Cecil County veteran recounts service in Korean, 'Nam

By Yvonne Johnson, APG News

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md.-- Tom Oliver has seen a lot in his 83 years. He served his country in Korea and in Vietnam, and he continues to live life to the fullest. Oliver still rides his motorcycle with his wife, Julie, and until recently they enjoyed aerial excursions over Harford County and neighboring areas in his plane.

Born in Omaha, Nebraska and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Oliver joined the Army in 1948 at age 16. He was still in high school then, but he persuaded his mother to give her permission. He was 18 when the Korean War kicked off in 1950 and he recalled watching President Harry S. Truman’s first airplane – a C-54 transport – fly over the parade field of his first duty station at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where troops were waiting to pass in review.

“They called it the Sacred Cow,” he said of the plane, adding that, “It was the first Air Force One.”

Oliver completed his first tour and then left the Army but returned just over a year later.

“I stayed out 11 months,” Oliver said, “but working at a gas station was all the work I could get. I went right back in.”

He arrived in Korea in October 1950.

“The Chinese got there in November,” Oliver chuckled, adding that his strongest memory of Korea is its weather.

“Korea was hard on us because there was basically no preparation,” he said. “We didn’t have the right equipment. You’d have hot swamps all summer and then it would be below freezing all winter. We had 30 percent frostbite casualties.”

Trained as a telephone repair pole lineman, Oliver started his second tour at Fort Bliss, Texas and then returned to Korea for a short tour. He returned to the states and served at Fort Ord, California where he “married a WAC” and had three children. The family went to Germany and then Oliver again came down on orders for Korea. He was determined not to go back.

“My MOS was dying and I couldn’t get promoted,” he said. He decided to go for a change in MOS and opted for Air Traffic Control.

A pilot since 1965, Oliver received the MOS change and reported to Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi for training. He graduated in 1967 and was assigned to Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Georgia. He said the airfield serviced advanced instrument helicopters.

With 21 years of service behind him, Oliver was sent to ‘Nam in 1969 where he was assigned to the 1st Aviation Brigade, 165th Aviation Brigade in the 346th Aviation Support Detachment.

He said the unit was one of a series of ATC companies in Vinh Long in ‘Nam’s Mekong Delta. His unit consisted of one officer, one NCO and 17 Soldiers.

“We were located at a former French outpost and had to provide our own security,” he said, adding that the airfield primarily served 01-Bird Dog Cessna observation planes. According to Wikipedia, along with the Army, the small, fixed-wing aircraft was popular with the South Vietnamese Air Force as well as with U.S. Marines because of its short takeoff and landing and low altitude/low airspeed capabilities.

Oliver said ATC responsibilities meant monitoring tactical operations, control towers and the Armed Forces Radio Network. He said when the Bird Dog pilots learned he could fly they allowed him to go out on patrols with them. Every trip was an adventure, he said, adding that his commander ordered him onto a patrol one night that turned out to be a rescue mission.

“It was the most exciting thing I’ve ever done,” he said. “It went so fast you didn’t have time to be scared. We never even touched down but we pulled six guys out.”

Oliver earned the Bronze Star Medal for that adventure.

He said attacks on the strategic airfield, which sat on an island, were frequent. Standing water was everywhere around the airfield and most travel was conducted by air.

“We only went by vehicle when we had to,” he said.

Oliver still has aerial photographs of the compound and he noted one building near the runway that was a Salvation Army orphanage where Soldiers uniforms were laundered. He said guard duty consisted of long and short-term patrols outside the perimeter fence and that along with enemy infiltrators, hazards included green mamba snakes.

“We called them ‘two-steps’ cause that’s about all the steps you could take once you got bitten,” he said.

He recalled one “fond memory” when a South Vietnamese general landed on the airstrip in his personal A-37 Dragonfly Cessna with his wife in tow, Oliver said.

“He was throwing his weight around until we told him that even though he could land on the runway he couldn’t take off because it wasn’t long enough for the A-37,” Oliver said. “He was real upset. They had to haul the plane away and I heard that guy wound up working at a gas station in Los Angeles [California],” he chuckled.

Though he only served at the airfield for 10 months, Oliver said he came to think of it as home and he and fellow Soldiers guarded and protected the area like it was just that. He still has photos of the airfield that were taken shortly after they were ordered to abandon the area.

Oliver retired two months after leaving ‘Nam in 1970. He returned to Savannah and continued to work in aviation. Eventually, he received an offer for an ATC position with Phillips Army Airfield at Aberdeen Proving Ground. He and Julie moved to Maryland, built a home in Cecil County and have been here ever since.

Looking back on ‘Nam, Oliver said he has DVDs of just about every movie ever made about the war.

“Sometimes something in there will get to me,” he said. “I missed a lot of the unpleasantness after ‘Nam but I had a close friend who killed himself right after he got back. And I remember when we used to go to town in our Class A uniforms. That went away during ‘Nam, but even then our haircuts gave us away.”

He said he’s heartened by the gradual change in attitude toward Vietnam veterans who faced unprecedented animosity from a divided nation upon their return from the war zone. He said that he and Julie, who as a Vietnam-era veteran served in the Women’s Army Corps, never miss an opportunity to remember their service and mingle with fellow veterans. They recently joined a Maryland Green Knights motorcycle club, made up of active-duty military, veterans, retirees and government civilians, who fulfill community service commitments within their communities.

“It makes us feel like we’re still serving,” he said. “And as for the thanks we’re getting, yes, it’s very welcome. Because for a lot of vets the scars are still there; even after all this time.”

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Like any other war, Vietnam produced an array of veterans. When the conflict ended, some veterans opted to continue service in the military while others returned to civilian life. Some returned with life altering wounds - physical and psychological - while too many others, who never came home at all, remain among the Missing in Action.

On the surface, the veterans of the Vietnam War faced the same challenges as veterans of other wars, except for one glaring difference: they were vilified by American society like no other generation before or since.

Today, nearly 50 years after the war's end, the veterans of Vietnam are in their 60s and 70s. The passage of time has cooled the tempest of indignation that shrouded their homecoming and an ambiance of repentant thanks thrives in its wake. Many still do what they can to serve this nation.

This article originally appeared in the "APG News" as part of an ongoing, multi-year series hailing the service members and civilians who served the nation during the war in Vietnam. Giving a voice to local Vietnam veterans, it is through their stories that we honor their service and sacrifice, and offer a long-overdue "Welcome Home."

The "APG News" is the weekly newspaper produced at Aberdeen Proving Ground, an Army installation located in southern Harford County, Maryland, nearly midway between Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. APG is recognized as one of the world's most important research and development, testing and evaluation facilities for military weapons and equipment, and supports the finest teams of military and civilian scientists, research engineers, technicians and administrators.

For more information about the series or the veterans featured, contact "APG News" Editor Amanda Rominiecki at amanda.r.rominiecki.civ@mail.mil.