Video Log Joseph D. Tramontano Vietnam War U.S. Army Born: 10/13/1944 Interview Date: 07/07/2012 Interviewed By: Eileen Hurst

Transcription

1 Video Log Joseph D. Tramontano Vietnam War U.S. Army Born: 10/13/1944 Interview Date: 07/07/2012 Interviewed By: Eileen Hurst 00:00:00 Introduction 00:00:34 Tramontano was a paratrooper in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. 00:00:43 He achieved the rank of sergeant. 00:00:48 He served in Pleiku, Plei Me, An Khe, Kontum, Bong-Sohn, Ia Drang, Chu Pong, LZ Betty, LZ Mary, LZ English, Cambodia, Laos, North Vietnam, and Thailand. He was a scout for the Army. 00:01:35 He enlisted on March 13, :01:47 He was living in Ansonia, CT at the time. 00:02:02 After graduating from high school, he felt he wasn t college material. Instead, he joined his preferred military branch. 00:02:29 He chose the Army because he wanted to be a paratrooper (like his uncle). 00:02:44 His uncle was a paratrooper in World War II, who completed two combat jumps during the war. 00:02:59 He completed his basic training at Fort Dix, NJ. The course lasted for eight weeks, then an additional eight weeks of advanced infantry training. He then completed both airborne and air assault training at Fort Benning, GA. 00:03:41 He felt scared and disoriented during the first eight weeks of basic training. It was difficult to endure without having his family nearby. 00:04:25 He was considered a light infantryman or a 111. As a consequence, he was trained to use a rifle, machine gun, pistol, grenade launcher, flamethrower, and grenades. He was designated as a M-60 machine gunner. 00:04:56 He trained with the machine gun in both basic and advanced infantry training. 00:05:05 He recalls his instructors from basic training. Lieutenant Jacobs was his platoon leader and Sergeant Livesay was his platoon sergeant. Livesay was a paratrooper in World War II with two combat jumps. 00:06:02 After graduating from basic training, the soldiers had a weekend of rest before advanced infantry training. 00:06:26 He performed well as a machine gunner, but he couldn t shoot well with a rifle or pistol. 00:06:50 His primary weapon was the M-60 machine gun, an air cooled weapon that fired 600 rounds per minute and weighed 23 pounds. 00:07:08 Airborne training lasted another four weeks and was very difficult both physically and mentally. The first week of training was called PCM (Physical Conditioning and Motivation). After he completed jump school, he became a qualified Army parachutist.

2 00:08:45 After jump school had concluded, he went to rappelling school at Fort Benning. Some of the other graduates went on to serve in the 82 nd and 101 st Airborne divisions. He was unhappy that he stayed, but this delay allowed him to enter the reactivated 11 th Airborne Division. Air assault was a new concept of airborne warfare that trained soldiers for helicopter assaults. 00:09:39 They trained on rappelling from towers for one week, then another week was spent learning how to rappel from a helicopter. 00:09:58 Tramantano did not learn of the deployment to Vietnam until rumors of an altered unit designation spread through the ranks. One night, President Johnson announced on television that his unit would receive their orders for a Vietnam deployment the paratroopers were stunned! 00:11:00 They were redesignated from the 11 th Airborne Division to the 1 st Air Cavalry Division. 00:11:23 He remained at Fort Benning for two years, training every day. Unfortunately, many of his fellow paratroopers from his training were transferred to new units. The army split the unit up so that veteran air assault troops would be able to offer insight to new recruits. 00:13:16 He redeployed to Vietnam in August 1965 as part of an advanced party. The remainder of the unit arrived by boat in September :13:31 Most of the infantry and helicopters were brought to Vietnam on transport ships. The unit was equipped with UH-1 Huey helicopters, CH-47 Chinooks, and OH- 6 Little Birds. 00:14:44 He landed at Tan Son Nhut airfield in Saigon, Vietnam. 00:15:01 His first sensory impressions in Vietnam were the heat and the smell of death. 00:15:24 He was sent to a base camp in An Khe. When he first arrived, their base was surrounded by tall grass, which their General ordered them to remove. The troopers went outside the wire with machetes and cleared the surrounding area by hand. 00:16:38 He was stationed in An Khe for most of his tour. He was originally assigned to the 1/8 infantry platoon, however, the 1/9 were short of machine gunners and he volunteered to join this scout platoon. 00:17:55 He stayed with this unit until he was wounded. The 1/9 were the reconnaissance element of the 1 st Air Cavalry division. Their mission was to locate the NLF or NVA. 00:19:28 One of his first missions was to scout the Ia Drang Valley. He was sent to the Chu Pong mountains was a dense triple canopy jungle area. Control of these Central Highlands was believed to determine the final outcome of the war. The 1 st Cavalry was assigned to defend this area. 00:21:17 There were 24 men in the 1/9 scouts. They would be broken into three man teams in order to canvass an area. From a central staging area, they would spread out and investigate the surrounding area. They would reconnoiter as well as conduct ambushes against the North Vietnamese. 00:22:42 They conducted both reconnaissance and ambush operations in the Chu Pong mountains. This was the beginning of the battle for the Ia Drang. They recorded 12,000-15,000 NVA soldiers traversing the Ho Chi Minh trail. Nevertheless, these reports from the scout platoon conflicted with Army intelligence reports. The 1/9 ambushed the NVA and with support from 1/8, withdrew from the Chu Pong mountains. Colonel Stockton led the relief element to the ambush. There were two American casualties. These early indications did not satisfy the army leadership.

3 Soon, they would discover that there were 4,000 NVA soldiers residing in the Chu Pong mountains. 00:28:10 In October-November 1965, the scouts were deployed to LZ Mary and LZ Betty. 00:29:16 At LZ Mary and LZ Betty, 1/9 encountered NVA soldiers. 00:30:17 1/9 was at An Khe when Colonel Moore and 1/7 became trapped in the Ia Drang Valley. The battle lasted from 11/14/ /17/1965, his unit was sent there on 11/17/ :30:51 Although the battle began on November 14 th, 1/9 did not reinforce 1/7 until November 17 th. He describes Colonel Moore as a very relaxed, composed military officer. In his opinion, he saved many soldiers of 1/7 by calling in a Broken Arrow request. This radio call indicates that an American unit is about to be overrun by the enemy and requests air support from every available aircraft in the area. The scouts were also called in due to this request. 00:32:37 The scouts landed in LZ Albany and LZ X-Ray. The Ia Drang Valley was the bloodiest battle of the Vietnam War, 305 casualties in three days. 00:33:29 They arrived in the Ia Drang Valley by helicopter. He was the first man out of the helicopter. As soon as he disembarked the aircraft, he saw a mortally wounded man who was bleeding from the throat. 00:34:41 He did not know Colonel Moore personally, but recognized him as the leader of 1/7. 00:35:02 Colonel Stockton was his commanding officer at the battle. Since they arrived on the third day of battle, he saw dead bodies everywhere both American and NVA. He recalls the smell of death and the sulfur of expended ammunition. 00:36:32 He emplaced his machine gun at several sites on the battlefield, one of which was a captured NVA bunker. There, he waited for a counter attack with two other Americans who he told the leave, as his machine gun would attract a large volume of enemy fire. 00:37:50 The Vietnamese fired an RPG at his position, which flew over him and exploded to his rear, peppering him with shrapnel. At the time, he didn t release he had been wounded, he first noticed the wound from the warm sensation pooling in his shirt. The metal in his wound was so hot that it had to be extracted with a knife. 00:39:18 It is difficult for him to recall details because of the intensity of the battle. 00:40:10 He was medevaced off the battlefield during a lull in the battle. 00:40:52 There were two fatal casualties in his unit and many wounded. 00:41:45 He was medevaced on November 17 tm :42:31 Helicopters arrived periodically to evacuate the wounded and the dead. He has heard from veterans of LZ X-Ray that when the helicopters landed there to evacuate the dead cavalry troopers, the rotor wash blew off the poncho liners, which has been used in lieu of body bags. 00:43:46 He was flown to LZ English, which was a medical evacuation hospital. Thirty years later, the doctor who performed surgery on Tramantano recognized him at a unit reunion. 00:45:07 At LZ English, he was stabilized. Later, he received skin grafts for the wounds on his arms. In March of 1966, he was sent home. He was unable to complete his tour in Vietnam. He was first sent to a hospital in the Philippines, then on to Los Angeles, CA, then to the VA Hospital in Connecticut. Years later, metal from his RPG wound surfaced and he needed another skin graft. 00:48:13 At the time, he didn t realize the significance of the battle for the Ia Drang Valley. He was upset that he didn t go into a conventional airborne unit, but later realized how historic the 11 th Airborne and 1 st Air Cavalry became.

4 00:49:48 Colonel Stockton started the tradition of the Black Stetson hat, as well as leaving an Ace of Spades on the bodies of their enemies. After other units assumed the Ace of Spades tradition, the Cavalry began leaving their patches on the enemy dead. 00:50:37 All of the 1/9 troopers carried Aces of Spades. 00:51:39 Tramontano describes a typical day in the air cavalry. Most of the time, his unit was on patrol. There were very few hot meals and these would be flown out into the field. 00:52:37 He didn t tell his friends or family that he was deploying to Vietnam. Finally, one of his aunts contacted the American Red Cross, who informed them that he had been wounded in Vietnam. 00:54:10 He mainly ate C-Rations, canned meals left over from the Second World War. His favorite meals were hot dog and beans and meatballs and macaroni. There were A Units and B Units. One had a pound cake in it and the other had fruit. The rations came with cigarettes, which he traded for the fruit from the B Unit. 00:56:09 At An Khe, there was a limited dining facility. They lived in tents and bathed when it rained. 00:57:13 In the early years, there were few hot meals, but plenty of ammunition and helicopters. 00:58:05 Tramontano comments on the stereotype of Vietnam veterans as drunks and drug addicts. There was no drug use in his unit, as they relied on one another for survival in the field. 01:00:00 For luck, he prayed often. He kept his rosary beads close at hand and carried them from Fort Benning to Vietnam. 01:00:32 Even through he was not a smoker, he carried a Zippo. The infantrymen were firebugs and would use their Zippos to burn down villages. 01:01:00 For entertainment, there was an enlisted man s club at their base. 01:01:14 He saw a Bob Hope / Joey Heatherton USO show at the An Khe base camp. 01:01:37 He was granted R&R for wounds received at Ia Drang. He travelled to Bangkok, Thailand, which he describes as the sin city of the world. 01:02:28 He thought very highly of his officers. Many of them were the same age when they deployed (early 20s). He believes the 1 st Cavalry was the best division in the Army. 01:03:14 He thought his fellow servicemen were awesome. 01:03:30 There is an annual reunion for veterans from the Battle of Ia Drang. The reunions began in the 1990s. He has attended twelve of them, beginning with the thirtieth reunion in He met Colonel Stockton again, who was the keynote speaker at the reunion. He recalls some advice from Stockton, who told him that due to the jungle humidity, he would be more comfortable without underwear. 01:05:12 Tramontano wore a barbed wire collar to stay awake on night operations. When infantrymen are put on 100% alert, no one is allowed to sleep. This was the pitch of battle in the Ia Drang Valley. 01:07:01 He was awarded several medals and citations, including the Vietnamese Gallantry Cross, the Purple Heart, the Vietnam Campaign Medal, the National Defense Medal. The Air Cav received the Presidential Unit Citation, which was the only award of this type issued by President Johnson during his term in office. 01:07:48 He faced a difficult adjustment to civilian life. He desired to return to Vietnam, but his mother pleaded with him to remain a civilian. To this day, he feels as though he missed his calling by choosing not to return to Vietnam.

5 01:08:52 After his discharge, he returned to Ansonia, CT. Urban redevelopment had significantly altered the appearance of his town and he needed to call his aunt and uncle to learn where his parents were living at the time. He took the train to New Haven, CT, then a cab to Ansonia. This dramatic change on the homefront caused him to experience culture shock. 01:10:13 He suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) when he returned home. He felt irritable, angry, and experienced nightmares. His platoon sergeant offered him a word of advice, make peace with your ghosts. 01:12:23 He was able to get a shop job at Scovill s in Waterbury, CT. 00:12:42 Many of his family members worked at the Scovill plant, which made it easy for him to find a job. The company made brass zippers and buttons for the military. He worked there for ten years until he was laid off. He went to school to be a dental technician, but left UConn Medical School because of the low pay rate for that position. After that, he was an exterminator for thirty years. 01:14:39 He recalls that there were protestors at JFK Airport when he returned home. From behind police barriers, they threw raw eggs at recently returned GIs. When he arrived in Los Angeles, the stewardesses advised them to change out of their uniforms before they left the plane. 01:16:23 During a visit to the Vietnam War Memorial, a former protestor apologized to Tramontano for her treatment of returning soldiers. 01:17:33 He feels as though he missed his calling by not returning to military life. He appreciates that his daughter is now in the armed forces. He raised his daughter to believe that women are just as capable of military service as men. She was the first woman at Valley Forge military college to become a battalion leader. 01:21:06 He is a member of VFW, American Legion, 1 st Cavalry Association, 11 th Air Assault Association, 1/9 Cavalry Association, Vietnam Veterans of America, and the Ia Drang Alumni. 01:21:39 Each year, he attends two reunions. On Memorial Day and Veterans Day, he visits the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, DC. The Ia Drang veterans meet there every November. 01:22:19 He feels that his military service negatively affected his life through his PTSD. In a positive sense, he feels the military instilled values of honesty, integrity, and sincerity. 01:23:51 He has many upsetting memories from the war, as he lost friends there. After this trauma, they faced rejection at home and a sense of failure at the loss of American life for little gain. 01:24:52 In 1996, he returned to Vietnam. A group of Ia Drang survivors returned to Vietnam and felt positive results, influencing Tramontano to do the same. He was shocked at the positive reaction he received from the Vietnamese. 01:26:02 He visited the remains of An Khe., which were stripped of American insignia. He feels that the American people harbor more hatred towards the Vietnamese than they harbor towards Americans. He was surprised, for the Vietnamese lost four million people during the war. 01:27:23 He did not return to the Ia Drang Valley, as it is considered a red area. Instead, he made it as far as the 5 th Special Forces camp at Plei Mei. 01:28:05 He returned with a group of about eighteen veterans. 01:28:52 He felt a sense of closure after he returned to Vietnam, although, he feels that this reunion is not for everyone. 01:29:28 The return stirred up repressed memories, but now that those memories are in retrospect, he achieved a sense of closure.

6 01:30:05 He would not return, unless his family wished to go with him. 01:30:15 He feels as though the film We Were Soldiers is about 90% accurate. If the audience could smell the death on the battlefield, they could feel as if they were there.