Video Log Joseph D. Tramontano Vietnam War U.S. Army Born: 10/13/1944

Video Log Joseph D. Tramontano Vietnam War U.S. Army Born: 10/13/1944 Interview Date: 07/07/2012 Interviewed By: Eileen Hurst 00:00:00 Introduction 00:00:34 Tramontano was a paratrooper in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. 00:00:43 He achieved the rank of sergeant. 00:00:48 He served in Pleiku, Plei Me, An Khe, Kontum, Bong-Sohn, Ia Drang, Chu Pong, LZ Betty, LZ Mary, LZ English, Cambodia, Laos, North Vietnam, and Thailand. He was a scout for the Army. 00:01:35 He enlisted on March 13, 1963. 00:01:47 He was living in Ansonia, CT at the time. 00:02:02 After graduating from high school, he felt he wasn’t “college material.” Instead, he joined his preferred military branch. 00:02:29 He chose the Army because he wanted to be a paratrooper (like his uncle). 00:02:44 His uncle was a paratrooper in World War II, who completed two combat jumps during the war. 00:02:59 He completed his basic training at Fort Dix, NJ. The course lasted for eight weeks, then an additional eight weeks of advanced infantry training. He then completed both airborne and air assault training at Fort Benning, GA. 00:03:41 He felt scared and disoriented during the first eight weeks of basic training. It was difficult to endure without having his family nearby. 00:04:25 He was considered a light infantryman or a “111.” As a consequence, he was trained to use a rifle, machine gun, pistol, grenade launcher, flamethrower, and grenades. He was designated as a M-60 machine gunner. 00:04:56 He trained with the machine gun in both basic and advanced infantry training. 00:05:05 He recalls his instructors from basic training. Lieutenant Jacobs was his platoon leader and Sergeant Livesay was his platoon sergeant. Livesay was a paratrooper in World War II with two combat jumps. 00:06:02 After graduating from basic training, the soldiers had a weekend of rest before advanced infantry training. 00:06:26 He performed well as a machine gunner, but he couldn’t shoot well with a rifle or pistol. 00:06:50 His primary weapon was the M-60 machine gun, an air cooled weapon that fired 600 rounds per minute and weighed 23 pounds. 00:07:08 Airborne training lasted another four weeks and was very difficult both physically and mentally. The first week of training was called PCM (Physical Conditioning and Motivation). After he completed jump school, he became a qualified Army parachutist. 00:08:45 After jump school had concluded, he went to rappelling school at Fort Benning. Some of the other graduates went on to serve in the 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions. He was unhappy that he stayed, but this delay allowed him to enter the reactivated 11th Airborne Division. Air assault was a new concept of airborne warfare that trained soldiers for helicopter assaults. 00:09:39 They trained on rappelling from towers for one week, then another week was spent learning how to rappel from a helicopter. 00:09:58 Tramantano did not learn of the deployment to Vietnam until rumors of an altered unit designation spread through the ranks. One night, President Johnson announced on television that his unit would receive their orders for a Vietnam deployment – the paratroopers were stunned! 00:11:00 They were redesignated from the 11th Airborne Division to the 1st Air Cavalry Division. 00:11:23 He remained at Fort Benning for two years, training every day. Unfortunately, many of his fellow paratroopers from his training were transferred to new units. The army split the unit up so that veteran air assault troops would be able to offer insight to new recruits. 00:13:16 He redeployed to Vietnam in August 1965 as part of an advanced party. The remainder of the unit arrived by boat in September 1965. 00:13:31 Most of the infantry and helicopters were brought to Vietnam on transport ships. The unit was equipped with UH-1 “Huey” helicopters, CH-47 Chinooks, and OH- 6 Little Birds. 00:14:44 He landed at Tan Son Nhut airfield in Saigon, Vietnam. 00:15:01 His first sensory impressions in Vietnam were the heat and the smell of death. 00:15:24 He was sent to a base camp in An Khe. When he first arrived, their base was surrounded by tall grass, which their General ordered them to remove. The troopers went outside the wire with machetes and cleared the surrounding area by hand. 00:16:38 He was stationed in An Khe for most of his tour. He was originally assigned to the 1/8 infantry platoon, however, the 1/9 were short of machine gunners and he volunteered to join this scout platoon. 00:17:55 He stayed with this unit until he was wounded. The 1/9 were the reconnaissance element of the 1st Air Cavalry division. Their mission was to locate the NLF or NVA. 00:19:28 One of his first missions was to scout the Ia Drang Valley. He was sent to the Chu Pong mountains was a dense triple canopy jungle area. Control of these Central Highlands was believed to determine the final outcome of the war. The 1st Cavalry was assigned to defend this area. 00:21:17 There were 24 men in the 1/9 scouts. They would be broken into three man teams in order to canvass an area. From a central staging area, they would spread out and investigate the surrounding area. They would reconnoiter as well as conduct ambushes against the North Vietnamese. 00:22:42 They conducted both reconnaissance and ambush operations in the Chu Pong mountains. This was the beginning of the battle for the Ia Drang. They recorded 12,000-15,000 NVA soldiers traversing the Ho Chi Minh trail. Nevertheless, these reports from the scout platoon conflicted with Army intelligence reports. The 1/9 ambushed the NVA and with support from 1/8, withdrew from the Chu Pong mountains. Colonel Stockton led the relief element to the ambush. There were two American casualties. These early indications did not satisfy the army leadership. Soon, they would discover that there were 4,000 NVA soldiers residing in the Chu Pong mountains. 00:28:10 In October-November 1965, the scouts were deployed to LZ Mary and LZ Betty. 00:29:16 At LZ Mary and LZ Betty, 1/9 encountered NVA soldiers. 00:30:17 1/9 was at An Khe when Colonel Moore and 1/7 became trapped in the Ia Drang Valley. The battle lasted from 11/14/1965-11/17/1965, his unit was sent there on 11/17/1965. 00:30:51 Although the battle began on November 14th, 1/9 did not reinforce 1/7 until November 17th. He describes Colonel Moore as a very relaxed, composed military officer. In his opinion, he saved many soldiers of 1/7 by calling in a “Broken Arrow” request. This radio call indicates that an American unit is about to be overrun by the enemy and requests air support from every available aircraft in the area. The scouts were also called in due to this request. 00:32:37 The scouts landed in LZ Albany and LZ X-Ray. The Ia Drang Valley was the bloodiest battle of the Vietnam War, 305 casualties in three days. 00:33:29 They arrived in the Ia Drang Valley by helicopter. He was the first man out of the helicopter. As soon as he disembarked the aircraft, he saw a mortally wounded man who was bleeding from the throat. 00:34:41 He did not know Colonel Moore personally, but recognized him as the leader of 1/7. 00:35:02 Colonel Stockton was his commanding officer at the battle. Since they arrived on the third day of battle, he saw dead bodies everywhere – both American and NVA. He recalls the smell of death and the sulfur of expended ammunition. 00:36:32 He emplaced his machine gun at several sites on the battlefield, one of which was a captured NVA bunker. There, he waited for a counter attack with two other Americans – who he told the leave, as his machine gun would attract a large volume of enemy fire. 00:37:50 The Vietnamese fired an RPG at his position, which flew over him and exploded to his rear, peppering him with shrapnel. At the time, he didn’t release he had been wounded, he first noticed the wound from the warm sensation pooling in his shirt. The metal in his wound was so hot that it had to be extracted with a knife. 00:39:18 It is difficult for him to recall details because of the intensity of the battle. 00:40:10 He was medevaced off the battlefield during a lull in the battle. 00:40:52 There were two fatal casualties in his unit and many wounded. 00:41:45 He was medevaced on November 17tm 1965. 00:42:31 Helicopters arrived periodically to evacuate the wounded and the dead. He has heard from veterans of LZ X-Ray that when the helicopters landed there to evacuate the dead cavalry troopers, the rotor wash blew off the poncho liners, which has been used in lieu of body bags. 00:43:46 He was flown to LZ English, which was a medical evacuation hospital. Thirty years later, the doctor who performed surgery on Tramantano recognized him at a unit reunion.

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