Stephen F. Austin State University SFA ScholarWorks Electronic Theses and Dissertations Spring 5-13-2017 "I'd Rather Be Forgotten Than Dishonored": An Oral and Life History Project with a Vietnam Veteran Hayley Michael Hasik Stephen F Austin State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/etds Part of the Military History Commons, Oral History Commons, Public History Commons, and the United States History Commons Tell us how this article helped you. Repository Citation Hasik, Hayley Michael, ""I'd Rather Be Forgotten Than Dishonored": An Oral and Life History Project with a Vietnam Veteran" (2017). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 96. https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/etds/96 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by SFA ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of SFA ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. "I'd Rather Be Forgotten Than Dishonored": An Oral and Life History Project with a Vietnam Veteran Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. This thesis is available at SFA ScholarWorks: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/etds/96 “I’D RATHER BE FORGOTTEN THAN DISHONORED”: AN ORAL AND LIFE HISTORY PROJECT WITH A VIETNAM VETERAN By HAYLEY MICHAEL HASIK, B.S. Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Stephen F. Austin State University In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts, History STEPHEN F. AUSTIN STATE UNIVERSITY May, 2017 “I’D RATHER BE FORGOTTEN THAN DISHONORED”: AN ORAL AND LIFE HISTORY PROJECT WITH A VIETNAM VETERAN By HAYLEY MICHAEL HASIK, B.S. APPROVED: Dr. Paul J. P. Sandul, Thesis Director Dr. Philip Catton, Committee Member Dr. M. Scott Sosebee, Committee Member Dr. Dianne Dentice, Committee Member Dr. Richard Berry, D.M.A. Dean of the Graduate School ABSTRACT More than 2.7 million Americans served in the military during the Vietnam era and roughly 40,000 of them as helicopter pilots in Vietnam, yet scholars are still trying to understand the Vietnam experience. There is little doubt that the war played an influential role in the lives of that generation. Yet, many Vietnam veterans refrained from talking about their service, making it difficult to study and understand their experiences within the existing historical narrative. Using the life history of Warrant Officer James Scott, Hayley Hasik argues that Vietnam veterans—particularly helicopter pilots—are an underrepresented group that, through oral history, can provide an alternative narrative to enhance our understanding of the war and its aftereffects. Gathering primary sources and understanding how the individual fits—as an individual—into the larger historical narrative provides Vietnam veterans with a “voice” and helps give validity and meaning to the abstract. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS As any graduate student can attest, the completion of a thesis or capstone project involves countless hours of research, writing, and editing, as well as a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. The following pages contain the history of a man who started as a mere acquaintance and overtime became a friend. That is what countless hours of interviews and questions can do. This project started nearly four years ago and, although extensively documented within these pages, it hardly feels complete. But that is the nature of oral history—the never-ending history. A countless number of people helped make this project possible. First, I would like to thank my advisor Dr. Paul Sandul who pushed me to think outside of my comfort zone and always had just one more question. Thank you to Drs. Phil Catton, Scott Sosebee, and Diane Dentice for serving on my committee and providing input where needed. As Sandul frequently reminded me, a good thesis is a done thesis, and I thank you all for helping me finish. To my family: thank you for putting up with all of my frantic phone calls and text messages over problems—both big and small (sometimes they felt catastrophic)—that you hardly understood. Thank you for always supporting me even if you do not completely understand the work I do or the subjects I study. And I would be remiss if I ii did not acknowledge Kimber for being a girl’s best friend and forcing me to take a break every once in a while. And finally, this project would be incomplete without a heartfelt thank you to my friends at Stephen F. Austin State University. Hannah N. Colletti, who always kept us in line; Christopher C. Cotton, for providing comic relief during hours of monotonous archival work (oh, and thanks for all the weather reports!); Shelby D. DeWitt and Laura J. Turner for their endless sarcasm and listening patiently to my whining; Jim S. Stingley, for his incessant questions and spot-on Dr. Steve Taaffe impersonation; and Kurt A. Terry, my thesis buddy, sounding board, and coconspirator. Thank you all for being in the right place at the right time. Hayley Michael Hasik Nacogdoches, Texas April 5, 2017 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ............................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ ii List of Figures .....................................................................................................................v Introduction .........................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: “Like Father, Like Son”: Shaping the Outlook of a Vietnam Veteran ...........17 Chapter 2: You’re in the Army Now: The Life of a Huey Pilot, 1968-1971 .....................46 Chapter 3: From Hometowns to Hollywood: The Homecoming Experience ...................89 Chapter 4: Doing Oral History ........................................................................................123 Explaining the Disciplines: Public and Oral History ..........................................124 Literature Review ................................................................................................130 Methodology and Best Practices .........................................................................144 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................162 Bibliography ...................................................................................................................168 Appendix .........................................................................................................................178 Vita ..................................................................................................................................188 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figures 1 Map of Hunt County, Texas ..................................................................................19 2 Scott family in December 1950 .............................................................................29 3 Father and Son on the Ranch ................................................................................31 4 Corporal Cecil Jack Butler ....................................................................................34 5 Wolf City Football Co-Captains, Fall 1963 .........................................................41 6 Freshman Year, 1965 ............................................................................................42 7 Family Day, Ft. Wolters, May 1969 ......................................................................57 8 Map of the Republic of Vietnam ............................................................................61 9 Scott and His Crew ...............................................................................................70 10 WO Scott Receives a DFC ....................................................................................82 11 Helicopter Tour of Hawaii ....................................................................................86 12 R&R in Hawaii ......................................................................................................86 13 Towing out General A. E. Milloy’s Ship ...............................................................87 14 Christmas 1970 .....................................................................................................99 15 Air Force Flight School .......................................................................................110 16 James Scott, August 13, 2014 ..............................................................................167 v INTRODUCTION On March 29, 2017, President Donald J. Trump signed into law S. 305, the “Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act of 2017,” which declared March 29, National Vietnam War Veterans Day. This act passed nearly fifty-three years after the Gulf of Tonkin “incident,” forty-nine years after the Tet Offensive, forty-four years after United States troops withdrew from Vietnam, and forty-two years after the fall of Saigon. Yet, this particular law does nothing more than “encourage the display of the flag of the United States on National Vietnam War Veterans Day.”1 No discussions about the war and its aftermath are to take place. No efforts are made to seek out veterans so as to understand better their experiences and thoughts about the war that, for many