His Mom Sent Him Into a War Zone 😳
A wounded Marine recounts his experience in a Vietnam War hospital and tells a humorous story about an Air Force serviceman whose mother pressured his commanding officer to send him to check on his Marine brother, resulting in the airman being wounded by enemy fire shortly after arrival.
Summary
The speaker describes being wounded twice during Vietnam War combat and being sent to Da Nang, which was overwhelmed with casualties. Due to lack of bed space, he and other wounded Marines were flown on a C-130 transport to an Air Force hospital, where conditions were dramatically different from the Marine facilities—featuring air conditioning, proper meals on trays, and functioning toilets. When the wounded service members recovered from morphine and began identifying themselves by unit, they discovered an Air Force serviceman among the injured Marines. The Marines were surprised and joked that he must have only stepped on a nail or thumbtack to be injured. The airman then explained that his mother had been sending him letters and even contacted his commanding officer requesting that he be sent to check on his brother who was a Marine. The CO apparently accommodated this request by putting him on a helicopter to An Hoa. The airman was wounded almost immediately upon arrival, before even leaving the tarmac, and subsequently received a Purple Heart. The story serves as dark humor about how parental concern inadvertently put the airman in direct combat danger.
Key Insights
- The Da Nang Marine hospital was so overwhelmed with wounded casualties that injured Marines had to be transported via C-130 to an Air Force hospital because there were no available beds.
- Air Force hospital conditions were substantially better than Marine facilities, featuring air conditioning, proper meal service on trays, and functional toilets compared to Marine field conditions.
- An Air Force serviceman's mother sent him repeated letters and directly contacted his commanding officer to pressure him into visiting his Marine brother in the war zone.
- The Air Force serviceman was wounded by enemy fire within moments of arrival at An Hoa, before he could even walk off the tarmac, resulting in him receiving a Purple Heart.
- The wounded Marines on the hospital ward reacted with shock and mockery upon learning that the Air Force serviceman's injuries were supposedly minor, joking about stepping on a nail or thumbtack.
Topics
Transcript
[0:00] First or second time I got hit, they sent me to Da Nang, but there was so many wounded Marines that they didn't have any beds. They got guys laying in blood all over the floors. So, they threw a bunch of us on a C-130 and flew us down to an Air Force hospital. They live a different life. Air conditioned hospital. They ate off plates and trays. They had flushing toilets. When all the guys start coming out of the morphine, you wake up and you're going, "Hey, who you with, man? Seventh Marines." "Hey, who you with? 26 Marines." Cuz one kid, he wouldn't say anything. Finally, the guys started asking and said, "Who you with,…
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