Allan P. Turner
What years were you in Vietnam?
From 1967 to 1970, two and a half years
How old were you when you were in Vietnam?
Thirty eight to 40, too old really.
What was your job?
medic with the mobile advisory team MAC V, military assistance through Vietnam, that's what they called us.
What did you know about Vietnam before going?
I didn't know a damn thing about it really, I've heard about it....I didn't even know were it was.
On most days what did you do in the war?
Vietnam was dirty, filthy, and I was sweating all the time, I was scared we had a lot of snakes and a lot of big rats and I was a medic and I would treat the water trucks with treatment pills. I had a 250-gallon water truck that I had for my team of five men, and we would travel around, every two months we worked with the south Vietnamese troops we would go out on night ambushes with them...
What was the food like and how often did you eat?
I didn't get to eat hardly, sometimes I would go two or three days without eating, sometimes we went to Saigon and traded
war items souvenirs for pork chops, steaks, and stuff, we had Cambodian cooks and they cooked our food on propane stoves and about half of what we ate was rotten but we ate it anyway
we were hungry, I don't see how I ever made it through that.
How about laundry, how often was laundry done and how often did you get clean clothes?
Oh laundry...we called them "cleans" they flew them in on a chopper and they were just big bundles, no size no fit,
they just threw them out there and you just grabbed what you could.
Where did you sleep most nights?
Most nights I slept in a bunker...in a Army cot, a wooden cot no sheets, no pillows , but we did have mosquito nets...we also had sand bags that surrounded us and one time
one of those big rats chewed all of the way through the sand bags trying to get to me but once he hit that mosquito net he stopped, so the only thing that kept me from being rat bit was a thin little
mosquito net..(laughs)...
How much were you paid in Vietnam?
I got $65 combat pay... as a sergeant E-5 I was getting $450 a month well about $450 to $600 a month...in other words the Army doesn't pay too good
What was the weather like?
Oh the weather was hot all the time and all of a sudden they would have what you call monsoon rains, drenching rain for 20 or 30 minutes and then it would stop and get hotter than hell, 120 degrees one time, sometimes at night you just slept in your shorts.
How did you feel about the Vietnam war and why the U.S. was there
I feel I was just doing my duty...to me it was an economical thing, and we could have won the thing if they would of let the generals run it. Johnson tried to run it, he didn't know what to do and even Nixon broke a promise he made to the Vietnamese, we could of even won it with Nixon...
How did you feel about the protestors of the war?
Well, I figured they had a right as American citizens to protest...all the Vietnam veterans wanted was a "thank you" and
they finally have said that with the wall and all, we didn't get no parade or anything like the World War II or Korea vets and that still hurts today.
I didn't want to be spit upon or be called baby killers I just wanted a "thank you".
I’ve never known that much about history and I think I learned a lot about the Vietnam War and how soldiers had it during that war. I have served in today's military and I see how times have changed. I feel like I have learned about past presidents, such as Johnson and Nixon, and how they were viewed by the common people. I learned a few things about my step-Grandfather that I did not know about him. I learned that there were some things that he had to do that he did not agree with in the war. I also learned that he went to college, I never knew that about him, and I also learned that he was a pretty tough guy in his younger years. When you see the Vietnam War on television it is always showing some kind of hero story, or people protesting. I think of the Vietnam War a little differently now, I think of the soldiers as men who were just doing their duty, not out to gain something for themselves. I think I understand why the Vietnam War was so controversial now. I think the benefits of learning history through an interview are that it is more interesting. I also think it helps you get the common person’s view on history. The downfall about history through an interview is that it is a one sided opinion, and everyone knows memories are always exaggerated. Overall I think this can be an affective way to learn about the past if you ask the right questions and ask the right person.
The History of Airborne Ranger Vietnam Mir Bahmanyar Historian,writer, Editor in Chief, this is a website that has the History of the Rangers and their involvement in different wars.
Military advisary teams Pike Military Research(SM), copyright 2002 Thomas Pike. All Rights Reserved. Revised:July 08, 2004.This website has Military Advisory units of Vietnam, some people have regesterd there and you can see what unit they were in.
Histoy of the 45th Infantry Division author unknown,revised March 24 2005, this is the History of the 45th Infantry, it also has links for the WWII reenactors.
The Vietnam Memorial Wall Page owned and operated by 4/9 Infantry Manchu (Vietnam) Association, copyright-all rights reserved 1996-2004. This is a website for the Vietnam Memorial Wall, you can look up names see who's birthday it is or see who died on what day.
Author unknown;Pleasanton Express, Pleasanton Texas, Wednesday, November 8, 2000. This is an article that the Pleasanton Express paper did on Allan P. Turner and tells about a certain battle he was in.