Page 71 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2020- Online Magazine

Robert Herrera Prayers for Kilo MARINE CORPS

Company 3/5 VIETNAM

by Jane Bromley AM AR I LLO

Congratulations “ Mclose to death so many drafted. He came home and first firefight.” He was assigned
y mom was special,”
Robert says. “I came so
to Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion,
enlisted in the Marine Corps.
Boot camp at MCRD – San
5th Marines. When he arrived
Robert Herrera times. But she and my sisters Diego was “like a nightmare” at the Chu Lai compound,
for the 18-year-old. “We lived in
“They handed me a machine
prayed the rosary for me every
night while I was in Vietnam.”
was intended to tear you down
have bunker watch. Anything
Robert had a happy childhood Quonset huts, and the training gun and said, ‘Tonight, you
growing up with eight siblings. so they could rebuild you. comes toward you, shoot it.’”
ONEOK WesTex Transmission, a subsidiary of ONEOK, Inc., His dad worked for the Santa We all knew we were going After that, when patrols went
Fe Railroad for 36 years, and
to Vietnam. If you had any
salutes Purple Heart recipient and retiree Robert Herrera for his the family lived in railroad- attitude problems, they were out on night maneuvers, Robert
accompanied them as gunner.
military service and sacrifice. furnished “section housing” gone by the time you finished. “Sometimes, we did search
When you got your eagle,
in the settlements of Black,
Masterson and Gluck (on the globe, and anchor medal, it was and destroy missions for two
weeks or more. We were always
ONEOK’s WesTex Transmission system is an intrastate pipeline system operating within Texas Bivins’ Ranch) before moving to a moment you never forget. on foot, and it often got up to
Amarillo. “We had fun growing
You knew you’d earned it, and
that consists of approximately 2,200 miles of pipeline of various sizes up to 24 inches in up – lots of kids had horses; that you were a Marine.” 110º in the jungle.” Two of the
diameter. my dad always took us rabbit- biggest operations, the 3rd/5th
hunting. It was good.” Pvt. Herrera was trained was involved in were Union I
on M60 machine guns and (April 1967) and II (May 1967).
The pipeline system is connected to major natural gas producing areas in the Texas Panhandle, After graduating from Caprock deployed to Vietnam in Feb. During Union I, “We were in
Waha Hub and Permian Basin. ONEOK WesTex transports natural gas between Mid-Continent High School in 1966, Robert and 1967. “I wasn’t afraid. They had the 1st platoon, cutting our
way up the mountain with
trained us [thoroughly]. It never
a buddy headed to California
and Waha pipelines. in his ’58 Chevy. They weren’t entered my mind that I might machetes. Near the top, we
there a month before he was be killed – at least, not until the were told to halt and allow the
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