Leon Bibb recalls his firsthand account of his service in the Vietnam War and the newly designated day of March 29 as Vietnam Veterans Day.
The gunfire was deafening and steady. I pumped bullets from my M-16 rifle into the night where I saw the enemy firing mortars at my unit. My quick rifle shots made a staccato sound, mixed in with the clatter of other rifles.
The soldier handling the machine gun fired, as well. He used the big gun's tracer bullets, sparking a red trail through the air, to walk his shots where he wanted them. The tracers were red-tipped bullets which lit up upon firing. The night was filled with the gunfire of the men in my unit answered the gunfire of enemy soldiers who were there to take us out.
My unit was under attack in the throughout the night. Enemy mortar shells and rockets crashed inside our perimeter where Army helicopters were kept. The enemy was trying to destroy them. I was on the perimeter of our camp. I was the guard duty at the time of the enemy's attack.
It marked my first firefight during my year-long time in Vietnam. It was a long time ago when the war, which droned on through much of the 1960s on into the 1970s. It was an intense time in both Vietnam and in the United States where the debate over the war had reached a fever pitch.
I thought of that firefight a few days ago. It is rarely a distant memory for me. But when President Trump signed a law designating March 29 as Vietnam Veterans Day, I reflected on my first battle and those which followed even more.
An official national declaration announcing Vietnam Veterans Day was overdue in coming. That war, which had begun with a handful of American military advisors in what was then South Vietnam and went on for years to come, took a lot out of both the U.S. service members who were in uniform and the entire nation.
During the entire length of the war, about 3,403,100 Americans served in the Southeast Asia Theater of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, with flight crews in Thailand, and sailors in adjacent South China Sea waters. The war went on for more than decade.
At its height, there were more than 500,000 American troops in the Vietnam and Southeast Asia theater. March 29, 1973, is generally viewed as the date the last combat troops were withdrawn from Vietnam and the last prisoners of war held in North Vietnam arrived on American soil.
My friend, Ray Saikus, is a Cleveland-area Vietnam veteran who pushed hard to get March 29 accepted as Vietnam Veterans Day on a state and national level. Saikus pushed for that for six years. There were others, too, who pushed for the designation, but over the years Ray kept me informed of the progress.
When Ray called me to tell me about his feelings, they were evident in his voice. His sense of excitement was understandable. Like so many other members of the U.S. military who served in Vietnam or elsewhere on the globe during that time period, the war hit hard and many of us felt the nation did not care for us.
When most of us came home from the battle zones, there were few, if any, celebrations for what we had done in the name of the country. So many people had grown so weary of the war and fought its continuation through demonstrations throughout the U.S., many wanted to forget the individual member of service who was sent to war.
Over the years, Americans began to realize that was not an appropriate attitude for men and women who served at the order of the nation. So when battle-weary troops from wars in the Middle East began to come home in the 1990s up until today, there has been more of an outpouring of respect for their service and their sacrifices.
One of the major lessons learned was to publicly thank troops for their service. Another lesson learned was to not send individuals to war as individuals. I was sent to Vietnam as a replacement for a man whose 12-month tour of duty had ended. As he left the country, I entered the country.
Although the airplane which took me to Vietnam was filled with soldiers bound for war, many of us went as individuals, not as a single unit. Once we arrived in the country, we were dispatched to several places throughout South Vietnam. So in many ways, I was alone yet surrounded by other soldiers. Each of us was destined for separate duty stations. However, there were men who went to war as a fighting unit.
Looking forward
All I have mentioned is a lot to think about at one time. But all those thoughts ran through my mind when I received news over the wires and through our television network contacts that the president had signed into the law the legislation making Vietnam Veterans Day every March 29.
So I thought about the first firefight I was in during my 12-month tour in Vietnam, which began in 1967. I thought about all the firefights I saw and all the death and woundings I saw. I thought about all the members of the military who only answered the call and reported for duty as ordered.
At the same time, I thought of my friend, Randall Lee Williams, who was from Sioux Falls, SD. He was a member of my unit who was killed when an enemy mortar came crashing. When it exploded near where Randy,21, was standing, the fragmentation ripped through his body.
Randy's body is buried in his hometown. On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., his name is carved in the black granite of the wall which names the nearly 59,000 members of the U.S. military who were killed in the war. When I heard the news about the Vietnam Veterans Day designation, I thought about Randy and how he was killed. And how he and I were the same age. He died at 21. I thought of his name and how I often have touched its carving on the memorial in Washington. Randy's name is carved in the wall on Panel 61W at Row 19.
For Randall Lee Williams and the all the troops who served in that war itself and during that period of time, wherever they were stationed, is the reason there should be a Vietnam Veterans Day.
