Monmouth College
Department of History 

INTERVIEW WITH BOB HARRALD 

Conducted in the fall of 2001 by Heather McDonald, Monmouth College '01 

• Bob Harrald enlisted in the U.S. Army in May 1968 and went to Officers' Training School and eventually to Cam Ranh Bay

McDonald: Where did you grow up before you were sent off to war?

Harrald: I grew up in Elmhust, Illinois, and I went to school at DePaul, in Indiana, which was where I learned that, yes indeed, I was going to be drafted.

McDonald: When did you become involved in the war and when were you actually sent off to the war?

Harrald: Well, I graduated from college in 1968 and they gave you a deferment at that time when you were in college. I think that the war started in 1964-1965. That was one of the first wars that you got to watch live on TV every night. So if you imagine, I would be out studying to make myself into somebody and as atypical college student, I wasn’t thinking much about it.  I thought for sure that it would be over by the time I graduated. But nightly I would see the fire fights, people getting killed, and other pictures of the war, and that went on through all my whole college career. Then about my second semester my senior year, I got this little notice from my draft board telling me to report for duty after I graduated. Actually it wasn’t until then that I really took it seriously.

Now back then, you have to realize that this was a really unpopular war.  It didn’t have the support of the American people. Very few people really wanted to go to Vietnam. So every one was trying to handle it. Some went to Canada, which I don’t support, but some did that. I know people who did do that. Others looked around for positions in the National Guard, where they could stay home. Others enlisted so they could supposedly have some control over their destiny. Myself, I took the path of enlisting in Army OCS, which is officer candidate school. That gave me a longer time to stay in the States and I went to school as they taught me to be an officer. So I enlisted. I guess it was around May of 1968. Then I went into active duty and fought.

McDonald: When did you actually go over to Vietnam?

Harrald:  I enlisted, so I had to go through basic training.  That lasted around three months, until it was around Thanksgiving. Then there was AIT, advanced individual training, that I had to go to after that. That lasted about another three months or so. Then after that, I went to OCS. So I went to basic training in Fort Dixon, New Jersey, and was sicker than a dog throughout the whole time. It was terrible.

McDonald: It was just hard for your body?

Harrald: It was during the winter. I wasn’t eating well and I wasn’t getting any sleep. I was crawling around in muck and I was wet and cold and they would have us up all night long doing silly stuff. So from there, I went to AIT. My MOS, as they called it, my designated area of expertise in the army, was engineering. So they sent us to Fort Leonard Wood to learn that.  Afterward, I went to Fort Benning to become an officer. I didn’t complete that because when I signed up, I was going to be an engineering officer. But of course, they didn’t need any engineering officers. They wanted infantry officers.  So I guess I sent seven weeks in Fort Benning. I threw up until maybe June or early July. Then I dropped out at which time I was awarded my engineering MOS which I thought was safer. Then I went to Vietnam in August.

McDonald: Where were you stationed in Vietnam?

Harrald: I was sent to Cam Ranh Bay. From there, I was trucked out to Ban Me Thuot, Vietnam which was an outpost of Cam Ranh Bay. Ban Me Thuot was where I spent all twelve months in as many different jobs.

McDonald: What were your  responsibilities there?

Harrald: I had many responsibilities. Again I was trying to find a place I was as safe as I could. So when we arrived at Ban Me Thuot, which was the brigade headquarters of the 18^th engineering battalion, they were looking for typists. Now I didn’t know how to type, but I told them I could type. Because I told them that, they hired me as a clerk typist in the special service area which ran the movies and had the library and all that kind of special stuff. But then they find out that I was having my friends teach me to type during the evening. It just so happened that the Major in charge of the place I was typing for had just gone home. He had finished his tour of duty. That gave me three weeks or so to learn how to type. So I learned a little bit about typing but not enough to get by. Because when the new guy came on board, he said, “Harrald, you don’t know how to type very well, do you?” I said, “No, I really don’t know how to type.” From there, they transferred me to the post librarian. I lasted there for three to four months until there was a general inspection. In order to prepare for that, they didn’t need anyone as a librarian. They were over staffed. So I then became an armorer. I did that for most of my stay, seven months or so. My duties there were to go into Cam Ranh Bay and get all the ammunition that was necessary and bring it out to the post. I was also in charge of quarters at night. So that is what I did.

McDonald: Where were you in rank?

Harrald: I was a specialist, and in the Army they have two paths: a specialist path and a command path. The command path where you actually have authority over people and direct them as captain or sergeant. Then a specialist--Spec 5, 6, 7 class—they are the people who did all the clerical work, personnel work, things like that.  I ended up as a specialist 5^th class during some of the time that I was a sergeant--because a sergeant is equilivant to Spect 5. So when I was in charge of quarters, I was a sergeant.  But most of the time, I was a Spec 5.

McDonald: How would you describe your experience while you were there?

Harrald: How do I answer that?

McDonald: Was it helpful to you, was it an advantage to you, was it a miserable time?

Harrald: See you have to remember that most people, most of the troops over there didn’t want to be there. It wasn’t like any other war we had. No one wanted to be there. People were less willing to put their life on the line. Unlike other wars, officers were being attacked. There were grenades being thrown at them. It was a war that the United States was behind in. They didn’t want to win it. People were just there for a short period of time. Unlike other wars, like WWII or the Korean war, you would be there until it was won or lost. But we were just in Vietnam for one year. A lot of people only wanted to put in their time of service and get out. It was an unhappy time for me because every second or third night, we were either being rocketed or mortared and people were being killed. It didn’t make me a happy person. You don’t want to be killed over there in that situation. There were a couple times over there, that all those mortars and rockets came in a little too close. Unlike other wars, there were not really front lines. It was a civil war that we were involved in. It was North Vietnam vs. South Vietnam. There was a Vietcong which were the South Vietnamese fighting the Americans and they had the North Vietnamese who were going down Ho Chi Minh trail and deserting their country. So they were everywhere. You even had kids firing at the troops and women fighting at them. It was a really ugly war. It was an unhappy experience.

McDonald: What was your most memorable experience?

Harrald: Well there are a number of things I remember. The few things that I do remember like my close calls were I was walking down to mess hall one evening. That is the time that the Vietcong would try to rob and murder. There were no front lines but I was close to the South China Sea. I wasn’t very close to the Ho Chi Minh trail where there was a lot of going out and searching for the enemy and search and destroy. So I was playing more of a support role. But even so, we were getting hit every second and third day. So I was walking to the mess hall and I heard these rockets screaming and they made a heck of a noise. I could hear them coming in. So I jumped into the ditch and the little rockets landed all over the road I was on and threw dirt all over me. So I remember that.

Then there was another time when I was on guard duty. With guard duty, there are usually three people on shifts. The person on duty was usually up on top and the people who weren’t were sleeping down below. So I was sleeping and woke up and there was a tank next to me which had rolled up and I didn’t even hear it. That was memorable. Then there was a time that I was on guard duty during a storm and the parameter was laced with wire and mines that were explosive and shaped like a crescent. They had pellets on the outward side. So when the explosive went off, it just destroyed everything out in front. So they had the whole perimeter laced with these. During the electrical storm, they all went off because there was a bolt of lighting which sent them off. Then were a lot of other times. Well happy times, I don’t know about that. There were humorous times I suppose.

McDonald: Like this picture when you were holding your beer can.

Harrald: Yes, well there are people who I served with in Vietnam who I am still in touch; some I still see.

McDonald: Did you support the war at the time that you were there and have your views changed since then?

Harrald: No, I didn’t support the war. I was drafted and I don’t think many people did support the war. It was an ugly time for our country. It was 1968. The country was in turmoil. It was the year that Martin Luther King died and  Robert Kennedy got assassinated. There were demonstrations all over the campuses. I went to a very conservative school where there were never any demonstrations. But there were during the Vietnam war. It didn’t have the support of the American people. So no, I wasn’t in favor of the war either. I think that at that time, I realized, maybe not in `68 but soon after that, they weren’t going to win. The United States wasn’t willing to do what it took to win.

McDonald: Without actually declaring war.

Harrald: Without actually sending in troops and invading the full Vietnam. They didn’t want to do that. It was more to keep them out of the South, which we couldn’t do. So no I didn’t support it at the time. However, I really didn’t have a choice of what I wanted to do. You either went to jail, or went to Canada, or you went to the war. So I did what I thought at that time was the honorable thing to do and went into the war, as did most of my friends.

McDonald: How did you feel toward the politicians in that era, those who were making the decisions? Did you feel that we should have gone whole-heartedly into the war and declares war? Or did you feel that we should have just stayed out of the whole thing altogether?  

Harrald: Of course, we should not have been over there in the first place. We don’t have any vested interests in South East Asia and there was no reason for us to be over there in the first place. We didn’t learn from France’s mistakes. When the French were there, they got kicked out. We got involved in a civil war where the North Vietnamese were fighting the South Vietnamese. We were invading the country trying to unify the country and we were stupid enough to get involved with that. Politicians had a lot of schemes. They decided that the troops would support the South Vietnamese. Well, the South Vietnamese army was no good at all. They were corrupt. No, it was a mistake and it still is a mistake. It is just sad that so many people had to die over such a silly war.

McDonald: When were you brought back home?

Harrald: August 1970

McDonald: How was your homecoming?

Harrald: Well, that is another thing. There were a lot of people in the United States, since they didn’t support the war, who looked at you as something less than pond scum.  Some troops were called baby killers and I experienced that. I think that most people were like me and just wanted some respect. We didn’t get any respect. It was just like “Oh yeah, you were over there.” That kind of a thing.

McDonald: They felt like you had gone over to the war because you had supported the war but you hadn’t, right?

Harrald: Yeah, and others thought that it really wasn’t a war. They didn’t realize that people were getting killed over there and it was such an ugly affair. Then again, it didn’t have the support of the American people. But that is no excuse for not supporting the people who were there not by their own choice. They didn’t really differentiate between those who loved the military and the war and those who were there told to be there.

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

Harrald: Well I don’t think that it changed any of my political views. It made me realize how ugly war is. Many people my age got killed over there. It certainly didn’t make me a pacifist but it did make me very suspicious toward those who wanted to parade war. I believe that we should go the diplomacy route when ever possible. Then if we have to go to war, do it like we did in the Persian Gulf and just pull in there and pull out when we need to. None of this Mickey Mousing around where the troops are getting killed just trying to maintain ground. There was no way that we were going to the win the war in Vietnam unless we invaded Laos and invaded North Vietnam--and we were certainly capable of doing that and knocking the heck out of them.

McDonald: Did the war change you as a person?

Harrald: I don’t think so. I know that that is a popular myth that people come back and they are on drugs and have a lot of psychological problems and that they turn into killers. But most people are like me. They were there and they put in their time. There was no psychological damage. I didn’t smoke pot when I was there and I didn’t become a drug addict. In fact, when I first got back, I didn’t even look at any of those Vietnam movies because it was a good story about the ugly American wanting to go over there and kill Vietnamese. It was one sided and it wasn’t anything that I experienced. I was there with people like Native Americans and Harvard graduates. It was a real slice of Americana. There wasn’t a willingness to kill lightly by anyone I saw.

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

Harrald: In my community, 1968 through 1970 was a very ugly time. When I got out, I think that the government was realizing that it was time to withdraw. By the time I got out, I think that most Americans were saying “Get out.” That’s what [Republican candidate for president Richard] Nixon’s platform was--to end the war in an honorable manner,which they finally did.

McDonald: Would you like to add anything else?

Harrald: I view the Vietnam War as a valuable lesson from which the United States could learn. Fifty to sixty thousand young people died over there for nothing. Hopefully we learned a lesson that we don’t go into a war thinking that a third world country will be “shaking in their boots,” because the Vietnamese were very good fighters. They knew exactly what to do. They came in and tried to kill as many Americans as possible. If you consider all the fire power that America had verses those people……

McDonald: …the outcome is unbelievable.

Harrald: Well, it was no surprise because it wasn’t that the troops were defeated over there, it was because the war didn’t have the support of the American people willing to do what it would take to be done.

McDonald: Did you feel that we trusted in our technology too much?

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