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

Gordon: Not much. My web gear consisted of four ammunition pouches, two canteens, and two first aid pouches. I carried 13 20-round magazines for my M16A1 rifle, air-to-ground marker gear (strobe light, signal mirror, marker panel), and one frag grenade. In my rucksack I carried a poncho, hammock, spare pair of socks, six meals (one a day and a spare), a knife, four colored smoke grenades, two pop-up flares, two more canteens, about a dozen field dressings, and assorted medical gear. No spare clothes, not even a toothbrush or razor.

John: Were you with one team for your entire deployment?

Gordon: No. I was in A-333 at Chi Linh Camp most of the time. In November 1969 we closed Chi Linh and tuned it over to American control. There were not many VC left in the area. I then went to A-332 at Minh Thanh Camp, some 20 miles away.

Aerial Photo of A-333 Chi Linh Camp

John: Is there a specific experience that stands out more than the others?

Gordon: Countless. Overall, it was a great experience. I guess it just simply how much I learned. Besides all sorts of combat skills I learned how to track, perform all sorts of medical procedures from suturing to delivering babies; how to operate a bulldozer, all kinds of building construction tasks, and a great deal about people because of working with the Strikers and their families. I personally got a great deal of gratification out of working with the indigenous folks. I missed that and that is why I now go on mission trips to Nicaragua to build clinics. We worked hard, played hard, and actually had a great deal of fun. Of course there were combat operations that were scary and at times it was rather miserable. You see a lot of things you’ll never forget and the emotions took wild swings, one moment you could hate humanity and in the next you realized just how wonderful some people could be.

Viet Cong Fighter
by Gordon Rottman
Howard Gerrard (Illustrator)

1846031265
SimHQ link to book page at Amazon.com.

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