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June 23, 2008

Vietnam veterans reminisce about their war experiences

Talk about surviving conflict in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia

By JOHN W. CONROY

BEEKMANTOWN -- It's been 40 years, more or less, since the soldiers who survived returned from the wars in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

Three of those survivors were recently talking over their experiences while at the Tallon Farm on Spellman Road in Beekmantown.

MEDIC

Frank Gentile, a Long Island resident and retired Teamster, is a frequent visitor to this area for hunting trips with an old friend of Neal Tallon.

Frankie was a medic with the 101st Airborne, serving in Vietnam during 1967 and 1968. He was awarded the Purple Heart, Bronze Star with V Cluster and two Silver Stars for his actions attending the wounded on operations with the 101st.

"I was only in country' for seven months before being badly wounded," said the quiet ex-medic. "So much happened, most of it bad, that it's hard to remember the particulars "¦ but I'm trying."

PHOTO INTERPRETER

Neal Tallon, born in New York City but a long-time resident of Beekmantown, was with the 1st Military Intelligence Battalion, headquartered in Saigon.

He was with this unit as a photo interpreter from 1966 until 1968 and worked for most of that time on the flight line at Tan Son Nhut Airfield on the outskirts of Saigon.

"Shortly after being discharged in 1968," he was saying, "I received a letter from the CIA offering me a job as a photo interpreter -- probably for work in Laos, where they were running a secret war at the time. However, I decided to pursue my eduction at PSUC instead."

INFANTRYMAN

Ralph "Pete" Conroy, also a long-time resident of Beekmantown, was an infantryman with the 1st Cavalry Division. He spent half of his tour in I Corps, at times in the highlands and jungles along the Laotian border and the rest of the tour near Tay Ninh and the Parrot's Beak area of Cambodia in III Corps.

He has an Air Medal for participating in more than 25 air insertions during infantry operations, a Bronze Star and Purple Heart. He spent practically his whole tour in the field.

"About the only native people I had contact with who weren't shooting at me was on the streets of Danang, where the hospital ship, USS Sanctuary, released me back to my unit after recovering from wounds.

"As I walked those streets trying to find my way, I was more than a little nervous being without my M-16. The whole scene was alien to me."

"You needed me with you," said Neal. "It must have been similar to the streets of Saigon, which I knew very well."

"I only knew the field, too," said Gentile. "It's all I remember."

HEAVY FIRE

"When they gave me the first Silver Star," Gentile said, "we were under heavy fire, forever it seemed, and all of the other medics were dead or badly wounded. I was trying to treat all the wounded. You forget about maybe getting killed after awhile and just do your job. Mine was to grab my bag and start treating wounds."

"I was on the hospital ship till my wounds healed enough to move around," said Conroy. "We stopped in at the Philippines for a few days, then sailed for Vietnam. It was back to the field."

Conroy had been wounded on an operation in the Au Shau Valley during a 1st Cavalry Divisional Operation. They had made heavy contact with North Vietnamese Army troops then; the soldier ahead of him stepped on a mine.

"I took shrapnel in both arms and legs, but the front of my body was protected by a pack that I was carrying, which belonged to another GI who had been wounded earlier in the day.

"It wasn't long after that," he reflected, that the whole division was transferred to III Corps near Tay Ninh.

Tallon was stationed for a three-month period at the Phu Cat Airbase in Central Vietnam, 20 miles or so inland from Quy Nhon.

"They sent two of us up there to train a new detachment of photo interpreters to handle the increasing traffic at this instillation. Missions were being flown throughout this sector, including many north of the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone)," he said.

"This base was out in the country. There were no GI shanty towns outside the perimeter."

FILLED WITH SHRAPNEL

It was in May 1968 that Gentile was severely wounded during a 101st Operation near Quang Tri.

"It was during a heavy firefight with the NVA. Once again, all of the other medics were dead or wounded. A near miss from a RPG filled my legs and feet with shrapnel, with a large piece tearing out a good chunk of my thigh.

"My platoon sergeant filled me with morphine and bandaged me up enough to function. I couldn't move around so the guys still up" -- he paused to gather himself -- "the guys still up dragged the wounded to me, and I did what I could to help them."

Gentile received a second Silver Star for his actions that day, which saved a number of 101st soldiers.

MASS CONFUSION'

Conroy recalled a 1st Cavalry Operation in the Parrot's Beak area on the Cambodian border. Six choppers were landing under heavy fire.

"An NVA Battalion force attack was going on, and somehow we got down. There was mass confusion. To this day, I don't know how I got out of that."

The next night, during a full-force attack, the NVA lost more than a hundred men. The 1st CAV troopers were spared due to heavy support from artillery, Huey gunships and jet fighter-bombers.

FATHER, SON VETS

"I've got one for you guys," said Tallon. "I was discharged in January of 1968. Fifty years earlier, in 1918, my father, Daniel Tallon, was discharged from the U.S. Army after returning from the fighting in France during World War I. There may not have been another father and son who were veterans of those two wars.

"I didn't think the Vietnam War was winnable when I was there," said Tallon. "And I didn't think it looked important to the U.S., the more I got to know the people of Vietnam. I think we're making the same mistakes today in Iraq."

Conroy and Tallon are vocal opponents of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Gentile grudgingly supports the operations.

"You gotta go with the troops," he says. "What else can you do?"

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