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David H. Kruger, Dartmouth Class of 1964. Oral history interview documenting his experience as a Dartmouth College student and his military service during the Vietnam War. Kruger attended Phillips Exeter Academy for high school, and spent four years at Dartmouth in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army and trained in Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia. Kruger entered into the Military Intelligence branch (MI) and worked in the United States for the first two years safeguarding information. He then spent one year in An Khê, Vietnam, collecting, synthesizing, and delivering information as the liaison officer to the commanding general of the 1st Cavalry Division (1st Cav). Kruger left Vietnam in January of 1967. He was registered as a disabled veteran at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, and then spent a fourth year in the army at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Kruger left the army and went into the private insurance sector, working for the same company for 30 years and retiring at age 55. He discusses his travels, his return (multiple times) to Vietnam, and his retirement. He published a family history, winning the Donald Lines Jacobus Award (National prize for genealogy), and joined the boards of Wentworth Institute of Technology and New England Historic Genealogical Society. He has since published other family histories. Kruger also discusses his geopolitical views of current events, and of the Vietnam War.
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Glen R. Kendall, Dartmouth College Class of 1964, Tuck School of Business Class of 1971. Oral history interview documenting his service in the United States (US) Army during the Vietnam War. Kendall discusses his experience at Dartmouth studying economics and participating in Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). He describes his time in an Infantry Officer Basic Course (IOBC) at Fort Benning, Georgia, and his assignment to an infantry position in Europe, as Captain of the Airborne Mechanized Infantry Brigade in Mainz, Germany. In Vietnam, he was in the 196th Light Infantry Brigade in Chu Lai. He then became battalion staff (battalion logistics officer) near Tam Ky. Kendall returned to the US after sustaining injuries in a firefight and was subsequently awarded a Purple Heart. He discusses his opinion of war, the Iraq War, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
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Bruce D. Jolly, Class of 1965. Oral history interview documenting his service in the United States (US) Army during the Vietnam War. Jolly describes joining the Ordnance Corps in January 1968, achieving the rank of First Lieutenant, serving in Bien Hoa at the Long Binh Depot, and working as Chief of Computer Operations. Discusses living in Vietnam, the interactions between US officers and Vietnamese citizens, and the US societal perceptions shifting during his time in college, graduate school, and after the war. As a student at Dartmouth College, member of Dartmouth Society of Engineers, Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity, Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). Attended Darned School of Business at University of Virginia and worked at IBM prior to serving in Vietnam.
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Hinman, Jeffrey H. Dartmouth College Class of ’68. Oral history interview documenting his experiences growing up in Rome, New York, near Fort Stanwix; living among military personnel; the ROTC protests in Dartmouth; getting drafted into the US Army; his time at Fort Dix; rejecting military pressure to buy Savings Bonds; his service as an infantryman in the 3rd Brigade of the 82nd Airborne in Vietnam, then as an photographer/correspondent in the 25th Infantry Division; his receipt of a "Congressional Inquiry" regarding his suitability for infantry service; racial relations within his infantry company, and the predominantly African-American mortar platoon; interactions with local Vietnamese in villages; experiencing little war action but learning about U.S. soldiers hurting themselves through their own military mistakes; watching the interrogation and waterboarding of a NVA/VC soldier; being ordered to photograph dead enemy soldiers; service as an assistant battalion legal clerk at Fort Carson; coming home from the war and his experiences with the Veterans Reading Group.
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Feltner, Jonathan Interview Abstract
1. Growing Up in Rochester and ROTC at Dartmouth
2. Post-Grad Training at Quantico
3. First Months in I Corps
4. Time as 3rd Platoon Commander and Guarding the Cua Viet
5. Post-War Return to Vietnam
6. Boat People and the S.S. Mayaguez
7. Political Views and Final Thoughts
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Couser, William Interview Abstract:
1. Growing Up in New England
2. Time at Harvard and Dartmouth Medical School
3. Tour in Vietnam
4. Civilian Training and Career
5. Final Thoughts
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William L. Cooper, Dartmouth Class of 1966. Cooper discusses to what extent religion and academic rigor held his attention in college. Drafted after college, he was told to report to duty in March 1967. Cooper was stationed and trained in Fort Knox, and instead of becoming a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Transportation Corps, he became a chaplain’s assistant. He went to Germany in 1967 and was on a base of the 3rd Armored Division, and then transferred to the joint command base. Cooper remained in Germany for one year, and once released from service, Cooper went to law school. He began at Wayne State University, and then transferred to University of Michigan Law School and graduated in 1972. Cooper then attended library school at the University of Pennsylvania. Cooper discuses his successive jobs and retirement to Virginia.
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Calhoun, John Interview Abstract
1. Early Childhood
2. Experience at Dartmouth and ROTC
3. Attending Stanford Business School
4. Training and Social Dynamics in the Military
5. Highlights from Arrival in Vietnam
6. Transfers: Fire Direction Officer and Executive Officer
7. Returning Home
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Timothy H. Brooks. Class of 1964. Oral history interview for the Dartmouth Vietnam Project. Brooks describes growing up in Hampton, New Hampshire. He describes his older brothers and the death of his father when he was eleven. Brooks discusses his high school career, being valedictorian, and how he discovered Dartmouth. He describes his experience in the Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. He discusses his time at Dartmouth as an Economics major and working in the dining hall. Brooks discusses his participation in the radio station as the Record Librarian and the Administrative Director on the governing board. He credits the experience as launching his later career in television in charge of research. He describes the book he wrote on the history of WDCR, the Dartmouth College radio station, as well as other books. Brooks discusses being assigned to Fort Bragg in North Carolina, assigned to the 518th Signal Company in the Army. Brooks explains his arrival to Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Saigon, Vietnam and then later assigned to Binh Long Helicopter Base as Detachment Commander. He shares how he was struck by the heat, then the people, as well as the boredom he experienced while in Vietnam. Brooks shares how he volunteered to be the Pay Officer to be able to get out of Binh Long once a month. He explains how he connected with Alan R. McKee, Class of 1964, who was the assistant station manager at the armed forces radio station in Saigon. He describes how he did a Sunday morning radio show in Vietnam for a short time. He explains how his company operated the troposcatter, microwave communications.
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Professor Colin C. Blaydon. Oral history interview for the Dartmouth Vietnam Project. Professor Blaydon describes growing up in Newport News, Virginia as the son of a Naval architect and engineer. Blaydon discusses his school experience, race relations, and segregation in Virginia during his childhood. Blaydon describes attending the United States Military Academy at West Point. He shares that West Point was a difficult experience and was able to transfer to University of Virginia as a member of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). Blaydon discusses being commissioned in the Army Corps of Engineers after graduation, however, he attended Harvard University for graduate school and did not go into active duty until 1966 after he completed graduate school. He shares his experience at Harvard studying modern control theory and later received his Ph.D. in applied mathematics. He was commissioned by the Atomic Energy Commission for a nuclear technology fellowship. Blaydon shares how he was able to use his Ph.D. work while on active duty. He describes meeting Alain C. Enthoven after a class at Harvard and as a result of their conversation, Blaydon describes how he was assigned to Secretary of Defense, Robert S. McNamara’s staff. He details his involvement with Army intelligence during the Vietnam War. Specifically his work with drone technology. He describes being sent to the strategic target operations center at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. Professor Blaydon describes returning from Vietnam and working in academia. He worked at Harvard Business School as an Assistant Professor teaching quantitative analysis and finance. He discusses the climate on campus after the war and the difference between graduate and undergraduate student attitudes towards the Vietnam War. He details the events of the Kent State shooting and Harvard’s decision to suspend classes and remove the ROTC from campus. Blaydon describes his involvement with Vietnamese resettlement in the United States after the war. He discusses his career as the Dean of the Tuck School of Business and describes the Tuck School’s participation in establishing a business school for the Vietnam National University during the 1990s. He describes the kind reception of the American’s received in Vietnam during this time.
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Boardman, Donald Interview Abstract
1. Early Childhood in Chicago
2. Dartmouth Career and ROTC
3. Training for the Signal Corps
4. Life at Bien Hoa
5. Promotion to Company Commander
6. Maintaining Family Ties
7. Return to the US and Being a Civilian
8. Updates on Fellow Veterans
9. Final Visit to Vietnam
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Peter D. Barber. Class of 1966. Oral history interview for the Dartmouth Vietnam Project. Barber discusses his childhood living on the Main Line outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He discusses his father, a Dartmouth alum and his involvement in sports prior to his time at Dartmouth. Barber describes his participation with athletics at Dartmouth. He shares stories about his time on the soccer, baseball and basketball teams. Barber describes his relationship with Alden H. “Whitey” Burnham, an influential coach of his. Barber discusses how he struggled with academics and details his relationship with William “Bill” Smoyer, Class of 1967. Barber discusses his marriage four days after graduation and his time spent in graduate school at University of Pennsylvania School of Education. He describes how he had planned to continue on to a PhD program but was drafted instead. Barber describes being sent to Fort Dix and Fort Carson for training. He describes his experience in Vietnam and emphasizes that “everyone’s war is different.” He explains how a mortar round exploded on his unit and how he became permanently injured. Barber describes how his severed spinal cord impacted his life and his feelings about the Vietnam War. Barber shares how he left Vietnam and his experience with the Veterans Affairs hospital in Massachusetts. Barber discusses his depression immediately following his return home. He describes how he and his wife moved to California after he was released from the hospital. Barber explains his participation in antiwar protests with Vietnam Veterans Against the War. He explains how he began working for the Social Security Administration. He shares an account about an antiwar event he participated in with John Kerry and Alan Cranston at Stanford University. Barber mentions his article “Life Support” he wrote in the July-August 2015 Dartmouth Alumni Magazine. https://dartmouthalumnimagazine.com/articles/life-support