Thomas Paul Chambers |
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Killing Men in Combat Interviewer: How did you feel about killing men in combat? But I look up and there across the river is this guy, North Vietnamese uniform – with some tables, sitting in sort of like a lunch area I guess. And he’s sitting there on a table with his leg up, just sort of watching the firefight. So, by that time I had the M14 I think, so I managed to ruin his day. [That was] my second. [I have] twelve that I’m sure of – but eighteen would probably be a more accurate figure but those twelve I was actually able to go up to them and take their equipment and get documents off of them and that kind of thing. [The first one] was on a night patrol – we were uh – it was the village in the area I was telling you about where they were going into the mountains and hiding and coming down to visit their gals. Well we ran into a couple of their people; it was a brief firefight. And one of their guys was crawling and I had the M14. So I shot him with it; and he was prone and he just came up off the ground about a foot. WHAM…and after that he didn’t move. And later when we went out to search for documents, I took his feet and tried to roll him over and everything from his waist down turned and everything else stayed put. I had literally cut him in half. That was the first man I ever shot. It’s interesting, I’d say that no one who’s ever killed anyone in combat that I met – at that time wasn’t happy about it and [they] wanted to do it again. It’s after the fighting is over; that’s when you think “well gee that poor guy” or “ya know what’s it all about” or the people we lost because a lot of the time during the fight you don’t really know who’s missing until it’s over. The only person that I ever had any personal – felt bad about – let me put it that way. We were on a LRRP mission and we were doing what was called a walk off and that is we’d come into this area where GIs had a camp. They [the GIs] left but we stayed behind. The NVA and VC were always short on supplies so a standard tactic for them was to come in and check out any area the GIs had been in because they could get extra rations or sometimes even ammunition and stuff that had been left. Well we were behind this little blind of trees and this fellow started walking right towards us. And he was picking up things and then he looked up and looked right at us and then he sort of goes [shakes his head] nah. And then he did it again – he got a little closer and [shakes his head] nah. And then the third time he saw us there and we were all trained right on him and he realized what was going to happen, and that he really did see something and that he knew he was going to die. And you saw this expression come over his face [makes a horrified face]. And I’ve always felt bad about that because his last moments on earth were just filled with terror and I’d rather he not died like that, you know dying in just stark terror. If he had been shooting back and forth and he had just caught a bullet – that would have been one thing. But I know he was horrified. I could see the look on his face. And…I was really sad about that.
Object Description
Profile of | Thomas Paul Chambers |
Title | The Men with Painted Faces |
Profile bio | Thomas Paul Chambers served two tours in Vietnam from 1966-67 and 1968-69. He served in an infantry company during his first tour. Shortly after returning to the United States, he volunteered for a second tour where he served in an elite Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol or LRRP Company. During his second tour all LRRP units were reorganized into the 75th Ranger Regiment and re-designated as Rangers; as such he holds the rare distinction of being a founding member of the 75th Ranger Regiment. Thomas Paul Chambers is one of the rare few to have served as an Infantryman, Airborne Infantryman (Paratrooper), LRRP Operator, and Army Ranger. Upon leaving military service, Thomas Paul Chambers worked for the LA Unified School District for thirty years. Tom has recently retired and is finishing his first novel. He remains proud of his service to this day. |
Profiler bio | Basil Ballard is a senior majoring in political science. He has a long term interest in the politics of the Vietnam War - as well as a lifelong interest in military history and statecraft.; David Laughton is a Junior majoring in business. |
Subject |
Combat Profile US Army US Special Forces |
Profiled by | Ballard, Basil; Laughton, David |
Profile date | 2016-03-26 |
Geographic subject (country) | Vietnam |
Coverage date | 1966; 1967; 1968; 1969 |
Publisher (of the original version) | http://anotherwarmemorial.com/thomas-paul-chambers/ |
Type |
images video |
Format | 1 image; 8 videos (00:22:13); 8 transcripts |
Language | English |
Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
Part of collection | An Other War Memorial -- Memories of the American War in Viet Nam |
Filename | chambersthomas |
Description
Profile of | Thomas Paul Chambers |
Title | Killing Men in Combat |
Format | 1 transcript, 1p. |
Filename | chambersthomaspaul-vid2_tr2.pdf |
Full text | Killing Men in Combat Interviewer: How did you feel about killing men in combat? But I look up and there across the river is this guy, North Vietnamese uniform – with some tables, sitting in sort of like a lunch area I guess. And he’s sitting there on a table with his leg up, just sort of watching the firefight. So, by that time I had the M14 I think, so I managed to ruin his day. [That was] my second. [I have] twelve that I’m sure of – but eighteen would probably be a more accurate figure but those twelve I was actually able to go up to them and take their equipment and get documents off of them and that kind of thing. [The first one] was on a night patrol – we were uh – it was the village in the area I was telling you about where they were going into the mountains and hiding and coming down to visit their gals. Well we ran into a couple of their people; it was a brief firefight. And one of their guys was crawling and I had the M14. So I shot him with it; and he was prone and he just came up off the ground about a foot. WHAM…and after that he didn’t move. And later when we went out to search for documents, I took his feet and tried to roll him over and everything from his waist down turned and everything else stayed put. I had literally cut him in half. That was the first man I ever shot. It’s interesting, I’d say that no one who’s ever killed anyone in combat that I met – at that time wasn’t happy about it and [they] wanted to do it again. It’s after the fighting is over; that’s when you think “well gee that poor guy” or “ya know what’s it all about” or the people we lost because a lot of the time during the fight you don’t really know who’s missing until it’s over. The only person that I ever had any personal – felt bad about – let me put it that way. We were on a LRRP mission and we were doing what was called a walk off and that is we’d come into this area where GIs had a camp. They [the GIs] left but we stayed behind. The NVA and VC were always short on supplies so a standard tactic for them was to come in and check out any area the GIs had been in because they could get extra rations or sometimes even ammunition and stuff that had been left. Well we were behind this little blind of trees and this fellow started walking right towards us. And he was picking up things and then he looked up and looked right at us and then he sort of goes [shakes his head] nah. And then he did it again – he got a little closer and [shakes his head] nah. And then the third time he saw us there and we were all trained right on him and he realized what was going to happen, and that he really did see something and that he knew he was going to die. And you saw this expression come over his face [makes a horrified face]. And I’ve always felt bad about that because his last moments on earth were just filled with terror and I’d rather he not died like that, you know dying in just stark terror. If he had been shooting back and forth and he had just caught a bullet – that would have been one thing. But I know he was horrified. I could see the look on his face. And…I was really sad about that. |
Archival file | Volume3/chambersthomaspaul-vid2_tr2.pdf |