Click here for a free download of the latest Adobe Flash Player.
Green Bay vet returns to Vietnam after more than 40 years
WFRV News
Angenette Levy
Story Created:
May 18, 2010 at 10:54 PM CDT
Story Updated:
May 19, 2010 at 7:25 AM CDT
GREEN BAY (WFRV) -- Ron Hoffman was a 20-year-old Marine from Two Rivers when he landed in Vietnam in 1966 and more than 40 years later he returned to the battlefield where he spent a year of his life.
"Tough times. But that's 43 years ago," Hoffman said as he recalled his tour of duty.
Hoffman had tried to enlist in the Marine Corps but was turned away due to his poor eyesight. At a later date he was drafted and when asked which branch he'd like to join, he chose the Marines because "they were the tough ones."
"They were the ones that are in combat. And, I felt that if you're in the service I didn't want to sit behind the desk, I wanted to be in the action in the war and I knew the Marines would send me there," Hoffman said.
Hoffman said he was in Vietnam for less than 10 days when he received his first mission: Operation Chinook.
"They said to pack light it would be a two-week operation. So, you took the clothes you had on and one change and it ended up being eight days short of three months. So, you wore the clothes until they started rotting off you because that whole time it was raining."
Hoffman spent his days and nights in fox holes. He worked as a radio operator who would call in artillery strikes to his base from the field.
"In one week, I had Christmas, then my birthday, then New Year's. When we went back, it was really tough to think about laying out there in the mud and the whole thing and turning 21 and changing from a high school punk to a pretty die-hard killer in the Marines and learning what that's all about. It changes one's life forever," Hoffman said.
Hoffman attained the rank of Lance Corporal and spent the last few months of his tour at Khe Sanh. Hoffman wasn't wounded but has suffered from health problems attributed to Agent Orange. He has also received counseling for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD.
In March, Hoffman and his wife, Nancy, returned to Vietnam. The couple documented the trip by taking hundreds of photographs. They visited Khe Sanh, the infamous Hanoi Hilton, several villages and the site of Operation Chinook.
"I didn't know going back to where Operation Chinook it was would be as emotional as it was," Hoffman said. He described the country as beautiful and the people as friendly. "It's good to see how things have changed and it has. It seems like it's a developing country."
The Hoffmans traveled with a tour group and hope to return to Vietnam as tourists in the future. Ron Hoffman said he wanted his wife to see the area where he had served.
"There were 15 veterans on the tour with us and they all shared their stories and it was just a real awakening of what happened to those guys back then," Nancy Hoffman said.
While emotional, the Hoffmans enjoyed the visit and the new-found peace it brought.
"Going back and walking some of those grounds again, yeah, get more of a closure to things. Settles it in the mind a little more."
Ron Hoffman will attend LZ Lambeau. He is a member of the Disabled Veterans of America Color Guard and will assist in a ceremony to welcome the moving Vietnam Memorial to the area.
Most Popular