With the draft in effect, some veterans knew that they would eventually be sent over to Vietnam and went ahead and joined the military to voluntarily serve their country.
This was the case for Roger Rolison, and he maintained an active career in the Marines even a little while after returning from Vietnam.
“I joined the Marines in February of 1966,” explained Roger. “I was about to be drafted, so I just joined the Marines and stayed in until February of 1970. I went to Paris Island for basic training and Camp Lejeune for infantry training. I went to a Navy school in Jacksonville, Florida, to be an aircraft electrician. From there, I went to Santa Ana, California, which is right in Los Angeles. They moved my outfit over to Vietnam in August of 1967. I stayed there for 13 months, and then we moved to Iwakuna, Japan. From there, we went to the Philippines a couple of times and then back to Japan. I stayed in Asia almost two years. Then, I came back and went to Buford, South Carolina, and that’s where I got out in February of 1970.”
When he was sent over to Vietnam, he felt that he was a little more blessed in his situation than other soldiers who were sent over. Because of the route he took, he had more training and experience than some groups that were sent over, and he was blessed to already know who he was working alongside.
“I was older than a lot of the boys, because I was like 20 years old when I went. Some of them guys when they came in were only like 17 years old, but they couldn’t go to Vietnam until they were 18. A lot of them had never been away from home, and I’d been out on my own for three years doing construction work and stuff. Boot camp was tough, but it wasn’t as tough on me as it was on some of them guys because some of them had never been away from home,” remembered Roger. “I was luckier than most because most people went over there on what they call a replacement draft. They were sent over there as an individual and were put in a unit that was already over there. I was fortunate enough that my whole unit went over there. When I got there, I was with people I knew. I hadn’t been there long and hadn’t been in the unit very long, but I had been with them for a few months. It wasn’t like I got over there among strangers. Also, I know a lot of people that went in that were just in there for two years. They basically went through basic training and infantry training and were sent over to Vietnam and turned them out when they got back. It was a culture shock both ways for them. I was single at the time. Looking back, some of my friends were married and had a family back home, and I know it was rougher on them. I’m glad I was single at the time.”
While stationed in Vietnam, he used his aircraft training to work on planes. Because of the situation they were in, they didn’t really experience much free time while they were deployed.
“I was stationed close to Da Nang, which is the second largest city in Vietnam. I was at the air base there,” recalled Roger. “I worked on planes. We had two shifts, day and night. Every third day, you were on defense platoon guarding the perimeter. They mostly attacked us with rockets and mortars. Once they shot at us, our planes would go in and get them if they didn’t move. We had a couple of ground attacks, but they would mostly shoot rockets and stuff in there and hope to get a secondary explosion, which they did sometimes. They did hit some of our planes that were loaded with bombs, and the secondary explosion was worse than what the rockets were. We were still lucky. We lost several planes and stuff and had a few people killed, but overall we were really lucky. It kept us busy. We didn’t have much free time over there. We had to work all the time. Even if we weren’t under attack, we were still flying missions and stuff to other places, so we didn’t have much free time, and that’s probably a good thing.”
Since he was still active duty when he left Vietnam, the transition back wasn’t as traumatic for him.
“I left Vietnam in September of 1968, and I didn’t get out until 1970, so I had more time to adjust back to civilian life than a lot of men did,” expressed Roger. “I live here and was from here, so I was treated good when I came back. When I came back to California, we landed on a military base, so I didn’t have to experience all the protesters and stuff. When I got off the plane, it was in a controlled area. I never really had to deal with all that, and I’m thankful for that. When I got back to the States, I still had nine months to go, or something like that, so I spent those in Buford, South Carolina. That’s where I got out. When I came home, I had all my friends and didn’t really have a negative experience, so that was a blessing.”
After everything was said and done, he was proud to be able to serve his country.
“I was proud to have done it,” declared Roger. “If I hadn’t been about to be drafted, I probably would never have joined. Once I joined, I thought it was my duty. I served with a lot of good people and made a lot of good friends. I would do it again in a heartbeat, but I wouldn’t want any of my children to go through it. I wouldn’t want them to have to go through the bad parts of it, but I think I got a lot of good experiences when I was in there. I just felt like it was my turn.”
No matter what, he will always remember both the good and bad experiences he had over in Vietnam.
