Omaha Folklore Project: Interview with Leo (Koja ?)



-Carol Rolfson (CF): K. Interviewing Leo Koja in the Vietnam War. How old were you when you went in the war?

-LEO: 21.

-CF: Where were you stationed at?

-LEO: Chu Lai, Vietnam.

-CF: Where's that at?

-LEO: It's about central part of Vietnam. 20 miles south of Da Nang. I take it back, 50 miles south of Da Nang.

-CF: And what'd you do?

-LEO: I was a helicopter crew chief.

-CF: And

-LEO: Working on helicopters and I mean, maintenance on em' and flew on em'.

-CF: Did you, did you was that, were you trained to do it down there? Or were you...

-LEO: No I started in Fort Eustis, Virginia. They sent me there for six months for training on helicopters. Maintenance and flying and everything.

-CF: Did see like your, did you go up and fight, actually fight from the helicopters or anything?

-LEO: Oh yeah. We, well I was a crew chief, and we had a bit newer guy who was a door gun, plus two pilots on. And we had to guard the helicopters and things like that when we were in the air.

-CF: Mhmm. Then did you ever see any helicopters get shot down? Or...

-LEO: Oh yes. Quite a few. There was well a lot of times it was just a freak accident, but there was quite a few that were shot up. Lost a few lives and things like that.

-CF: How'd you feel when they got shot down, like you see your buddies and stuff?

-LEO: Well it kind of bothers you, cause you hardly seen anything like that happen to the other side, but we lost quite a few. There was uh. I think there was only two deaths from the outfit that I was in that was all from helicopters.

-CF: Mhmm.

-LEO: Being shot down.

-CF: Did, Okay when you were, you know, flying around and stuff were they using, how did you attack with your helicopters?

-LEO: Well usually we waited for someone to start shooting at us from the ground or something, and then we'd go in after them. Take off, flying in to where they're at. We used to go out at night and stuff, and there'd be two helicopters. One would fly with its lights on to draw fire form the ground, and another one would fly up above waiting for somebody to start shooting.

-CF: Mhmm.

-LEO: At the one that was lit up. And they'd go in with about everything they got.

-CF: Did you see any of the people from around there how they were reacting to the war and everything?

-LEO: Seemed like, to me, they just it was like everyday occurrence. They'd go out and work in their fields. Rice patties and things, they just, you know, 00:03:00seemed like they were just used to it.

-CF: Did you see some civilians get killed and stuff too?

-LEO: Yeah there was, well I was over there right after that Chu Lai incident, or My Lai Massacre. They were investigating that and I was over there.

-CF: What exactly was that that happened?

-LEO: Well they went in and they killed all these people, all the people in this one town. They thought they were from the North Vietnamese. And come to find out they were just regular people regular citizens of that town. They killed everybody. I don't know, they were... Real kind of strange.

-CF: Yeah. What kind of food did you have?

-LEO: Well the food we all just ate mostly in the mess halls. We couldn't go off the bases to eat what the people eat, regular country people. They wouldn't let 00:04:00us off, unless you flew out or something like that.

-CF: And you didn't have much leave at all from the base?

-LEO: No. The only time you get off the base really1 is if you're just goin flying somewhere on a mission or something.

-CF: What kind of, do they have the medical hospital there?

-LEO: Yeah we had just about everything. Just like here in the States. We had it, where you lived at. We had theaters and, bars and things like that, but it was just all on base. You never left base.

-CF: Like a small little town?

-LEO: Yeah.

-CF: Did you know how people were reacting at home?

-LEO: Oh. It was more or less, just people just really didn't care anymore is the way it had sounded to me. And they just wanted it over with, and wanted everybody home. I know my parents wanted me home, they didn't like that I was 00:05:00over there. But there wasn't too much they could do about it.

-CF: Did you like what the government was trying to do to end it?

-LEO: No. I think they went about the war, In my opinion, they went about it all wrong. They, well like when I was over there, you never really took anything. We'd fly in to an area and clean it out of the communists and stuff, and then turn around that night and you'd fly out of there. Well in the meantime they'd turn around and move back in. Most the time they all, it seemed like they always knew what you were gunna do.

-CF: Yeah. Well, what were they doing over there about it? Were they doing anything over there? Specifically?

-LEO: Oh. They seemed like they just didn't, didn't matter to them one way or the other which way they would have gone. All they wanted, wanted was just to be left alone I think.

-CF: Did you. Did the base have airplanes or were there just helicopters there?

-LEO: No, we had airplanes and, not in the outfit I was in, but there was airplanes there. And there was jets, and jet bombers, things like that. The Marines had most of them. The jets and stuff. We had small airplanes and helicopters.

-CF: Mhmm. Do like... (clicking and interference) How much did you get paid while you were down there?

-LEO: Well. I got when I was an E5, I was getting paid like 450$ a month. And then on top of that, I had combat pay which was about 75$ more. And then flight pay, which about another 85$. So I was making pretty good money.

-CF: Yeah.

-LEO: I sent most of it home. A lot of guys from the company, we just played cards all the time when we were off work. Play poker or something like that. So the money was just, looked like monopoly money is what it was. It had pictures of the Indians on it or something like that. Military payment currency, and uh. I'd just take and send most of mine home and I'd keep like 20 dollars to live on in a month. And most the time I'd make 100 dollars or so playing cards. That was just, seemed like the money they didn't care. They would just throw it away, and go to the clubs and spend it all there or something like that.

-CF: What hours did you work while you were down there?

-LEO: Well it was 12 hours a day. And every two weeks you'd switch from days to nights. So there was some pretty long days. Most of the time the guys didn't sleep anyways, we'd just messed around all day long. If we'd worked nights, we 00:08:00usually went to the beach and went swimming during the day. If we worked days then at night we'd just play cards all night long. They were kind of a wild bunch over there. We had a bunch of infantry right next to us and they were always throwing throwing grenades around or something like that out there. Blowing things up. Seemed like every night you'd get tear gas or something and they'd just be playing, horsing around and throwing tear gas. It got so I had my, I had my gas mask right next to my bed. After a while I got so used to it I probably wouldn't even wake up. I'd just put my gas mask on if it started bothering me. Just stay sleeping. And we didn't have to do any laundry or clean up our barracks or anything. We always, we hired a Vietnamese girl to do that. And she worked for uh, cost six dollars a month for each guy and there was 00:09:00usually six guys in a barracks. Eight or Six dollars a month, then they'd change it in to Vietnamese currency. Which was real cheap. She washed all our clothes and made our bed and took care of our barracks. Shined our boots, and everything. I wish people worked that cheap over here, everybody'd have a maid.

-CF: Really. Was there any ever possibility, I mean did you base ever get, was there any ever air raids or anything on you guys?

-LEO: Oh yeah. We, I'd say probably once a month, usually when we got a air raid or something, it was more rocket tech. They'd set up rockets in the mountains about eight miles away, you that could shoot em' in to the area. There was probably In this place I was at, Chu Lai, There was probably 10,000 military people there. So it was pretty well spread out, but Whenever we got a rocket 00:10:00attack or something, it was usually in the late evening and and then they'd, eveybody'd have to go out to the bunker line and guard the bunk, guard the base and stuff. Usually they just send in the rockets and then they'd disappear. So you never really knew if once you hear the rockets, they probably sent them an hour before that, before they go off.

-CF: Mhmm.

-LEO: Come in and, there's a few guys that got killed there you know. It's pretty freak. Most of the time they'd go right in to the Ocean with the rockets. They'd overshoot the base or something. Once in a while they'd get a direct hit on something. Our NCO club got hit one night. Nobody was in there.

-CF: When, okay when they say it, what did you guys all have to do?

-LEO: Well we have to go get our weapons and everything and go out and guard the bunker line. And certain guys had to go up in the helicopters right away and see if they could find out where they had come from. But they never really found anything.

-CF: What was like the worst thing that you saw that happened up there?

-LEO: I think worst for me, helicopter burn started on fire in the air. It got shot at, and just it was like a torch up in the air blew up. They weren't from our company, I just saw really what was left of it.

-CF: Did that happen right by the base, or while you were up?

-LEO: Well it happened coming in to the base. They knew they were having troubles, they never made it.

-CF: Were there any kind of like medical problems with drugs or what kind of drugs did they have?

-LEO: Oh yeah. The drug problem over there was, I don't know it was just like going to the store and buying cigarettes or candy. Cause you know, anybody could get it. Our hooch, the hooch maids brought it in. It was so darn, it was so cheap, a lot of the guys got hooked on it. Really got themselves in a lot of problems.

-CF: What about that alcoholic beverages.

-LEO: Yeah it seemed like the Army, they claimed that's their biggest problem, but we don't seem to do anything about it. I think most of the guys just pretty well stayed drunk all the time they were over there. You could buy a case of beer for two dollars.

-CF: Were there a lot of women over, did you have women on your base and stuff?

-LEO: Oh yeah. There was girls that worked in the clubs and things like that. Most of them speak pretty good English and everything and stuff like that. They were more or less just like barmaids or something. Or they worked in barracks. Took care of the barracks or something like that. Worked in the mess hall.

-CF: There weren't any that did any type of fighting?

-LEO: Naw. More or less the Vietnamese that were over there. They kept pretty 00:13:00much to themselves. They didn't associate too much with Americans. They kind of just tolerated us and things like that.

-CF: How often did your mail come?

-LEO: We had mail pretty much every day. Usually right at noon time is when we got it. I guess I was pretty lucky. I was dating a girl who was going to UNO. Before I went over there. She belonged to a Sorority. I think about every girl in the Sorority was writing letters to me. And there was no way I'd answer them all, so I'd just kind of hand them out to the other guys. Let them read them and girls just wrote. I think one day I got 30 letters from just different girls from the Sorority and stuff. I just gave them to the other guys in the outfit and told them to read them and write them back if they wanted to. Just for something to do. Most the guys were getting letters all the time over there from 00:14:00these girls. It was really kind of surprising.

-CF: Yeah. Was there ever any times it would get delayed or the mail wouldn't come?

-LEO: No. Not really. I guess they had one plane accident that lost a bunch of mail. I don't think any of mine was on there. I got quite a few care packages. That's what it was called, and they were cookies and things like that, stuff you wouldn't get here from over there. I think my mom, she used to send cookies all the time. Cake and things like that. Most of the time it didn't take but about three days to get there, so everything, nothing got spoiled or anything. One Christmas time I couldn't, the only kind of liquor I wanted was Peppermint Schnapps and I couldn't get any over there. So I had my parents to send a couple bottles. It was against the law to ship alcohol through the mail. So they hid it inside a, it was getting near Christmas, so they hid it inside a Santa Claus 00:15:00type deal. Quart of Peppermint Schnapps. That didn't last five minutes, everybody liked it.

-CF: Did you get to like come home for holidays, like Christmas?

-LEO: No. The only thing you could do was to take a three day pass. Or they called it R and R. Well it was, they call it rest and relaxation. But we always called it rape and rampage. You could either go to Australia, or Thailand, or back to Hawaii for three days. I didn't take any cause I was just, I felt like I wanted to get a car when I got back out of Vietnam. It would probably cost me 500 dollars to take the three day leave, so I decided I'd just send the money home and buy a new car. Most of the guys went in on one. They really enjoyed it.

-CF: When you went in to town, did any of the people ever the Vietnamese, did they every try to you know like get you guys?

-LEO: No, not really. They were all pretty decent around there. We had, well Vietnamese around post they'd get about everything. Koreans, we had Koreans there too. Had different shows and at clubs or something they'd have a bunch of singers and dancers from Australia or Korea or something like that. They'd come through and put on a big show for us. We had good meals and barbers and things like that. I had get a haircut about once every two weeks. I didn't trust her too much cutting around my head with a pair of scissors or a knife or something.

-CF: Were you still there when the war ended?

-LEO: No. I left there and went to come back to the States for 30 days and then went to Germany. While I was in Germany the war was winding down. I guess it got pretty rough from some of the mail I got from the guys there. There were more 00:17:00rocket attacks and things like that.

-CF: Do you think we should have stayed in the war or... How do you feel about that?

-LEO: Well, I think. Nixon kind of sold the Vietnamese out, he wanted a peaceful settlement to the war, but it seemed like the North Vietnam wasn't gunna go along with it. You couldn't negotiate with them to begin with. It seemed like he just sold out, just wanted everything everybody brought back so he could get elected again. Vietnamese people, they were willing to stay fighting, but with the United States not there to back them, they just turned and ran. More or less and just gave the whole country to the Communists. The people over there were really kind of hard workers and stuff, I mean they could make anything. There 00:18:00wasn't really nothing there I knew of that the United States needed to begin with. Why they got in the war to being with, if they ain't gunna fight it like it should be fought and things like that. It would probably have ended up like another Korea. Two different countries, with a zone in between em' to keep em' out. Which I suppose it's alright, The way I look at it is they weren't gunna get in there, they lost a lot of lives over there, the United States did, for absolutely nothing.

-CF: Well is there anything else you'd like to add.

-LEO: No I think that's probably about it.