Paul R. Alwine |
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We’re Heading to Vietnam Question: How did you feel the mood was of service members, those that you served with, in the early stages of the war? So I was, like I said, commissioned in 1962. I served on a carrier. It was a helicopter carrier—a WWII era Essex Class carrier that was converted to carry Marines—Marine ground troops and Marine helicopter squadrons. And so this was a whole new concept, this idea of being able to land—take Marines, and insert them into a battle area, basically behind enemy lines or wherever—very quick reaction kind of thing. This was a very new concept at that time. Before that, basically Marines loaded onto boats and they landed them on a beach somewhere. That was the preferred insertion for amphibious forces. So now we had this new element called vertical envelopment where the helicopters would take people in. So, I was on this ship, we had deployed to the Western Pacific in early 1964 and our home base was Subic Bay in the Philippines and that was our base of operations. We then operated all around the Western Pacific up to Taiwan, Okinawa, went to Hong Kong, to Singapore, all over. In August of 64, was when the Gulf of Tonkin incident occurred. We were all in Subic Bay in the Philippines. After that attack by the North Vietnamese PT boats on our US navy destroyers, things started escalating from there. Basically, we got the word, we’re getting underway, we’re heading to Vietnam. We didn’t know much about that, and so it was all kind of new news for everybody concerned. In those days, there was not much communication available. We had no televisions on our ship, we had no newspapers on our ship, we had no internet, no computers, so when we sailed over the horizon, we were basically out of touch from what was going on. Except for Naval message traffic which would come over the radio route to the ship. But as far as the people, the crew on the ship, the officers, we really didn’t get much of a sense of what was going on in the early time. So, after that, as in late August when we were stationed off the coast of South Vietnam, we were the flagship of an amphibious ready group. So, we had a bunch of other ships with us and we were the flagship that had the CO or the captain of that amphibious ready group. And, so we were basically doing circles in the ocean off the coast of South Vietnam, waiting to land Marines. And, I guess I was fortunate in one respect that I was a Supply Corps Officer in the Navy, and so I was responsible for a lot of things to keep the ship going: parts and food and [logistics] —logistics, right. That wasn’t a word then, logistics was hardly a word then. Anyway, so I had the opportunity and the duty to fly into Saigon quite often on one of the helicopters, the ship’s helicopters, to pick up mail, pick up parts and go in there. So, I got to fly over the Mekong delta, where there was a lot of Viet Cong activity going on. Always was wondering, sitting in the passenger area of the Marine helicopters. You know, the only thing between me and the Viet Cong was a thin piece of aluminum. And I was hoping that they didn’t have any ground fire that was gonna reach up that high and come roaring up through the bottom of the helicopter. So I think, back to the original question: what was the mood/ what did people think. If I recall discussions we had in the officers wardroom about this whole activity, I think it was sort of the feeling that ok, you really pissed us off, you have awakened the sleeping giant, we are going to mass our Navy forces. We were in the South with our amphibious ready group. Up in the North, in an area called Yankee Station, off the coast of North Vietnam, we had all our carrier assets—aircraft carrier assets, and we were ready to start dumping some major hurt on the Viet Cong and so, I think the general feeling was, probably six to nine months, we were going to get in there, pound the crap out of them and it would be over. And you can see, history shows how wrong we were.
Object Description
Profile of | Paul R. Alwine |
Title | Service to the Country |
Profile bio | Captain Paul R. Alwine, Jr. is a native of Binghamton, New York. He graduated from the University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Management in 1962. He was commissioned through the Naval ROTC program, was assigned to the Navy Supply Corps School in Athens, Georgia and completed the Basic Qualification Course for Supply Corps officers. While on deployment in the Western Pacific in 1964, the VALLEY FORGE supported early military action in South Vietnam immediately after the Gulf of Tonkin incident. In July 1966 Captain Alwine completed his active duty and affiliated with the Navy Reserve while pursuing a civilian career in the computer and information technology field. During the ensuing years he served in a variety of Navy Reserve Supply Corps units involving procurement, defense contract management, aviation supply, and served on the staff of Commander, Navy Reserve Readiness Command Region 19 in San Diego. During annual active duty periods he served afloat on the USS CONSTELLATION (CV 64), the USS RANGER (CV 61), and ashore at west coast Naval Supply Centers, Naval Air Stations, Defense Logistics Agency commands, as well as duty at the Naval Supply Systems Command in Washington, DC. Captain Alwine served as Commanding Officer of four Navy Reserve units during his career. Additionally, he completed the aviation supply warfare qualifications and became the first Navy Reserve officer on the west coast to earn the “wings of gold” of a Naval Aviation Supply Officer. In 1970 he received a Master of Business Administration from California State University Fullerton, and in 1982 he completed an Executive Sales program conducted by the Harvard Graduate School of Business. As a member of the Marine Corps Air Station El Toro Aero Club he completed general aviation pilot training, earning Commercial Pilot, Multi-engine, Instrument In 1992 Captain Alwine retired after completing a 30-year Navy career. His personal decorations include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Joint Service Commendation Medal, Navy Commendation Medal and numerous unit and campaign awards. In civilian life he is a retired sales executive from the IBM Corporation, and is the President of the Naval ROTC Alumni League at the University of Southern California. He resides with his wife in Irvine, CA. |
Profiler bio | Kyle Curley is a senior studying Industrial and Systems Engineering.; Sungwon Byun is a junior studying Chemical Engineering. Kasey Owens-Shelton is a senior studying Psychology.; Wenzhen Gong is a senior and masters student studying Electrical Engineering. |
Subject |
American, Profile Reservist US Navy Veterans Affairs Viet Nam Captain Carrier Gulf of Tonkin Marines Navy Paul Alwine ROTC Supply Corps USC Vietnam |
Profiled by | Curley, Kyle; Byun, Sungwon; Owens-Shelton, Kasey; Gong, Wenzhen |
Profile date | 2014-04-11 |
Geographic subject (city or populated place) | Binghamton; Los Angeles; Athens; Irvine; Da Nang |
Geographic subject (county) | Broome |
Geographic subject (state) | California |
Geographic subject (country) | USA; Taiwan; Japan; Philippines; China; Singapore; Vietnam |
Coverage date | 1940; 1962; 1964; 2011 |
Publisher (of the original version) | http://anotherwarmemorial.com/paul-r-alwine/ |
Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
Type |
images video |
Format | 1 image; 4 video files (00:14:20); 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 | alwinepaul |
Description
Profile of | Paul R. Alwine |
Title | We're Heading to Vietnam |
Format | 1 transcript, 2 p. |
Filename | alwinepaul-vid2_tr2.pdf |
Full text | We’re Heading to Vietnam Question: How did you feel the mood was of service members, those that you served with, in the early stages of the war? So I was, like I said, commissioned in 1962. I served on a carrier. It was a helicopter carrier—a WWII era Essex Class carrier that was converted to carry Marines—Marine ground troops and Marine helicopter squadrons. And so this was a whole new concept, this idea of being able to land—take Marines, and insert them into a battle area, basically behind enemy lines or wherever—very quick reaction kind of thing. This was a very new concept at that time. Before that, basically Marines loaded onto boats and they landed them on a beach somewhere. That was the preferred insertion for amphibious forces. So now we had this new element called vertical envelopment where the helicopters would take people in. So, I was on this ship, we had deployed to the Western Pacific in early 1964 and our home base was Subic Bay in the Philippines and that was our base of operations. We then operated all around the Western Pacific up to Taiwan, Okinawa, went to Hong Kong, to Singapore, all over. In August of 64, was when the Gulf of Tonkin incident occurred. We were all in Subic Bay in the Philippines. After that attack by the North Vietnamese PT boats on our US navy destroyers, things started escalating from there. Basically, we got the word, we’re getting underway, we’re heading to Vietnam. We didn’t know much about that, and so it was all kind of new news for everybody concerned. In those days, there was not much communication available. We had no televisions on our ship, we had no newspapers on our ship, we had no internet, no computers, so when we sailed over the horizon, we were basically out of touch from what was going on. Except for Naval message traffic which would come over the radio route to the ship. But as far as the people, the crew on the ship, the officers, we really didn’t get much of a sense of what was going on in the early time. So, after that, as in late August when we were stationed off the coast of South Vietnam, we were the flagship of an amphibious ready group. So, we had a bunch of other ships with us and we were the flagship that had the CO or the captain of that amphibious ready group. And, so we were basically doing circles in the ocean off the coast of South Vietnam, waiting to land Marines. And, I guess I was fortunate in one respect that I was a Supply Corps Officer in the Navy, and so I was responsible for a lot of things to keep the ship going: parts and food and [logistics] —logistics, right. That wasn’t a word then, logistics was hardly a word then. Anyway, so I had the opportunity and the duty to fly into Saigon quite often on one of the helicopters, the ship’s helicopters, to pick up mail, pick up parts and go in there. So, I got to fly over the Mekong delta, where there was a lot of Viet Cong activity going on. Always was wondering, sitting in the passenger area of the Marine helicopters. You know, the only thing between me and the Viet Cong was a thin piece of aluminum. And I was hoping that they didn’t have any ground fire that was gonna reach up that high and come roaring up through the bottom of the helicopter. So I think, back to the original question: what was the mood/ what did people think. If I recall discussions we had in the officers wardroom about this whole activity, I think it was sort of the feeling that ok, you really pissed us off, you have awakened the sleeping giant, we are going to mass our Navy forces. We were in the South with our amphibious ready group. Up in the North, in an area called Yankee Station, off the coast of North Vietnam, we had all our carrier assets—aircraft carrier assets, and we were ready to start dumping some major hurt on the Viet Cong and so, I think the general feeling was, probably six to nine months, we were going to get in there, pound the crap out of them and it would be over. And you can see, history shows how wrong we were. |
Archival file | Volume3/alwinepaul-vid2_tr2.pdf |