John J. Gebhart - LBJs Hired Gun: A Marine Corps Helicopter Gunner and the War in Vietnam

Be just and fear not; let all the ends thou aimst at by thy country, thy Gods and truths. I do love my countrys good with a respect more tender, more holy, and profound than my own life.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

I carried these stories around in my head for 38 years. When I returned home from Nam in 1968 and went back to complete my degree at Saint Josephs College in Philadelphia, no one wanted to hear what I had been doing for the last four years. When I joined the local Veterans of Foreign Wars in Sellersville, PA in 1976, no World War II veterans or Korean War veterans wanted to hear my stories either. They only wanted my dues money, not tales of my daring deeds. In short, no one gave a damn about what we combat veterans went through in Vietnam. Finally books got written, brave tales got told, movies got made and America slowly embraced us. The long black wall went up with fallen warriors names, and finally America said thank you with a few parades and welcome-home handshakes. By this time, some Vietnam veterans no longer even mentioned their time in Nam, and some became drunks or drug addicts. Most were bitter inside but went on with their lives.

When we arrived in Vietnam, we were all eager to save the Vietnamese from being overrun by their northern Communist neighbors. We soon learned that average Vietnamese farmers couldnt care less who ran their country as long as they were left alone. The Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) had the latest weapons, uniforms, and equipment, but was totally useless. We had to take over from being advisors to fighting their war while they sat on their asses and listened to their new Sony radios.

The ARVN had a few elite Ranger outfits but not enough to win the war. Thus they did less and less as the days went on. We soon learned that most of the local villages were infested with the Viet Cong (VC). We fought to save ourselves. We turned into stones that showed no emotion or mercy. We learned how to fight the VC and North Vietnams Army (NVA) and wasted thousands of them without a tear. As fast as we killed them, new replacements came hopping down the bunny trail.

The American press made it look like we were losing but we really were doing an outstanding job. We soon ran into the problem of Washington, DC calling the shots instead of our field commanders. Thus after the Tet Offensive, which was a great Marine Corps victory that the press called a defeat, our field commanders had their hands tied as to what they could do on their own. After all, the US didnt want to piss off Russia and China, the very people who were supplying the up-to-date weapons and materiel to kill us.

The Marine Corps finally got fed up with a war we were not allowed to win and thus packed up and left. The Army soon followed. Thus the ARVN had to get off their lazy asses and resume the fight on their own. We all knew this was a joke. The ARVN ran like rats off a sinking ship. The US shouldnt have allowed even one into our country. But then they didnt even have the guts to try Jane Fonda for treason. Finally the ARVN reached a peace settlement with the Communists. It was, of course, just a lull the North needed to rebuild its strength and convert the Ho Chi Minh Trail from a bomb-cratered jungle path to a two-lane highway. When the NVA sprang again, the entire ARVN collapsed in about two weeks.

When the Marines in I-Corps left we were winningnever tell a Marine veteran from Vietnam that we lost the war. The coward ARVN soldiers lost their will to fight and gave their country up. Period!

I hope my readers enjoy these tales of war and that they shed some light on what an ordinary Marine had to put up with in Nam. Some stories are happy and some are sad, but they all allow the reader to put himself in my boots and follow how I went from a shitbird Private First Class to a Sergeant E-5 in two years. Relive my adventures and re-tell my tales, just as Vikings long ago sat around campfires and relived the timeless sagas of their warriors.

JOHN J. GEBHART

August 2007