William O'Meara was in the Navy from August of 1968 until August of 1972. He served in the Vietnam war twice. He was in the Naval Special Warfare group. He was part of a Psychological Warfare team. The following is his account of his experience of the Vietnam war.
Brian O'Meara
The first time that I was in the Vietnam War was in August of 1969. I was on an amphibious landing with the US Marines. Another sailor and myself were a psychological warfare team assigned to work with the Marines. The U.S. Marines were working with the Republic of Korea Marines. The Marines were making a sweep of the area looking for Vietcong.
We flew in helicopters and rode in jeeps with loudspeakers. We played a tape in Vietnamese to let the Vietnamese villagers know what we were doing so that they would not think that they were going to be killed.
The second time that I was in Vietnam was for seven months, from September of 1970 until April of 1971. I was stationed in the Delta. The Delta was the Southernmost part of Vietnam. It was all jungles and canals. There were no roads. I worked on US Army helicopters and US Navy helicopters doing aerial broadcasts. I also road on heavily armored riverboats doing broadcasts from them.
Psychological warfare was an attempt to get the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese to give up. We tried to convince them that what they were doing was wrong and that the South Vietnamese would help them and their families if they gave up their fighting. This psychological warfare program did not work because the North Vietnamese soldiers were very dedicated and did not give up, at least not in the Delta.
My most memorable event was an attempt to rescue prisoners from a POW camp. The Intelligence revealed that there was a POW camp in the area of our base. It was thought that there were American prisoners along with South Vietnamese prisoners. A plan was devised where the US Navy Seal team and the South Vietnamese marines would surround the camp and free the prisoners. My job was that I flew in a helicopter and played a tape telling the Vietcong guards that they were surrounded and to drop their weapons. The seal team and the marines moved in and rescued the prisoners. There were only 17 South Vietnamese prisoners and we were disappointed because there were no American prisoners.
My feeling is that at that point in our history, many people felt that we were doing the right thing by trying to stop the spread of Communism. But in Vietnam our country did not fully understand what we were getting involved in. The main reason that we were not successful was because the South Vietnamese government was very corrupt and the South Vietnamese people did not support or want a war. Also, the North Vietnamese were a much better, more determined and more cohesive fighting group than their southern counterparts. For the most part the south Vietnamese soldiers did not have their heart in it. American soldiers were fighting for South Vietnamese people who would have rather been left alone to tend to their farms. The one thing that I hope that we have learned from this war is that we cannot always assist other people in finding the right way to govern themselves. What is right for us, may not be right for others. All people should have the right for self determination.
William O'Meara
-> Table of Contents, Sacred Heart collection