Location of interview: Towers’ home, Pendleton, Oregon
Special conditions (noise, interruptions, etc.): 3 different clocks sound. Phone dings 3 times toward the end. Occasionally there is some talking heard in the background.
General description of contents: Lee Towers discusses where and when he went during his time in the Army during Vietnam. He tells a few stories and shares some details about specific incidences that occured during his service. He also discusses briefly what he did after the war and how the war affected him.
Length of interview: 14:51
INDEX
0:00 - 0:23 Introduction
0:23 - 0:46 Were you drafted or did you enlist?
0:46 - 1:30 Where were you living at the time? Short description of Umatilla Army Depot.
1:30 - 2:35 Do you recall your first day in service?
2:35 - 2:40 Which war did you serve in?
2:40 - 4:18 Where exactly did you go? Specific dates of arrival at various places, including the exact day of arrival in Vietnam.
4:18 - 4:41 What was your job or assignment? Description of job.
4:41 - 6:20 Did you see any combat? Description of experiences after getting malaria.
4:41 - 7:08 How did you stay in touch with your family? Story of an attempt to contact the US via switchboard.
7:08 - 8:02 What was the food like?
8:02 - 8:55 How did people entertain themselves?
8:55 - 9:13 Where did you travel while in the service?
9:13 - 9:48 What did you think of officers or fellow soldiers?
9:48 - 10:43 Do you recall the day your service ended?
10:43 - 11:11 What did you go on to do as a career after the war?
11:11 - 11:52 How did your service and experiences affect your life?
Discussion of various pictures and objects:
11:52 - 12:24 Portrait
12:24 - 12:44 502nd Airborne jump school wings
12:44 - 13:28 Fort Ord Graduation booklet Picture of “bunch he was with” while in Basic Training
13:33 - 13:54 Service cap
13:58 - 14:20 Government issued money Vietnamese currency
14:20 - 14:51 Group picture from Basic Thank you, veterans.
Mr. Lee Towers Interviewed by Annie Wood, 2018
On May 12th, 2018, I interviewed Lee Towers, my grandfather and a Vietnam veteran.
Lee Towers had recently graduated from Boardman High School when he enlisted in the United States Army. He didn’t have a real strong reason for choosing the Army, except that his dad had been in the Army as well.
Towers had been living outside Irrigon, Oregon at the time of his enlistment, near the Umatilla Army Depot. He recalled the consistent explosions that could be heard coming from the Depot as they destroyed mass amounts munition each day.
He can still remember his first day in service. He recalls getting off the bus and being greeted by sergeants. He also remembers going off to be fitted for uniforms and boots.
After completing Basic at Fort Ord, California, he was sent to Fort Campbell, Kentucky for a time, where he went through jump school. He was in the 502nd Airborne. While there, he visited Nashville and a few other small towns around the area. In 1965, he left Fort Campbell, Kentucky and flew to Oakland, where he would leave America altogether.
At Oakland, they boarded the USS General Leroy Eltinge, a transport ship that had been used towards the end of World War II and throughout Korea. They left on the 8th of July, Vietnam bound, and they arrived in Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam on July 29th.
In Vietnam, Towers’ first job was working as a wireman. He strung field wire for the field telephones and switchboards. At the latter end of his service, he was a switchboard operator. He was on late at night- from 11:00 pm through until the morning.
In October 1965, he came down with malaria. He was taken to Saigon for a week before being flown out on a medi-vac to Okinawa. He was in Okinawa until early December.
When his service ended, he flew back to Oakland. Since he had malaria, he had to get blood tests done when he arrived back in the States. Some of the men he had come back with were going and walking around the city of Oakland when they got back, but Towers had no interest in doing that. Demonstrators in cities across the country typically harassed the returning servicemen by calling them names and spitting on them. He avoided that, and once he had his blood test completed, he caught a plane back home.
After the war, he worked at the Umatilla Army Depot for 3 years before starting at Pacific Northwest Bell. He would work for Pacific Northwest Bell (that would later turn into US West and finally to Quest) for 33 years before retiring in 2003.
When I asked how his service and experiences affected his life, he told me that it made him appreciate a lot of things. Through his service, he learned how to accept things, as well. When he was in Vietnam, he was there, virtually stuck in a place where he couldn’t leave, and he had to accept that.
It was an honor to interview my grandpa for this project.