Professional Documents
Culture Documents
George M. Garcia, Vietnam Veteran
George M. Garcia, Vietnam Veteran
Reader
George M. Garcia, Vietnam Veteran, Oral Interview (1969/2012)
George M. Garcia, Vietnam Veteran, Oral Interview
(1969/2012)
George M. Garcia:
“ When I first arrived, I arrived in Da Nang. And I’ll never forgot because I was only
18 years young. I was — you know, I was freshly out of high school. And at that time
— I have to tell you this so you can have a picture of it because it wasn’t just cut and
dry. Like I told you, coming from the [Rio Grande] Valley, especially for me that I
had never been exposed to anything like this …
… in our particular company, which was Company F, you know, we were always in
mission. … And from that day forward — I arrived there January 3rd of 1969. And
from that point until the day I left, we were always on a mission. Always. We all had
different missions. …
…
I don’t know if I should or not, but I can share with you the second month in
February, I think I was still 18 maybe going on 19. It was pretty close on my 19th
year. We have what we call — you know what — you know what it means friendly
fire?
Julia M. Hernandez:
Yes.
George M. Garcia:
Okay. We were — again, we were in a mission. We had received a report to seek and
destroy and our jets had — they were ahead of us. They had destroyed this area.
Supposedly there were enemies there and they went ahead and destroy — and it was
up for us to seek and destroy — to see and make sure there was no enemy left. So —
anyway, supposedly the jets had already cleared the area. And so we continued to
march. And usually our battalion commander does the calling and the clearing to stop
the cease firing. Well, what happened that particular afternoon, our battalion failed to
tell one of the pilots to cease fire and that — that pilot came back and they dropped
bombs on us.
Julia M. Hernandez:
Oh, no.
George M. Garcia:
It was the most — you know, the most horrible day of my life. I was — (spoke
Spanish) — I was either turning just 19 there or I had just turned 19. I don’t recall
because it’s — that happened in 1969 in February. And it was horrible. I mean, I
remember — I mean, all the dust flying. It was — there was sand in that area and you
could see all the sand flying all over the place. And you could hear the screaming and
the yelling. And — (spoke Spanish) — our first platoon got wiped out.
Julia M. Hernandez:
George M. Garcia:
We must have lost approximately about 30, 35. And I looked up because I could hear
— and then there was a whistling sound. I kept hearing something like a whistling
sound. And I didn’t know at the time that it was — it was what we call
a shrapnel from the bomb. And it hit me right here. It burned me. It cut me right here,
but at the time I didn’t pay attention. I just took it off, you know, but it was — it was
strange because it was coming in real — you could hear woo woo woo and coming
real fast. And then I didn’t think too much about it until afterwards, but the strange
thing about it, it didn’t penetrate it.
Julia M. Hernandez:
George M. Garcia:
Julia M. Hernandez:
George M. Garcia:
It did, but it didn’t go all the way in. That’s what’s so strange. And, you know, it just
like hit me and it stopped right there. It — you know, it cut me and burned me, but I
took it off. But I couldn’t understand — at the time I didn’t think about it because I
was concerned about the men.
Julia M. Hernandez:
Sure.
George M. Garcia:
It was not until after when I found out about it that it was so strange it didn’t get — it
didn’t go all the way because it was coming fast. So, anyway, I got up and I kept
moving forward, you know. And I had a hard time seeing because there was a lot of
dust and the sand and all that. And so when I saw the — you know, when I saw all
those men that were killed, it was just horrible. And they were, you know, without
their limbs and their eyes and at that moment, you know, I — at that moment I — I
wanted to lose — it was — I had to make a quick decision. Either I would — (spoke
Spanish) — I was about to lose my mind or take it all, you know. And so it was a
moment of seconds I decided to take all the pain, what I was seeing inside of me. It’s
there in front of me. So I just told myself, I’ll just take everything that I’m seeing. So
that’s how I was able to keep my sanity. And I — (spoke Spanish) — I was real
young and that was the first trauma that I — that I faced.
Julia M. Hernandez:
George M. Garcia:
Julia M. Hernandez:
Luck?
George M. Garcia:
No.
Julia M. Hernandez:
George M. Garcia:
There’s no luck.
Julia M. Hernandez:
The bombing.
George M. Garcia:
Julia M. Hernandez:
Right.
George M. Garcia:
Yeah.
[Source: Interview with George M. Garcia (October 6, 2012). Available online via the
American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress
(https://memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/story/loc.natlib.afc2001001.88006/).]