the ship and so as we got off the LSTs, we turned around and we we we marched maybe for about a mile or so, and it was jungle area and then we got into a rice paddy area where it was all out of rice paddy. It was very open and the jungle was on our left hand side, and
we were walking towards the sun. And as we were walking, all of a sudden we got hit and we got into it. It was what we call a U shaped ambush, and then right in the middle of the machine gun was there and and you know, they were just at that point and we just got moved down. I mean they were just because we were all standing up at the time. So they started just shooting and shooting and shooting. And we were in a U shaped ambush. So we couldn't go this way, we couldn't go that way. You
only way we can go this backwards. And you're trying to run against bullets. It just doesn't work. So everybody just you know, jumped down and got onto the rice patties and so a lot of rice patty has little these little mounds, and so you're trying to hide behind these mountains, but they're just not high enough. You know, there's you got water, and then you got the little mound, and so they're shooting at you. And they were killing quite a few people. Our point man was Washington, was
a black gentleman, a good friend of ours. And when we got hit, we got hit so hard that you know, when he fell and he just had a nervous breakdown because there was just so much bullets going by. And I at that time, I think that they were not trying to kill him because they were interested in the rest of the party. And he was just stuck in the middle. Saw me and one of the other guys
from the seventh or the forty seventh. We got together and we snuck out there and we pulled them back, and man, we were getting then, we were getting all kinds of fire, and for some reason we just lucked out. We got back and we hid behind the little mound on the on the rice patty and we were just getting hit. I mean, we got to the point and so Don got killed. He was operator. He was the radio operator. He got killed. And the radio operator was
there and by lieutenant. We used to call him Friendship because he was from Louisiana and he was he had red hair and so but we used to call him Friendship because from Louisiana. So he kind of got that nickname. And one year with officers, especially when you're in a war situation, you get pretty close to even your officers, you know, especially if they're a good a good officer,
and so to call him Frenchy. And he got separated from the RTO and you know, we needed to get the radio to him so we can get air support. They were just shooting us, like all of those gallery things, you know, and arcades you know, they were just killing us pretty bad. So Frenchie, my lieutenant, turned and says, you know, geez, we're in trouble man. You know, I
need to get the radio. So we ended up getting the radio to him and he's trying to call him air support and he goes, hey, Dave, you know, is there any way that you can get and moved to the side and see what you can get. So I moved to the side, and every time I moved to the side, I was getting more fire coming at me. So something happened and I just can't figure out what. I jumped up and I started running, and I started shooting at this one little section where this Vietnamese was
at and boom, boom, boom up. You know, I shot him up, you know. So I got in there and there was I don't know, maybe about four many meters or twenty five meters or so, I can't remember exactly. There was another one and so I was able to take him down. So I took him down and he was out of the way. And so I got to a point where I ran out of Ammo. You know, two stories. I ran out of Amlan. I didn't know what to do. I go, what am I going to do now? I'm gonna I had no more clips and nothing.
So I ended up picking up one of the rifles at the viacom hat and the riffles. The rifle doesn't make no you know what kind of it is, and so, you know, I made sure that we had some AMMO, and so I ended up, you know, taking down the machine gun. One of the guys that was sitting in the other other bunker jumped up and he ran and he got fired. He got killed by some of the fire that we were that we were shooting from the guys.
And then I started targeting the other the other foxhole that they were in like a foxhole, and I started firing that. I ended up killing another guy there. And then by that time everything started now and then we've seen that there was two other Vietnam He's just jumped up and just ran and basically was old with it was but by the time it was over with, there was only seven of us left.
That's David Rodriguez. He's a US Army veteran of the Vietnam War. He received the Bronze Star for helping to stop an enemy ambush on his position in December nineteen sixty seven. In Just a Moment, Rodriguez reflects more on what happened that day, his decision to charge a machine gun position, and how he somehow emerged unscathed. We will also hear about the three times he was wounded in Vietnam, including two bayonet wounds, and how he managed to get
himself in trouble while recuperating in Japan. I'm Greg Corumbus, and this is Veterans Chronicles. This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this edition is David Rodriguez, a US Army veteran who served in the Vietnam War as a combat engineer. In a moment, you'll hear how Rodriguez suffered three injuries, including two different bayonet wounds, within
a matter of months. But right now we pick up his story with deeper reflections on his actions to thwart the enemy ambush in late nineteen sixty seven, including how he was able to take out a machine gun position with just a rifle.
It's not hard if you got. If you got, you got a guy shooting with a machine gun, and you see a hit, you you hit the hit, And so I was aiming at the head. I ended up hitting them right about here. I think when we were we went out there and it was it was a good hit, and it was, you know, one bullet, one shot and there it took care of business. And the other vauxhole we ended up getting another one. And I'm going to
be honest with you, I don't know. I was shooting there, so I don't know if it was me to kill somebody the last one that was there, or or somebody else did. And then the other two they were in the foxhill, jumped up and they ran, but I was shooting shooting there, so I think I got him. But you know, I'm always going to always be in I was kind of guy and say maybe he was lucky and got shot by somebody else.
I know, it all happened so quickly. But when you're running into a hale of bullets to rescue your friend Washington, or when you're running while under fire to the first position in the U shaped ambush to take out the enemy, do you remember anything specific that was running through your mind at that point.
Oh no, it was like just happened. I don't know if you would understand this, but it just happened all of a sudden, you know, French, you said, hey man, we're in trouble man, you know, we need to get that guy. And then all of a sudden I just jumped up like a crazy guy and firing away and boom and got the guy, you know. And then once I got there, I got it was just like I was just doing it just normally. It was just boom boom,
boom boom, you know. And it was just like a like a like a train, you know, moving on boom, boom, boom. And that's all I kept doing. And I didn't even know I did anything until it was old with, you know. The only thing I thought was that I want to survive, you know. And we were trying to get our dust stops coming in and they were shooting down the helicopters. Two helicopters got shot down during that time, so they couldn't get dust tops in to pull the guys off.
So the more I was out there shooting up and getting these them, especially the machine gun. The machine gun was the most important out of all of them, because without that one going away, it would have been even worse. But it was that was aiming for the guy's head, trust me, and you know, I know I took them down and so and he had a big chest wound, so it was it was a clean shot.
Did you ever think about how none of those bullets hit you that day?
Well, my wife and I know about it, you know, every once in a while we talk about it. You know. Man, you know, I'm a Catholic, so you know we're believe in you know, I believe in God and the whole nine yards. But either he was covering me or he was thinking about, man, I got a reason for you to continue living, and you're just not going to die today.
I just don't know. I mean, it was just it's just like I said, everything happened so fast, and maybe there was just like an umbrella over here or some kind of a what they call it in Star Trek when they have the cloaking device around me or something, you know, because I don't know why they didn't shoot me. I mean, there was a whole bunch of bullets going all over the place and you should have seen it.
It was just like and then you can see the tracers as I was running, because it becomes like a ray gun, so many tracers firing from a machine gun, and it was like a ray gun. And so I'm running and I'm seeing all this red stuff going by, and I'm just running and running, and then boom, when I hit the foxhole where the first one was at. Then they continue firing at the rest because of course they couldn't hit me, you know. So then I that's when I ended up taking out the second foxhole, got him,
you know, And then that's when I ended up. I was able to be in a better position to take out the machine gun. Once I got the machine gun out of the way, everything else was okay, because the machine gun was our worst enemy. Then that that's machine gun knocked down two helicopters. When you got two helicopters that went down and their dust off helicopters there, they're you know, they got the big red cross on them. That's the lifeline for all of us. There had to
be some kind of or something going around. I mean when I was running, but uh, I never got hit once, not once, you know. And man, there was a whole bunch of them.
So you mentioned there were only seven of you still able to fight of the other eighteen, Uh, did many of them recover?
I don't know, because a lot of them went back. We had a lot of body bags, a lot of them were wounded. I don't know, because we regrouped and then we continued with our mission. General two star General O'Connors flew in his helicopter and he came in. He assessed the situation that happened, and well, actually always expect for at the time, so he gave me automatically, he made me into a sergeant ride away as you and so I got a field promotion as a sergeant right there.
And then let's put it, it was an interesting day.
So you still continued with the mission even though you lost almost three quarters of ye.
Right, yeah, because the only thing we were going to do is basically God, there was a couple of huts that they were thinking that they had weapons, and so our units, you know, after everything happened, when the plane they brought in air support, they brought in napalm and so most of that stuff got burned down. And so like General O'Connors, you know, called us and talked to
the tennis says, can you guys continue the mission? You guys, you know, everything is basically clear, but we just wanted to make sure that whatever it's left behind, you guys can take care of it, and we did. I actually the following day they picked us up in the morning and we went back to the ships.
Well, mister Rodricoz, you were wounded three times in Vietnam, miraculously, not that day in December of nineteen sixty seven, but the first time was late January, early February, around the time of the tet offensive. Right, explain what was happening that day and what happened.
Oh, we were out in we were actually out in the jungle. We were in northern Vietnam in tours Way City and we were in the jungle area there and then we got ambushed. And as we were kind of falling back a little bit to get ourself positioned, there was some Viet coom there and one of them rose up and bend ated me on my right side, punctured by lung and pulled out. But my partner spooke, you know, we've always worked together. I mean we were together for
the whole three years. He lives in Santa Rosa, California. I live in Oakdale, California. Said we're still good friends, and he turned on it. You know, because I yelled, I go wow, you know, and this guy was trying to caut his rifle to shoot me, and I spooked torn and shot him and he pulled back and and he died. You. So that was my first one. And it was just, uh, he just came out of the bushes.
It was something that was a surprise because we were actually right in the middle of a small unit of Vietcom so we were you know, it was all about it wasn't hand to hand, but it was pretty close to it.
What's that like? Being that close to the enemy?
Scary because you have to remember if you turn and you see somebody there and this guy's trying to cauck his rifle to shoot you, you know, and he's just as scared as you. Uh, And then you you're nervous because all of a sudden, he wasn't expecting him to be that close. You're you're nervous, and then you're getting yourself to prepare to shoot him. So it's all about you shooting him before he shoots you.
How long did it take you to recover from the bayonet?
Oh? This one here, I ended up going to Osaka. They I went to Saigon, and then from Saigon I went to Osaka. They ended up putting a little rubber holes in in the wound and they put it into my lung and then blew my lung up and then they turn to put this is what the doctor told me, and so what they're going to do. And then they blowed my lung back up, and then they put some crazy blue to glue the my lung, and then of
course they sealed me up after they did that. And then of course I remember the doctor says, whatever you do, don't inhale real deep, okay, do small? You know, He's like, you're patting like a dog. I go, what are you talking about? He goes, if you do it in hell, you're gonna open that sucker back up and we're gonna have to go back into her. So and but you know that, you know how crazy glu is, right, it
seals up pretty fast. So you know he said, because he said ten minutes, just don't be breathing real hard, you know, just pat like a dog. He goes for ten minutes that you'll be okay. And that was that was fun because I was in Japan at the time, got in trouble in Japan too.
I want to know about that. In just a second. I'm still marveling at the fact that they literally crazy glued your wound.
Yes they did. That's that's actually they do that. Now. You know, when they don't want to use stitches, they'll they'll seal you up with with some crazy glue, or they'll put those little tea patches on you.
Okay, how did you get in trouble in Japan?
Well? After I got I was in the hospital. And this is the this is the fun part. Okay, we were in the hospital and we needed to you know, me and this other guy were I was feeling fine and he was being fine. We didn't have no clothes, we were just in hospital clothes and the robes, right, So we snuck out and got out from the gate, and we went to a pub. So we're drinking and drinking, and finally the guy spoke broken Englishes. How you pay? I said, yeah, we're gonna pay. How you pay? Yeah,
give us a couple more beers. You know, we were drinking those those big old long pine bottles of what was it called not sporo, And I'll never forget this. So the guy got all mad and he called the MP's on us. So and PTE comes in. He goes, what are you guys doing here? I said, well, we decided to take a walk and we've seen this pub. He goes, well, you guys ain't got no money. How you guys are going to pay this? I go the
military is going to pay for it. So they put us in the jeep, took us back to the base, and that mart center was so mad. I mean he's so mad that he came out yelling and yelling. Of course I didn't know what he was saying. I don't know if the army ended up paying for it, but we drank about four or five beers, and it's you know, hey, when you're in Japan, you do what did japan people do? Right? So I had a ball, got in trouble at.
A little bit, just a little bit. You were ban at it again around September of nineteen sixty eight.
It was in September. Well, that was a good one. That was probably one of the most interesting ones because I got banned it. We were in a jungle. We were in Longland Promise next to the French fort, and we were working around the fort because we were getting some info that we were getting the one hundred of the five hundred five first North Endomease regulars were going to be coming in there. So we were turning around
scoping the area and getting our bearings and things ready. Well, all of a sudden we ran into a few vname but there was a couple of them hiding and we didn't know it. So when we were passing through the through the trail, one of them jumped up and stabbed me around my left hand side. And he stabbed me and he stuck me all the way so hard. He didn't reach my lung, but his his band that got stuck between my ribs. Well, as he pulled pulled back, it wouldn't come out. I pulled back and again my
partner spooke. I go, hey, spool, get this guy. So I go. So he grabbed my arm. I go. He goes. If I pull you and he goes forward, you're gonna go through you. He goes. And this guy keeps pulling and if you'll go back, it's gonna go through you. So I go, man, I don't care what you do. Get your foot pull him off of me. So when he ended up putting his foot in his chest and pulled me, pulled me out, and then we ended up shooting this guy. Uh. I was so darn mad. I
filled him full of holes. I mean, this gentleman was he wasn't gonna move for forever. I got so mad because I ended up. It hurt so damn bad. I could have died because if I would have went forward, he the rifle would have went through me. If I would have went backwards, the rifle would have went through me. You know, the band one way or the other, I was,
I would have been dead. But again, remember I was telling you, you know, there's always somebody that protecting you, putting that that uh that dog on a cloak around you, so you you know, you get killed. And so it was funny afterwards because everybody started the story went through the whole ship, and everybody started laughing about it and saying, so you kept telling Spook to pull you, and he kept telling you to, uh, be careful because if it can go through you, I go. Well, I didn't know
what else to tell me. So everybody, and you know, it was a it was a good story. When we were in based, everybody started laughing and it was a joke thing for a little while, you know.
Did it take long to recover from that one?
Oh? No, I would actually well, And I ended up getting the medic came in, you know, he patched me up, He cleaned it out and stuff like that, put some stuff on it. But when I got back to base, they ended up swollowing up and it was all read for a while. It got infected and it was indeed, it just hit the bone and got caught within the bone between the two bones, you know. But what happened against the band that was just dirty and stuff like that. So it got infected. And about three weeks later I
was fine. I was out there again like a demy.
And a couple of months later you got wounded again.
Yeah, Like, but that one, wasn't it? That one? Wasn't that that? Remember, I was telling you that was like a bumble bee hitting you. We were we were in h where was I We were in the rice petty. I think at that time we turned around. We were we were out there in the bush and they had some snipers out there, and I don't know, as I was walking, I guess I must. I guess they were aiming for my head or something, and my arm must have went up or something and they hit me. I
got the little hole right there. You shook and see you can still see the little ho where it went through and it came out to this other side. But that was I mean that one. It was really nothing. I mean I didn't even get those stitchers or nothing.
It's amazing that you just take it all in stride. When did your deployment end.
Oh, I got out of there in late sixty eight, almost in fact December, I think just before Christmas. I came home just before Christmas.
Many Vietnam soldiers, as you know, were treated horribly when they came home. Did you experience any of that?
Yeah, I tried to stay away from it. We came back to California. I was at home for thirty days, and they had a lot of the protests, but in San Jose it was more you didn't have a lot of the big major colleges that they were doing this stuff. So I really didn't get involved with it. When I you know, I went back to I had thirty day leave and I went to Fort in Inward, Missouri as
a DII in training and I was training explosives. We used to have a lot of protesters, and then I got moved back to Fort Campbell, Kentucky where the Green Beret units are at, and that's armor MAO were with one hundred and sixty eight Special Forces I was attached to. Went back there and I with a di there for a little while, and then I got out of the military.
That's US Army veteran David Rodriguez, who served as a combat engineer during the Vietnam War. Up next, mister Rodriguez tells us about his work with the American GI Forum and why he says the care of our veterans still has a long way to go. I'm Greg Corumbus, and this is Veterans Chronicles. This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus.
Our guest in this edition is David Rodriguez, a US Army veteran who served three years in the Vietnam War, endured three different wounds, and received the Bronze Star for his valor in ending an enemy ambush against him and his fellow soldiers in December nineteen sixty seven. Mister Rodriguez is now the National Commander for the American GI Forum,
which serves as a voice for Hispanic veterans. He told me about the advocacy the American GI Forum does for our veterans and why medical care for them still needs to improve a lot.
Our job is to drone and help our veterans. I think that our veterans are still getting treated pretty bad.
You know.
I'm a of course a disabled bet myself, and the treatment that we get. See the VA always saying that we're progressing on how we're treating our veterans in the hospital and stuff like that. But it's easy for them to say on TV and senor that this is what we're doing that, but when you actually go to the hospital and you see some of the other veterans, and for you to go see your doctor, it takes one whole year. If you had a primary doctor at the VA, you could not go see him. You can go to
the emergency room, but you could not. If you call to say I need appointment with my primary doctor, they would say, I tell you to go to the emergency room. Well, then why do you need a primary doctor for. And so we were talking just a few days ago with some of the veterans reps that came to visit us, and I asked them the same thing, and I go, we're getting too much bow and not enough answers. You know, in California, they broke the state up and three partials.
You got Southern, Central, and Northern. I'm in northern California. I used to be in central California. So when they transferred me, I mean, I used me as an example. When they transferred me, they told me they had to go to the northern part of uh California, uh Medical Hospital for the VA. So okay, So my primary doctor is in San Jose where I used to go all the time. So then I had a transfer to it. And I'm gonna use this for an example. To the
modesto clinic. Well, I go and went to go see my doctor there, and you know, they get my medications. But instead of getting my medications, sees they tell me, well, call your old doctor and to get your medications. So okay, simple, right, call my old doctor. Well I called my old doctor. Oh you're not part of us anymore. You got to go back to your doctor over here. And so I called my doctor over here. He goes, oh, we have to make another appointment, but your appointment ain't scheduling the
next year. So medication. So what I did, cause I'm on SOL security, I went ahead and got Kaiser. So now I go to Kaiser. I'd rather pay the money and get my medication and see my doctor when I want to see him. And so when we ask the Department of Veterans Affairs some of these and it's sad because they can't answer those questions for you. You know, they come and they speak in front of the audience,
but they can't answer that question. You know, Well, you know you have to go back and talk to the primary doctor and if he can't do it, you got to talk to the assistant manager or the director or the director and on or not. Well, why should I have to go to the director, the assistant director that want to be director, or the in between director. Why do I have to go see him when I should be able to get the treatment that I want. It's including other veterans that I that I see and I
talk to. I don't think the veterans are getting treated very good and positions like mine are able to turn and talk to the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Last year I had a chance to go visit with the Undersecretary and we brought some of these things up. And it's easy for them to say because remember, they get paid high dollars and they got beautiful benefits, they got good medical they've got the whole thing. But what we got is not what they got. So when you
ask them, oh, we're going to check into it. So it's easy for them to have a legal pad and write all these things down. But then I'm not there to see it happen or if it goes into the trash can, I don't know. So I never seen anything really happen. So what we do again, we try harder to try to get more of our programs seen by the Department of Veterans Affairs. If not, we try to make sure that our congressmen and our centers know that we're not getting treated good. But you know what politics is.
Politics is all about numbers. And if you don't have enough numbers to shake your hand and they want to kiss your baby and make sure you vote for me. People like me as a commander, and people in the American Legion in VFW and some of the other organizations, and I belonged to all of them. The sad part about it is that we're getting pushed to the back, and our poor veterans are not getting the treatment that they need. So we got to continue fight and work.
That's what the American JF form is doing. We're fighting homeless veterans is a big deal in Stockton, California. I live in Oakdale in Stockton, California. We finally got opened up a small apartment complex that was going to be demolition and we were able to get them to not demolish it and they refabbed it and so now we got some homeless veterans in it. But the thing is that what is the Apartment of Veterans Affairs doing for
homeless vet Oh? Yeah, I can show you a whole bunch of PSAs about what they're doing, But man, I'm in the field all day long, and I sure don't see it. You know, they're saying that they're they're giving money to these people, but I'm trying to figure out what people they're giving the money to. Congloments, people that live on this kind of thing that yeah, they have maybe some apartment complexes, they get paid big bucks, but do they really treat the veterans like the way it's
supposed to be? These are the things that the American GF Forum is fighting for, making sure that homeless veterans don't be just you know, thrown out in the street. A lot of them right now are working from the counties and stuff like you know, Section eights and stuff like that, and they're they're they're going out there and getting Section hs because they don't got any money and they're allowed to by by the federal government to be
able to get a home to sleep in. If they don't have any money, they go to the county and apply for a Section eight and if they get if there's a home to get it, nine times out of ten, the people that own the homes or or the apartment complex that they're going to rent, they don't want to runt into veterans. And I can't understand that. Yeah, they'll runt into a fact. I understand the family needs it too, but so it is a veteran. He's the one that went out there and fought for you. So those are
the things that we're fighting for right now. And it's and it's and it's hard because the amount of of of help that we're getting is not the help that we need. And no matter how much anybody says you can. You can look at all those PSAs and smile and say, Wow, they're doing a fantastic job. But it's not true, and I see it every single day.
Well, thank you for the work that you're doing. Veterans not getting the care they need when they need it from the vas is something thing everybody should be demanding, and that that that improved drastically. What are you most proud of from your service?
I think what I'm most proud of is said my sons, because they always ask me questions about the military, and I tell them all the things that we'd done. And I always tell them that, you know, even though we were in the war, some of the children when I was in Vietnam, we used to help. We used to give them some of our money and and we used to buy clothes and and the p X and when we went out we would give them clothes and stuff like that. We did a lot of stuff in some
of the small villages. There was a lot of us that would go out there and help, you know, build some of the churches. A lot of the churches, especially because there was a lot of Catholic churches there, they would be you know, bombed and stuff like that, and
we would fix them. And there would be a lot of orphan homes there, a lot, I mean a lot, a lot, a lot, and so we would go in some of the time times we would get our sea rations and stuff like that, and we would take them to the orphans' houses and we were given to them. So I used to tell my kids that, go, yeah, we used to take care of those kids because they didn't have anything. Their fathers were dead or something. Some of the kids were amputee, they didn't have a leg
or something because of a mine or something. And so I've always told my kids that I felt obligated to try to help them, and so they always say, you know, Dad, you did pretty good when you were there. I go, well, I sometimes I think I did. I think I'm hoping that I changed some people. I can never say that I changed everybody, but I'm just hoping that I changed a few, you know, young people that you know, didn't look at us like monsters, because I'm sure everybody thought
that we were bad people, you know. So my kids, I think see that my time in the military was good. You know, there's some rough times, but I am proud
of what I've done. I think I served my country and I think I'm still serving my country as a national commander for an organization that you know, it's trying to help other veterans, and it's something that you know in your heart, you feel that, hey, I'm doing something good and I really believe, and I'm one of the persons that I believe if I can help, I can make a change. It's very very important because without those changes, nothing can ever be accomplished. And so we got to
turn on and make changes. And you know, like me and Ernesto and Leona went to see the under Secretary last year. You know, the first thing we were asking what changes can you do? Where can you help us to help you? And so that makes me feel good, That makes me feel proud that I'm trying to do something because I'm old. I'm old, and I'm getting older before you know, I'm gonna die, and so the next generation is going to have to turn and pick it up.
I know that Iraq and Afghanistan were a real bad situation because you see it, I mean you actually see it, because you see all these people with no legs, no arms. I mean, just look at wounded warriors and all the help that they're doing. Look at the tut T two t all the things that they're doing building homes. You know, I donate money to all of those because I feel that it's important because if we can help one veteran, it's one veteran that doesn't need help, and that makes
me feel proud. So me being in the military, I think it gave me a foresight to say I can do good.
And lastly, sir, what does it mean to you to have us capture your stories so that the present generation and future generations can learn from it?
Well, I think it very much. I wasn't really expecting it something different. I'm nervous. I never had nothing like this done before. So I hope whoever gets a chance to see this get something out of it, because being in war, you know, it's not like a like TV. TV can make it good and ugly, but reality is totally different. So if somebody can turn around and say, Okay, hey, you know I'm listening to this gentleman's story, you know it's you know, he was laughing about, you know, in
Japan and what he did in Japan. Because there is good and there is bad. You know, there's fun in the military and there's not the whole idea. If they can understand what it's all about and where it's going to take them, then it's important. If they want to join the military, just understand what they're joining. And I do believe because too my boys to h they Junior and Michael joined the army and then they did their time and it got out. They never got a chance
to go to war. So I was happy. But the thing is, if these young people see my story, let's say, and they turn on and say, wow, this guy went to all this, I don't want to go there. But it's not always bad because there's parts in the military that are good. You don't have to be an infantry person, you don't have to be an engineer, you don't have to be a green Beret. You don't have to be any of those things. Because the military is changing so much that you can actually get a lot of benefits
from it. Because the military is not a bad situation. The only thing that you have to understand that there is bad too, because if you go to war, you have to understand that war is not good. And I'm just hoping that anybody anybody, especially the young, because the young for some reason, they don't understand the military, and with all the things that are going on and maybe
World War IIE coming around the corner. You know, none of the none of the young people are prepared, not mentally or even physically, because if something happens, what are they going to do. Physically, they're not fit for being in the military. Mentally, some of them are not mental to be in the military. So I really believe that if the young person sees this, start working your way in case something happens, because the future is going to be theirs, not mine no more, because I'm done, and
they got to be makeing. They got to make sure that they can take care of that future because without that, what's going to happen to you or me? You know, because you're at a certain age, the young people are going to have to pick up the baton. So are young people, and that's who I feel that should watch a lot of this stuff so they can understand that, hey, I gotta I got to be prepared, and being prepared is going to take you around the world.
David, thank you so much much for your time with us today. I greatly enjoyed our conversation and most of all, thank you for your service to our country.
Well, thank you very much, thank you for having me in it, and I hope I did a good job.
He did a fantastic job. David Rodriguez is a US Army veteran of the Vietnam War. He received a Bronze Star with a V for Valor for his actions to put to an end an enemy ambush in December of nineteen sixty seven. He's also a Purple Heart. Recipients, I'm Greg Corumbus. This is Veterans Chronicles. Hi, this is Greg Corumbus, and thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicles, a presentation of the American Veterans Center. For more information, please visit American
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