Page 112 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2020- Online Magazine
P. 112
Isaac Barraza
"I Would Do It All Over Again"
as told to Jane Bromley
received orders to exploded, it felt like it took forever
Vietnam. He was to hit the ground. Everything was
sent to Battery A 3rd in slow motion. I could hear the
– 34th Artillery 9th men while I was being loaded onto
Infantry Division, the chopper. They tied my arm
RVN. They landed and gave me a shot of morphine,
at Biên Hòa airstrip but, looking down, I could see the
and were loaded firefight. I remember wishing I
on a convoy to could be down there with my men.
Bearcat, a basecamp for the
saac “Ike” Barraza’s life story is Mobile Riverine Force, the “I was taken to the MASH unit at
Dong Tam. The doctor was able to
nothing short of inspirational, joint Army and Navy force tasked
Ibut he narrates it very matter- with both transport and combat on save my left arm, but my medical
records indicated I had ‘a lacerated
of-factly, as if it’s not a big deal. the rivers of Vietnam.
As the story unfolds, however, it Ike was assigned to a barge on brachial artery, median and ulnar
becomes clear that this man is a nerve lacerations, left upper
genuine hero. the Mekong River with Team 102 extremity shell fragment wounds,
(named for the lightened 105mm laparotomy to the left abdomen,
It began in Rocky Ford, Colorado howitzers aboard). “We were like arthrotomy of the right knee with
in 1946. Ike was the second oldest sitting ducks, going up and down fracture of the right femur condyle,
in a blended family with eight the rivers and canals” because of shell fragment wounds to the left
brothers and one sister. When Ike the snipers constantly shooting thigh and hip, scars on the left
was seven, they moved to Leoti, from the jungles along the banks. upper extremity, shell fragment
Kansas, where his stepfather “One day, my CO informed me wounds to the right thigh, shell
worked as a farmer. He described fragments to the face and neck,
his childhood as happy until that I had just volunteered for fragments and wounds to the right
sniper training. Another soldier
tragedy struck four years later, upper extremity.’”
when his mother was killed in and I were out on the next chopper.
They called it ‘on-the-job training’
a car accident. Amazingly, Ike’s Ike was sent to the Long Bend
stepfather was able to raise all nine because, during that two weeks, we MASH unit, then to the Evac
came under fire. My spotter was
children by himself. “We were Hospital in Yokohama, Japan, and
inseparable, and to us, he was shot in the face right next to me. finally, to Fort Sam Houston in
always our real father.” “After my training was complete, San Antonio for five months. “I
was discharged May 16, 1969, and
At age 18, Ike joined the National I was sent back to my unit. On sent to the Albuquerque, NM, VA
Thanksgiving Day, 1968, we saw
Guard. He went to basic training Hospital for rehab for six more
at Fort Leonardwood and to Fort Tango boats (ATC – Armed Troop months. I came home to Lubbock,
Carriers) coming up the river. It
Riley as a cannoneer 1st Infantry divorced and later married
Division. When he got out in 1966, turns out they were bringing us Rosemary Esquibel. Together, we
Thanksgiving dinner. We tied our
a buddy from Abernathy invited have four sons, one daughter, 20
him to come to Lubbock, where boats up, I got my food, and that is grandchildren and seven great-
when all hell broke loose. Mortar
he went to work for Borden Milk grandchildren.”
Company. He married his buddy’s fire and sniper fire ruined the rest
of our holiday meal.
sister, and the couple had two Ike had attended Draughon’s
children. Before the second one “December 8, 1968, we were sent Business College before Vietnam,
was born, he was called back to to VC (Viet Cong) Island (near but it closed while he was in the
active duty. (350,000 men were Dong Tam). I jumped from the hospital. He graduated from
recalled in 1967.) He was sent to barge to secure the landing craft. American Dental Tech College
the 101st Airborne Army at Fort I moved in to clear some jungle in Arlington and later attended
Campbell Kentucky where he grass and hit a booby trap. When it Lubbock Christian College. He
listed over a dozen cities where
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