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Military Oral History Interview Transcript
Joseph Emerson Mitchell Sr.
Charlotte, NC
16 October 2011
DM: David Mitchell
JM: Joseph Emerson Mitchell, Sr.
DM: Hello this is David Mitchell interviewing Joseph Emerson Mitchell Sr. on 16th, October
2011at his home in Charlotte, North Carolina for American Military History. When did you
enlist in the military?
JM: I enlisted in the military in November 13, 1950.
DM: 1950?
JM: Yes.
DM: How old were you?
JM: Seventeen.
DM: Why did you decide to join so young?
JM: Well, I needed a job.
DM: That was it?
JM: No, I always did like the military, my brothers was in the military. And I always wanted to
be a soldier. And due to limited opportunities in civilian life at that time it seemed like a good
thing to do.
DM: Were all your brothers in the military?
JM: I had five brothers; four of them were in the military.
DM: Four of them? Did they all deploy, go overseas, and fight the wars?
JM: My two oldest brothers were in World War Two; one was in the Navy and one was in the
Army.
DM: So why did you decide to join the Army as oppose to the Air Force or the Navy?
JM: Because of the Joy brothers, most of them were in the Army. I had three brothers in the
Army.
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�DM: Did you ever wish you joined the Air force, or…
JM: No.
DM: When you enlisted what job did you want?
JM: Well, at that time they assigned you a job. After basic training, I was in the signal corps,
pole line construction. Then they turned around and sent me to mechanic school, auto vehicle
maintenance. Then when I got out of mechanic school, that's when I started working as a military
mechanic, army mechanic.
DM: How was that for you?
JM: Well, it was very good at the time, I didn't think much of it but after staying in the military
for 26 years and 10 months and 26 days, I arose to the rank of warrant officer. And as hook back
on it that was a dream for me because at that age I really didn't know what I wanted to do or be.
So they made the choice for me which they picked from to be aptitude test; it was a battery test
that you took when you went in the military.
DM: So in 1950, you went to basic training, then did you go to your individual training?
JM: My unit was a signal unit, signal construction unit, what they did after we got settled about
8 or 9 months into the military they trained us into different sections; supply, maintenance,
administration. And I was chose to be in automotive maintenance. And they sent me to Fort
Jackson, South Carolina for mechanic school.
DM: And that's when you got involved in the ordinances corps?
JM: Yes.
DM: How was your overall experience in the military?
JM: Well, it had its ups and downs, its good times, and its bad times. You got to understand that
I entered in the military in 1950; the military was a segregated affair. Black troops served in one
part and white troops served in the other. In fact, during basic training we had a white cadre
training black troops and we've had some incidents for instance our white cadre told us we sound
like a bunch of monkeys. And at that time everyone rebelled so they had to relieve him. But that
was just one incident.
Other then that things were pretty good. After I left Fort Jackson I went to Fort Rucker in
Alabama, which was our holding station and then my unit went down to Fort Bliss, Texas and
after I got to Texas we were assigned duties pertaining to our unit. In fact they had us there for
about 30 or 40 days with no mission for us then moved us to Fort Hood, Texas and that's where
we got our mission for pole line construction and I was lucky enough to stay there for about two
months.
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�Then they ordered me to go to Korea. I didn't get to Korea until February 1952 and when I got
there to my surprise they assigned us to integrated units, and the unit wasn't bad, the people were
good and everyone got along all right. I stayed there for 12 months and the policy was that the
people, when you got to Korea you stay in the unit and the people that you came in through, after
awhile they rotate and then you could get promoted up the ladder to take their place. And my
position would be battalion motor sergeant but I ran into some racism there due to the fact that
we had a new maintenance officer there named Mr. Nobles.
Corporal Jones and myself were the only two black ranking men in the motor pool, so instead of
promoting us he took some white boys and promoted them had them active jacks and Jones, and
me he wanted us work for him. So we went to the company commander, the company
commander took us out of the motor pool and we had various details; cleaning up mess halls and
driving the gas truck and all the things like that.
Except for that one incident I think Korea was pretty good. And I returned from Korea in
February of ‘53. And was stationed in Camp Bell Rock, Nevada and that's when during the time
they were experimenting with atomic explosions, nuclear explosions.
So I stayed down there for three months or four months and they sent me back to Fort Ord in
California and there I was discharged. So then I left there went back east and I listed in the
reserves to keep my right because you can't stand out for 60 or 90 days, you lose your rank and at
that time I was a corporal.
So after I got in the reserves I stayed in the Reserves for about three or four months and then I
volunteered and went back to active duty. And it just so happens to be that when I went on active
duty they sent me down to Fort Jackson, SC for reassignment. I wanted to go back North due to
the racial policies during those days; which is very segregated in the south.
Black people were treated like crap as far as I was concerned because see I was from the north.
But anyway, when I got down there they told me the only way I could go north was to volunteer
to go airborne training. So I volunteered to go airborne training never thinking that I'd be
jumping out no airplane. But anyway, they sent me to Fort Bragg and I got involved with the
82nd Airborne Division, America's God of Honor and I stayed there from '54 to '60 and people
were just doing some serious soldiering, we had problems you know, we had racial problems in
the higher ranks.
But then I went to Germany. I went to Germany in 1960 and pulled three years in Germany, and
at that time the Cold War was going on and the military is very strict. In fact, we had a curfew
and we had to be in bed during the weekdays at 11o'clock and 12 o'clock on the weekends. We
were doing some serious training; we would move into the field regardless of the weather winter
or summer and stay 30 or 50 days sometimes. So later the Berlin wall went up and there was a
confrontation, this was during the time of Cuban Missile Crisis. President Kennedy had ordered
that Cuba to be blockade and during that time I was in the airborne unit and things were very
tense.
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�So we were on a 24 hour notice, we loaded out ready for combat. They said when the word
comes you just got to go and that was it But what I want to emphasize, I was in the airborne
artillery unit and the Berlin guys said it was 110 miles down in ties with Soviet territory in order
to get to Berlin the American sector, which was West Berlin.
Our mission was to fly over Russian territory and pass shooting to reinforce the Berlin guys but
then the Cubans backed down, not the Cubans, the Russians backed down in Cuba and that done
away with that crisis. So after that crisis we never had an extreme crisis besides when the Berlin
Wall went up, and after pulling three years in Germany, I returned to Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
The 101st Airborne Division and there we done some serious soldiering too.
We stayed in the field a lot, the troops were all right, and you had your pockets of resistance as
far as black and white. But normally everything was pretty good. Old soldiers like myself they
were used to everyone getting along pretty good, it was the young boys that come off the block
come from these homes with people who were taught this mess about declarations of people;
that's where the problem was. But if you moved up in the ranks like I did it wasn't any problems
because you was snatched a lot and that got them squared away. So during my training with the
101st Airborne I stayed there for 18 months.
And we went to field to two deformations with field problems, we went to one field problem in
Iran were over there for 21 days and pulled an exercise for the show of Iran up and down them
hills. And then we turned around and turned to Fort Campbell, but before we would get back to
the base, the airplanes couldn't get out because of the sand storm came up and we had to stay out
of the dessert for about three or four days before aircraft could come in to get us out.
They finally got us out and then we flew back to Fort Campbell, we stayed there for about 60
days and the commander named Colonel Wolfe would volunteer us for all kind of different
activities and missions. So then we moved out to the Mojave dessert for 30 days and that didn't
move too well with the troops; we just left Iran and went through various field problems.
We got back from Operation Dessert Strike because it took 30 days moving up and down
Nevada, Southern California and parts of Wyoming. So then we returned to Fort Campbell,
Kentucky after that and we had a lot of complaining because there were no commission officers
and everyone wanted to transfer out. So then the division commander, we had to stand down in
the first brigade so then they got up gave us little break down.
I was assigned to infantry in Fort Campbell in the 322nd Infantry, 1st Battalion but while I was
there I got transferred down to 2nd Artillery and I stayed there until I volunteered to go to
Vietnam. And I stayed at Fort Campbell in '64 till '65 it was a total of 18 months. And then I left
there and got to Vietnam in June of '65. I stayed in Vietnam for a year.
My job in Vietnam I was an advisor so at that time they called I-Corps and at that time we were
the first consistent army division for the republic of South Vietnam and my job was in
administrative logistics advisor, making sure that on the out-post the advisors got resupplied.
Whatever they needed we did it; helicopter rides into the jungle and wherever else plus riding up
and down Highway 1 to the city of Wei the imperial capitol in South Vietnam to as far north as
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�Quan Tri, is just on the border of South Vietnam, and after 12 months there, and I returned to the
states.
Well, let me go back a little bit let me go back until I was there until '65 and '66. We had an
uprising in the auburn divisions when it turned against the government and the government they
pulled away from the government they didn’t want to be in the government, so then they took
representatives from the government to the first division headquarters to try to talk them into
political sentence to get back in the South Vietnamese army like they was suppose to.
They were all just satisfied with people protesting and all of that kind of junk. But anyway,
during that time we had negotiators from down in Denang, which was 100 miles down the road
from South Vietnam. They came up to negotiate the division commander to come back into the
government. One incident that I remember specifically was when the helicopter came in, there
were thousands of Vietnamese out there demonstrating against the government. When the
chopper landed the negotiators got off and went to headquarters and there they negotiated with
the commander.
When they got out they got back on the chopper to leave the South Vietnamese, the second
lieutenant got in the crowd and took a pistol and shot at the chopper and when he did that all hell
broke loose. Someone got him; he cut loose with an M-16 and started cutting up people all kinds
of people. But the chopper got out of there and went back to the Nag. In the meanwhile, we were
only 109 surrounded by thousands of Vietnamese, troops and civilians. We went back to our
compound and the rumors went down to intelligence that they were going to attack the
compound and kill all the advisors. We got back there armed, and the S-3 operations officer told
us we had to prepare for an attack.
The South Vietnamese were going to attack the compound and he was going to go in the street
and negotiate with him. In the meantime the South Vietnamese Army was coming from
Sauzewae and it was going to move in to rescue as help to get on the run by the Vietnamese. But
as it turned out to be the major told us that he was going go out when the crowd came down and
talk to them.
The word was if they turned left and went to the compound we had to open fire, we did
everything we could do because they were going take us out regardless. So what we had were
these barbed wire barricades along the perimeter and all kinds of sandbags, we had the works. In
the mean time, this is all in one day, here comes these thousands of demonstrators coming down
the street and as they come down the street they tore down one of the barbed wire blockades. But
instead of turning left to come in the compound, they kept on straight.
When they did that everyone was relieved because they knew they weren't going to attack.
Because they had word that they had tanks they were going to attack us with so in the mean time
we had a marine battalion that was moving in from Pumpa, just moving in not the army but the
US marines and they were going support us in the fight against the South Vietnamese Army.
They tried to take us out and at that time I had about 45 days to rotate and of course you know I
was on pins and needles, needless to say. As it turned out they still demonstrated until the day I
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�left and we couldn’t use the highways. On my day of rotation they had to bring in choppers and
we had to ride the choppers out to process out of South Vietnam to come back to the states.
That was one of the incidents but Vietnam as a whole was combat zone. And that's the way it
was suppose to be, you knew what you signed up for. So after that deal, I rotated back to Fort
Bragg, 82nd Airborne Division and stayed there for about two weeks. Next, I was sent over to
Special Forces and I worked over there for about a year. But during the time I was in Special
Forces I got appointed to warrant officer from the “Mr. Man.” They had a mission to go to
Thailand to give something to the Thai government.
I was picked to go to Thailand after certain training and different aspects of the job, which I was
going to be instructing. In the mean time an order came around saying I was not to go anywhere
unless I can return within 30 days because my appointment said that warrant officers couldn't be
there until April and this was in March and that team had to be in Thailand by March.
The colonel in Thailand and Special Forces called the Department of the Army got my
appointment and sent me to go so I could go on that mission to the 3rd Special Forces in
Thailand. In the meantime I stayed there for 54 days as a maintenance instructor on gun,
artillery, vehicles, and half tracks; all ordinances equipment.
After returning from there I went to Fort Bragg and was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division. I
was an auto maintenance technician for the 1st Battalion of the 325th Airborne Infantry Battalion
in the First Brigade. It was definitely harder being an officer than being an enlisted man because
it was challenging.
The challenge was at that time the white soldiers didn't want to respect the black officers, like
they wanted to respect the white officers. So you really had to get into some messy situations.
And you had to demand respect and if every time you turned around there was going to be some
kind of complaint about you wasn't doing this and you wasn't doing that but that wasn't the issues
some of these old boys just ain't want to take no orders from no black officer or black NCO.
In fact, I had a motor sergeant that went to the company commander and told him he couldn’t
work for me. And that company commander reassigned that sergeant. But see I want to tell you
something see up until that time in the Army, no sergeant could go to the company commander
and tell him he did not want to work for no officer and get reassigned. This was strictly racism
on that deal. So I went and talked to the company commander and he said, “Well you know he
wanted to work for you so, on and so on.”
And I said “Why?” And he couldn't tell me why. Anyway, as the story goes on to tell I stayed in
that battalion for 18 months from 1967 to ’68, and during that time they sent me up to Fort Knox,
Kentucky to motor officer school. I went up there and I stayed for two months. Three months
later then I came back to my unit and by the time I came back to my unit I was order to go back
to Vietnam. This time I went to Vietnam as a warrant officer and was assigned to the Infantry.
First of the 14th Infantry in the First Brigade, in the 4th Infantry Division. I ran into a lot of
problems you know, we got shot at and we had soldiers who had all kinds of problems.
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�We had soldiers that didn't want to do what you tell them. It was a normal Army everyday life.
But being an old soldier by that time I had been in the Army, had been in army almost 17 years, I
“knew the ropes” in the military, so it wasn't any big deal about it. I had just transitioned from
NCO to warrant officer. I stayed there for a year and then they sent me on orders to go to
Germany for three years.
So instead of going to Germany I extended six months in Vietnam (laughs), and was assigned to
the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Bonson in Vietnam. And that's where I run into some more racial
problems down in the lower ranks. Due to the fact that the higher ranking people at that time
they were squared away. We had a good battalion commander, had good XO, and had good
company officers. We had some of those old…a whole lot of NCOs tried to get next to you. But
see. I had been in automotive maintenance my entire time in the military, so there wasn't nothing
you could tell me, I could tell them. So then again there you had to demand respect.
For example, one night I was on duty office and the duty officer…he takes control of the entire
brigade during after duty hours and walks the perimeter and all the people within the different
units report into him about any kind of attack any kind of incidents. Pertaining to what might be
an attack by the VC or Vietcong. I had one unit, I had the mortar platoon and I had got
information that there was metal-to-metal contact on bunker 54 and to my knowledge at that
time. I thought it would be setting up mortars. Because that's how you set up mortars, you got a
metal base and a metal tube.
Anyway, I got the information from the outpost. I called into the mortar platoon and requested
flares over bunker 52 and I didn't get it. Time was passing I went to find out why we weren't
getting fire from the mortar platoon. The mortar platoon told me that the unit they attached to cut
off the power so they didn't have any lights for the plotting board where they could plot the grid
coordinates on the board to fire the mortars so anyway it was what you call a military
intelligence battalion. So I got out of my office and went up to the gate and they wouldn't let me
in because it was top secret.
I told them get the company commander down there and he came down there and I explained to
him they won't turn on the lights and the boys down there don't have no lights and they can't fire
the mortars because they can't see the M10 plotting boards you know and the generators weren’t
working. He had the nerve enough to tell me that the “good ole boys” from Texas and Alabama,
that they were doing this…and I said, “Well, you know what they doing? He said what? You
don't want me to use that word do you?
DM: Go ahead say what you would like.
JM: Well, they were doing these ole boys from Texas and Alabama they were calling the mortar
platoon a bunch of niggers. Now you know that is outlandish in a combat situation. Anyway, I
got that squared away. But in the mean time we were hit several times with 122 rockets by either
the Vietcong or the North Vietnamese soldiers and we had to defend ourselves. Not against a
ground attack but against mortar and rocket attacks that sometimes came at numerous occasions.
I think it happened about three times when I was there.
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�They had the 122s and the mortar attacks happened about three times the LZ, which is landing
zone north of us. Landing Zone English lost about 75 men in a mortar attack, when they hit us
they didn’t get anybody because everybody was fully alerted. I stayed there six months before I
left there. Except for the lower ranking people, they tried to give me a hard way to go.
Anyway, I came back to the states and my intentions were to go to the operation personnel and
find out why I had to go to Germany after I just got through spending 18 months in Vietnam. I
got in my Class-A uniform and I went up to OPAL (operations personal) and walked in to see
this full bird colonel. I saluted him and said, “Sir why do I have to Germany? He replied that
were having a lot of racial problems in Germany.
And we needed black officers in Germany. He told me that I was an outstanding officer (laughs)
and we need your type in Germany to help quail this racist situation we got going on. Then I
asked him if there was any way I can get off those orders. He told me no, I could not. But I could
go over there and talk to the warrant officer. I said, “Sir the warrant officer works for you, he is
going to do what he is told just like I'm doing what I'm told. He said, “Well, Mr. Mitchell I tell
you what you have a good trip.”
It came to my attention and saluted him did an about face went on back packed my bags and
went to Germany for three years. But man let me tell you, something the type of soldiers in
Germany at that time they were nowhere like the soldiers that come in my time. These gentlemen
reflected society.
Okay, during the Civil Rights era these same individuals came in the military and these boys
didn’t take any crap okay. These guys, if an incident happened to a black soldiers 30 or 40 miles
away before you know it there would be 100 soldiers from another garrison at that garrison to
protest with those soldiers against the incident perpetrated on them by a Caucasian soldier if it
was true. And to give you some specific incidents they had what they call in them days a "dap."
These young gentlemen would get up and do all these kind of hand signs and clap hands and
shake and do all that stuff and they were in a theater one day and they was getting ready for a big
field proper. This one soldier got up, which was unheard of, and said to the battalion commander
"Why do we have to go to the field just cause you said so?!" (laughs). This was in 1970 and man
you could hear a rat pissing on cotton it was so quite you know? And that was so bad but then
they all got up and they went through what we called “power check.” They did all this dapping
and they said, “Power check.” That was something else I'm serious. In the military back in 1973
in Europe it was a hot bed of racism.
Because everybody was getting on it. And the young soldiers in those days is not taking the stuff
that the older soldiers and the before generations were taking. Because you don't call them
“boy,” you promote them when they suppose to be promoted. You don’t put anybody over them
with lesser rank, like they did to me on a couple of occasions. I didn’t take it. In Vietnam they
had a big racial problem. There was a big incident when a general went to Vietnam to assess the
performance of the military. He found out that the troops in the forward units of the field, they
were pretty good but then when you got back to the support units in the rear area there were a lot
of racial problems. Racial problems existed when one guys would sing a country song and the
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�other guy would sing a hip-hop song or whatever you call it, and the words would go out and
then there would be a fight.
Getting back to Germany, they had several incidents with soldiers rebelled against injustice as
far as the military I won't go into each incident because the military takes care of its own. And I
pulled three years in Germany by that time I had...23 years in the military. Then I returned from
there to Fort Belvoir, Virginia that was a good assignment, it was a happy assignment. The
responsibility wasn't as great as being tied up in a combat infantry unit or a air defense unit in
Germany, but like I said in Germany, it was a hot bed.
Everybody was trained that the Russians were coming across the border, and that's what you
were there for to stop, so they ain't take no mess you had to be ready for 24-hours a day, this was
during the Cold War. My second time in Germany I was assigned to an Air Defense artillery
battalion, which was a missile battalion. A hawk missile battalion, which was designed to shoot
down aircraft. I pulled three good years thereafter no problems and I came back to the states and
I was flown to Ft Belvoir and stayed up there from 1974 to ‘75 and they called me up one day
and wanted to send me to the senior warrant officer's course. I didn't want to go because I was
getting close to my retirement.
I was thinking about getting out, after 25 years but anyway they told me they would send me to
college for two years if I went to the course so I took the course and went down to Alabama and
spent six months down there. I left there after six months and went to Korea and spent a year
there with the 2nd Infantry Division. I was assigned to a supply and transportation battalion. They
had racial problems there but the commander general he nipped it in the bud.
So it wasn't too much going on if it was it was undercover. And I will give you an example like
all the white troops use to hang out at one bar and all the black troops use to hang out at one bar.
They broke that up by doing this what they did was they told each club owner that they had to
play so many country western songs, that they had to play, so many jazz songs they couldn't just
play one brand of music they had to play music for all the troops. Okay, what was the word they
used? It wasn't jazz, not hip hop, it was...
DM: Rap?
JM: No, let's put it like this…they had country western music and they had soul music. You had
to play so much soul music and you had to play so much country music, and there would be no
congregation of no one race at no one bar. Everybody go to the same bar otherwise no one went
to the bar. At one point they even contemplated everybody putting on uniform to go to town and
that broke it up right then, it wasn't no, if there were racial problems it was undercover. Because
it was... and it wasn't no wide spread deal. I stayed there from 1976 to ‘77 and returned to the
states at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. I returned in February of 1977 and stayed there in a
maintenance battalion at Fort Bragg until 31 December 1977.
I decided to get out the military at that time due to the fact there was a whole lot of things going
on. There were still racial problems and you could tell that the military was a long way from
being straightened out. To make a long story short, during my time in the military I saw a total
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�turnover as far as race problems, a turnover in promotions, and I will give you an example. I was
in a unit in Germany as an E-5, a sergeant E-5 for seven years.
I was the first black soldier to get promoted to the grade of E-6 in that battalion in six years. We
all held down command positions. Motor sergeant, chief of the gun, section chiefs in the artillery
batteries which all call for sergeants. Chief of firing battery which call for E-7, chief of the gun,
the gun chiefs all called for E-6. And during that time this particular battalion with the hierarchy
that had in there it wasn't too many black soldiers getting promoted to a grade above E-5.
But then we got a new battalion commander in and he was more along the John F. Kennedy
style. He was for justice for all and that was a big change in the military. This was back in 1962
to ‘63. Then things begin to change and people began to get more of what they deserved instead
of being politicians trying to politicizing their way up the ranks. But anyway I retired after 26
years 10 months and 26 days at Fort Bragg at S0 3rd Maintenance Company.
I got out and to look at my overall military career I say it was a good thing because I had done
things in the military beyond my wildest dreams of a man of my education when I joined the
military. When I joined the military, I was a high school dropout and I went to school in the
military and got a GED, and worked my way from private to chief warrant officer.
To provide you an example, I was an E-5 for seven years before I got promoted to grade E-6, but
after I got promoted to the grade of warrant officer I got promoted from W1 to W3 in less than
five years. I was the top 5%. Telling you that little story will illustrate to you that I was no goof
up, that I knew what I was doing but that's just the way it was.
The military was a grand thing, it always has been and always will be, it has its problems but the
military takes care of its own. And everything gets straightened out. Like I said, to assess the
entire situation I would say that I advise any young man that if want something to do and want a
challenge I advise him to go ahead and joined the military if he got what it takes. And that's
about all I got to say about it. Does that satisfy you?
DM: Yes, that's good. Is there anything else you want to talk about? Any regrets?
JM: The only thing I have is, you see with being a soldier, you see a young soldier is gullible to
a lot of things and there is a couple places around the military installations these people a lot of
them don't have your best interest at heart Because to give you a good example. When I came in
south in 1954, I was a corporal in the 82nd Airborne Division and made 122 dollars a month base
pay, plus 50 dollars a month jump pay that made me 177 dollars.
To get the idea that when you're dealing with the civilian population, if you have this idea that
everybody is on the up and up is not so and I advise any person who ever been in the military,
going in the military, to think about before he commits himself to anyone outside the gate around
any military installation before he does some long hard...research.
Don't take people's word for it because you have people who say one thing and do another. In the
meantime, you have people who would sacrifice their life in Korea. You get tied up with
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�somebody you don't want to be and its all ties in with being a soldier. I believe now, I got a son
in the military which tells me now, and I been reading what General Petreus said how they
briefed the soldiers on these financial holes and all these scandalous things that happened to a
soldier around these military post, which I think is outstanding. That's about all I have to say
about the military except that I have no regrets and if I had to do it all over again I'd do the same
thing.
I'd like to have a little better education you know, but then I wouldn't of had to go to school in
the military (laughs), but other than that I got a good retirement. I have disability that was on me
when I joined the military. I went in without any defects, but when I came out that's when I
found all these defects. And that all contributed to being a soldier. I didn't ride the sick book. I
went to work every day and only went to sick call whenever I had to. I want to bring this to
attention, while I was in the military and in Vietnam, I earned three Bronze Stars and didn’t get
them for just sitting around. You can do the same thing if you get out there and get with the
program. And that’s it.
DM: Alright, dad appreciate it.
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�
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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.
Mitchell, Joseph E.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview.
Mitchell, David
Interview Date
10/12/11
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
45:01 min
Copyright
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. .
Tag
Army, signal corps, mechanic, NCO, enlisted man, ordinance corps, African American, Fort Jackson, Fort Rucker, Fort Bliss, Korea, Camp Bell Rock, Fort Ord, Army Reserves, 82nd Airborne Division, Germany, Fort Campbell, 101st Airborne Division, Operation Dessert Strike, 322nd Infantry, Vietnam, Special Forces, 325th Airborne Infantry Battalion, Fort Knox, 4th Infantry Division, infantry, Germany, 173rd Airborne Brigade, Vietcong, North Vietnamese, NVA, racial tension, racism, Fort Belvoir, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Bragg, 3rd Maintenance Company, Bronze Star
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 Joseph Emerson Mitchell, 16 October 2011
Subject
The topic of the resource
Vietnam War, 1961-1975
Korean War, 1950-1953
Mitchell, Joseph Emerson, Sr.
Veterans
Personal narratives, American
United States
Interviews
Description
An account of the resource
Joseph Emerson Mitchell, Sr., interviewed by David Mitchell, first enlisted in the United States Army in 1950 at age 17. Mitchell speaks about his experiences serving during both the Korean and Vietnam wars, including stories of the breakdown of segregation and racism in the military.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Mitchell, Joseph Emerson
Mitchell, David
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>
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
11 pages
Language
A language of the resource
English
airborne training
army
Korean War
military mechanic
pole line construction
race segregation
Vietnam War
Warrant Officer