Taylor Johnson interview #3

Interview # 3

Over email.

1. Were you drafted or did you volunteer for military service?
I first volunteered for the Marines at nineteen (1961), served four years and was discharged (1964).
How old were you?
I volunteered for Vietnam, at age twenty-two (1965), nine months after I was first discharged.
After training, I was sent to Vietnam.
How did your family and friends react to your going into military service?
They were against it. They knew I would be sent to Vietnam.
Me:
Describe your Basic Training. Where, what happened, your feelings and observations. Did it change you in any way? How? Did it prepare you for Vietnam?
I received basic training at Paris Island, S.C., in 1961
The training was meant to bring you to a state of mindlessness, I was drilled physically and bullied mentally and spiritually
Me:
What did you think and feel about the Vietnamese war, the Vietnamese people, and Vietnam at the time when you came on active duty?
At the time I volunteered, I felt the war in Vietnam was no different from any other.
My grandfather fought in World War I, my dad and uncles in World War II, and several uncles fought in Korea.
I wanted to do my part, just like my relatives before me. I knew the Vietnamese were poor, hard-working people.
Vietnam, both North and South, has known little peace since history began. China has always been a presence, followed by the Mongols, the French, and others, all brought down by the indestructibility of the native Vietnamese.