Vietnam War veteran Gary Booth talks about his experiences. Booth lived in Billings, Montana prior to his time in the U.S. Army in 1965. He received the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star.
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Even though he was a conscientious objector, he still served as as a corpsman in a front line combat unit. He still did his duty, and unarmed as well. A true man of honor.
He's not a Corpsman he's a Combat Medic Brother and a big deal,.but I agree yes, Balls of Steel. It's no fun, to begin with, treating pre-hospital trauma much-less combat trauma patients in dangerous conditions, scenarios, and incidents in the field but high-crime areas with constant gunfire in proximity but I can't even imagine being right in the middle of the 30-minute fierce firefight, shit trying to reach casualties much less treat, hold people together and ducking behind 6" trees? This guy chose not to carry a weapon! ?? SPECIAL HUGE RESPECT from someone who can somehow come close to imagining it what that's really like? Man, (I am thinking if they are shooting at me as well?, I think I can swing the extra 18lbs of a weapon and ordinance. Lots of respect from an old (FireMedicV-Capt.Ret), ANy conscientious objector should be honored. That's why we have America. Let's make sure we de-politicize war as a way for the elite to control. We are trusting the wrong people with the arms!
@@johnschauer7000 Ahh, didn't see your correction until after I posited. I have a Q? The ones who move with the Marines are "Combat Corpsmen" no, or am I mistaken??
I graduated highschool in 1967. By the time I took my physical for the draft, we had been told by the returning soldiers that the war was political bullshit and to avoid the draft at any cost. Army was two years, Air Force was four. I gambled on the Air Force and the closest to Nam I got was the Philippines. Counting body bags and escourting body bags back to the States. These so called "men", were for the most part "kids" of 17 to 20 years old. I lost my best friend from highschool and a close cousin in 67 and 70. The damage cannot be assessed properly, because most returned alive, but mentally damaged. PTSD was at first dismissed, then after years of denial the VA allowed treatment. The streets were filled with homeless vets in the 70s, 80s and 90s. Now homeless Nam vets have been replaced with Gulf vets. The politicians start the war and let our grandkids fight it.
YOU SIR are the reason I am PROUD to call myself an American......Thank You for your Service and Dedication to our Country during a very difficult time........GOD BLESS ALL VIETNAM COMBAT VETERANS and WELCOME HOME SIR.......JOB WELL DONE !!
When you are dealing with combat veterans after the fact, the guys with the wild crazy Rambo stories, or who seem to come up with “I can’t talk about that” or “top secret mission” generally are full of crap, stolen valor commandos. The real deal are like this, solid guys just doing a job, even the guys with big medals. The fakers and BS artists use the pronoun “I” a lot, it’s all about them. The real deal..... it’s a team effort, “We”. Thank you for your service, and welcome home brother!
Thanks you for your service Gary. As others have said you are an amazing and humble man. I hope you and your family are doing well and you are happy. Peace on your journey... God bless
Draftee May 67 with service in Vietnam from 68-69. I had a safe job but always appreciated the medics. My brother in law was a huey pilot and broke his femur after a crash. He got 60% disability and still limps in his late 70s.
I hope you read the comment section Gary. Thank you for your distinguished service & sharing your story even though it might have been a tough thing to do. My father was in WW2 & he didn't like to talk about his service unless he saw I was really interested in what he had to say. Those stories I will always remember.
You can get used to almost anything. We operated on six weeks cycles. They dropped us somewhere in the middle of then enemy in territory that he controlled and we spent six weeks walking back to our main base. We go four to five days in the rear and did the whole thing over again.
Thank you Gary for serving your country and thank you as a witness to your religious conventions, as a young man it’s not easy to stand apart especially in boot camp. I became a believer after serving in the Navy, you’re a great example and living testimony as a brother in Christ, I find that incredibly encouraging. Thank you Daryl for yet another great interview! Obviously it’s a strong passion of yours, I appreciate what you’re doing.
A father and grandfather to be proud off to the children and grandchildren of the Vietnam veterans tell them that you are proud of them and that you love them
Sincere respect for Mr. Booth. Such a wonderful, inspiring person. And sincere respect for all Your guests. It is so calming and strengthening to see how these people overcame the hardships and share with us their emotional strength. It must be emphasized, because so much injustice has been done and told against these people. Well, at least, as for someone who had been under communist indoctrination as a kid, a can proudly say, that for some reason, I didn't trust our teachers talking about Vietnam. Listening to these brave, sincere people, I am even more glad that I kept my opinion back then. Sincere regards !
Other than everyone shooting at each other, heavy artillery and shrapnel all night, sleeping in a fox hole, crappy food, elephant grass, VC popping out of tunnels, venomous snakes and spiders, alligators, dysentery, malaria, cholera, carpet bombing, search and destroy missions, and body counts, Vietnam was a beautiful place!
My Mom, from Lewistown, had all 5 brothers in action in WWII, and all three sister went to Tacoma and worked for the war effort, my mother a welder. Uncle Dan was a Corpsman, in on first wave invasions of North Africa, Sicily, Italy, and Normandy. He earned 5 Bronze Stars, served decades as State Commander of the American Legion. Mr. Booth... [SALUTE]
What can I say but God bless you men. My ex wife's dad was a WWII battlefield doctor. I was a punk kid of 20 in 1963 when I married his daughter and had not a clue of the stature of Dr Elkins. It is no wonder it was all he could do to be even civil to me.
I have watched many of these personal testimonials to time spent in the military during the Vietnam War. Mr. Booth's account is one of the best at capturing the heart wrenching dilemna's faced in fierce combat situations. He really brought to life the personal impact of being a medic. And his post war humility at earning the Bronze start commendation was brought to light here too. Thank you Billings Gazette and every Vietnam Veteran who recorded their stories. IMPORTANT PUBLIC RECORD. Thank you most of all to each veteran for their service.
Ive been slowly working my way through all of these interviews. I think I'm about halfway through the entire series. I really, deeply appreciate that these mens stories are being preserved for future generations. Thank you to all those involved.
Wow this is the first C.O in the series. I support your status completely. No citizen should be forced to perform a job his or her moral principals preclude.
How bad was it? I joined the Army in June 1976 as 11b10, my drill Sargent just got back from Vietnam. Everyone should have returned by 1974, not always the case. I enlisted for 3 years and extended for 6 months when I got married so I could get command sponsor for housing. That marriage did not work out. Joining the dating pool after marriage was over was tough. Had to show woman my ID to prove I was to young to go to Vietnam, I was 17 years old in 1976. Woman wanted nothing to do with soldiers coming back from Vietnam. It's shameful how soldiers were treated after returning from Vietnam.
These should have more views. Jr. High and High schoolers should be required to view interviews of US veterans. That should include everything from the most gung ho enlistees to those like this gentleman, a religious conscientious objector. There’s a role for everyone to support their country. Thank you for your service. (P.S. I like the idea of taking a practical course instead of two weeks of partying on leave. My nephew got stuck in Boston for a month due to COVID travel restrictions. Instead of sitting around eating pizza and binge watching Netflix, he took an on-line class offered for potential US Navy recruits. He’s graduating BC, in May, coming home to work for a year or more...depends, to pay off debts, assist with family legal matters, and then plans to follow in the family tradition of Navy service. He wants to serve on a carrier.
Thats an awesome young man. It really gives me hope. I'm only 34. But, a lot of what I see with the being glued to phones etc... has me worried about Gen Z. God bless and Hoorah
I spent my whole weekend decompressing from work playing call of duty zombies and listening to these interviews. There are no words to express how grateful I am for you doing this. The way you talk to these guys as a human with respect almost puts me at tears.
Why are there Ads attached to these videos ,, they should be 100% advertisement free , it is just a disgrace to those that have served.. I know they are just at the beginning but still youtube should insist no ads
How do you know the money isn't used for good purposes. Your stereotyping the channel and its choice to place ads. You dont know if they paid them or what the deal is. All you know is there are ads. If you use premium you won't ever see any ads by the way
I'd insist no war but unfortunately our government wanted to lie and start Vietnam. Fast forward to now and look what's been happening again. We aren't fighting for freedom that's all bs
Why does so many people in the Comments...."Semper Fi" or call him a corpsman. He WAS A COMBAT MEDIC which is in the Army. Fort Sam Houston is an Army Medical Fort. That's where I served.
Many saying "Semper Fi" are younger kids not knowing what that means, but trying to show respect. It's cool to say that when you're 15 y/o and the only thing you know about violence is what you've learned playing video games.
Love Your Enemies (Matthew 5:38-48) 27But to those of you who will listen, I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone takes your cloak, do not withhold your tunic as well. 30Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what is yours, do not demand it back. 31Do to others as you would have them do to you.
Ok I love what you have done. I appreciate it, but on this one, it got a bit surreal. I had to take breaks from the tone of your voice sometimes and could only hang in there until 10417 when you said: "30% casualty rate, Wow so (20 min air evac and 24 hrs transport to reach a rear medical facility with an open impact-(crushing-projectile-)-break that was a long day. you ahhhhh Er Eh then so what was the diagnosis ah eh (etc.) ?" VET: Well I had a fractured (broken) femur, nerve damage, so they put me in a chest down body cast *" Interviewer: Hmm, Wow that seems almost unnecessary but um, I guess. (??) "Is that what happened." The guy's hands fall apart a few inches or so, as if to say. "umm, yes. I know it sounds like a lie but, that's how it happened.." Me. . Then you snapped out of it. :) *(Wow is right, I'm not an MD but a broken (OrthoBullet snapped crush break), not fractured femur which, unless it's a lower femur and needs immediate traction, 3/4 body cast seems reasonable considering the necessity of immobilizing your entire lower spine hip.to the ball of your foot.. Serious injury can easily be fatal. with artery damage or sever, or just from shock alone. All razzing aside, Amazing quest, With gratitude for your preserving these chronicles. I hope my cousins have logged in with you. M.I.A. P.O.W., K.I.A. VIET NAM, KOREA AND VETS OF ALL WARS, We Will Never EVER Forget You. Thank you all.
I think it's good that he asks some of the plain questions about "how did you get through things when you came back", because you can do therapy, you can learn how to deal with trauma, but that doesn't make it go away. It doesn't get in your mind and erase the memories. It just helps you with coping mechanisms. And, for some people, "Getting it out" is therapeutic, and for some, it is NOT therapeutic, it makes it worse. Imagine if you were sexually assaulted, and decades later someone asked you how did you deal with getting on with your life...you'd remember the pain and the loss of a part of you, a part of your youth that you cannot get back. It is not easy to recount that to someone, especially someone you don't know. And these vets were severely judged in the public eye. So, I can imagine that they have learned how to carefully skirt around answers that they would rather not say. And now being older, they truly understand what the loss is. They are much more mature and see the world and LIFE in a more comprehensive way.
I am fascinated by this series as I grew up in Western Germany confronted with television reports from Vietnam and Cambodia every evening for almost a decade. Trying to accept the justification for what good reason our dear ally is bombing Vietnam as a child it was difficult to understand what on the other hand my beloved Grandfather had done so wrong with fighting against the Soviet Union. For me as a 9 to 12 year old when thinking about the US and Germany there was that lack of logic. US-Soldiers always appeared to me as anonymous figures with olivegreen helmets. Now it is interesting to listen to these elder US-citizens who were also drafted to wage war like my grandfather and to compare the emotions. I wonder why most of these veterans suffer from their memories and show a certain kind of self-compassion that is unknown to me as far as I am able to compare with German veterans of WW2. I grew up surrounded by then still middle-aged men who had been in the frontline for years in France, on the eastern front, in Africa, in Italy and in Finland. I always was keen to hear their stories. And they did tell me the details. My grandfather was bearing the close combat medal. He revealed in every detail his several near death experiences in man-to-man-combat with Russian soldiers. All the men were telling me of high moral within the troops. Symptoms of PTSD seemed to be unknown among all those that I had the opportunity to talk with. Including Tiger-Comander Otto Carius - the worlds highest scoring tank ace. Nobody told me about such effects. They were pretty normal people and their worst and most depressing memories they were recalling came from their captivity as POWs either in France or in Russia or in the swamps of Mississippi. But nothing of the forever suffering attitude these veterans of Vietnam are presenting. That´s an interesting difference. And after having watched some of the Vietnam voices there is another difference apparent : All German veterans condemned war as a crime as such while Vietnam veterans seem to accept war as a legal mean of politics.
Your country was behind them. Ours was not behind us. Your soldiers may have been older? Ours were barely out of high school. Different perspectives. If war doesn't affect you, you need help.
@@richardlong8014 our boys went from watching the WONDERFUL WORLD OF DISNEY on sunday nites to the jungles of s. Vietnam in the span of a couple of months. The tour of duty for grunts was a year of almost constant terror fighting communist guerillas and N.V. regulars tempered by years of combat.against the French. The war had a surreal quality with shifting battle plans and terrorist bombings in the south. It pushed the nervous system of many guys to the breaking point. You have to understand the conflict lasted 10 yrs. and we lost the country in the end with a botched withdrawal. I don't need to mention the plight of American POWs.
@@ajaxslamgoody9736 “The thing they forget is that liberty and freedom and democracy are so very precious that you do not fight to win them once and stop.” - Sergeant Alvin York
Good story, somehow the Army got a guy who didn't want to kill anybody in a war, to go to a war and almost get killed saving lives. That's a twist. Glad you made it Gary!
Interviewer: so what was camp like? Vet: Well it wasn't too bad but we- Interviewer: what did you like about it? Vet: hmm id say the- Interviewer: so what did you dislike? Let the man actually finish before immediately asking another question
I was always under the impression that a medic could carry a handgun if he wanted not to actively fire or return fire but to defend who he was treating if fired upon while caring for someone. Is what I heard incorrect? Because it sound like this guy was unarmed
During WW2 most Didnt carry a weapon . After that though things changed from what im reading and found this paragraph from a story which i pasted below. There seems to be a Lot of write ups online about this very topic, didnt think there would be tbh . Cheers. "it was the medic or corpsman who held death at bay during that crucial period. Unlike their predecessors in previous wars, medics and corpsmen in Vietnam fought alongside their fellow soldiers and Marines - many carried rifles, sidearms, even hand grenades along with their medical kits."
I was a medic in an infantry platoon and to tell you the truth, I carried all I could reasonably carry. Normal load was my aid bag, 100 rounds of .60 ammo, a duper (M-79), and a duper vest, 3 LAW rockets, 3 Claymores, 4 hand flares for positioning Dustoffs (medivac helicopters) at night, 4 bandoleers of M-16 ammo and a 45 auto pistol. I would only fire until the first guy was hit and then I would become the medic. Soooo why all the ammo? Easy, I wanted and needed all the cover fire I could get if I had to go out and drag somebody back. Last thing I needed was some new guy yelling "I'm out of ammo". The situation of medic being listed as "non-combatants" was only good if both sides honored the Geneva Convention. Obviously the VC and NVA were not signatories and so the US decided if the enemy didn't respect the GC then we would not either. At the start of the war medics used red cross arm bands and red cross helmets to mark them as non-combatants but we found that they were simply using those markings as targets and the practice stopped entirely. Medics began carrying ammo and weapons at that point. Yes some medics were officially listed as conscientious objector if they applied for that status and were accepted and I knew several who were wounded and then came back to the bush to do it all over again ... one guy was wounded 3 times and still insisted on not carrying a weapon. I tried to talk him into at least carrying one to protect whoever he was working on if not himself. He seemed to think that if he ever had to use it ... that somehow ... it would create a barrier between him and God that he might never be able to climb over ... man made in the image of God and therefore requiring respect and honor was a powerful deterrant to what I saw as simply self preservation. But still ... you've got to respect that ... I never quite had the guts to do it myself. One thing I'm not is a hero!!!!!!! Shalom
I resisted the Draft/Vietnam and filed for Conscientious Objector. Why would I go to Vietnam as a CO as this guy did when the war was wrong? He did his duty as he saw it...and I certainly did mine. I didn't enable my Government in a dysfunctional foreign policy. People like myself brought a quicker end to an illegal war and a national nightmare. That is also called duty and honor.
@@jimreily7538 Yes, my CO filing was accepted to my total amazement. But if it wasn't...the plan was to go to Canada. I lived in Detroit, and Canada was right across the Detroit River. I really liked Canada and its peaceful "vibe" in those days and made many trips over there. I was 18 in 1970 and had the fun of dealing with the Lottery System...and had a LOW number. US casualties were very high at that time and the war was expanding into Cambodia. Even though I avoided the Draft and Vietnam...that damn war took 3 years out of my youth in its own way. As far as protests...just basically those in the Downtown Detroit area. Very risky and dangerous times...and I'm not just talking Vietnam itself. Lots of social/cultural pressures to face.
It’s unfortunate they got all these. men together who have some fantastic stories and intimate knowledge about how the Vietnam war actually was to only be asked. Terrible questions about it from an amateur reporter . There are still some great nuggets of info despite him tho.
At least the amateur reporter bothered to do this. Given it’s just some local rag I think it’s amazing how good these interviews actually are in the circumstances, and also to incredible how many of these the reporter has made.
