George Trujillo |
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Dealing with casualties and the death of comrades
The first time you see it its very, very difficult. Not that it gets easier but you became a little numb to it. I had a few friends that were killed. A lot of times when I would go out to combat zones, I would do what I needed to do and on the way back I’d help to carry the dead and wounded on to the helicopter. That was always difficult because sometimes you would see a guy that looks like he’s asleep but he’s dead and its hard to find a wound. Another time a guy’s got an arm and a leg blown off and he’s talking to you. You’ve just got to numb yourself to it and keep on going. You just keep hoping its not going to be you.
The unforgettable memories
You remember the faces of the guys that didn’t come back.
To the interviewer: “Open that up right there and take the top photograph. Read the back of that.”
Interviewer (reading from back of photograph): “Captain Flanigan promoting me to Corporal. Captain Flanigan was killed in action.”
He was a good man, a terrific officer. He was actually decapitated by a rocket. Things like that, those are the tough ones.
I didn’t know any details about him. I was an enlisted NCO and he was a commissioned officer; its not the kind of thing where I sat down with him and talked about family. The officers had to maintain a certain amount of separation from the enlisted. There were a couple of others that didn’t come back. Those are the ones that you remember.
He was probably in his mid to late 30′s. Most of us there that were enlisted were 18 to 21 or 22. I can’t remember anyone that was older than that. Like I said I had my 19th birthday when I was there; I had been in the country for eight months when I had my 19th birthday. I had already seen a lot before I was even 19 years old.
Object Description
| Profile of | George Trujillo |
| Title | It wasn't ours to choose, it was just our time |
| Profile bio | George Trujillo was in high school when the Vietnam War began. He enlisted in the Marine Corps during his final semester of his high school at the age of seventeen, graduated on June 27, celebrated his eighteenth birthday in boot camp and was deployed in Vietnam for a thirteen-month tour of duty in late January 1968, just prior to the Tet offensive. He was a member of the 1st and 3rd Marine Corp that fought in the northern I Corps, a much-contested area close to the DMZ. George served as an ammunition and explosive ordinance disposal technician. The responsibilities of his job included clearing unexploded ordinances, munitions caches, etc. He fought with one main unit but, given the nature of his assignment, was frequently relocated for temporary additional duty. He currently lives in Long Beach with his wife of thirty-three years. |
| Profiler bio | Andy was born and raised in Hong Kong, and came to the United States three years ago. He is currently a junior at the USC Marshall School of Business. Julian is a junior from Pennsylvania majoring in Biology and Art History at the University of Southern California. |
| Subject |
Vietnam war enlistment volunteer deployment weapons technician service veteran |
| Profiled by | Wong, Chaklam Andy; Hricik, Julian; Shao, Ying |
| Profile date | 2011-04-01 |
| Geographic subject (city or populated place) | Long Beach |
| Geographic subject (county) | Los Angeles |
| Geographic subject (state) | California |
| Geographic subject (country) | USA; Vietnam |
| Coverage date | 1968 |
| Publisher (of the original version) | http://anotherwarmemorial.com/george-trujillo/ |
| Type |
images video |
| Format | 1 image; 4 video files (00:13:58); 5 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 | trujillogeorge |
Description
| Profile of | George Trujillo |
| Title | Interview Transcription |
| Format | 1 transcript, 1p. |
| Filename | trujillogeorge-vid3_tr3.pdf |
| Full text | Dealing with casualties and the death of comrades The first time you see it its very, very difficult. Not that it gets easier but you became a little numb to it. I had a few friends that were killed. A lot of times when I would go out to combat zones, I would do what I needed to do and on the way back I’d help to carry the dead and wounded on to the helicopter. That was always difficult because sometimes you would see a guy that looks like he’s asleep but he’s dead and its hard to find a wound. Another time a guy’s got an arm and a leg blown off and he’s talking to you. You’ve just got to numb yourself to it and keep on going. You just keep hoping its not going to be you. The unforgettable memories You remember the faces of the guys that didn’t come back. To the interviewer: “Open that up right there and take the top photograph. Read the back of that.” Interviewer (reading from back of photograph): “Captain Flanigan promoting me to Corporal. Captain Flanigan was killed in action.” He was a good man, a terrific officer. He was actually decapitated by a rocket. Things like that, those are the tough ones. I didn’t know any details about him. I was an enlisted NCO and he was a commissioned officer; its not the kind of thing where I sat down with him and talked about family. The officers had to maintain a certain amount of separation from the enlisted. There were a couple of others that didn’t come back. Those are the ones that you remember. He was probably in his mid to late 30′s. Most of us there that were enlisted were 18 to 21 or 22. I can’t remember anyone that was older than that. Like I said I had my 19th birthday when I was there; I had been in the country for eight months when I had my 19th birthday. I had already seen a lot before I was even 19 years old. |
| Archival file | Volume5/trujillogeorge-vid3_tr3.pdf |
