Story originally printed in the Westby Times or online at www.westbytimes.com
Published - Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Hellwig fought in the war that never was in Vietnam
At the age of 62, Gordon Hellwig of Coon Valley has never regretted his military involvement in Vietnam or the three years of his life he fought for his country in a battle that to this day was never officially declared a war, but remains one of the longest and bloodiest military excursions in history. Although it was not officially declared a war, 21 years of battles in Vietnam left approximately 60,000 Americans dead, 300,000 American soldiers wounded and over 5.4 million Vietnamese soldiers and civilians dead over two decades. And to this day Hellwig believes that what America had planned to accomplish when they began fighting in Vietnam would have actually occurred if the military would have been allowed to run the war and not the politicians.
American involvement in the war was a gradual process, as its military involvement increased over the years under successive United States presidents including; Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon.
Intervention in Vietnam continued despite warnings by the American military leadership against a major ground war in Asia and the animosity and ill will generated during the Vietnam War are still felt today among those who lived through this turbulent time. Hellwig personally doesn’t feel any ill will, but he does understand why others do and how hard it is for military personnel to separate the past and present when they lived through hell and often scarred for life, some physically and others emotionally.
The Vietnam War began in 1959 and did not end until 1975. By then, it had escalated from an insurgency in South Vietnam sponsored by the North Vietnamese government to a direct military intervention in the south by North Vietnam and the United States and its allies as well as to warfare in the surrounding countries of Cambodia and Laos.
Hellwig was 18 years old when he enlisted in the Army in 1965. His patriotism was strong and he was ready and willing to fight for his country. He completed boot camp in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri and advanced infantry and paratrooper training in Georgia, before being shipped to Vietnam in March 1966.
Hellwig was a member of the 1st Infantry Division and spent his first year on the front lines, moving in and out of foxholes in search of the enemy. But as Hellwig’s platoon and others soon learned, the enemy usually didn’t want to be found, so they engaged in limited battles and spent a large share of their time playing cat and mouse.
The language barrier made it difficult for allied soldiers to communicate with civilians so conversation was limited as they traveled through villages unless an interpreter was present. The weather was hot, humid and wet and Hellwig’s platoon appreciated clean water and a hot shower after months of being on patrol. They ate C rations of food and struggled to keep fresh water in their canteens. They wore clothes until they rotted off and as hard as they all tried to stay healthy, Hellwig himself fell victim to bouts of Malaria and had to be treated for a poisonous spider bite, which rendered his arm useless until the venom was removed and the swelling subsided.
“To this day I’m not sure if I was bitten by a spider or snake, I’m just glad if it was a snake it wasn’t the kind that could have eaten me whole like they told us about when we arrived for active duty,” Hellwig said.
During his mission in Vietnam, Hellwig could have benefited from night goggles, while his platoon moved from village to village in the pitch black of night searching for the enemy. Thankfully his keen sense of smell saved him from capture after he literally backed into an enemy soldier in the jungle, which scared both of them. Hellwig fired shots until everything went quiet and still doesn’t know if he made a direct hit or not.
“It’s hard to explain, but when everything is black, your other senses just take over. I could literally smell (the enemy) and it wasn’t a good smell,” Hellwig said.
After a year of service in the infantry, Hellwig extended his tour of duty for six months before transferring to the 82nd Airborne Division, where he would serve as a tail gunner until he was discharged in 1968.
Prior to ’68, Hellwig had witnessed limited casualties, but all that would change in January during the Tet Offensive, a military campaign that began on January 31, 1968, when forces of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army, fought against the forces of South Vietnam, the United States, and their allies. The purpose of the Tet Offensive was to strike military and civilian command and control centers throughout South Vietnam and to spark a general uprising among the population that would then topple the Saigon government, thus ending the war in a single blow. So on Jan. 31, the Viet Cong launched a wave of attacks in tactical zones of South Vietnam. The initial attack did not cause undue alarm or lead to widespread allied defensive measures until the next morning, when the offensive was countrywide in scope, with more than 80,000 communist troops striking more than 100 towns and cities, plus the national capital. The offensive was the largest military operation to date by either side and would result in the deadliest year of battle on record during the Vietnam saga. Although the initial attacks stunned allied forces the Viet Cong forces were quickly contained and beaten back, inflicting massive casualties on communist forces, civilians and allies.
“A lot of soldiers and civilians died during these attacks,” Hellwig said.
Hellwig was in his final six months of duty when the Tet Offensive was initiated. A helicopter tail gunner he got to see his share of casualties and helped bring back American soldiers, who had died in a jungle of crossfire, back home to a place of honor. He avoided a bullet himself, but will never forget the sound of gunfire as it peppered the helicopter exterior when they dropped off supplies and picked up wounded soldiers.
During the Tet Offensive the Vietcong executed thousands of civilians, without remorse, and horrified the world and allies in the process. In the end it may have proved to be a military victory for the allied army, but it was viewed by the world as a political and media disaster.
As for Hellwig, after 400 missions by air and 18 months on foot, he had seen enough and was ready to return home when his tour of duty ended in June 1968. At the age of 21 he returned to the states and collected a $48 a week unemployment check until he was hired as an iron worker, a job he retired from two years ago. Hellwig and his wife of 38 years raised two children and have four grandsons. He’s looking forward to collecting his first Social Security check in December and he hopes everyone remembers to honor the millions of men and women who deserve to be recognized on Veterans Day, Nov. 11 for their patriotic service.
“I’m glad I did it, but I wouldn’t wish what I saw on anyone else. Please let our veterans know what a valuable service they are rendering and how much we respect them for it,” Hellwig said.
All stories copyright 2006 Westby Times and other attributed sources.