Devan
Holt

Let me know now if you can't hear me.

I spent about twelve and a half years in the military. I joined up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and I was shipped to Fort Carson, Colorado, the next day. I stayed at Fort Carson, Colorado for about three days, and I was shipped to Fort Hood, Texas. I went through armored training and advanced infantry training at Fort Hood. I was there about four and a half months. And then, they talked me into joining the airborne unit, and I was stationed at Fort Campbell for years...for about six or seven years...and that's where I met my wife, when I was stationed at Fort Campbell. I was assigned to the 187th Airborne Battle Group [1], and anybody that don't know what airborne is, it's where you jump out of airplanes. [A light murmur covers the crowd with a woman exclaiming, "Wow."]

I was there at Fort Campbell for about six years. I got involved, and people don't really know how close we come to goin' to war that time, but the Cuba crisis. [A man says, “I know. I know.” in acknowledgement.] We were packed up and we flew out [The man says, “I was involved.”], and I can't tell you right now where we were at, but we slept under the airplanes. We had a mission to go into Cuba and take an airbase. They figured, at least nine of the planes out of ten would get shot down. Other words, the odds were very close that we weren't gonna get there...very few of us. [A woman proclaims, “Oh my.”] But they called the blockade off, and we picked up the next day and flew out. And, to this day, I don't know where we were at. We slept under the planes. We were at some airbase, but they never said they...we never moved. That's where we went. We knew we were going somewhere when they started handing us grenades and ammunition.

Well we flew back and we jumped in at Fort Campbell, because that's where our station was anyway. I was there for several years. That's where I met my wife, Bernice. Anyway, after the Cuba crisis, we went on three or four different missions, our company and our battle group did.... Put in, I think it was, in Meridian...we went down to Mississippi somewhere, but I think it was Meridian...I don't really remember...into college. We went on two different missions. We went to Detroit when they had them riots up there. They moved our unit out. That ain't...that really ain't pleasant duty, because here...that's American soldiers going after American citizens really. It's one of them things...

Been married, I don't know, four or five years and I came down on orders to go to Okinawa to a 173rd Airborne Brigade. It's this unit right here [He points to the emblem on his hat]. They started that brigade up in Okinawa and they took a lot of sergeants. I was a sergeant at the time out of our unit up here at the 187th. They sent a lot of us out of our company over there to start this brigade. We weren't doing much...now she's gonna get a little irritated with me...but I wrote her and told her, “Come to Okinawa, we ain't doin' nothin'!” Well, finally she came...she was supposed to fly...I met the airplane, and there was no Bernice! I didn't know where she was at! I went back to company. They'd done give me a weeks leave, you know, for when she got there. I said, “Well, she didn't show up! I hadn't heard from her.” They contacted me about a day later and they said, “She's comin' by ship.” Well...I waited twenty one days, and she showed up.

Now, I told her we weren't doing anything over there, come on over, and she did. She no more than got there, and we started going to jungle warfare. Went to the Philippines. Made a jump into Taiwan over there which is uh re...there...Chian Kai-shek's...I don't remember just what their army was, but they were the Chinese Republican Army. Well not too long after that, we did a lot of other jungle warfare training, and I was always in the Signals Corps assigned to the infantry unit. In other words, I carried a radio on my back all the time when we were in the field, and I stayed with the company commander. And then all of a sudden we came down...and I mean it was quick...they said you're going to Vietnam. Everybody in the unit said, “Where in the devil is Vietnam?!” We had never heard of it. We were the first Army combat unit that went into Vietnam.

I stayed behind for about a week because she was having major surgery, and I didn't know it until that day we came down on orders to go to Vietnam and they started sealing up the post and she told me, “Well I gotta have surgery tomorrow.” I thought, “Oh lordy!” I finally got permission, because the company commander we had...I guess you would call him the pet of the General because we had a one star brigadier general that was in charge of the brigade, because this...he took after 'em. This was his boy, he took care of this guy. That company commander of ours, he got ahold of the general, and I got to stay behind until I got her out of the hospital...I got her settled.

We lived right on the East China sea. I mean, the sea wall was 'bout from here to that wall. That's how close we lived to the ocean. While she was in the hospital, all these military quarters were emptied, where officers and all that lived. I got a house right on top of a mountain there on Okinawa. She could see the Pacific Ocean out the back window, and the East China sea out he front window. Beautiful place. Got her moved in while she was in the hospital...got her moved up there, and then the next day I left out, and went to Vietnam to join up with the unit.

We were the only Army combat unit in Vietnam at that time. The very first, and they'll let you know the paratroopers are the tip of the spear. They're the first to go, normally. I hadn't been in Vietnam probably twenty minutes. I got to the company, and the company got alerted to go on a mission...right then. Well I dropped my bags and one of my radio operators give me his radio and then he got another one, because I talked to aircraft, plus I talked to battalion and brigade all the time. We flew out, and to be real honest I didn't know a helicopter could go that high, but they got up there...I mean...and I'm sittin' in the door with my feet hanging out on the rudder because I couldn't get in and sit in the regular seats because I had a radio on my back, and that antenna we had was too high so I had to sit out there...and she don't even know this...I mean there's nothing holdin' me in. I could have fell out any time. If that helicopter had of went like that....and there was no parachute on me!

Anyway, we flew in, and I...I said to the company commander who was sitting right behind me...I said, “My God. We can't fly through that!” The whole sky just turned red with tracer bullets coming up. Nobody got hit, no helicopters got hit. We had some gunships that were in front of us, and I was sittin' there where I could see all this goin' on in front of me, and I said, “Lordy...I don't know if I'm gonna even make it through this.” And we landed, and what the mission was...it was a real quick mission because helicopters were receiving a lot of fire from this valley and there was a little village just inside the jungles. We hit the ground and the platoons spread out like that. I stayed with the company commander. And I'm gonna tell you right now I had a guardian angel. There ain't no doubt in my mind.

Brigade got a communications check with me to make sure they could hear me. So I stopped, and I was talkin' to them for a second, and the company commander walked off. He was about thirty or forty yards from me. By the time I turned around, I didn't know he had walked off. See, so I stayed just about arms distance...two of 'em...cause getting calls from brigade, battalion, and some...I never talked to the company. I had another radio operator that talked with the company all the time. He was on a different frequency. 'Bout the time I turned around, the company commander hit the ground, and I seen this dirt fly out and I said, “Lordy.” I said, “I had to have a guardian angel or I'd have been standin' right there!” Well what it was, a mortar round came in that hit him, and knocked him down, and got a piece of shrapnel right through his arm right here, 'cause I helped pull it out.

And we stayed on the ground probably thirty, forty minutes as the platoons swept out, and them helicopters came back in and picked us up. They come in three at a time to pickup the troops. Three of 'em pick up, the other three are already landed comin' behind in these rice patties. And I didn't know about it 'til we got back to Bien Hoa Air Base where we were...flew out of. There was "counter intelligent" (counter intelligence) people all over the place. One of the platoons had overrun and took a Russian headquarter, and nobody even knew Russia was in Vietnam, and the reason they were there. They got a whole bunch of documents and we got a Russian flag. The Russian flag, to this day, is up there at Fort Campbell in the museum. They gathered that up and all these documents, and that stuff was all shipped to Washington, DC right then, because they didn't even know Russia was in Vietnam.

The next day, and I had only been in Vietnam about three days, we went on another mission in the Iron Triangle. No troops had ever been...American troops had ever been in the Iron Triangle. It's on the edge of Cambodia. And we got in a pretty heavy firefight there. I was in the 2nd Battalion, 503rd ACOM [likely Airborne Combat] unit. 1st Battalion was down in...down south of Saigon and we were up north of Saigon. Well they got in a big firefight down there too in the Mekong Delta. Still, we were the only brigade that was in Vietnam at that time. About a week later some of the first infantry division started coming in. I think they were stationed out of Hawaii, at that time...and incoming troops...They started getting a build up of troops. Now there was some special forces troops, and some advisors, but other than that, we were the only ones there at the time. And we went on several, several, several missions. All our missions were strictly by helicopter. The whole company would move at one time, and we'd go in three helicopters at a time and land in these rice patties. As soon as three would pick up, the next three would come in, and they did that for purpose. Each unit that would come in would put down "compressing" (suppressing) fire. In other words, the machine guns on the helicopter would open up on the tree lines and all that.

And then we got a call for a mission to go up to Pleiku which is northern. A special forces camp got overrun, and we had to retake it. That was the first time I ever got indoctrinated, I guess is probably the word, on Montagnard people...people you wouldn't believe on how they lived. They lived in small grass covered houses...bamboo... Anyway, I couldn't believe how they lived. The last time I talked at church, I skipped over a few things, and I got kind of told about it by a couple of the ladies...I don't remember just who it was...that they wanted to hear the gory stuff too. I said, “Ah well I don't think you people need to,” but I'll tell you a little what we were fighting.

We went into a village in what they called War Zone D. We took the village, but the Viet Cong had been there ahead of us. There was a young, pregnant woman, and they had her staked out in a spread eagle, and they had cut her from here to here [He motions across his stomach], and the unborn baby was hanging out...and she...and that's how they left her. And she was...there was nothing we could do. She was already dead when we got there. It was just...I mean it turned your stomach. That's the kind of people that we were fighting. You never heard of it too much here in the states, but that's....and I will say American troops can get pretty brutal...brutal too at times, because 1st Battalion heard about it.

They were south of Saigon and we were up north of the Iron Triangle. I don't know if this is actually true or not, but they had killed a bunch of Viet Cong there in a village. They got in a big firefight, and the word got back to us. Four of the Viet Cong that they killed...I shouldn't say this...they had taken their heads off, put 'em on a post, and told 'em.... cause what had happened prior to that, we had lost a man out of B Company. We couldn't find him. They sent B Company back in there to find him. We were in the Iron...up there in War Zone D. The "Vietnese" (Vietnamese) soldiers had found him. The Viet Cong had strung him up by his toes and "skun" (skinned) him alive. That was brutal. 'Cause you can skin a human being the same way you skin an animal...The 1st Battalion heard about it, and they killed a bunch of..."Vietnese" (Vietnamese)...Viet Cong in this fire((fight)). When they left village, they left four heads on a post...front post...with a big sign that said, “Skin another one!” And, from that time on, there were signs all over them jungles and that, “Stay way from the unit with black rifles” We had M16 rifles and everyone else had M1s and M14s. We were the only unit in Vietnam that had new M16 rifles which were black. Well, it sent a message. The guys that, that cut the heads off were already dead. They were killed in a firefight, but they sure did...so, that's why I said American soldiers could get brutal at times too, but they gotta be... [A woman says in suggestion, "provoked"] provoked into it.

Now one mission I went on we'd gotten into two or three firefights. In the middle of the jungle...now how they got this in there is beyond me...there was thousands of bags, of hundred pounds bags, of rice with Uncle Sam's handshake on it. We found it in the middle.... It was enough rice that would fill this building up, all stacked up out there in the middle of the jungle. To this day, I don't know how they got it out there. They had to carry it by, on their back, but it was hundreds and hundreds of hundred pound bags stacked. They wanted us to destroy it, but we had no way of destroying it, really. It was stacked up probably twelve, fifteen foot high, and I don't know if they sent a unit back into destroy it or not, ((can't)) recall, 'cause I'm the one that called in the information where it was at...the coordinates. But, it's to this day it amazed me how they got that, cause there was no roads, it was out in the middle of a real dense jungle. Somewhere, they got all that rice that had Uncle Sam's handshake on it. [Someone in the background says, “You have any idea where it came from?”] It had to come out of Saigon ports somewhere, but they had to either take it in by elephant, because they did have elephants that they used, but it to be taken in and had to taken months and months to get that much rice stacked up there, and it just kind of flabbergasted me. [A woman says, “Was it swampy jungle like we think of?”] Well some areas were real swampy and some of it wasn't. War Zone D was a lot of swamp...swampy like jungle, and I can tell you I stepped on a...one of the worst snakes I ever seen in my life. I don't know what kept me from gettin' bit, but I just cross this [A man says, “I know what kept you from getting bit!” A light murmur breaks out.] That's why I said I had earlier I had a guardian angel, cause there was more than one time...cause I can remember the first time I got shot at.

We were walkin' on the edge of a rice field, and there was jungle on both sides of it. I was walkin' along. The company commander was probably ten foot in front of me. I heard this, I thought it was a snap like a bullwhip pop, and then it dawned on me. I said, “Somebody's shootin' at me.” It went right...it was so close it went right past my head. He was shootin' for my head, there's no doubt, cause I had...he seen that radio on my back. That put me as a target. And that was...kind of makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up when you realize somebody's actually out there shootin' at you...some sniper. Then one time we were, it wasn't in War Zone D, but it was up in Pleiku. We were right on the Cambodian border. We weren't allowed to go into Cambodia, but we did go in some. A few years later, they sent all kinds of troops into Cambodia, but we weren't allowed to go in at that time. We had to retake this special forces camp up there. When we were there, we spent a night outside this camp after we retook it, but there was a Montagnard village close by. Anyway...

[Papa looks at Granny] What are you shakin' your head about? She says I'm talkin' too long. [A woman says, “You're fine.”]

Anyway the Montagnards had an area probably twice as big as one of these tables. That's where they got their water from, and boy them men got mad as can be! Their weapons was crossbows...a little crossbow like that. They got up there sittin', and we were brushin' our teeth and all that there, and some of them guys give them women...and they were flabbergasted seein' us brush our teeth...give 'em a toothbrush and some toothpaste, because the Red Cross sent us a lot of stuff like toothpaste, toothbrushes, and soap, and all that. Well they'd never seen a toothbrush. They watched, and they got brushin' their teeth. You'd never seen like the blood from them bristles, and it made them Montagnards pretty mad...them men. Well, troops are told not to give them anymore toothbrushes. Anyway, what they lived in was unreal. They lived in grass huts. That's what they lived in. And just...it's just one of them things. Now they...they didn't like the Viet Cong either. Viet Congs pretty much stayed away from where them Montagnards lived.

Well then we got, I guess I'd been in four months, five months over in Vietnam, and all of a sudden we were up at Pleiku there again. They said, “You can go home back to Okinawa and see your wife.” Several of us flew out, and I went back and seen her, because I stayed behind a while because she had to have major surgery when the unit left. I think I had about three days, four days of R & R (rest and relaxation) and then I went back to Vietnam. No more got back to Vietnam and they said, “All dependents are being sent home. You've been reassigned to Vietnam for another year.” Well we had already been there four months. Then they started sending all the dependents, and they let me know when she was supposed to be leaving...going by ship. Supposed to leave the 20th of September, 1965. The 19th of September, I got shot. We were on a mission over there in War Zone D, and I got...a sniper got me crossing a rice patty. I didn't really know what happened. It was a shock wave from the bullet. When the bullet hit, I thought I stepped on a mine or something, because I got hit here above the knee on the right leg. It felt like a shock wave going through my body right in the top of my head. Knocked me out. They said I crawled probably twenty, forty yards getting that radio to the company commander. I don't ever remember it. ((I)) Didn't know it at that time. When I finally came to, a medic was workin' on my leg. A helicopter landed right beside me. Came in a picked me up. The medic run out there with the stretcher, and he grabbed my leg. I kicked him with my other leg, I don't mind tellin' ya. I knocked him down. I put myself on that stretcher. There's a nerve, what they call the peroneal nerve. It wasn't cut, but it was...all the fibers were "blowed" (blown) out. I'd never had such pain when he grabbed that leg and that broken bone rubbed that....and I did...I kicked him and put myself on that stretcher.

Well it was getting late in the evening when they flew me out, and there was a MASH (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) unit that had just came in the country that day. They were still settin' up, and it was pretty close to where our brigade was located. Then, they took me into the MASH unit. Two surgeons come in and said, “Well probably have to take your leg off above the knee.” I said, “Well I'm not giving you permission to take my leg off. If you can save it, you save it.” Well they said, “Well, we're gonna' start operating. All we got is Coleman lanterns, right now. Our electricity ain't even...generators ain't even hooked up yet.” They give me ether. They said, “We can give you a spinal or ether. That's all we got right now.” I said, “I'll take the ether. I ain't gonna lay here and watch you cuttin' on me.” I woke up the next morning, and there was a colored sergeant that came in that night, layin' next to me. He asked me, “Are you black and blue?” I said, “No. I can't tell. I'm in a cast clean up to here.” He said, “Them nurses have been slappin' you, and slappin' you," and he said, “One of 'em hauled off with her fist and hit you.” They couldn't wake me up from that ether. I finally come to. Nurse came in and said, “I gotta give you a shot.” And they rolled me up on my side, and I was in a cast clean up to here, what they call a Spica cast. I had never had a shot that hurt me so bad in all my life. I think it's what they call an "antigoblin" (antiglobulin). Makes your blood clot. Boy...hell, gunshot wound didn't hurt so bad as that shot did. Anyway, about that time a supply sergeant came in from our company and seen me. He'd brought me two great big boxes of cookies where she'd been cookin' and sendin' 'em.

And... [A woman addresses my granny, “How long was it before you knew that he had been wounded.] The day that I was to leave Okinawa, I got notified by the 173rd that Dave had been hurt and they'll bring him back to Okinawa. And then...and each each day I would call the 173rd assistant and they'd say, “We don't know where he's at.” At the end of the week, the Red Cross called me and they said, “Your husband is...Dave...is in the Philippines, and they're leaving 'em with him today and sending him back to the states. And, uh, that was the day... and that... and so I called the 173rd, “Well where's Dave?” “Well, we don't know.” And I said, “Well that's funny, the Red Cross does.” And that night they had me on a plane coming back, and I got to California and I told 'em, and I said....they had me a plane gonna send me...and I said, “I'm not goin' by plane. I'll walk first.” So they give me... [Papa says, “That's what they came and told me at Walter Reed!”] ..they give me, so I went by train to Washington, and Dave was there, and got a room and spent a month.

See they notified me that she was leavin' on the 20th of September. I got shot the 19th of September, but I didn't know...I asked when I got to California. A four star general come in and talked to me and welcomed me home. I wasn't feelin' too hot cause I was in a cast clean up to here. I wasn't feeling too many...much pain neither. They kept you...in transit, they kept you shot up quite a bit with pain killers. Anyway, I asked this general who was the commander of the Sixth Army on the west coast. I said, “I don't know if my wife's even knows I've been wounded. She was supposed to leave by ship. She may be out in the ocean somewhere.” I said, “It takes 21 days from Okinawa to back and forth to the states.” Well he said he would check on her. Well by the time he got around to checkin' on her I'd already gone on to the east (west) coast to Fort Dix, and they put me in the hospital there. Another four star general welcomed me home there, cause I was one of the very first combat casualties that came in the United States. Anyway, before he got back with me...he said he'd check on her, but I said, “I don't know where she's at. As far as I know, she's out in the middle of the ocean on a ship.” Well they flew me out of there the next morning.

[Audio jumps ahead slightly. The four star general at Fort Dix told him they located my granny.] I said, “You did?” “Yeah, she's in California.” I said, “Boy that's an awful fast ship.” I said, “It takes 21 days” Well he said, “No she flew in. We had plane sittin' there waitin' on her to fly her on here.” He said, “Her exact words 'she wouldn't get on another airplane and she would walk!'.” Well, she showed up...anyway...but they did. They came up and told me. That was her exact words. They said, “Were tellin' you her exact words. She said she would walk before she'd ever get on another airplane.” [A woman exclaims in the background, “Oh me!”] Anyway, she showed up and they had an Army WAC (Women's Army Corp) that's when they had the Army Women's Corp escorted her right to my bed, saluted me, and said, "I'm delivering your wife." And to this day, I don't know what her name was because she won't tell me. [Granny says, "I don't think it's important". A woman asks jokingly, "What if you had said, 'I don't want her' or 'That's not my wife.'? What would you have said Bernice?"][My granny starts whispering to my papa] I ain't gonna say too much more. I'm gonna let the other gentleman...she's gonna get on to me anyway because I'm talking to much. [A woman states, "You're gonna have to do this again sometime.] Anyway...

[A woman asks, "Who protected them flying in and out with the Viet Cong shooting at them?"] Well you had about three or four gunships...well...what you call they had machine guns and rockets and everything on them. They lead, but they break off and then the troop carriers come in. Well the lead troop carrier transports, they have...all troop carriers have machine gunners on the doors. Well them lead choppers ["So these ones are aimed out of the doors"] Well...well they got the machine guns and they're sittin' right there. They put down "compressing" fire, but they can only put so much because other helicopters are comin' in right behind them. But they lay down... ["I just know that would be a dangerous....Comin' in so visible"] It's not... ["and then takin' off!"] It's not safe. Well they don't, they don't stay on the ground. You jump out of that helicopter. [Some women quietly discuss another person from within the church].

Well one of my best friends...It's...I don't talk about this one too much but...he was a staff sergeant just like I was, but he was in a different company in first battalion. I was in second battalion. His wife....he got killed, but he got killed by our own helicopter. He was a squad leader. When they came in, just like we did different...but the Huey helicopter was bad about when they land. They'll pick up but they go like this [motions the helicopter angling forward]. Well, he got too close to that helicopter when they jumped out, and it took the top of his head off from the blade. The blade got him right in the head. It killed him instantly. They were dangerous. There was no doubt about it because the way they pick up. They pick up like that until they get up a little bit. ["So the blades are at an angle like that."] Well you're up there, but the helicopter itself would lift up like that. They don't...they don't just go like helicopters here. They don't go quite straight 'cause they're gettin out of there real fast. When you jump off them helicopters, they're gone.

[The audio concludes with the women of the church asking if my papa knows a Ted Jenkins who was a helicopter pilot in the Korean war.]