Page 72 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2020- Online Magazine
P. 72
He’d so much anger. We’d seen so
always told much death. We all drank. We
us, ‘God is were all trying to forget.” The
with you PTSD and the drinking made it
today.’ hard for Robert to hold a job. A
That night, brother-in-law put him to work,
even after which helped a lot. Robert
he’d been eventually worked for Pioneer
2nd platoon to circle around injured Natural Gas (now NEOK in
and take the lead. The whole himself, he stretched his body Amarillo) for 37 years.
top of the mountain was booby- out over a wounded Marine, He had met Rose at Bowie Jr.
trapped with ‘bouncing betties’. and told him, ‘God is with you.’ High. They married March 30,
There were lots of casualties. He died after being strafed with 1968, and eventually had two
It was my first time seeing our 28 rounds of enemy fire.” Fr. daughters and two sons. “I’m
guys killed. I thought, ‘Mom’s Capodanno was posthumously surprised she never left me,”
prayers are working.’” awarded the Medal of Honor.
Robert says of his wife of 52
Robert remembers how “Swift was the worst. The years.
frustrating the war was. They NVA and VC were killing all He still suffers from PTSD,
would take a hill, then move the wounded. Our lieutenant and not only because of the
out and the Viet Cong would had us bring all the casualties atrocities of war. “When I came
retake it. “We would move in to one location and ordered home from Vietnam, they told
on a village taking incoming me to guard them. ‘You are us not to wear our uniforms.
fire and be told not to return the last line of defense for But I was proud to be a Marine,
fire. We moved around a lot, these men,’ he said. We stood so I wore mine. I was called
taking and retaking the same guard all night.” Robert told names, spit on, and cussed at.”
locations.” many more stories of courage
he’d witnessed, especially by
In September 1967, Operation corpsmen. They were the ones The thing that has helped most
is the reunion of the guys from
Swift was launched to rescue caring for the wounded, even Kilo Company. “Being around
Delta and India Companies under fire. Robert himself was the men from my company,
who were ambushed in the treated for shrapnel wounds. being able to talk to someone
Que Son Valley by an NVA “We lost so many men. Doc who understands – that has
(North Vietnamese Army) Stewart died that night, too.” made a difference.” Besides
regiment 2000 men strong. the K 3/5 group, Robert is
“Kilo Company was sent in. A few months later, the huge a member of the VFW, the
The helicopters at the LZ Tet offensive was launched American Legion, and the
(landing zone) were taking fire against the Allies. “I was out MOPH. The camaraderie of
from the rice paddies, so they in the field in late February. his fellow Marines and other
didn’t land. We just had to My CO sent me back to the veterans provides perspective
jump. The fighting was fierce. compound because I only had and comfort for the now
We had no idea where the two weeks left on my tour. The grandfather of 14, great-
perimeters were. We had no two guys who took over my grandfather of 13.
idea where anybody was. We guns were killed during Tet.”
could hear some of the NVA Corp. (E4) Robert Herrera Robert has a Purple Heart for
shouting, ‘Marine, Marine, you returned stateside and served wounds he received during
die tonight!’ I was convinced as a weapons instructor at Operation Swift, but he is
I would. My chaplain, Fr. Camp Pendleton until his certain he wouldn’t be around
Vincent Capodanno, was with active duty was up in ‘69, to tell his story if not for his
us, tending to the wounded. We but the war had taken its toll. mother’s prayers.
called him ‘the Grunt Padre’.
“When we came back, we had
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