Finnerty, Patrick O. 1947- ,. Oral history interview with Patrick O. Finnerty [sound recording], 2003.
Title:
Oral history interview with Patrick O. Finnerty [sound recording], 2003.
Finnerty, a Middleton, Wisconsin resident, discusses his experiences as a Navy corpsman, attached to the 2nd Battalion of the 5th Marine Division, in the Vietnam War and his experiences upon returning home. He tells of seeing news about the war every night, his graduation from Sheboygan High School, attendance at a technical school in Sheboygan, and losing his student deferment due to poor grades. Finnerty enlisted in the Navy after he received his draft notice. He attended training at Great Lakes Naval Training Station (Illinois) for about thirteen weeks and claims, "the day that we all got our head shaved was the most equalizing day I've ever experienced in my life, because all of a sudden everybody was on the same playing field and all the guys, they all looked alike." Finnerty says that his training consisted mostly of tying knots, ship board duties, swimming, using his uniform (with pieces intended to be emergency life preservers), and standing guard with a rifle. He recalls that hospital corpsman school took about twenty-two weeks and that his first assignment was to the USS Vulcan in Norfolk (Virginia). He then attended hospital corpsman field training at Camp Lejune (North Carolina), where he learned how to use a 45-caliber weapon instead of a rifle. Finnerty states that he was then stationed on the USS Sanctuary, a hospital ship off the coast of Vietnam near Da Nang, where he would broadcast news every night brought to him via teletype. He describes boredom on the ship at other times and watching helicopters come in and out and visiting with injured soldiers. Finnerty then states that he was assigned to the 5th Marine headquarters in Da Nang and was sent to "The Tomb." He was assigned to a platoon and participated in patrols looking for North Vietnamese with help from the ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam). Finnerty remembers searching villages and talking to people who seemed nice, but then would attack at night. He says that booby traps were the biggest concern and most of these were box mines made out of gun powder. Finnerty explains that a major concern was legs and feet being injured. He spent two years in the same platoon as a medic. Finnerty says that they returned to base camp about every three weeks and he remembers experiencing a divide between races. He describes officers as competent and well-trained, but reluctant to get close to conflicts. Finnerty discusses the composition of the platoon, the weapons they carried, (including LAU rockets), ammunition, and air support from the Marines, Navy and South Vietnamese. He goes into detail about day and night patrols, the number of medics available, and what it was like walking through rice paddies. He mentions immersion foot and leeches, dirty clothes, and eating mostly c-rations. Finnerty remembers being able to trade c-rations with the Vietnamese for liquor while at base camp. At one point he suffered from stomach problems and was sent back to the USS Sanctuary where he enjoyed some R & R. Finnerty describes the areas his company was responsible for patrolling, "The Bridge," "The Road," and "The Outpost." The squads would engage in "Snoop and Poop" south of Da Nang, watching for North Vietnamese planting mines. Finnerty explains that he could have gone home in November of 1969, but volunteered to stay longer because of a lack of corpsmen. While describing his feeling on the war he states, "I was doing something to stop the threat of Communism, and that turned out to be a big joke. I found out that the whole war was unnecessary..." He was later offered a promotion to stay on and turned it down, returning to California. He shortly returned to Wisconsin and attended the University of Wisconsin-Parkside on the GI Bill. Finnerty remembers that he had several negative experiences with people having poor impressions of him because he participated in the Vietnam War. These people included veterans from the Racine and Middleton, Wisconsin VFW posts. He was able to join the Middleton post in the early 1990's without being hassled.
ArchivalResource:
Sound recording : 2 sound cassettes (ca. 70 min.) ; analog, 1 7/8 ips.Master sound recording : 1 sound cassette (ca. 70 min.) ; analog, 1 7/8 ips.Transcript : 29 p.
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