Name of person(s) interviewed: Gary Wilkinson Other people present: No one Date of interview: 6-1-14 Location of interview: 3715 NE Riverside Pendleton OR 97801 Special conditions (noise, interruptions, etc.): NA General description of contents: Vietnam: The accounts of Gary Wilkinson Length of interview: 19 minutes 54 seconds
Index
Segment 1 jogging memory: From start to 4:09 Segment 2: Experiences: 4:09 to 10:10 Segment 3: Life: 10:10 to 14:53 Segment 4: After Service: 14:53 to 17:10 Segment 5: Later Years and Closing: 17:10 to 19:54
Mr. Gary Wilkinson Interviewed by Keenan Hack, 2014
My name is Keenan Hack I interviewed Vietnam Veteran Gary Wilkinson for my Oral History project. The interviewed took place in Pendleton, Oregon. Gary S/ Wilkinson served in Vietnam in 1968 for one year. Gary’s job was military analyst intelligence; he dropped leaflets on cities which asked the enemy to give up and surrender.
One of Gary's main reasons for joining the military was because he was frustrated with college. Gary enlisted because he didn’t want to be forced into the army by draft; he wanted to do it by choice. He also talked about basic training where he went to get physically in shape, learn things about using a rifle, military protocol, and then a harder training.
Gary was put in charge at basic training for telling the others what the army’s all about. He got on a plane in San Francisco, flew to Alaska, then to Hawaii, and then got off Gary thought he had been all over the world and when he got off, he didn’t know where he was. He had talked about how basic training was difficult because they were rushing people through to get them in shape. Gary said everyone was important, it didn’t matter what their job was.
Gary started out in Saigon, then went a place called Benwa, an old French plantation. Benwa is where they worked and were living at the time. There was a support base close by to them. Gary recalled how it was kind of scary when they arrived; the bus had wire on the windows. When they got there, they were escorted by armed MPs. He thought immediately they were going to get attacked.
Some women worked on the compound doing laundry. He had heard the girls screaming and couldn’t figure out why until he saw a cobra snake. He thought to himself, "It's going to be a long year."
Mr. Wilkinson worked as an intelligence data analyst. When the data came in, they would make judgments on what to do. Gary said he didn’t see much combat, but he really admired the ones out there fighting for them. He said that fortunately there weren’t many casualties in his unit.
Gary also remembers his most humorous event. He had stayed up 31 hours to prepare for a battle and then the night he fell asleep, they had got attacked. He slept right through the firefight and when he woke up, there were bodies lying around, so he went outside and shot insulators of the telephone poles so he could say he shot his gun in the war.
Gary talks about how he had received his medals while he was in the service. He talked about how he got medals for flying on so many missions. He also remembers how he kept in touch with his family by writing letters , Gary mentions how his aunt sent him letters and how she wrote very religiously.
After his service in Vietnam, they sent him back to the states then sent him to Germany. When his time was up came home and got a job at the prison in Pendleton Oregon. Gary said his experience with the war were generally positive.