• A local veteran honors friends lost by sharing their story, along with his own.
Richard Dunn entered the service in August 1966, right after leaving high school in Ohio. He completed his basic training in Fort Benning, Ga. before being sent to Fort Russ, Wash. for Air Defense Artillery (ADA) School.
Mr. Dunn was deployed overseas six months later after completing ADA School, along with a few of his friends.
“In April of 1967, I went to Vietnam with four other guys. We all went into the Army together through high school,” said Dunn.
“We all got the same assignments, unfortunately. In July, we were on a convoy and we got hit.
“All three of them died, and the rest of us were wounded.”
Mr. Dunn remained in the southeastern region of Vietnam near Tây Ninh for a little more than three years before moving north to what Mr. Dunn describes as The Hill in 1970.
“Then on March 12, we were overrun again,” Dunn remembered.
“There was 13 Americans, and two of them were killed right off. All 11 of us were wounded.
“We had already run out of ammunition, and my Sargeant and I decided we had to leave because we were fighting hand-to-hand already and we were all wounded. It was just a mess.”
Thankfully, the remaining men found a means for escape.
“We just so happened to have a duster left, and we went down on that to another outpost, J.J. Carrol, and we got over there safe,” Dunn said.
After surviving the attack on The Hill, Dunn was sent to Japan for four months where he recovered from his injuries in a hospital.
Once he recovered, he was sent back to Vietnam for a few years before returning to the United States at the end of 1973.
Mr. Dunn was an instructor in air defense for 12 years at Fort Sill, Okla. before being discharged in 1979 from Fort Riley, Kan.
“I spent half of my life in the service, so I really didn’t know what I was going to do when I got out,” said Dunn.
“There wasn’t many jobs when we got out, and then in 1980 the oil boom hit in West Texas.”
Dunn landed a job with Halliburton where he worked as a cementer for five years. Then when work dried up, he drove a truck in Midland, for 13 years.
A day in the life of an American Soldier in Vietnam, as described by Mr. Dunn.
“We mostly lived in underground bunkers,” said Dunn.
“You got to go to base camp once in awhile to get your supplies and sleep in a real bed.
“Otherwise, you are out. If you were in the fourth infantry, you were out in the jungle - period. They carry C-rations (food), ammo, an extra pair of socks or two, and the set of fatigues you were wearing.
“I was on top of a hill for almost a year, and they would bring us supplies on helicopters so that we didn’t have to leave.”
Dunn described what items would typically be found in C-rations.
“It’s food preserved in cans that last. Some of them were from World War II. You get things like spaghetti and a cake of some kind.
“Then you get a package with chewing gum, a pack of matches, three cigarettes and a little roll of toilet paper. You just made do with them. They (C-rations) are nourishing, and they taste good if you add a lot of hot sauce. I had my mother and dad send me a lot of hot sauce,” he laughed.
“But they took care of us. Like on Thanksgiving and on Christmas, they would bring us hot turkey dinners in warmers on the helicopters.”
Mr. Dunn remembered how he and the guys would spend their leisure time also.
“We had a swimming hole over the hill. Usually about six of us would go down there in a duster, with the machine gun and stuff on top. We would go down there and swim and play for a little while. One guy would be on the track, watching. And then we would come back up and the other guys would go down there to swim, play awhile and visit.
“We played cards, and we had a football that we would throw around.”
Mr. Dunn described the local wildlife also.
“We had rats that were bigger than puppies. They were huge,” he said.
“There’s snakes, everything over there. I never came across them, but I had friends that talked about when they were in the jungle, they had a snake that would bite you on the earlobes or in the sensitive skin between your fingers. They called it a three-step snake, because you can take about three steps before you’re dead.”
Dunn says that there were also cobras. But despite all of the creepy crawlies, he recalls that there was “good hunting” over there also.
“There was deer and wild hogs, although we didn’t have time to hunt,” he said.
Dunn finds friendship at VFW post in Pampa
“I came to Pampa because I heard it was a nice place to retire. We got here in 1996,” Dunn said.
Although Dunn had trouble getting to know people at first, he has found comfortable fellowship with his friends at VFW post #1657 over the years and has worked his way up to Commander of the post.
“It’s kinda hard getting to know people. I’ve been a member of the post for 16 years, and it took me 30-something years before I could talk about [what happened in Vietnam].”
Dunn says that it helps to have people to talk to that understand. He also says that a woman from Amarillo also visits the members of VFW Post #1657 and helps the men to cope with past trauma.
“Nobody really knows what you did except the guys that have been there. And I’ve met a lot of guys from Vietnam, and it’s mostly Vietnam-era left here now,” Dunn said.
Dunn spoke of some of the other members of the post and the sacrifices they made as well.
“Our oldest member died two days ago, he was 103. He made three landings on different beaches during D-Day,” Dunn said.
“Ronnie (R.J.) was in Cambodia in Vietnam, and he’s got three purple hearts. I’ve got three purple hearts, and a couple of other guys have purple hearts also. We’ve got a lot of guys here that have done a lot of different things. We’ve got infantry, or grunts as we call them. I was Air Defense, Ronnie was special forces, and we’ve got a lot from the Navy and Air Force,” Dunn said.
The group of men, who Dunn describes to be family to him, spend most of their time at the VFW enjoying each other’s company and planning the various events they participate in and host throughout the year.
He says that the post is not closed at this time, and that monetary donations are always welcome to help keep them funded.
“If you want to, you can send donations to our mailing address to help us out,” Dunn said.
The Pampa News would like to thank Mr. Dunn for his service to our great country.
If you would like to support your local Veterans this Memorial Day, you can do so by sending your monetary donations to VFW Post 1657 P.O. Box 2684 in Pampa, Texas 79065.
