INTRODUCTION
Arturo (Art) Gonzalez Cuellar was a Vietnam Veteran of B Company Mechanize 2/8 with the 4th Infantry division also known as the Black Panthers in the Army. Not only a survivor, but also an intelligent, wonderful, mentor, friend and somebody whom I consider as a father. He loves walking, playing golf and attending Catholic Church at St. Piux X. He also visits his Vietnam buddies twice a year traveling all around the world having reunions with other Vietnam Veterans from the 4th Infantry division.
He was born on October 26, 1947 to the parents of Lorenzo Cuellar and Dora Gonzalez Cuellar in Castroville, Texas. A full family of 8 with 3 brothers and 4 sister's, including himself. Lorenzo Cuellar Jr is the eldest sibling, at 72 years of age along with brothers Oscar and David Cuellar. Sisters include Rosalinda Cuellar Hernandez, Mary Lou Cuellar Hernandez, Angie Cuellar Rangel, Jo Ann Cuellar (Ward) Bonqie.
He was drafted at the age of 18 while a junior at Lytle High School in March of 1967. Even though he was unable to graduate from High School he still continued his education to receive his GED while in the army. Although there are currently no birth records that he exists there is proof that he was in the Vietnam War as he proudly displayed his discharge papers as proof. Before he was successfully considered eligible to become a volunteer draft (1HS) his father had to take his copy of birth certificate to the selective service board to prove his age of 18.
Art is a proud grandfather of two grandkids and two children. One son, Arturo Andres Cuellar, age 40 and one daughter Monica Cuellar Montalvo, age 36. Monica currently has two kids, Isabella Montalvo, 7 years of age, and Drew Montalvo that will be turning 1 soon. He currently resides in San Antonio, TX and is married to a wonderful woman of 16 years, Eva Reyes Cuellar.
After Art returned from the Army he continued his college education at San Antonio College while working at Gary Aircraft. He changed jobs to finally settle with Southwestern Bell Company which he later retired after 25 years of dedicated service.
TRANSCRIPTION
Where were you when you received the draft letter in 1967? And what was your initial reaction?
I was in Chicago, IL and I knew it was coming. Because I didn't go to college, my parents couldn't afford for me to go to college so I had to go to war. So I knew I was going to get reclassified from 1HS to a 1A. 1A's classification is you are ready for the draft. 1HS is high school and not ready yet.
Did you have any other family members that were also drafted or were you the only family member in the service?
I had a cousin, first cousin, Fastino Cuellar, we grew up together and he was 4 years older than I was, he was like my older brother. We hung out a lot and he was drafted after I was, 6 months later.
And you mentioned about something about your father also, was he also in the service?
No, he was Civil service and worked at Kelly Air Force Base as a supply attendant and he was volunteered to go to Vietnam to go and arrange all the warehouse supplies from the supplies getting in from United States. That is when I got a chance to go and see him. I didn't know he was there because(hesitant) my family nobody wrote to me, nobody wrote to me(shaking his head with emphases). I did have a cousin of mine she would write to me and send me a record player, battery type, but other than that I didn't know what the h*ll was going on.
Did you ever get a clear understanding as to what the Vietnam War was about, when you were drafted?
No, we did, we were going to look for this one guy called Charlie. Why? All we knew was a communist that tried to take over this and that. Which I understood but the thing is I was ordered to go down there by LBJ and that was my part.
I know that you mentioned previously that you walked, every day, 5 miles to search and destroy Vietnam Cong's, can you describe? I mean you don't have to go into depth, your thoughts and details of that long mile?
In a way it wasn't bad. It was good because as I was telling Eva(wife) we had to carry our supplies and our ruck sack for weeks. We didn't stay at base camp we just lived out in the jungles in the middle of nowhere and really we did not see many people in the Civilian areas because we were out in the jungles, but we would…Vietnam it's a beautiful country. A lot of water falls, we were mostly in the Jungles. A lot of jungles that is all you had because I guess we were on the lookout for snakes, spiders and stuff like that. The Country was beautiful.
Did you ever go back because you are saying it's beautiful?
No. Would I go back? No I would never go back. To the areas I was at, it's beautiful all strictly jungles, nothing flat land.
Now I know you mentioned also, I don't know if you want to discuss this, but you mentioned at one point somebody saved your life?
We were walking and coming down from the mountain and at the bottom of mountain was a rice patty. At the bottom of the rice patty you have dykes to irrigate them and we had to cross these dykes to get on the other side. Well I got short legs and in about 65 pounds of stuff to carry and I missed a step and I went down with all my gear and everything. And it was deep and it was like a (hesitant) something like an ambush or accident waiting to happen. Because that hole was not 2 feet it was like 7 feet deep.
So you think it was planned?
Yes, because I couldn't get up because of all my gear and this friend of mine helped me take my ruck sack and he dove in and pulled me back up . He went after my gear and everything and still when I see a river flowing real fast, I hesitate.
What did your day consist of when you were not looking to destroy Vietnam Cong's?
That was everyday so there was no down time. 7 days and then when we did come back when we set up, you walk 5 miles set up camp and you go on ambush. So we had to go on ambush 3 people at time. We always rotated sometimes we would go twice a month it all depends and how many ambushes did we need to set up.
Now you said earlier that your father delivered supplies? How did they deliver those because I saw on one picture that they actually dropped down supplies by parachutes?
No they went by boat and he went by plane and he specialized in getting supplies into the warehouse. I guess he would make sure that this went here and that went there and classify where they were at.
Can you give me more a little more details about Agent Orange? Do you feel it was necessary?
Remember I told you that I was in the jungle most of the time. That Agent Orange was a chemical to kill the vegetation, to kill plants and everything. At that time we didn't know what it was we saw flying from them airplanes spraying at everything we jumped in the rivers in all that. Well h*ll the fish were dying also you could see them popping up because the water was contaminated but they didn't say anything to us. Once it hit all the leaves, branches, bushes everything would die. Yeah, I think we are still paying for that. The American Government is still paying Vietnamese for all the lives that were lost over there. Because the kids are deformed or dying or something.
Did you or were you impacted by Agent Orange at all?
Yeah that is why I am disabled. I am 100% disabled veteran because of Agent Orange. It affected my kidneys, my lungs, my heart and everything. That is why I have hypertension. It is high because of Agent Orange. Diabetes is high because of Agent Orange. You name it, I got. Neuropathy on both feet because of Agent Orange. I even have jungle rot. It's when you walk so many days with wet feet. My feet were white like sponges because we walked in the monsoon seasons. It rained 24/7 for about 3 months.
I remember the last day we really walked it was right after Thanksgiving and we were up in the mountains. And we couldn't climb because we were so wet the terrain over there it was all red clay. We have black clay and it was red clay. You climb up 50 feet and you come down, slide down. They told us to chill out for a while and they ordered some hot food for us. Helicopters came in and then about a couple of days later the General of the area of that time was General Stone. They saw us that we were out there in the mountains. He wanted to know why we were doing that sh*t. We have tanks back at the base camp and armored personnel carriers why don't you people…nobody told us. That was in November right around Thanksgiving. No more walking.
For how many months were ya'll walking the 5 miles?
About 5 months No, they bought in the tanks by choppers. The choppers called Chinooks can carry a tank and they were bringing in all that stuff to base camp for us and the guys that took the training to be drivers they flew them in by choppers and drove them. That is when I knew I was coming back home. I didn't have to walk anymore. Because the percentage of you getting hurt was like 70% versus 20% driving in tank. The only thing the tank would run into was land mind but that is too much steal. But a month after I came back to US that track that I was on got hit by an armor personnel carrier rocket. It melted that whole tank to the ground. Because we had all of our ammo cans in there and it blew up. But I was lucky I was already back in the states.
Now you said something about you have reunions with the black panthers, twice a year. Who was the organizer?
Well now once a year maybe twice a year. His name is Michael Hughes, Mickey. He is a little bit shorter then I am so I feel like a giant next to him. He was working for Panera the CIA director. No this guy is up there. He was one of the one in charge of personnel worked all over the world.
When you were saying you were back in the states how were you treated when you came back from Vietnam War?
Before we left they told us not to wear our uniform from Vietnam until we landed in Fort Hood. They were spitting at us, a bunch of hippie's, they treated us ugly. They had buses waiting for us so we didn't walk to the terminals. Soon as we got loaded they took us back to Fort Hood and got crossed back into the US.
Do you know why or understand why you were treated that way?
Because they hated the war and I think most of the problem there was because a lot of these parents that had kids didn't want their kids to go to war. Because they know the chance of them getting killed was pretty…"Dumb Mexican you made it back so big deal". I don't want my son to go so that is why they were protesting. Most of them were college kids that protested and you would think the educated would know better than that. Look at what happened to Kent University. Kent University they had a big uproar a couple of college student got shot or killed because they were demonstrating the Vietnam War. I was mad at my Captain because I was cold. I just had khaki's and t-shirt. Because they didn't give us a jacket only t-shirt and khaki's.
If there was anything else that you would want to add to let others know, what would you say?
Well, why(as he tears up and gets water)did it take the people so long to realize what we went thru. (Sniffling and wiping away tears) You know, not to change the subject but in 2008 Gina (stepdaughter) moved to Seattle and she asked me to help her. And it was almost 40 years since I had been there and when I was flying back from Seattle I was sitting in a restaurant and the guy saw my cap. He bought my lunch and he was one that had protested. He apologized and everything. I forgave him. We were all young and we shouldn't be doing that. Our VA psychiatrist, counselor whatever you want to call it says it's best to talk about it. Because if you hang into it it's going to drag you down. A lot of us now open up. We are opening up now. That is what I would say, why did it take so long(crying and wiping his tears).
Do you have anything else to add about that or anything else at all?
No, I think the thought that we did our part and it's time to heal the wounds and go forward. I hope nobody goes thru what we went thru and what we saw. Because the older you get you never forget(crying)I will never forget.
ANALYSIS
As I was interviewing Arturo Gonzales Cuellar I was very pleased with the in depth dialogue that transpired. I could not begin to say that I have a better understanding of what this particular Vietnam Veteran went thru since I am sure that would be a huge understatement. However, I felt the overwhelming emotions as he was unfolding his not so pleasant memories of his past during the Vietnam War. Art was very open and at times we had to move on from certain questions when I noticed the pain was all too real. However, he did his best to circle back and explain a little more if necessary.
I found several important points that were developed during this interview very interesting. The biggest point that was emphasized was why the Vietnam Veterans were treated so badly upon their arrival back into the United States? Also amazed of all the after effects that contributed to so many health conditions for so many Vietnam Veterans. In addition, I was shocked to learn that none of his immediate family members wrote to him while he was in the service. This was especially hard for me to take in, however nowhere near as difficult when he was discussing this ordeal to me. Even more moving when I clearly witnessed the hurt in his eyes as he recounted those painful times of his life.
I never had an opinion about this topic one way or the other and to have my view change was not necessary. I didn't want to get too in depth with my questions as I feared opening old wounds that may not have fully healed yet. I would have liked to know more about this subject and if he considered this war was necessary or not, but that may come at a later time.
This story taught me about all the hippie's protesting the Vietnam War. I also found out more information about the Kent State University protest that had occurred during the 1970's.
There were some things I was not sure of and I looked online to see what he was referring to. Chinooks was something I never heard of but I saw some of the images and realized it was something I had known or seen previously but never knew the correct name for it. Those huge helicopters were able to carry out those tanks that were delivered, however there was certain restrictions to considering if you were traveling by the mountains or by the coastal waters.
There are some drawbacks of learning through this oral history project and that is having these Vietnam Veterans answering questions really bought back a lot of old wounds that I am sure they didn't want opened up. However the only way to really get the true history is by asking questions to the Veterans that participated in the war. As he mentioned in his interview the psychiatrists want Veterans to talk about it their past to help Veterans deal with their past. They will never forget it, but they have to learn how to live and cope with all the tragedy of those past events.
Yes doing the interview is a great way to learn about the past. To get the stories through the eyes of the person who was there is priceless. But it may come with a risk and the Vietnam Veteran should be considered: cautioned and handled with care. When a student contemplates doing these interviews with past war service men they should consider if the person is medically and mentally stable. Talk to family members to get a better understanding if this person suffers from PTSD.
