SimHQ.com - Land Combat Zone - Interview: Gordon Rottman, US Army (Ret.)

Gordon: I had read a book called Story of the Paratroopers when I was 10. I decided that’s what I wanted to do. I read a lot of military history books in the meantime and was in high school ROTC at a time when it was none too popular. Two of my ROTC buddies and myself volunteered for the Army and airborne infantry out of high school and we ended up at Ft Polk, LA. The three of us went through Basic, infantry training, jump school, and special forces (SF) training together.

John: What was it about Special Forces that interested you?

Gordon: Actually we had no thought of volunteering for SF. We were selected, though, when an SF recruiter screened our records in Basic. We attended a briefing on SF and what sold us was when he said, “I have no quota to fill, all 60 of you can leave.”

By the time he was through asking questions of us (he never told us anything about SF itself), 12 were left and six of us later passed the various qualification tests. I had no idea what I was getting into, but it was one of the best decisions I’d even made.

Cover Green Beret in Vietnam

Green Beret in Vietnam
by Gordon Rottman
Kevin Lyles (Illustrator)

1855325683
SimHQ link to book page at Amazon.com.

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