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Catalog number: VIS 201.0600
In this interview, Ronnie Rondem recalls his service in the U.S. Army during and after the Vietnam War. He remembers growing up in Norway and immigrating to the United States with his family when he was fifteen. After graduating high school, he enlisted in the Army. He was unable to join his unit on their first deployment to Germany because he was a resident alien, so he worked in the immunization clinic at Fort Bliss. After leaving the Army for a period, he re-enlisted in order to attend Officer Candidate School. He describes his first tour in Vietnam and recalls many of his fellow soldiers sleeping in coffins their first night in country because they were billeted in a coffin warehouse. He describes several incidents from his first tour in Vietnam, including falling into a punji stake pit. After returning home, he commanded a unit at Fort Carson that was deployed twice to Chicago, the first time in response to the riots following Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination and the second time in response to protests at the Democratic National Convention. He describes his second tour in Vietnam, this time assigned to the 101st Airborne Division. He recalls watching the 1969 Battle of Hamburger Hill from his base several miles away. He comments in detail on many of the leaders under which he served, including Len Martin Hanawald and William Westmoreland. He describes his post-Vietnam work with the Reserves and National Guard and describes his post-military work and family.