Monmouth College
Department of History 

INTERVIEW WITH GEORGE DELP 

Conducted in the fall of 2000 by Brian Collier 

Collier: What effect did the war have on your life?

Delp: Well, initially as a nineteen-year old, it had a huge effect on me. I went from being a pretty naïve young kid believing in a lot of things and I was thrown into a situation at a very young age and saw some things that made me grow very fast.  I had experiences that affected my outlook on a lot of things: life, death, the reason behind the war, the reason I thought I was sent for. It made me also appreciate life more. I know that I came home realizing that we had it very good in our country. Not that we don’t have problems in our country, but just the way of life is probably the biggest culture shock that you get when you enter a country such as Vietnam after being in the United States. If you can imagine the type of structures that the United States farm animals lived in, many times they were much better than what the people in that country lived in.

I was in a special unit in Vietnam. We were called Second Combined Action Group, and we were specially trained to do two missions. The first mission was to train the PF (the popular forces were what they were called). They were seventeen and eighteen year old boys and men over thirty-six. They went away to a short boot camp and then came back to their village. Our mission was to teach them how to defend their village. We taught them ambush techniques, small killer team techniques, and basic security of their village. We taught them weapons and demolition and things like that.  Then our second mission during the day was being ambassadors. Our unit was designed to try to change the ugly American view that a lot of the Vietnamese had of us. We were what was called medics. We would set up in a village and they would come. We would give them different types of shots and treat their sores and give the kids shots. We were there to try to show them that there was some good in the American people. That was a very rewarding part of being there, if there was such a thing.

We lived within a small area and had two small villages within our area of responsibility. So we got a little closer to the people than the normal combat unit would get. Like I said, it had a lot of different effects on my life. I don’t think they were all negative. I left Vietnam feeling that I had done a little good and it makes you appreciate life a lot more in the United States. Regardless of the problems that we have, we do have it very good in this country. That is pretty much how it affected me.

Collier: Did you support the war at the time and have your views changed since then?

Delp: I was nineteen years old when I went to Vietnam, and I was seventeen years old when I signed up to go into the Marine Corp. I was ready to go at seventeen because it was something that my country was engaged in. I was young, and I felt that it was my duty as an American to serve my country in that way. I put off going into the Marine Corp until after graduating high school and then went in August of 1970. I went through boot camp and other advanced infantry training and special forces training before going to Vietnam. So the first part of the answer is “Yes,” I did support the war at the time. I felt that it was a duty that I had to perform.

I think that the losses that we sustained in the war effort were far too costly. I don’t feel that the American people supported the troops in Vietnam the way they should have. I know that it was an issue that split our country in many ways. But to me, we still had young men and women in that country doing a job that they felt they should do. I feel that many of the casualties of that war were caused by the way our country supported--or didn’t support--their efforts. Yes, I did support the war at the time.

Do I look the same way on it as I did as a nineteen year old right out of high school? “No,” I don’t think our leaders supported the troops in a manner that allowed them to effectively do their job. Consequently since the leaders weren’t giving their support, I don’t think that we should have been committed to something like that and maybe we shouldn’t have been there only because of the losses and the ineffectiveness of what I thought our mission was. I think that when we commit our young men and women to a situation like that, we need to support them or get them the heck out of there.

Collier: In what ways did the war affect your community?

Delp: I came from a smaller community. In a lot of ways, I feel that we had a lot more support for many of the young men and women that did go into the service back then.  There was a lot less anti-war talk and action against because of the smallness of our community. When I was in high school, we did lose a couple of young men from our community who died in war and had a number of others injured. Some were seriously injured and some lost limbs over in Vietnam. In a small community situation that I was in, the biggest effect that it did have on us was the loss of the few young men and the ones that were injured. I think that was the only big effect on our community. It wasn’t one that benefited from any war effort or contracts. There was a Department of Defense installation, and they did provide a lot of the ammo that was used in Vietnam. Naturally that did affect the jobs and it did have an economic effect on the community. But we were a small enough of community that there was a lot of support for the young men and women from our community that were in the war.

Collier: When did you first arrive and where were you stationed during your tour in Vietnam?

Delp: I arrived in Vietnam in the first part of February of 1971 in DaNang. I flew over to Vietnam in a commercial airline so I had a little better ride to Vietnam than a lot of people did. So went by sea and some went in transport planes. I arrived in DaNang airport. I suppose that was the first rude awakening that I received because as we were getting off of our airplane, we witnessed them loading bodies into a C130 transport plane to go back to the States. So that was one of the first rude awakenings as to what we were walking into. From DaNang, we moved twenty-six miles south to the second combined action headquarters. We underwent about seven days of training on Vietnamese customs and language. The unit that we were going to be assigned to was one of two missions. We had to learn the customs and the language so when we did move out into the villages, we at least had some idea of what to expect. We learned basic language so we could communicate, although all of the PF’s that we had within spoke and understood English very well. So in that way, communication wasn’t real tough. We did have a lot of contact with the civilians and of course they didn’t understand or speak English very well. But since we had those popular forces with us, communication was not a big problem.

We learned some of their culture because since we were going to live right within the villages, it was necessary for us. Their life is so much different than ours; their religion was different and it was necessary for us to have some understanding so we didn’t go in there and undermine what we were trying to do by making a mistake. Such as, here at home, we might go up and throw a knife or put a target onto a tree and shoot at that target. In that country, we would be doing harm to one of their ancestors because they believed in reincarnation in many forms. To do something like that would have been very bad. We learned those types of things so we didn’t make those kinds of mistakes. We just had to make sure that we understood their way of life because it was so much different than ours.

From that training, we were sent out to a combined action platoon, which was the breakdown of the combined action group. In the platoon, there was anywhere from twelve to sixteen Marines. Usually you had about twelve, and two or three popular forces to every Marine so you might have twenty to thirty PFs assigned to you. You went about your missions as I explained than earlier. In my case, the main village that I was working in was a called An Khe.  It was about twenty-eight or thirty miles south of DaNang along the China Sea. I spent my whole time in Vietnam in that area.

Collier: What were some of the battles that you were involved in, and could you describe them in some detail?

Delp: We were a small unit, and the highest rank within our unit was a Sergeant. We had no staff NCOs or other officers. Our size was small so we were not like a company, a division, or a battalion where we got involved in large, offensive operations. Anything that we ran into were usually small ambush encounters. Battles in that sense was not something that I was involved in. They were small, ambush type situations where either we walked into one or someone walked into ours. We sent out small teams at night and that was just a smaller version of an ambush. Battle wise, I was never involved in any.

Details are not something that I am comfortable talking about it. One thing I could say, one time, to kind of give you some enlightenment on what Army, Navy, Air force, Marines were involved with in that war was not knowing your enemy. It really was evident in the type of unit that I was in. We were put into a situation--because of our training and because of our backgrounds--we were put in this special unit. Like I said, we had two missions; one, to train their combat unit within that village, and two, to help the Vietnamese people. There were many incidences where the people that we helped during the day ended up being our enemy at night. We had a number of incidences where people within the village were people that we encountered at night at our ambush sites.  The chief’s wife within our village turned out to be VC. The barber, the man that cut our hair, because that was something that as Marines in combat units, we still had to be squared away--not just for the look but mainly for hygiene. So the barber that cut our hair with a straight-edge razor turned out to be VC. Even young children that we fed, clothed, and gave medical treatment to at night, or even in the daylight hours, preformed acts of aggression against us and consequently had to be dealt with. That was a big aspect of the Vietnam war that made it so much different than other wars. Our enemy was not as defined. Like I said, people that we helped, that we thought we were doing something good for were out there trying to do us harm.  As far as any battles or any of that part of the war, that is how I would like to leave that. We didn’t know a lot of the times who our enemy was.

Collier: What were your feelings on the anti-war movements that occurred?

Delp: I felt a lot of them were misguided. At that time in my life, I felt that they were direct injustices to myself and other young men and women who were serving their country. I know a lot of the people involved in those anti-war movements thought that they were helping but they were actually bringing an end to our involvement in Vietnam. I feel that there were some that thought they were doing good. There were others that I felt they were just doing it to stir things up, and I think that their intentions were never good. There were a lot of them who had good intentions, but many times, their good intentions made things harder on the ones who were in Vietnam. The hardest time was that anti-war movement brought a temporary cease-fire to Vietnam. Many times after those cease-fires were lifted was when it was hardest on the US troops because it enabled the enemy, the VC, to re-supply, to bring in more troops, and to hit the US troops even harder.  The anti-war movements that took place in my time were negative to me. When we returned to the states from Vietnam, the demonstrators met us at the airport. It was something that you will never forget. The things that are said to you and about you are in your mind for your whole life. The reasons [for serving in Vietnam] were personal and 99% of the time were patriotic and most of us came back to a country who was very hostile and negative. I think there was undeserving treatment toward many men and women. I don’t think the anti-war movement helped the situation at all.

Collier: You touch a little on this one…what was it like when you returned to the United States? You said that they said stuff to you. It is a big controversy, I know, but were you ever spit on? Some people say that it happened and some people say that it didn’t.

Delp:  I was never directly spit on. When I returned to the United States, I entered in the San Francisco area. There were demonstrators at the airport when we returned and there were a lot of screams of name calling. There were signs and posters calling us baby killers and things like that. But as far as actually being spit on, “No,” it was mostly verbal and written on signs. Besides having that come from the anti-war people, one incident actually came from veterans of WWII and Korea. I had one pass me one day and asked if I could explain why we had lost that war. That was something that I will never forget either.

I feel that there was lack of support and lack of leadership. Whether or not Vietnam was a winnable war, I am not going to sit and debate that issue. Yes, I received a lot of verbal abuse from when I returned and even from veterans from other wars, I received a lot of negative feedback. A month or so after returning from Vietnam, I had people who I went to school with question me about the right and wrong of Vietnam. One day it just dawned on me that they could never understand what it was that we went through. They did not have the experiences that we did. They only knew what they heard or read and a lot of that was negative. So I just accepted the fact that I had to live and deal with it, and I had to be a little understanding of where they were coming from too. They were just basing what they knew from what they read or heard. If they were willing to listen a little bit, I was willing to give them the time, but I was also not going to condemn them for their views either because I was the one who had changed and experienced it, not them. I think that it was something that made it a lot easier for me and for them to deal with. Life goes on.

Collier: Did you feel that the leaders of the war were conducting the war well?

Delp: I think that I kind of touched on this earlier, “No, I don’t.” I think that either we should have somewhere along the line made a strong commitment one way or the other. I don’t know if it was a war that was ever destined or meant to be a so-called victory. I really don’t think that our commitment was strong enough to win. It was a terrible thing. It divided our country in many ways, but I think that the leaders, the commander in chief, should realize that if you are going to commit and send people into a situation of life and death, you should give them all the support and the necessary resources to win it. If you are going to go into that type of situation, you can’t go in unless you are 100% committed to accomplish a mission that you were sent in there to do. I don’t think that this country’s leaders at that time did that.

Collier: I have one more that I forgot to write down, we read about C-rations in one military book for class.  Were they really as bad as they said they were?

Delp: They weren’t your ordinary gourmet meals (Laughing). Of course you always wanted to get an A1 or an A3. They were the best because they had fruit in them and pound cake and cookies, while your Vs or Cs were definitely down the line. Those were the ones that had your lima beans or something. So whenever you had the chance, you definitely wanted to make sure that you had an A ration.

Some of the C-rations that I ate were older than I was at the time. You could do some mighty interesting things with C-rations. If you got beans and wieners, you could separate them out and cook out the wieners first and then put them in the beans because they tasted a lot better. We had some pretty interesting food in those C-rations and you could do some interesting things with C-rations and come up with a pretty good meal. I never minded C-rations that much. Some of them were pretty good.

I just think the important thing of Vietnam was that we learned something from it. In a way, I think that we have. Some of the conflicts that we have sent our American troops into since, we have gone into with a stronger commitment and the attitude of “get them in and get them out.” Don’t prolong it and stretch it out. I think that we have to be careful in our decisions to put troops in those types of situations. If we do, we need to be decisive and supportive with the least amount of death and destruction as we can. We don’t need another situation like Vietnam in our history again. I feel the losses were way too extreme from what came of Vietnam...

I think that it is good that we can’t enter into something as fast [as we did Vietnam] and it is good to have some safeguards and more time and consideration. What ever we do, we must be decisive, committed, and supportive. We go in there, for what ever reason, we do it in the most effective and quickest way we can to keep casualties down. 

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