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https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/417fbe36754cfb6c811bc722f95b4856.pdf
e40979c0b1231784403a5f4e9a8f1f22
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Oral History Interview with Robert Randall
Boone, NC
16 October 2011
CD: Chelsea Dix
RR: Robert Randall
CD: It Is October 16, 2011. My name is Chelsea Dix. I am a student of Dr. Browning’s in the
history department at Appalachian State University I’m interviewing Mr. Robert Randall, my
grandfather over the phone. He is in Eden, North Carolina and I am in Boone, North Carolina.
CD: Mr. Randall… start off, when’s your birthday… just to start off.
RR: My birthday is December 15, 1939.
CD: Alright, and where are you from?
RR: I am originally from Asheville, North Carolina.
CD: Okay. What years were you in service?
RR: I was in the service from the tenth of March, 1959 until the first of April, 1979.
CD: Could you tell me a little bit about when and why you decided to join?
RR: I decided to join because of the inability to obtain an education, which I needed, and found
that the service offered training and abilities that I was not afforded otherwise.
CD: Alright. When, when you joined, what was your experience during basic and your specific
job training?
RR: My job experience prior to the service was varied quite a bit, primarily as a laborer
and…type jobs. My entry into the service was under the infantry initially. Prior to completing
my individual training I was trained as a military policeman.
CD: Did you choose that or…
RR: I was assigned there as I entered the service as unassigned regular Army. And it was chosen
for me.
CD: were you ever deployed in a combat situation?
RR: Yes, technically, I first time was in Vietnam in December of 1969 until December of 1970.
I was deployed to an area known as Quinhon, Q-U-I-N-H-O-N, in central Vietnam and served as
a first sergeant of a security company in a depot in that area.
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�CD: Okay. Tell me a little bit more about your experiences in the service. Some positive things
you can think of, maybe a couple of negative things. Just your overall experience and how you
saw it.
RR: Primarily my entire career is of a positive nature. I completed basic training at Fort Jackson,
South Carolina. I was assigned to military police school in Augusta, Georgia. Upon completion
of that, I was assigned to Sandia Base, New Mexico which, at that time was part of the
Manhattan Project, and I served for five years. Prior to being reassigned to Korea, again a great
experience.
Upon returning to the United States, I was then reassigned to Sandia Base, New Mexico,
primarily because of my experience in law enforcement and my security clearance would
probably be the primary reason for my reassignment there. I stayed there until 1969 and I was
reassigned to a security position in charge of a battalion security operation in the 562nd Artillery,
that’s air defense artillery, in Fairbanks, Alaska for just under a year and at that time was
reassigned to Vietnam. Again, to that point my experiences were all positive. What else could I
add, Chelsea?
CD: It’s pretty open. So, whatever you feel like sharing about any of your experiences, whether
in the states or deployed.
RR: Okay. To back up a little my experiences in New Mexico would have to be rated some of
the best in the military services. It was known as the Shangri La of the military. The assignment
was excellent; I served on town patrol and worked with the Albuquerque city police department
for a number of years and after that point worked on the installation primarily in the operations
of the provost marshal’s office.
When I left there to go to Alaska, I arrived to take over security for an air defense artillery
battalion, however, they found that my experience in personnel as a personnel sergeant was
going give me priority or was going take priority and I was taken from there to run the personnel
section of the battalion. I wasn’t that crazy about being in personnel, having been in military
police for many years. So, I arranged my own reassignment through the Department of the Army
to Vietnam.
CD: So you chose to go to Vietnam?
RR: Yes I did. I had previously volunteered for Vietnam while I was in New Mexico only
because of the experience that I would gain to further my career. When I got to Vietnam, I was
assigned to a unit that had military policemen that (needed or knew) supervisory positions. So, I
formed a security company that, prior to that, had not existed to provide security for the Long
Mai depot and shortly after that my initial assignment went from only myself being assigned to
having three hundred enlisted men.
And a portion of those rotated in and out every thirty days because in addition to being charged
with security for the depot, my unit, which we assumed the requirement for gave in- country
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�training for new arrivals for 30 days and after their training used them as security guards for
approximately another thirty days. And it was a constant rotation in and rotation out of
personnel. I maintained a roster of approximately three hundred. The detail or the requirement
for the company included indigenous escort to and from the workplace and the large city of
Quinhon which was approximately twenty miles away, and security for tank farms, that’s fuel
tank farms, security for the depot which was several hundred acres, and security for the
personnel assigned. We had some skirmishes here and there throughout the year. Luckily only a
short number of personnel were involved and I believe during my tenure that I only lost three
men.
CD: And how long were you there?
RR: One year.
CD: One year? After volunteering and being there was it what you expected?
RR: Almost exactly what I expected. It wasn’t initially a military police unit, but it turned into
one with my arrival and once I took over the unit I insisted on the assignment as a military
policeman which is what all of the initial personnel were.
The general attitude of law enforcement had not been accepted by the personnel assigned to the
depot so it was a new experience for the people that were assigned there. They didn’t care to be
policed in the manner they should have been, however the support of the battalion commander
changed all that and law enforcement began to take hold and everybody decided to go along with
us. I don’t know any other way to really put that.
CD: (chuckles) During this time did you keep in touch with family or friends or anything back in
the states?
RR: Yes. At that time, mail was free. All you had to do was put your assigned unit up in the left
hand corner along with your name, rank, and so on. And in the right hand corner, where a stamp
normally goes, all you had to do was put “free” and your mail was free. If you wanted to send an
excess of five hundred dollars a month back to the United States, it had to be in the form of an
allotment, which was done by the finance group that…A lot of people had excess cash and they
were very limited in what they could return. Also, they were limited in what they could bring
back to the United States, financially that is, upon their return. So, it was really a, I guess, a great
way of stopping any kind of financial pride. Okay.
CD: How long after your return did you remain in service?
RR: I remained in service approximately another ten years after my return. I was assigned, after
my tour in Vietnam, to the Presidio in San Francisco and remained there for approximately three
and a half years. And then, and that was as the operations sergeant in the provost Marshall’s
office. And part of that time was spent as the (some sort of interference) NCO of a 504th M.P.
battalion. After leaving the Presidio I went to Heidelburg, Germany as the operations sergeant in
the provost marshal general’s office and remained in that position until reassigned to the 15th
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�Military Police Brigade in Mannheim, Germany where I was assigned as the sergeant major of
the battalion. And I remained there for approximately another year and a half until reassigned to
CONUS which is Continental United States. I was reassigned to Fort Huachuca, Arizona as the
operations sergeant of the Provost Marshall’s office and remained there until my retirement in
1979.
CD: Okay. Trying to get my, my stuff straightened up here. Trying to think of anything else in
particular I could ask.
RR: Yea, I don’t know how much detail you wanted me to go into anything so…
CD: As much as you want to go in.
RR: Well, I don’t know how deep you want to go.
CD: Just what… it’s all whatever you’re wanting to share. As I’ve said, it’s a project for
researchers as well trying to study different aspects of, I guess military life or I guess if
somebody wanted to go back and see somebody else’s perspective on, I guess, you know, when
you were in Vietnam, or something. It’s just anything you’re willing to share. Anything that you
think relevant.
RR: Oh, it really takes some in-depth thought and question and answers to come up with
anything that I would think people would be interested in. It was very interesting to me at the
time that… I don’t want to sound overly, I don’t know what the word- arrogant and I don’t want
to sound exactly humble at the same time. So, it’s, it’s hard to say what kind of information that
the researchers would want but I could answer either positive or negatively any question that
would be asked of me.
I go back a few years, back to Vietnam, which is apparently what the researchers are primarily
interested in. I guess the overall problem, other than combat, of course, and having somebody
shoot at you, was the attitude of the American public, which was, at that time, extremely bad.
And the, I don’t know quite how to put this, but as a result of the attitude of the American public
and, and the riots and so on that were taking place in the United States at that time. One of the
biggest problems that I had as a first sergeant of the unit was maintaining control of the black
soldiers: the African Americans. They tended to run in packs.
They intimidated the whites. They had all kinds of slogans. The rank of those who were in
charge made no difference to these packs that… When they were off duty or free to roam, as
they often were, they intimidated those who were not, at that exact time then, in a combat
situation. In other words, this is the times when they had free time to go to the post exchange or
to take part in club activities that were in different locations throughout our area of operation.
That was the biggest problem that I had and I dealt with it as best I could. Often without an
officer available to render his opinion. I dealt with it and carried out my job the best I could. So,
other than the combat and tactical part of it, that was the biggest problem that I faced.
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�CD: Kind of meant to ask you something about this earlier, but I know during the time, like you
said, people in the United States were going a little bit crazy with, you know, you had a lot of
people who didn’t support the war at all, or didn’t understand it, I’m not really sure. But did you
see an effect on soldiers’ morale or did a lot of people seem to agree with the people over in the
United States at the time? Did they believe they were over there for no reason or did they seem
to actually believe in a purpose, in your opinion?
RR: You have to keep in mind that at that time the draft was still in effect and there was an
awful lot of people drafted that had no desire to be in the military service and you’re only there
because otherwise they would have risked going to jail, so yes there was a lot of people that were
opposed to the war. Everybody seemed opposed to the war except those that were, I guess the
best way to put it, except for those who were career military people. Everybody else was
opposed. Even some of the career people were opposed to what we were actually doing.
Not, not, not because they were getting shot at, for instance, it was that they were opposed to the
particular actions that were being taken in Vietnam. But the big problem was the total lack, it
seemed, of American support. There was no support. I’ve had people spit at me if I were wearing
a uniform. I returned from Vietnam and landed at Seattle-Tacoma and had anti-war
demonstrators at the airports. They attempted to spit on you, if you were in uniform. It was just,
it wasn’t a very friendly atmosphere for somebody that had just risked their life to save theirs is
the way I look at it.
CD: Right. That must, you know, that must kind of be upsetting, you know. I can’t imagine.
RR: It was upsetting for everybody but especially for those that had been injured. Especially
those that give their life. The individual couldn’t be upset of course, he wasn’t there. There’s a
lot of people that return with injuries that they gave, some gave freely, for what they were sent
there for. But this never did make much sense to me but the public was so opposed to the
member himself. He could have been, or they could have been opposed directly to the president
and to what he was doing at the time.
When I returned from Vietnam, and was assigned to the Presidio of San Francisco, the first year
I was there, I spent most of my weekends in a riot control formation to stop rioters from coming
on to the installation. That was a, a sort of operation, there was no choice but to stop any number
(interference) of situations in downtown San Francisco, that we were to stop, was the best way to
put it and we did stop it, on all cases.
CD: Did that type of attitude from everybody, well not everybody, but a lot of the rioters and a
lot of the negativity from the United States, did that seem to kind of put a damper or hinder, let
me think of the word, what you all were trying to do? Did it hinder peoples’ performance,
peoples’ work? That type of thing.
RR: Well certainly it did and you had the feeling that if you accomplish whatever mission you
may have been assigned to accomplish, it wouldn’t be appreciated. It wouldn’t even be desired,
as a matter of fact, it was looked at as you were being a turncoat because you were following the
commands of your superiors because anybody that had went along with the commands that they
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�were given, were traitors to them that the rioters and the, those that marched and put the United
States in an ugly situation.
CD: considering all of everything you’ve done and your entire experience; if you could go back
in time would, would you do anything different or do you think you would just do it all again the
same way?
RR: Well, hindsight is 20/20 so, I can’t say that I would do it all the same way. I can say that I
enjoyed my experience in the military. There was some difficult times, not all of which were in
Vietnam. Like I said, some of the situations, at the Persudio in San Francisco were very difficult
because of the lack of U.S support. It was, it was a big strain on my, not only myself, but the men
assigned to me and those that I were, I was leading, or attempting to lead. Fortunately, I had a
good group of me and later women that accomplished a lot, regardless of what the general public
thought about us.
CD: That’s good. I can’t think of anything specific to ask but is there anything else you’d like to
share or add or any closing thoughts.
RR: No, again, I had an exceptional experience. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. There were
moments of extreme difficulty, extreme fear, I guess as well, but it all worked out. I was very
fortunate in my career and very fortunate and the officers and men supported me.
CD: Well that’s good.
RR: And I would do it again.
CD: Well good. If, if that’s all you can think of, and I can’t think of anything else to ask then I
would just like to thank you very much for your time and interviews been a pleasure. It’s been an
eye opener and I thank you very much.
RR: You’re certainly welcome. I’ll talk to you later.
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�
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/ff89594049feecbe0e1cae409b7f8df4.mp3
55e7194696ecf34721807ee93a5994c8
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Appalachian State University American Military History Course Veterans Oral History Project
Description
An account of the resource
Each semester, the students of the American Military History Course at Appalachian State University conduct interviews with military veterans and record their military experiences in order to create an archive of oral history interviews that are publicly accessible to researchers. The oral histories are permanently available in the Appalachian State University Special Collections. The project is supervised by Dr. Judkin Browning, Associate Professor of History at Appalachian State University and all interviews are transcribed by the student interviewers.
Copyright Notice:
Copyright for the Veterans Oral History Project’s audio and transcripts is held by Appalachian State University. These materials are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used (e.g. Veterans Oral History Project, University Archives and Records, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC).
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview.
Dix, Chelsea
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
0:29:30
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound.
6 pages
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Robert Randall, 16 October 2011
Subject
The topic of the resource
Vietnam War, 1961-1975
Randall, Robert
Veterans
Personal narratives, American
United States
Interviews
Description
An account of the resource
Robert Randall, U.S. Army, born on December 15, 1939. In this interview, Robert Randall discusses how his inability to obtain an education led to his decision to join the military. He goes on to further discuss his overall experience in the military. He specifically mentions his involvement in Vietnam as well as his career with the military after Vietnam.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
10/16/11
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Copyright for the Veterans Oral History Project's audio and transcripts is held by Appalachian State University. These materials are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used (e.g. Veterans Oral History Project, Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC).
Language
A language of the resource
English
Boone
Chelsea Dix
North Carolina
Robert Randall
U.S. Army
Vietnam