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Transcript of Oral History Interview with James A. Love
March 11, 2011
Crossnore, NC
Brandi Bounds: It is March 11, 2011 and we are in Crossnore, NC, and I am interviewing
James Love. And I am Brandi Bounds, a student at the History Department at Appalach ian State
University and we will begin the oral history now.
Where were you born and raised?
James Love: Avery County, been here all my life.
Brandi Bounds: And when is your birthday?
James Love: March 7, 1949.
Brandi Bounds: 1949? And when and why did you choose to join the military?
James Love: Drafted.
Brandi Bounds: Drafted.
James Love: In the Marine Corps.
Brandi Bounds: Marine Corps. Ok, that was, that was going to be my next question then . Which
war and which branch of the service?
James Love: Vietnam .
Brandi Bounds: Vietnam . Which, what year or years did you serve?
James Love: 1969 and 1970.
Brandi Bounds: 1970.
James Love: Spent 17 months and 22 days.
Brandi Bounds: 17 months and 22 days in Vietnam . No?
James Love: No, just 12 in Nam, but I did 17 months and 22 days. I spent a year in Nam .
Brandi Bounds: Ok. And what was your rank when you were in?
James Love: I was an E4 when I got out.
�Brandi Bounds: E4. So that would be ... ?
James Love: Corporal.
Brandi Bounds : Corporal, ok. Right below sergeant.
James Love: One below sergeant.
Brandi Bounds: Ok. And do you remember arriving? What was it like in Vietnam?
James Love: Scary place. I had never been there and you know, Lordy God, I went to 3rd MP
Battalion, that's where I was stationed . There was a Marine Corps Brig, what it was. You went
in there was a year. In went in right after Tet. Holes through the, big holes through the side of
the hooch's,
Brandi Bounds : Ok.
James Love: where they had rockets and mortars.
Brandi Bounds : Now the big holes were through what?
James Love: Through the
Brandi Bounds: Through the buildings?
James Love: Hooch's is a sort of a Quonset hut type thang.
Brandi Bounds: Ok.
James Love: Its what we stayed in . Big holes in them and stuff where rockets and mortars had
hit them. Blown up and stuff. And all it was, was the brig. We had our own prisoners.
Brandi Bounds : You had your own prisoners there? Oh my gosh.
James Love : It was just a different world . Just everything, you know, everybody was.
Brandi Bounds: Right.
James Love : Anybody that said they wasn't, they was . They were lying.
Brandi Bounds: Uh-huh. Wow.
James Love: It was different world .
�Brandi Bounds: Did it take awhile to adjust to the weather?
James Love: Oh yes . Miserable. Rain . I've seen you can be soaking wet one minute and 15
minutes later completely dry.
Brandi Bounds: Oh my gosh.
James Love : That's how fast the temperature over there moves.
Brandi Bounds: Uh-huh . Did you arrive there in the Spring or Winter?
James Love: I got there in 'bout October.
Brandi Bounds: '69?
James Love: 1969. When I left here it was cold and when i got there it was hot.
Brandi Bounds: Oh, so it really turned your systems around.
James Love: It was a different world . We, well I had to go to California . Couple of months
before, 'bout a month before I went over there . You got a little bit __there. Its just different.
Brandi Bounds: Oh my gosh .
James Love : You never know 'bout the people and where they was and stuff. Their habits,
completely different. Most of them were, I don 't if you would call it silk, it looked like silk. But
doubt it was silk, it was real thin clothes to where they didn't, didn't worry about the rain. It
didn't bother them a bit.
Brandi Bounds: It was because they had grown up with it?
James Love: Ya. It was just a different way of life to us.
Brandi Bounds: Oh my gosh . What was your job or assignments?
James Love: MP.
Brandi Bounds: MP.
James Love: Ya, I worked in the brig. For awhile I was a Military Police then the last, my
company pulled out come back to the world and the last four or five months I was in fire
department.
�Brandi Bounds: Fire Department over there?
James Love: Ya, we had our own fire departments. I worked in ammo supply puttin' out fires .
Brandi Bounds: I'm sure that, I hope that didn't happen too much.
James Love: We put out a lot of fires.
Brandi Bounds: How did they start? Were they targeted or just the heat?
James Love: Where they'd shoot flares and stuff up and sometimes we'd get rockets set it off.
And the, the ammo supply dump I worked in had two, three thousand pounds bombs in them,
all kinds of shell casings and stuff, and howitzers and all that, and all they had to do was hit
them.
Brandi Bounds: Oh wow.
James Love: It was like parked cars . You had to go in and put them out.
Brandi Bounds: Wow. were things spaced out within the ammo dumps so they didn't start a
chain reaction?
James Love: Ya, what they'd done, they had burms in between them, sorta like over at the high
school (Avery County High School}, you know where they have the big .. .
Brandi Bounds: The big domes?
James Love: the burms, where the dirt was, that's the way it was there . They had all ammo in
the different sections.
Brandi Bounds: Oh ok.
James Love: Different kinds of ammo.
Brandi Bounds: That makes since .
James Love: If all the powder and stuff in the buildings underground.
Brandi Bounds: Oh ok, that makes since. Did you see any combat?
James Love: You was always in combat. It was always there. I mean you didn't see no real
combat, but most of it was you went down town on a fire and you'd get snipered at.
Brandi Bounds: Right.
�James Love: So you always had a gun with you or a weapon or something.
Brandi Bounds : Ok. Where you ever wounded or anything?
James Love : No .
Brandi Bounds: No, ok .
James Love : No, never was. I was lucky.
Brandi Bounds: How did the rest of your unit fair in that department?
James Love: Well we was in the rear, I was never, I wasn't five miles out at an angle the whole
time I was there.
Brandi Bounds : Ok.
James Love: I was in the rear. You would get rockets, mortars, snipers but we never did, I think
we got, I there was one boy killed while I was there.
Brandi Bounds: Right.
James Love: And that playing with a rifle .
Brandi Bounds: Ok. How did you stay in touch with your family?
James Love: Wrote letters.
Brandi Bounds : Lots of letters.
James Love : My mom kept every letter I ever wrote . And I still got them. She kept them in a
box.
Brandi Bounds : How long did the postal service take?
James Love: I have no idea. We got Free letters.
Brandi Bounds: Right .
James Love: Didn't have to pay postage. So I don't know how long it took.
Brandi Bounds: Weill just didn't know if it was quicker or faster or slower than today. You
know for two weeks or month or something.
�James love: We see you, you got to set and figure, it went all the way from the Nang to and it
would have to go through a FPO box in the post office somewhere and I don 't know how long it
took there for it to get here.
Brandi Bounds: Right.
James Love: Probably a week, two weeks .
Brandi Bounds: Ok.
James Love : Never did think about it. You know it was just.. ..
Brandi Bounds: Just happy to get mail?
James love : Ya, that' s what it was. It was good to here from home.
Brandi Bounds: What was the food like?
James love: Fairly good food.
Brandi Bounds: Did you?
James Love : You know we had (-rations and stuf( that's not the greatest stuff in the world.
But now some of the food was pretty good . The biggest majority we, 'bout like here, cause we
didn't, we wasn't out in the bush, we had a mess hall and stuff.
Brandi Bounds : Right, ok.
James Love : It was just according, according to what kinds of meat they had is according to
what you had to eat. Most of the vegetables and stuff was the same.
Brandi Bounds: Was fresh?
James Love: and potatoes
Brandi Bounds: Ok, well I didn't know if you had a lot of powdered foods or not really?
James love: No .
Brandi Bounds: No really.
James Love: Not back then, we had C-rations.
�Brandi Bounds: Ok.
James Love: C-rations are, I don't know if you have ever seen C-rations? They are in little
boxes, 'bout like that, its got the whole meal in it. You'd get three or four cigarettes in a pack.
think most of them, when I was over there in '69 and '70 most of the (-rations we had was
made in back in the '50s.
Brandi Bounds: Ok, left over from Korea.
James Love: You think how some of that food had been in cans and ....
Brandi Bounds: Did you guys swap food or did you ...
James Love: Ya.
Brandi Bounds: Or did you just know not to eat certain foods?
James Love: Well we just, most of the time we, we did a lot of C-rations, most of ours was
Brandi Bounds: Regular mess hall food?
James Love: mess hall food .
Brandi Bounds: Ok.
James Love: We went right down there and we worked different, we worked one week on and
one week off in the brig. Which is guarding prisoners. Just a matter of being there.
Brandi Bounds: Oh my goodness. How many prisoners did you guys have there?
James Love : I'd say 6-700.
Brandi Bounds: 6 or 700, oh wow. For the most part were they calm or did they try and escape
a lot oftimes?
James Love: Most of them that I know were there were coming back home. They were waiting
to be court marshaled and sent home.
Brandi Bounds: So a lot of them were deserters?
James Love : Deserters, people, I know, some of the boys I, we had one boy who killed
everybody from his company commander to his first sergeant because they wouldn't let him go
on R&R. Walked by and rolled a fragmentation grenade in their hooch. Its simple.
�Brandi Bounds: So you didn't really have to many of the enemy prisoners just Americans?
James Love : No we had ours .
Brandi Bounds : Ok, so we had ours, no enemy prisoners.
James Love: We had all the boys .
Brandi Bounds: Now were a lot of them court marshaled there or were they waiting til the
United States?
James Love: Most ofthem had done been court marshaled . They was .. .
Brandi Bounds: Just waiting.
James Love: Just waiting for transport .
Brandi Bounds: Ok.
James Love: But most ofthem was court marshaled at their company units.
Brandi Bounds: Ok. Tried by their peers, ok. Did you guys have plenty of supplies?
James Love: We did. It was, we never did worry about it.
Brandi Bounds: Right.
James Love: Not in supply phase of it
Brandi Bounds: You really don't notice it too much?
James Love: You never notice it, all you do here and its there. You just go by and pick up
ammo as you need it. Clothes and stuff we had, we took clothes we had, we always had big, we
had our allowances, they give us our clothes.
Brandi Bounds: Wow, I didn't know if it had changed or anything?
James Love: I know they make a lot more money than we did. A hundred and twenty-six
dollars a month.
Brandi Bounds: That's how much you made was a hundred and twenty-six dollars a month? Oh
wow. I guess, I guess it is very different today.
James Love: It is.
�Brandi Bounds:
Wow.
James Love: They still get allowances for clothes and stuff now. Most of the stuff is give to
them when start. Part of it.
Brand Bounds: Oh my gosh, lets see . How did you or others entertain yourselves? Because you
said you worked one week and took one week off so I guess ya'll had to do something.
James Love: We went down town and just, that's not a good question.
Brandi Bounds: Ok, lets go to the next one. Did you guys pull any pranks amongst each other to
entertain yourselves?
James Love : That was part of it. We had our own place where we could go drink and stuff. We
very seldom seen any shows, USO's was very few.
Brandi Bounds : Ok. Now what part of Vietnam were you stationed in?
James Love: The Nang, up North.
Brandi Bounds : Nang?
James Love: The Nang.
Brandi Bounds: Nang, The Nang. Ok
James Love: We was up North, we was pretty close, we weren 't too far from the DMZ.
Brandi Bounds: Ok.
James Love : Most of the Marine Corps was up North, down South was Army.
Brandi Bounds: Ok, so ya'll were closer to the border.
James Love : Ya, I'd say we was probably 150 miles from the DMZ. 200 something like that.
Brandi Bounds : Ok. So that's not far at all. Did you guys have an air base right there too?
James Love: Ya, we had a big air field right there.
Brandi Bounds: Ok.
�James Love: So I mean it was, I think everybody come into the air field and flew out, at least all
the Marines.
Brandi Bounds: Ok.
James Love: We had a big naval base there, it was all there.
Brandi Bounds: How big was the base? I mean how many people did it house? You don't
know?
James Love: Thousands.
Brandi Bounds: Ok.
James Love: Cause the Nang was one of the biggest cities. So it was, I'd say it was from 100,000
probably more than that.
Brandi Bounds: Oh wow, so that's just the base: 100,000?
James Love: Ya, that's not counting all the FLC.
Brandi Bounds: The FLC is?
James Love: Ya, FLC is Force Logistics Command. That was part of what we was under.
Brandi Bounds: Ok.
James Love: They had all the supplies and everything. I'd say, think how much, all the supplies
come into a place like that and shipped to all the other units. So I mean its a monster place.
Brandi Bounds: Oh, wow.
James Love: So we had a, we had a PX right across the road from when I was in the Fire
Department, PX was right across the road from where I was stationed and used to go over there
and buy just about anything. Anything you'd want.
Brandi Bounds: So it was a large PX?
James Love: Oh ya, you could buy groceries, you could buy clothes, you could buy any kind of
electronics.
Brandi Bounds: Now were most of the buildings, were they mostly similar to Quonset huts or
were they actually built?
�James Love: Some of them was built.
Brandi Bounds: Buildings, concrete, and steel. Ok.
James Love: Well most of them was wood.
Brandi Bounds: Wood.
James Love: Most of them that I was in. I wasn't in many that wasn't wood.
Brandi Bounds: Did you guys have any air conditioning?
James Love: No.
Brandi Bounds: No air condition ing.
James Love: No, there was no such thing as that . You could buy air conditioning, but if you was
going to be somewhere that long.
Brandi Bounds: It made since too, but if you were moving on ...
James Love : you could get one . But most of the time nobody had any air conditioning.
Brandi Bounds: Ok.
James Love: You just, you get used to it.
Brandi Bounds: Ok.
James Love: The heat ain't good, but I mean its ...
Brandi Bounds: I guess you adjust to it once you have been over there too.
James Love: You adjust to it sooner or later, after you have been there awhile. Its cold when
its raining and its hot when the suns out.
Brandi Bounds: So there's really no median?
James Love: There is no medium temperature . It, I've seen it so cold that it would shatter your
shaving cup. Especially if the wind picked up, I mean it just, once you got wet, you just cold,
there's no gettin' warm .
Brandi Bounds: Did the base ever flood during monsoon season?
�James Love: No, it didn't. I've seen it rain for days at a time. I mean it got muddy.
Brandi Bounds: Lots of mud, but never flooding.
James Love: No.
Brandi Bounds: Well that was good.
James Love: You never think about it, I mean, cause most of the water was out, you could see
rice patties where stuff, where rice is and stuff. It was raining you just had a poncho you wore
and put it on and went on. If it wasn't, well that was it.
Brandi Bounds: And kept going?
James Love: Yup. Didn't have to worry about it.
Brandi Bounds: Oh wow. Lets see, what did you do after you were out of the military?
James Love: I got back here in October and I went to work probably right around then, went to
working out on the golf course .
Brandi Bounds: On the golf course, so October of 1970 when you got back here. Which golf
course did you go back to work for?
James Love : I worked at Seven Devils.
Brandi Bounds : Seven Devils, ok.
James Love: I worked there for quite a few years and then I worked at, I got back in '70,
worked there for about two and half years. Then got engaged, I went there, then I went to
Sugar Mountain and worked and then in '74 I come here and worked. And I've been here every
since.
Brandi Bounds: So you have owned and operated this gas station in Crossnore since 1974?
James Love: Been here 37 years.
Brandi Bounds: 37 years, that's a long time to own a business.
James Love : Been a long time .
Brandi Bounds: Oh wow. Did you maintain any relationships you had while in the military? No?
Ok.
�James Love: Nope, nobody I, nobody from here that I, the only person I ever met from here the
whole time I was in service was Bob Franklin .
Brandi Bounds: Bob Franklin. So just one person .
James Love: And I met him in a chow line at Camp Lejune.
Brandi Bounds: Oh, did you guys see each other when you were over in Vietnam?
James Love: Nope, that's the only time I ever seen anybody from here . But he was from here at
Jonas Ridge . I met him at chow line, I was going through getting chow and he was on KP duty.
He looked me in the eye and I looked him and he said "I know you." I said "Ya, I know who you
are. Your Franklin from Jonas Ridge ." He said "That's right." But that's the only time, the only
person I seen I was there.
Brandi Bounds: Oh my gosh .
James Love: But all the boys that I went to be inducted with went to Army.
Brandi Bounds: Ah, ok so most of them went
James Love: And I got drafted in the Marines. They come through and said we want that one
and that one.
Brandi Bounds: Ok.
James Love: I just happened to be "that one" .
Brandi Bounds: "that one". Did your military experience influence your thinking about war or
about the military in general?
James Love: They should never make you fight a war you can't win. If they'd let us go ahead
and do the job, it 'd been over.
Brandi Bounds: But they didn't, they held you back?
James Love: They won 't let you do it. Same way today.
Brandi Bounds : You just can't
James Love: Iraq same way, Afghanistan. Turn the place to glass.
Brandi Bounds: Turn the place what?
�James Love: Turn that place over there to glass. Drop a big bomb and watch that sand turn to
glass. With them under it.
Brandi Bounds: Did you join a Veteran's Organization?
James Love: Yup, I'm VFW.
Brandi Bounds: VFW member. Which post?
James Love: Post 4286.
Brandi Bounds: 4286. And does your post do any kinds of activities?
James Love: Oh gosh we do a lot of activities for the community. Got a honor guard that does
military funerals, we got a lot in Voice of Democracy, Pens out, theres a lot, if a young knew,
there is all kinds of scholarships in the VFW. Voice of Democracy pays around $30,000 if you are
the national winner.
Brandi Bounds: Oh wow. That's a huge one .
James Love : I mean, there's all kinds of different ones, Patriot pens, there's are a lot of different
things and they do a lot of them. You know, most people don't think VFW's do anything, We've
got, we've thrown children's Christmas party every year for the underprivileged children.
Easter, we have a Easter thing, this coming Easter for the youngins.
Brandi Bounds: Awww, do you guys do an Easter egg hunt?
James Love: Ya, but we all let the ladies do it.
Brandi Bounds: Awww.
James Love: We don't cook .
Brandi Bounds: You let your wives do it.
James Love : Ya, they do it we just smile and nod.
Brandi Bounds: You smile and nod and glad there's food .
James Love : Ya
Brandi Bounds: Well, is there anything that you would like to add that we did not cover?
�James Love: Na, it's just, it' s an experience. I think everyone should have to go to the military
one time.
Brandi Bounds: So like Israel does it? Everybody joins for two years.
James Love: Ya, it would teach youngins a lot of responsibility.
Brandi Bounds: It would .
James Love: I wouldn't change anything from my military. I didn't do a lot but I mean I did, it
just, it grows you up fast.
Brandi Bounds: Meet another culture and just learn?
James Love: Well not only that, you just learn about yourself. Cause when you are, I think my
platoon when I went to Paris Island, there was about, I walked in down there, I remember when
I walked into Paris Island, we'd walk in and there was a boy sitting over in the corner had both
wrists slit. Blood flying everywhere. Drill Sergeant standing there saying son you'd better stop
that blood or you'll be dead . You know that had to scare the boy to death.
Brandi Bounds: Oh wow. What happened to that boy? Do you know?
James Love: Have no idea . They run us off on out the door. We got caught in the area . I mean
we just walk in and he 's standing there, and blood's flying. And then, l's just had once 18, just
turned 19.
Brandi Bounds: You had just turned 19. When you went in for basic training?
James Love: Yup, I was 19 when we went in. You know, you don't really think about stuff, we
just talked about this stuff us boys have. We went, we went to California couldn't even drink a
beer but could go die in Nam . Could go into a bar and nobody would serve you . Wasn 't old
enough .
Brandi Bounds : Still needs to be addressed today.
James Love: I mean we could go to Nam and get killed but you couldn 't have a beer.
Brandi Bounds: Have you been to D.C. to see the Vietnam memorial?
James Love: Nope, but I have seen the, the rolling wall. Traveling Wall.
Brandi Bounds: The Traveling Wall.
James Love: Its going to be at Marion (NC) in May.
�Brandi Bounds: Oh is is going to be in Marion in May? Ok.
James Love : Traveling box. I've seen it in Johnson City (TN) two years ago.
Brandi Bounds: Ok, I'll have to see if I can go down and see that.
James Love: It is, it is a very, very moving thing. They have a lot of letters. They ask people to
bring stuff. They ask us to bring stuff to this one down here. Most of ours don't though. A lot of
them just don't comment. People that's been there, typically don't.
Brandi Bounds: I know its hard.
James Love: I know one boy, I've got some buddies that I graduated with that was blown up.
One of them, whole right side, re-done his whole face and the other one got shot three times.
Brandi Bounds: Oh wow.
James Love: Wayne Holden.
Brandi Bounds: Wayne Holden? Which was he, Vietnam Army?
James Love: Ya, he had boys killed on both sides of him . He
got, I think he got three purple
hearts.
Brandi Bounds: Oh wow.
James Love : He got shot through the arm, through the leg, through the hip.
Brandi Bounds : At the same time?
James Love : All in the same place.
Brandi Bounds: That was a rough day.
James Love : I guess its just one of them things . You don't think about it . Until it happens. War
ain't no fun.
Brandi Bounds : It's romanticized to much .
James Love: Well it ain't what everybody thinks it is.
Brandi Bounds : Well thank you very much.
�James Love: Well I'm glad to help you. Do what I can.
Brandi Bounds : Its wonderful.
�
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.
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed.
Love, James A.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview.
Bounds, Brandi
Interview Date
3/11/2011
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
0:24:48
File name
2013_063_Love_JamesA_interview
2013_063_Love_JamesA_transcript
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 James A. Love, 11 March 2011
Creator
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Bounds, Brandi
Love, James A.
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
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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.
Extent
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17 pages
Language
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English
English
Type
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Sound
Subject
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Vietnam War, 1961-1975
Veterans
Love, James A.
Personal narratives, American
United States
Interviews
Description
An account of the resource
James A. Love describes his service in northern Vietnam (Nang) as a part of the Marine Corps.
James A. Love
letters
Marine Corps
monsoon
Nang
VFW
Vietnam