Conrad T. Gomez |
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We Didn’t Lose My youngest son is 24, my oldest son is 38 and they are just beginning to know some of the things that I decided to talk to you about. From pictures and this and that. And they’re like, ‘wow! Dad! Damn!’ I had to help unload body bags on Thanksgiving morning off a helicopter. What do you think I think about? Those are the things that, they don’t leave you. My mother and I corresponded quite a bit. I actually congratulate my mom and I told her, ‘You know if it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have made it through. You gave me a strong will, you gave me a strong mind, you gave me a strong basic education, and those are the things that got me through all this.’ When my mother passed away about two years ago, she left me all the letters that I’d written her. She had saved them. She had saved them chronologically. And so as I was emptying out her duplex, she had told me that they were there, and I never wanted to bother with it. I sat down and I started reading them. We got beat up sometimes, but we didn’t lose. That’s what people don’t understand. People did not, we did not walk away as, ‘Hey they kicked us out of here, like they did the French.’ We knew we were playing with death and we cheated death so much and that’s how I look at my life. No matter how many troubles or whatever goes on in my life, I always reflect, when times get hard, I always reflect to those times and say hey look, it’s not that bad.
Object Description
Profile of | Conrad T. Gomez |
Title | It Was the Entire 364 Days |
Profile bio | Conrad enlisted in the Air Force security police and served in Vietnam from 1967-1968. He served in the towns of Cam Ranh Bay and Dong Ha. He is very proud of his service and dedication to our country, but admits to the long-term effects his time in the military has had on his life. He is an avid reader and has read extensively about the war and understands many of the complexities of the struggle and the geopolitical context in which it took place. He speaks with us openly and at length, with straight language and honest insights. |
Profiler bio | Meg Brown is a senior majoring in Neuroscience.; Hannah Woo is a junior majoring in Architecture.; Xander Herman is a sophomore. |
Subject |
American US Air Force |
Profiled by | Brown, Meg; Herman, Xander; Woo, Hannah |
Geographic subject (city or populated place) | Dong Ha |
Geographic subject (country) | Vietnam |
Coverage date | 1967; 1968 |
Publisher (of the original version) | http://anotherwarmemorial.com/conrad-t-gomez/ |
Type |
images video |
Format | 1 image; 6 video files (00:13:02); 6 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 | gomezconradt |
Description
Profile of | Conrad T. Gomez |
Title | We Didn't Lose |
Format | 1 transcript, 1p. |
Filename | gomezconradt-vid6_tr6.pdf |
Full text | We Didn’t Lose My youngest son is 24, my oldest son is 38 and they are just beginning to know some of the things that I decided to talk to you about. From pictures and this and that. And they’re like, ‘wow! Dad! Damn!’ I had to help unload body bags on Thanksgiving morning off a helicopter. What do you think I think about? Those are the things that, they don’t leave you. My mother and I corresponded quite a bit. I actually congratulate my mom and I told her, ‘You know if it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have made it through. You gave me a strong will, you gave me a strong mind, you gave me a strong basic education, and those are the things that got me through all this.’ When my mother passed away about two years ago, she left me all the letters that I’d written her. She had saved them. She had saved them chronologically. And so as I was emptying out her duplex, she had told me that they were there, and I never wanted to bother with it. I sat down and I started reading them. We got beat up sometimes, but we didn’t lose. That’s what people don’t understand. People did not, we did not walk away as, ‘Hey they kicked us out of here, like they did the French.’ We knew we were playing with death and we cheated death so much and that’s how I look at my life. No matter how many troubles or whatever goes on in my life, I always reflect, when times get hard, I always reflect to those times and say hey look, it’s not that bad. |
Archival file | Volume6/gomezconradt-vid6_tr6-0.pdf |