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Journey to Vietnam
Q: Where in Vietnam did you first arrive and how did you get there?
I arrived in June of ’66 and came back in June of ’67. At first we landed, I guess it was Tan Son Nhut, we had a chance to go one night out into Saigon to look around, and then the next day I was on a helicopter going to, it was called Camp Bearcat. It was out beyond Bien Hoa, it was a suburb where the ammo dump was, and then the next day I was on a helicopter going to my assignment. And it was that night before I got on the helicopter that I realized I wasn’t going to be a personal affairs officer. I was going to be a rifle platoon leader. And that was a little jolt because it’s not like I was going with my unit and I knew the men and they knew me. It was “here are all these guys who have been here for some almost a year, and I’m a brand new guy and I’m the guy in charge.” So it was a pretty intimidating thing for me to think about that. But what made it even worse was that the night before I got there eight of the men in my platoon were killed by short rounds. So I took over a platoon that was in, talk about low morale, talk about angry, talk about in distress and so forth, and here I was this virgin officer. It was difficult, and it got worse immediately.
Object Description
| Profile of | David Tool |
| Title | War's Impact |
| Profile bio | David Tool was born on July 17, 1942 in Charlestown, South Carolina. He attended College of Charlestown (now known as the University of South Carolina). While attending college he took part in the Army's college option program and would later be commissioned as an officer. In June of 1966 he deployed to Vietnam as a young lieutenant. In Vietnam, Tool served as a platoon leader as a member of the 16th Infantry Brigade. After his tour in Vietnam, Tool made the transition to the Army Reserves. As a reservist he climbed through the ranks up to Colonel meanwhile earning his PHD. He retired in Los Angeles to become a part-time lecturer of American Culture at the University of Southern California. He still resides in Los Angeles today and is involved in several organizations throughout the community and USC. |
| Profiler bio | Randy Arias is a sophomore studying Human Biology, Andrew Gentile is a junior studying Economics, Kiran Somers is a junior studying Human Biology |
| Subject |
Vietnam Vietnam war viet cong deployment combat communist |
| Profiled by | Arias, Randy; Gentile, Andrew; Somers, Kiran |
| Profile date | 2016-04-01 |
| Geographic subject (city or populated place) | Charleston; Los Angeles; Saigon; Ho Chi Minh City |
| Geographic subject (county) | Charleston; Berkeley; Los Angeles |
| Geographic subject (state) | South Carolina; California |
| Geographic subject (country) | USA |
| Coverage date | 1966 |
| Publisher (of the original version) | http://anotherwarmemorial.com/david-tool/ |
| Type |
images video |
| Format | 1 image; 5 video files (00:24:43); 4 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 | tooldavid |
Description
| Profile of | David Tool |
| Title | Journey to Vietnam |
| Format | 1 transcript, 1p. |
| Filename | tooldavid-vid1_tr1.pdf |
| Full text | Journey to Vietnam Q: Where in Vietnam did you first arrive and how did you get there? I arrived in June of ’66 and came back in June of ’67. At first we landed, I guess it was Tan Son Nhut, we had a chance to go one night out into Saigon to look around, and then the next day I was on a helicopter going to, it was called Camp Bearcat. It was out beyond Bien Hoa, it was a suburb where the ammo dump was, and then the next day I was on a helicopter going to my assignment. And it was that night before I got on the helicopter that I realized I wasn’t going to be a personal affairs officer. I was going to be a rifle platoon leader. And that was a little jolt because it’s not like I was going with my unit and I knew the men and they knew me. It was “here are all these guys who have been here for some almost a year, and I’m a brand new guy and I’m the guy in charge.” So it was a pretty intimidating thing for me to think about that. But what made it even worse was that the night before I got there eight of the men in my platoon were killed by short rounds. So I took over a platoon that was in, talk about low morale, talk about angry, talk about in distress and so forth, and here I was this virgin officer. It was difficult, and it got worse immediately. |
| Archival file | Volume3/tooldavid-vid1_tr1.pdf |
