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    Vietnam: an Infantry and Cavalry Platoon Leader’S Story
    Vietnam: an Infantry and Cavalry Platoon Leader’S Story
    Vietnam: an Infantry and Cavalry Platoon Leader’S Story
    Ebook164 pages1 hour

    Vietnam: an Infantry and Cavalry Platoon Leader’S Story

    By Dennis Scheer

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    About this ebook

    Dennis Scheer was commissioned in the summer of 1969 as a second lieutenant in the US Army through the University of Wyoming ROTC program. He moved to Fort Knox, Kentucky, following in the footsteps of his older brotherdown a path that almost got him killed.



    When he arrived in Vietnam, he was assigned to an infantry unit near Chu Lai. Midway through his tour, he was reassigned to a cavalry troop. Having fought with two combat arms, his experiences in the war were unique. Lt. Scheer was awarded a Bronze Star with Valor and a Silver Star, the third highest military decoration for valor, for his service in the infantry. He was awarded another Bronze Star with Valor while serving in the cavalry.



    After returning home from the war, like most veterans, he experienced a series of emotional ups and downs. Now, in his memoir, he recalls the events of that period of his life honestly, from combat to adjusting to life as a veteran.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisheriUniverse
    Release dateJul 29, 2013
    ISBN9781475997590
    Vietnam: an Infantry and Cavalry Platoon Leader’S Story
    Author

    Dennis Scheer

    Dennis Scheer, a retired school superintendent, has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in school administration from the University of Wyoming and a doctorate in school administration from Northern Arizona University. He and his wife, Donna, have three children and nine grandchildren. They live in Windsor, Colorado.

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      Book preview

      Vietnam - Dennis Scheer

      Vietnam:

      An Infantry and Cavalry Platoon

      Leader’s Story

      Dennis Scheer

      iUniverse LLC

      Bloomington

      Vietnam: An Infantry and Cavalry Platoon Leader’s Story

      Copyright © 2013 by Dennis Scheer

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

      iUniverse books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

      iUniverse LLC

      1663 Liberty Drive

      Bloomington, IN 47403

      www.iuniverse.com

      1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock

      ISBN: 978-1-4759-9758-3 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4759-9759-0 (ebk)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2013912208

      iUniverse rev. date: 07/25/2013

      Contents

      Preface

      Introduction

      Chapter 1

      Chapter 2

      Chapter 3

      Chapter 4

      Chapter 5

      Chapter 6

      Chapter 7

      Chapter 8

      Chapter 9

      Chapter 10

      Chapter 11

      Chapter 12

      Chapter 13

      Chapter 14

      Chapter 15

      Chapter 16

      Chapter 17

      Chapter 18

      Chapter 19

      Chapter 20

      Chapter 21

      Chapter 22

      Chapter 23

      Chapter 24

      Chapter 25

      Chapter 26

      Chapter 27

      Chapter 28

      Chapter 29

      Chapter 30

      Chapter 31

      Chapter 32

      Chapter 33

      Chapter 34

      Chapter 35

      Chapter 36

      Chapter 37

      Chapter 38

      Chapter 39

      Chapter 40

      Chapter 41

      Chapter 42

      Chapter 43

      Chapter 44

      Chapter 45

      Chapter 46

      Chapter 47

      Chapter 48

      Chapter 49

      Chapter 50

      Preface

      It’s been more than forty years since I was sent to Vietnam to fight in a war that fell out of favor with the American people. The thought of writing about my war experiences didn’t occur to me until several years ago, when a next-door neighbor, Mike Wagner, encouraged me to do so.

      Experiencing criticism and rejection on my return from overseas because of the unpopularity of the war doused any need to regurgitate the numerous combat episodes in which I was involved. Nevertheless, Mike was insistent that I recall my year of service by recording the combat experiences into a small handheld tape recorder that he had given me. He even arranged times for us to meet so that he could hear the stories firsthand as I was doing my recording. This is how I started—with no intention of actually writing a book.

      I soon found it difficult to remember where I was in my recordings, and I often had to stop and start again because of interruptions by my daily routines—including having to sleep. I needed to see my memories in print. Therefore, I switched to using the computer instead of the handheld recorder. Still, the idea of publishing a book didn’t even occur to me. The recollections were just a hodgepodge of unrelated war stories that had no chronological order.

      It wasn’t until I remarried, after my first wife’s passing, that the idea of publishing my work came to me. My first wife, Grace, had been supportive of my attempts to recall my war experiences, but my second wife, Donna, who is a published author, convinced me that I should share my Vietnam memories with anyone who would be interested in reading them. She strongly encouraged me to publish my Vietnam story.

      My two brothers, Stan and Rick Scheer, and my two sons, Matt and Brian Scheer, also should receive credit in being supportive of my book. They were my best listeners over the years after I returned from overseas.

      To those family members mentioned above and to all my friends, especially Mike Wagner, and other family members who have been my balcony cheerleaders over the years, I thank you for all your support and encouragement in completing this project that means so much to me.

      Introduction

      Over the past several years, I have spent time writing about my time in Vietnam with the purpose of recording my experiences there. I have endeavored to write this collection of stories in a manner that is respectful to the soldiers with whom I served and to the reader by not allowing the descriptions to become filled with unnecessary graphic language. A few mild profane words are used only when it is important for the story to be accurately written. It is much more effective, I think, to describe the war scenes without shocking the reader with language that does nothing but detract from the story being told.

      These stories are recollections of combat as seen through the eyes of an infantry and cavalry platoon leader. I served as both. I wondered before starting this book if my memory would fail me in recalling what happened. That was not the case. These war episodes are so etched in my mind that I remember them like they happened yesterday. Because I was willing to share my war experiences with a number of family and friends soon after returning from overseas, my memory stayed fresh.

      I purposely did not include names of soldiers whom I wrote about with a few exceptions. I felt that it would not be right to use names unless I had their permission to do so, even though, in most situations, the stories being told shed favorable light on the soldiers.

      The intent of the book is not to only recall my stories in combat but to allow readers of varied interests to read a war book showing the human emotions that I experienced while facing very difficult situations. This book is not just about my legacy while in Vietnam but also the legacy of those whom I grew to love and respect. I hope you enjoy reading this collection of stories.

      Chapter 1

      Pre-Nam Adventures

      I was born in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 1945 and grew up there. In 1964, I graduated from Cheyenne Central High School. After attending John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, for two years on a basketball scholarship, I transferred to the University of Wyoming in 1966. In 1967 I was married.

      My first wife, Grace, who is now deceased, and I were both attending college at the University of Wyoming with no financial support from our parents. As a married man who no longer had a scholarship, I had to find a way to support my family. Working part-time as a custodian didn’t pay all the bills. Since the government awarded fifty-dollar-a-month stipends for being in the college ROTC program, I signed up.

      In the summer of 1969, I was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the US Army through the University of Wyoming ROTC program. In October, my wife and I moved to Fort Knox, Kentucky, where I attended AOBC (Armor Officer Basic Course)—as my older brother had done three years prior. My older brother was like a father figure to me, and I found myself following in his footsteps in a number of ways. His footsteps in this case almost got me killed.

      The winter that year in Kentucky was a particularly cold one. It was so cold that our two-week field training exercise was cut short because men were experiencing hypothermia. We literally were dragging soldiers out of tanks to get them medical help because their body temperature had dropped to a dangerously low level. The heaters in the tanks didn’t work very well—if they worked at all. We all knew that we had a good chance of being sent to Vietnam, which now didn’t seem like a bad idea. At least we wouldn’t freeze to death.

      After AOB in Fort Knox, I was assigned to the Big Red One Infantry Division in Ft. Riley, Kansas. It was a mechanized infantry division, which meant it had armor (tanks) attached to it. The first time I was assigned the position of platoon leader was when I was assigned to the First Battalion of the Seventy-Seventh Armor, which was attached to the Big Red One. An armor platoon in the First Battalion of the Seventy-Seventh Armor consisted of five M60 tanks, each weighing more than sixty tons. As a platoon leader, I was responsible for millions of dollars of equipment in addition to the lives of twenty men, four to a tank.

      One of my first lessons in leadership came by instinct and frustration. Our unit, like so many in the States, was plagued by lack of good equipment and replacement parts. Vietnam held priority. The morale of many of the men was low because they had just come back from the war and only had a short time to serve before they were discharged from the army.

      Our mission was to pass a maintenance inspection. It had been more than a year since this armor battalion had even come close to passing a CMMI (Command Maintenance Management Inspection). We were working twelve- to fourteen-hour days with little progress.

      I approached the company commander, a captain, and asked if I could try a different approach. I asked if I could dangle the carrot in front of the men that, when all deficient items were corrected by our internal inspection, they could go home early instead of working such long days.

      He reluctantly approved my approach because nothing else seemed to be working. Within several weeks, my platoon had corrected all known maintenance deficiencies. The CMMI team inspected the battalion. Only first platoon was awarded a passing grade. My platoon worked only eight hours a day for my remaining time there, a result of the deal I had made with the company commander—the deal that had led to our passing the inspection.

      Good instinct is something a good leader has. Either you have it

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