185 Primary Source: George M. Garcia, Vietnam Veteran, Oral Interview (1969/2012)

In 2012, George Garcia sat down to be interviewed about his experiences as a corporal in the United States Marine Corps during the Vietnam War. Alternating between English and Spanish, Garcia told of early life in Brownsville, Texas, his time as a U.S. Marine in Vietnam, and his experience coming home from the war. 

George M. Garcia:

“ When I first arrived, I arrived in Da Nang. And I’ll never forgot because I was only 18 years young. I was — you know, I was freshly out of high school. And at that time — I have to tell you this so you can have a picture of it because it wasn’t just cut and dry. Like I told you, coming from the [Rio Grande] Valley, especially for me that I had never been exposed to anything like this …

… in our particular company, which was Company F, you know, we were always in mission. … And from that day forward — I arrived there January 3rd of 1969. And from that point until the day I left, we were always on a mission. Always. We all had different missions. …

…

I don’t know if I should or not, but I can share with you the second month in February, I think I was still 18 maybe going on 19. It was pretty close on my 19th year. We have what we call — you know what — you know what it means friendly fire?

Julia M. Hernandez:

Yes.

George M. Garcia:

Okay. We were — again, we were in a mission. We had received a report to seek and destroy and our jets had — they were ahead of us. They had destroyed this area. Supposedly there were enemies there and they went ahead and destroy — and it was up for us to seek and destroy — to see and make sure there was no enemy left. So — anyway, supposedly the jets had already cleared the area. And so we continued to march. And usually our battalion commander does the calling and the clearing to stop the cease firing. Well, what happened that particular afternoon, our battalion failed to tell one of the pilots to cease fire and that — that pilot came back and they dropped bombs on us.

Julia M. Hernandez:

Oh, no.

George M. Garcia:

It was the most — you know, the most horrible day of my life. I was — (spoke Spanish) — I was either turning just 19 there or I had just turned 19. I don’t recall because it’s — that happened in 1969 in February. And it was horrible. I mean, I remember — I mean, all the dust flying. It was — there was sand in that area and you could see all the sand flying all over the place. And you could hear the screaming and the yelling. And — (spoke Spanish) — our first platoon got wiped out.

Julia M. Hernandez:

How big — how many men?

George M. Garcia:

We must have lost approximately about 30, 35. And I looked up because I could hear — and then there was a whistling sound. I kept hearing something like a whistling sound. And I didn’t know at the time that it was — it was what we call a shrapnel from the bomb. And it hit me right here. It burned me. It cut me right here, but at the time I didn’t pay attention. I just took it off, you know, but it was — it was strange because it was coming in real — you could hear woo woo woo and coming real fast. And then I didn’t think too much about it until afterwards, but the strange thing about it, it didn’t penetrate it.

Julia M. Hernandez:

So it just hit you in your neck area?

George M. Garcia:

Yeah, right here.

Julia M. Hernandez:

But it didn’t break the skin?

George M. Garcia:

It did, but it didn’t go all the way in. That’s what’s so strange. And, you know, it just like hit me and it stopped right there. It — you know, it cut me and burned me, but I took it off. But I couldn’t understand — at the time I didn’t think about it because I was concerned about the men.

Julia M. Hernandez:

Sure.

George M. Garcia:

It was not until after when I found out about it that it was so strange it didn’t get — it didn’t go all the way because it was coming fast. So, anyway, I got up and I kept moving forward, you know. And I had a hard time seeing because there was a lot of dust and the sand and all that. And so when I saw the — you know, when I saw all those men that were killed, it was just horrible. And they were, you know, without their limbs and their eyes and at that moment, you know, I — at that moment I — I wanted to lose — it was — I had to make a quick decision. Either I would — (spoke Spanish) — I was about to lose my mind or take it all, you know. And so it was a moment of seconds I decided to take all the pain, what I was seeing inside of me. It’s there in front of me. So I just told myself, I’ll just take everything that I’m seeing. So that’s how I was able to keep my sanity. And I — (spoke Spanish) — I was real young and that was the first trauma that I — that I faced.

Julia M. Hernandez:

How did you survive it?

George M. Garcia:

That’s how I survived it.

Julia M. Hernandez:

Luck?

George M. Garcia:

No.

Julia M. Hernandez:

I mean the bombing.

George M. Garcia:

There’s no luck.

Julia M. Hernandez:

The bombing.

George M. Garcia:

There’s no — there’s no luck, because — (spoke Spanish) — there’s no luck in war at all. I don’t believe there’s luck, you know. Just God’s grace and those men that were — those men that we lost, I understand it now — I didn’t understand then — because I even pleaded with God during my time that I was there — somewhere down the road I did — I yelled out to God because — (spoke Spanish) — I was losing a lot of my friends and I asked God to take me, not to take them. But coming back to February, as I was able to keep my insanity from that — from that day, that’s how I survived the war, because it was such a horrible war, Vietnam, that — that’s how I was able to save my sanity. And then we had to — then we have to bag the bodies. We had bodies we wouldn’t — we couldn’t even find because they were so well destroyed, I mean. And to this day I haven’t forgotten. That’s why they were going to award me a Purple Heart because of my — when I got hit. And I couldn’t accept it. I told them I would not accept because I felt that my wound was nothing compared to what I had seen. I didn’t feel worthy of it. So I declined that — I declined that — that Purple Heart. I just felt very unworthy, even today. I always felt that I made the right decision and the right — to this very day.

Julia M. Hernandez:

Right.

George M. Garcia:

Yeah.

[Source: Interview with George M. Garcia (October 6, 2012). Available online via the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress (https://memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/story/loc.natlib.afc2001001.88006/).]