Will Williams, born in Crystal Springs, Mississippi discusses his experiences as an African-American Army infantryman in the Vietnam War. He enlisted in the Army to get out of Mississippi and says this was the only option for Blacks to escape the rural area. Williams states that he has two brothers who served in the military in Korea and one who served during peacetime. He attended basic training at Fort Jackson (South Carolina) in July 1962. Williams recalls that he viewed the breaking down and rebuilding of character the Army put him through as acts of hate, but later realized that was par for the course. He also attended AIT at Fort Jackson. Williams recounts that his first assignment was with the 54th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division from 1963 to 1965. He did not like what was going on in the United States at the time and, in 1965, he re-enlisted at Fort Hamilton (New York) for another six years. He says that he was not even aware that the Vietnam War was going on and he was assigned to Hawaii where he engaged in jungle warfare training with the 25th Infantry Division; already on alert. Williams remembers that he did not get the impression that they were going to Vietnam until they were eight days out to sea. They landed in Vung Tau and Williams thought it was beautiful. He says that the hot weather did not bother him because he was used to it from living in Mississippi. Williams reports that he went to Bien Hoa via convoy and was there at a staging area for about two weeks where they ran mock patrols at the 173rd Airborne Unit's base camp. He was trained on M-1 rifles, but was given M-14s for warfare. Williams recalls senior men telling him, "War is hell," and that he should not trust anyone different than yourself. He reports that he was then convoyed to Cu Chi and experienced some sniper fire when they got close to Cu Chi. When they set up base camp for the 25th, they had to clear rubber plantations and build bunkers. Williams explains that they came under sniper fire while building because Cu Chi was built directly above tunnels and they did not realize this until they had been there for about seven months. He states that at first they had no "tunnel rats" to scope out the tunnels. From this base camp, Williams recounts that he went on search and destroy operations where they would go into villages looking for Viet Cong and assumed any young man was Viet Cong and took them prisoner. He explains that the prisoners were tortured, causing them to give interrogators information that may have been false, and sometimes even killed. Williams states that this bothered him because it created false intelligence that was acted on. He illustrates how landing zones operated by telling a story of how he jumped from a Huey early one time and had to catch up to an alternate zone about 1,000 meters away because the helicopter was under fire. The first big battle Williams tells of was in "Hobo Woods," an area in Boi Loi, where many of his own artillery unit were killed and there were friendly casualties. He became an E5 team leader then a squad leader with the 27th Infantry Regiment, nicknamed the "Wolfhounds." Williams was then sent to Saigon and worked Tent City B security. He illustrates racial tension by telling a story of a sergeant calling him a "nigger" because he refused to send a detail for beautification of an area. Williams explains that he "went ballistic" and was court-martialed not for fighting with the first sergeant, but for disobeying a direct order. He wrote to Senator Robert Kennedy and was transferred a few weeks later. Williams says he felt bad for leaving his squad because some men had volunteered to come with him. He recalls a young man who looked up to him dying shortly after he left and explains feeling responsible for it. Williams characterizes officers as some good and some bad and discusses a story of Lieutenant Duffy listening to his concerns and feeling it was a positive experience. He also recounts a story of a young man from his hometown being killed on the tarmac at Tan San Nhut and remembers the incident turning his feelings against the military because of the circumstances surrounding it. Williams tells a story of a whole squad being killed except for a sergeant who was captured. He reveals that at first he did not see the Vietnamese as people, but a objects, then started to see similarities between the prejudices against "niggers" and "gooks." Williams examines his feeling about the war after the Pentagon Papers were released. He states that he started to find out more and believes that the government was not being truthful with the public about what was going on, however he blames the public for not holding the government accountable. He reveals that he thinks the United States was duped into going to Iraq just as they were with Vietnam. In 1967, Williams was so disturbed by the protests going on in the United States that he re-enlisted and was sent to Fort Davis, a missile base in Panama. He was there for eleven months and then started a second tour in Vietnam. He went as a replacement and says he was uncomfortable because he did not know anyone in the unit. Williams worked with the MPs and was a driver for the first sergeant while they ran convoys from Cam Rahn to Nah Trang. He illustrates more racial tension by discussing fighting between Whites, Blacks and Hispanics. After seven months, he was granted emergency leave because his wife became ill. Williams says he was attached to Fort Carson, Colorado and was granted a hardship discharge after meeting with Chief of Staff General Westmoreland and President Nixon. He was discharged in March 1970. Williams then worked in the mines in Climax, Colorado and lived with his family in a motel in Leadville. He analyzes his experiences in Vietnam as events that made him a better person. Williams states, "So it made me see people as people all over the world, to realize that my life is no more important than life in Afghanistan or Iraq, and that what we are missing I think in this country as a whole is the ability of people to understand different cultures are different, but they are human--that they bleed--they breathe as we do." He is a member of Veterans for Peace, Wisconsin Vietnam Veterans, and Vietnam Veterans of America. Williams discusses PTSD and declares that he believes soldiers currently returning from active duty need help from family, local people and everybody else.
