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Catalog Number: VIS 201.0625
In this interview, George Thomas Duggins shares his memories of being in the United States Army in the Vietnam War. He reflects on his childhood, when his mother was a pediatric nurse and he explains the circumstances of his adoption. His father was a big fan of University of Kentucky sports. He chronicles his high school and college education, including sports and ROTC. He describes his first Army assignment in New Jersey including how he and his wife could visit New York City via Coast Guard boat. The post was a holding area for soldiers returning from Korea and Vietnam. Because of its location on the coast, bodies would often wash up. He remembers being trained for riot patrol after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He describes his family’s reaction to his orders to Vietnam. As he was traveling to Vietnam, he heard President Johnson’s speech about stopping the bombing of North Vietnam. He listened to the 1968 Georgia-Florida football game on Armed Forces Radio his first night in Vietnam with incoming fire going on. He describes the difficulty in getting supplies and how he would barter with the Air Force to get things like flush toilets, trading them for Vietnamese weapons. Using the supplies, they built bathrooms, an officers’ club, an NCO club and a basketball court. He details the effects of 1969’s “Little Tet” where he witnessed bodies stacked and how it affected him. He tells of R&R with his wife in Hawaii and remembers his division commander, who made sure all his troops got hot meals and ice cream. He talks of his homecoming and subsequent family and career.