Vietnam veteran remembers the war -- and a tough homecoming -- like it was yesterday

Nov. 11—When Fines Creek High School graduate Earl Rogers left for Vietnam in 1966, it was the first time he been out of the county except for an occasional trip to Asheville.

Now 78, Rogers still vividly remembers his year in the war as a time of back-breaking work where he slept in the mud and rain for a year and endured almost unbearable heat. The experience is one that haunted him for years, something not named or addressed back then, but what is now widely known as post-traumatic stress syndrome.

His two worst memories, though, were leaving his tearful mother who feared she would never see him again, and leaving the buddies he made during his time overseas.

"My daddy was a WWII veteran and was a German prisoner for eight months," he explained. "My mother was pregnant with twins at the time and he was listed as missing in action for three months. She never got over that stress."

While Rogers felt a duty to serve his country as his father had, he held back enlisting because of his mother. He put in applications at Dayco and Champion, but didn't even get an interview after graduating. He worked construction for a time and was helping his grandfather on the farm in 1965 when his short-term future was determined by a draft notice.

He didn't enter the service until February 1966. After eight weeks in basic training in Ft. Jackson, South Carolina, he went to special training in Oklahoma to learn the basics of operating artillery.

In October 1966, he spent 21 days on a ship destined for Vietnam.

"That's a story of its own," Rogers said of the journey. "We pulled out of port in San Francisco at 10 a.m. and went under the Golden Gate Bridge. I remember that bridge getting so small it looked about an inch long. That's when reality hit that I may never see home again."

The other vivid memory was the number of seasick men lying on the deck and the floors of the latrines.

"I never got sick, but a lot of them did. If you were on the bottom bunk, you could have a bad night. One night I got out of bed and slipped on the floor because of all the vomit and had to shower," he said. "One morning, I went to the mess area and looked out through the porthole. The water was rough, and there were seven of us eating when the guy next to me looked out and vomited all over the table."

Landing in Vietnam

The overpowering stench of dead fish and sweltering heat were the first things that hit Rogers upon disembarking from the landing craft. The crew waited in a holding area until their equipment arrived and then headed out to a site northeast of Saigon.

As an artillery operator, Rogers' mission was to provide fire support for the infantry with a Howitzer, a long-range weapon that was towed to the battle sites.

"We never got in any real close scrimmages," he said. "We saw a few mortar attacks, but fortunately we never lost weapons or got hit."

After six months Rogers was sent to a different artillery unit where he operated the more powerful Howitzer, a 155 mm, that had to be pulled behind a 5-ton truck.

"It was backbreaking work," he said. "The rounds weighed 110 pounds. One man could handle it pretty good, but it was hard work. There were six guns in our battery that went on fire missions. Once you set up and you had to keep resupplying the ammo."

Even when he wasn't on missions, Rogers remembers getting very little rest because the unit provided its own security by rotating guard duty.

"The stress of it was really tough. You never knew what was going to happen, and you stayed on edge all the time," he said.

Still his sympathy was with those in the infantry.

"They had the hard duty and dangerous work," he said.

Almost a year from his deployment, Rogers got to go back home, this time on a plane where it took 22 hours to fly back.

Homecoming

The trip home from Vietnam took Rogers 22 hours by plane as opposed to 21 days by ship. The homecoming was memorable, but in not a pleasant way. When he departed, Rogers remembers those with the Salvation Army and Red Cross being the only friendly faces he saw.

When he processed out in Oakland, he was only wearing his dress khakis and didn't have a jacket in stave off the cold air.

"We were told not to do downtown with our uniform on because of the Civil Rights and anti-war movement," he recalled. "I couldn't believe what I was coming back home to. I left buddies behind and I guess I left a part of me in Vietnam because they were still there."

Like many who return from war, Rogers said he went through periods of depression.

"I didn't want to be around crowds or noises," he said. "I had friends who had campers and wanted me to get one, but I didn't want to see the outdoors. I slept in the muck and rain for a year and said when I got home, I would have a clean, dry bed to sleep in and a clean place to eat."

Upon his return home, Rogers was able to get a job a Champion in Canton, where he didn't think of much except work. Still, there were lots of things that would "trigger" him, from a loud noise to a plane overhead.

"It was hard on me and my family, too. We didn't know how to deal with it. Nobody was treated for depression back then," he said.

The veterans administration hospitals not only didn't address mental health issues, but made veterans who went there for such issues seem unwelcome, he said.

"They just wanted to shun the Vietnam vet," he said. "I went to get a physical, they wondered what business I had there. It was not a friendly atmosphere. It's changed a whole lot now."

Because of the way many in the nation viewed the Vietnam war — and veterans, Rogers said nobody talked about the experience.

"We just secluded ourselves because of the way we were treated and the way the country responded to us," Rogers said. It was not a pleasant experience.