<Begin Segment 18>

TI: Okay, so how long were you in Korea before you left?

RK: A year.

TI: And why were you transferred, or why did you transfer to Fort Benning?

RK: Well, I still had another year and a half of investment time, so you got to use it up, so I was transferred to Fort Benning, to infantry at Fort Benning.

TI: So what did you do at Fort Benning?

RK: I was assigned to the Eleventh Air Assault, quote/unquote "Test."

TI: Okay, so Infantry Unit Air Assault. So explain that, what does that mean?

RK: That was, the unit was getting used to flying around in helicopters, which they were supposed to be doing in Vietnam. Well, they actually did, but then the Test unit that I was in, we rappelled out of the helicopters, which they didn't do that in Vietnam because there was no way you could rappel down on a rope and fire a weapon if somebody's shooting at you.

TI: So it was too vulnerable coming down that rope?

RK: You had to use both hands.

TI: So is this something that you guys had to figure out at Fort Benning? I mean, you guys said you were a Test unit.

RK: Well, it was a Test unit, so we tested different equipment, rappelling equipment, it wasn't always the same stuff. Normally it would have been just a quarter-inch nylon rope, but then they also gave us a water-cooled barrel that the rope went through, but you still had to use two hands.

TI: So the water-cooled barrel, what was that for?

RK: It was just something that they could test because when you're rappelling, you're going straight down, you don't want to stop, and the rope gets pretty hot.

TI: I see.

RK: So basically the water, the tube, was supposed to cool the rope down.

TI: Because when you hit the ground and had to fire a weapon, you couldn't wear gloves, I guess?

RK: Well, yes, you had to wear gloves, because when you're rappelling, you're up two hundred feet or lower than that. You don't want to burn your hands, because you got to use both hands, one as a guide and one as a break.

TI: Oh, so this is interesting. So you did all this, a lot of rappelling, but then in the end, they never used that in Vietnam.

RK: No. They would land the choppers instead of rappelling.

TI: Okay, so you're at Fort Benning, I suppose with this training, and given that at this point, Vietnam is starting to heat up, that you were asked to probably reenlist because of your training and all this. Was that something that came up?

RK: Well, I was thinking about it. But actually, my platoon leader offered to make me a sergeant if I reenlisted.

TI: So then you, if you stayed in, you would become a platoon leader, essentially?

RK: Right. But I kept looking at what's going over in Vietnam, and I kind of went, "I don't think I want to do this." And then I actually took a group, I think there was eight of us that went down to battalion headquarters and talked to the recruiting officer. But he gave us so much garbage about, "We don't want this," "If you did that, we don't want you." And I just, nobody reenlisted, because he gave us so much garbage, it was like, "Forget it."

TI: That's interesting. So you were kind of interested. If that recruiting visit went differently, like they had someone really good and they gave a compelling reason, could you have seen yourself enlisting and then serving in Vietnam?

RK: I could have, but then I figured, "I've had enough." I've gone through this three years, I said, I don't know if I want to go over there, get my head shot off.

TI: No, that's understandable.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2024 Densho. All Rights Reserved.