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https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/40704e9086df45dfb738dfdddc5fdee9.mp3
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https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/31cf32a13c8fb7d1f7f2d4e7b2e0a37b.pdf
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Name:
Branch:
Years Served:
Conflicts:
Date of Interview:
Ambrose Brennan, Major (Retired)
U.S. Army
1957-1982
Vietnam War
October 12, 2012
Christian Quinn: This is Christian Quinn. The date is October 12, 2012, we are in
Waxhaw, North Carolina. Today I will be interviewing Ambrose Brennan born on
February 5, 1939, I will be conducting this interview as a class project for American
military history at Appalachian State University, lets get started. What was your branch
of service?
Ambrose Brennan: infantry
QUINN: what was your rank?
BRENNAN: I started off as a second lieutenant and I retired as a major
QUINN: Where did you serve?
BRENNAN: Ft. Benning, republic of south Korea, Ft Bragg, republic of south Vietnam;
Ft. Bragg; Ft. Benning; Stauffenenburg, West Germany; [Interruption by another
person] Ft. Lewis; Pleiku, Vietnam; Da Nang Vietnam; Lockheed, Vietnam; Punji,
Vietnam; Bandar, Vietnam; A Shau Valley in Vietnam; Dak To, Vietnam; Riverdale,
Maryland in a reserve component; Ft. Campbell, Kentucky; Indianapolis, Indiana;
Frankfurt, Germany; Ft McPherson, Georgia, and then I retired.
QUINN: All right, where you drafted or did you enlist?
BRENNAN: I was accepted and sworn in at the United States Military Academy
QUINN: Went the ROTC route?
Brennan: United States Military Academy, took the oath of office as a cadet, bang your
subject to uniform code of military justice.
QUINN: where were you living at the time?
BRENNAN: Bronx, New York
QUINN: what was your reason for joining?
BRENNAN: I became aware and an admirer of a Lt Col. In my junior ROTC program
who had been to West Point and he had flunked out, he was a paratrooper word war 2
veteran a really sharp guy a great catholic man, great family man, and I thought that if he
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�flunked out and I could make it through maybe I could you know emulate some of the
qualities that he had in the service, and I was not surrounded but there were few others
cadets at the school I went to that went to the naval academy and to west point and they
were really high quality people so at the age of I guess about sixteen maybe fifteen I
decided that I should go to the naval academy and fly jets off carriers and be an
aeronautical engineer, but I was colorblind so I had to go to the other school.
QUINN: so why did you pick the service branch you joined?
BRENNAN: well the service branch that’s another thing really the infantry, you know in
the mind of an eighteen year old or nineteen year old young man as I was I was vaguely
aware of these other branches but probably influenced by you know what I knew about
the army which is mostly from movies I didn’t really recognize those other branches so
infantry was really the only choice for me.
QUINN: do you recall your first days in service?
BRENNAN: yeah of course the first days in service are at Ft. Benning your going
through infantry officer basic course which was at the time 8 weeks and you know it’s a
course to prepare you to be a second lieutenant of infantry and to be a platoon leader and
maybe a little bit about being a company commander. The course was not hard you just
have to go through it learning all the weapons, fire all the weapons, land navigation. All
the infantry trades and all the other I would call them administrative courses so it wasn’t
difficult and there was a good spirit among these lieutenants I was going through the west
pointers were blended with rotc cadets and we had a good time going through it and than
we went from there right to airborne and right to ranger from there and than my first
assignment was in south Korea as a platoon leader so I remember quite a bit from that
yeah.
QUINN: so what war or wars did you serve in?
BRENNAN: well now they have classified the cold war so I guess the cold war started
when you might say officially when Winston Churchill made his speech about the
descendants of the iron curtain so that would have been 47, 1947, but the only shooting
war I was in was the Vietnam war, the war in Vietnam which basically started, we started
putting soldier in there in probably 1955 I didn’t get there until 1963 and I went back
again in 66 and 67 and than of course the cold war was over when the Berlin wall came
down basically in 1989 so the cold war lasted from 47 to 89 and than we had gone on to
this other war I retired in 82 now the country is faced with this other war of Muslims
who are basically Osama bin laden declared war against the united states in 1998 and so I
guess you can say that is the official declaration of the Muslim war against the united
states against the west and that is ongoing now and will probably be ongoing for 2 or 3
hundred more years
QUINN: do you remember arriving, and what it was like when you got there?
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�BRENNAN: yeah, and of course as a second lieutenant lets not talk necessary arriving at
ft benning for training but arriving in your unit your anxious because you don’t know if
you can fulfill the responsibilities that have been given to you or awarded to you as a
second lieutenant. You have been trained and you have been commissioned but the real
army, you haven’t really been in the real army and your trying to find your footing with
your commander, the company commander, the first sergeant the other lieutenants in the
unit but more importantly your platoon sergeant and your squad leaders and the men in
your platoon so your thrust into a new situation you’ve been prepared very well for it,
there is still quite an anxiety I think I felt but that anxiety works its self out over the first
few weeks once you get involved in unit training and your responsible to give classes and
to lead the platoon in filed training, in everything the platoon is doing but specifically
with field training so yes I think the first couple of weeks you’re a little anxious to find
your footing and particularly with your platoon sergeant that you have a relationship of
trust and mutual respect with him but gradually if you understand that you can just work
through it but there is a little bit of anxiety as you go in
QUINN: tell me about a couple of your most memorable experiences starting out
BRENNAN: starting out…
QUINN: or from anywhere
BRENNAN: well one of the most important maybe not necessary a memorable
experience I was blessed by having two people, two key people around me at the time,
the first one was a weapons platoon leader who was an ocs graduate a veteran of the
Korean war he was 9 years older than I was he was a first lieutenant he had been a e7
during the war and had come back from the Korean war in which he had won a silver star
and he was from east Tennessee and he was a weapons platoon leader and he showed me
how to be a lieutenant in every way in how I conducted myself, what we did for pt on
revally runs, on how to conduct training, how to organize a lesson plan, how to research
classes and conduct classes, and how to organize the company for training which is
essential because that is really all a rifle company does is train for combat so all these
training sessions had to have some linkage to them they have to be organized over a
period sequentially over months and the specific training courses had to be assigned to
either lieutenants or sergeants to give and that whole mechanism, the whole process of
how to train a rifle company is a really important process well this guy knew it
backwards and forwards and taught me how to do it and directed me when I was wrong
and I think that was probably the most important things that went on with me during the
first six months and the other part of it is the first sergeant if their was an ideal first
sergeant this man was ideal his name is James a smith and he was a big tall drink of water
from south Carolina very correct in every manner in which he dealt with commissioned
officers always stood at attention when you were talking to him but what he was doing
really was training lieutenants without them recognizing they were being trained which is
one of the primary duties of a non-commissioned officer to train a lieutenant and to be in
total cooperation with him but not really letting on that the lieutenant was being trained
and not the sergeant so it really is an art form for NCOs’ so I think that was probably the
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�most important activity that went on really for the first 8months 10 months that I was a
platoon leader and that man went on to have quite an interesting career in special forces
and I really didn’t keep tabs on him till about a couple of years ago and finally I got to
see him before he died, he died last year a hell of a soldier a great guy and I’m so glad I
got to see him few times before he died now let me see if there is another…..well I guess
another key experience, memorable experience in a 1964 I worked with a guy named
Charlie beckworth, Charlie beckworth was a one of kind, kind of guy, we were in the s3
section of the 7th special forces group, Charlie convinced the group commander to let him
organize a group training up in the mountains of north Carolina Pisgah national forest and
to this day he picked me and a couple of other captains and a captain form the British
special air service and his sergeant, sergeant smith, to go up and set up the training which
included land navigation, night compass work, rappel, mountain work with ropes ,
aviation and physical training for the entire special forces group ending up with a six day
escape and evasion problem for the group members. Now the terrain in Pisgah national
forest is such it was very exhausting, very physically demanding effort and I would say
that was probably one of the best training exercises I had ever been part of and in my case
I was one of the instructors and as a young captain I think that was very, it set a
benchmark in my mind for how training should be conducted at least for special forces
and how training should be conducted for infantry and than course Charlie and I parted
company he went to one school and I went to another and I think that was another
highlight in my career.
QUINN: do you recall the day your service ended?
BRENNAN: absolutely, now I was on a parade field on McPherson Georgia with my
wife in attendance with my second daughter and my son, there was a short I think small
parade there were about six retirees a colonel, two or three lieutenant colonels myself,
and a sergeant major and we stood there on the field they pinned a medal on each one of
us and thanked us for our service and that was it we went home, and that was the end of
our active duty
QUINN: so you were awarded that medal, what medals were you awarded
BRENNAN: oh god
QUINN: you don’t have to name them all, just some of the ones that mean a lot
BRENNAN: well I was awarded the bronze star with v device, purple heart, about 4
meritorious service medals, two or three army commendation medals, and of course
ranger tab, airborne wings, the others were service ribbons which are awarded if you are
in particular place at a particular time in my case it was Vietnam there was about 4 or 5
service ribbons that are awarded when you are there you know I think that is it.
QUINN: after your service ended what did you do the days and weeks afterword?
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�BRENNAN: it’s kind of frustrating the days and weeks before several months lets say
six months or longer before, you know I had my resume cracked up and handed it in two
or three different resumes and I tried to scout out different jobs in the Atlanta area where
we were located I don’t think I went on any interviews after I got out of the service of
course I didn’t have a job I had to get a job and continued to pursue writing letters with
resumes trying to make contact with various people I think during that period of time I
probably got one or two interviews but It did not result in employment so I applied for
every job I could find at ft McPherson as a department of the army civilian and I went
down to ft McPherson about every two weeks and looked on the bulletin board to find
jobs that I knew I probably could do and in the mean time my wife was working so we
weren’t in the best financial posture so one of the things going on in the family it was
kind of frustrating but gradually I finally opened up the newspaper one morning after
about eight months and I said no matter what job I find I’m gonna put my finger on a job
I’m gonna get that job today and as it turned out it was a job selling knifes and stem
work………..door to door, and I got myself outfitted to try and do that and I can tell you
I am the most unsuccessful door to door salesman that the world has ever seen and while
I was doing that after about a month and a half of doing that I said again I’m gonna put
my finger on a job I can do and it was the delivery of the Atlanta journal constitution, I
went over and talked to the guy he called me about two or three days latter and gave me a
route well the one good thing about delivering newspapers is that there is work to do
everyday, Sunday in particular get up about 3 o clock go get your papers organize your
papers and than you hop in your car load them up hop in your car and go deliver them
and have them all delivered by 615. So I did that for a little while and than I was, one of
the guys had seen I had applied for a job in what amounted to d3 to desk ops of ft
McPherson and he called me and I don’t think that we had an interview he knew me so a
worked it out so that I had got this job I applied for and got it that put me in a whole
different level of operation I was a project manager for a national level exercise and so it
placed me in a position where me and my team had to go to a nagathios tank in the
pentagon or down to mcdill at that time it would be called recon about once a month and
in the process of doing that over about a six month period I ran into some connections in
Washington and another contractor up there offered me a job to move my family up there
to take an analysis job up there in support of an army software project, at any rate I had
promised my family I would never move from Atlanta because we had moved around so
much I took a blood oath with them in Frankfurt and than id just asked them if they
wanted to go and they all said yeah lets go to Washington so we moved the family up
there and had this job and several years later my family was complaining to me about the
traffic and I said well you guys told me you wanted to move up to Washington I was
content to stay in Georgia and they said a well dad we lied always those are some things
that happened along the way
QUINN: during all that how did your service and you know experience in the military
affect your life, how did it help you? I’m sure in many ways
BRENNAN: well ill have to say that your fundamental personality, fundamental values
are engendered by your family and your family surroundings in my case my father was
an atheist and my mother was a catholic so I was raised a catholic and I went to catholic
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�school and the catholic school and catholic church and than Christian brothers who taught
me in elementary school and as well as high school all that forms in the child a basic
personality and an environment of outlook so after I had been I went to military school
for high school military boarding school, catholic military boarding school and after
having being there for awhile I just thought the logical thing for me, now because my
parents didn’t have any money for college the logical thing for me was to go to a warrior
service academy so I started of with the naval academy than of course WestPoint, went to
marine academy, coast guard academy, the air force academy was not in existence at the
time and the new York maritime academy, I think had been into college, and in the mix
of all those colleges and in moving through that I finally got into west point and of course
the high school military environment and than WestPoint the environment there they put
the points and they polish up in there own way the value systems that your family your
mother and father and your church have started you out on and they Polish those values
up and point you in a direction of leadership of soldiers and all of that mixture of events
in a persons life that carries totally on through your entire life that forms the basis of who
you are, what you do, how you deal with everyone else, and that motivates you in
whatever your doing and whatever duties you have you learn as part of that basis that you
are going to perform each duty your assigned or each responsibility that you take on in
the best way you can and the most perfect way you can and you get into a habit of
performing even the littlest task maybe something that doesn't seem on the surface as
important maybe as something lofty but if you begin to perform that task as best you can
that idea that process within you allows you to be given more responsibility and perform
higher and larger tasks should you be allowed, should you even be afforded that
opportunity as you go along so I would say my family my schooling my elementary
school my church my high school and WestPoint provided a structure of values and
exposed me to a value system but I had to apprehend, had to grasp those things and
search them out in my own life.
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�
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.
File size
59.1 KB
26.9 MB
Format, digital
MP3
Military Branch
military branch (U.S. Army, etc)
U.S. Army
Officer Rank
Officer rank (major, private, etc)
Major (retired)
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Quinn; Christian
Brennan; Ambrose
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview.
Quinn, Christian
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed.
Brennan, Ambrose
Interview Date
10/12/2012
Number of pages
6
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
0:29:13
Date digitized
2/5/2015
Checksum
alphanumeric code
264dfb763cd2a14c0e58f5235412c0ca
7d12063eaaa732e607f5293fb58f3165
Scanned by
Leah McManus
Equipment
Adobe Acrobat XI Pro
Resolution
300
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.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
UA.5018. American Military History Course Records
Recording rate
A/V rate (48,000kzh x 16 bit)
48000kzh x 16 bit
Format, original
Electronic File
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/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
5018_Brennan_Ambrose_20121012_transcript_M
5018_Brennan_Ambrose_20121012_audio_A
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Ambrose Brennan, Major (Retired) [October 12, 2012]
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Oral History
Language
A language of the resource
English
English
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Brennan, Ambrose
Quinn, Christian
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a title="UA.5018. American Military History Course Records" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/167" target="_blank">UA.5018. American Military History Course Records</a>
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.
Description
An account of the resource
Major Ambrose Brennan, born in 1939, entered the infantry after graduating from the US Military Academy. He didn't really consider any other branch, he just wanted to do what they did in the movies. The majority of his service was during the Cold War and he says the only "shooting war" he served in was Vietnam. He was awarded a myriad of medals, including a purple heart.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Brennan, Ambrose
Veterans
Vietnam War, 1961-1975
United States
Interviews
Personal narratives, American
Cold War
infantry
major
purple heart
US Military Academy
Vietnam War