Marine Sergeant on Fierce Combat in Vietnam | Floyd Moreland Jr.

[00:00:00]What was tough was fighting an enemy over there, >> [clears throat] >> coming back here and fighting another enemy, the people's mentality. We were called baby killers, all kind, they would spit on us and everything.

[00:00:16]So, that was hard.

[00:00:20]My father landed in Utah Beach, fought in Battle of the Bulge.

[00:00:25]I have uncles who fought in the Philippines. I have an uncle who did two tours in Korea.

[00:00:31]>> Wow, that is quite a legacy.

[00:00:34]Were you drafted or did you enlist?

[00:00:36]>> I enlisted at the age of 21.

[00:00:39]>> Why did you choose the Marine Corps?

[00:00:41]>> I wanted to fight with the best.

[00:00:45]>> Where did you do boot camp?

[00:00:48]>> Well, they called us Hollywood Marines.

[00:00:50]It was MCRD in San Diego.

[00:00:54]>> And Marine Corps boot camp has quite the reputation. What was it like for you?

[00:00:59]>> Um a little bit of hell.

[00:01:03]Yeah, I never thought I'd enjoy standing on yellow footprints, but that's where we started.

[00:01:09]And it's quite different than what it is now.

[00:01:12]>> Why was it hell?

[00:01:14]>> A lot of physical and mental abuse. They I understand why they did it, to break us down and rebuild us, but uh for civilian, it's quite a shock.

[00:01:26]>> I'm sure you were glad when that was over.

[00:01:28]>> Yes, I was.

[00:01:30]>> Where did you go after boot camp?

[00:01:33]>> To Camp Pendleton for advanced infantry training.

[00:01:37]>> Okay.

[00:01:38]And what was that like?

[00:01:40]>> I enjoyed that. Really did.

[00:01:42]I guess I was meant to be a grunt, cuz I enjoyed it.

[00:01:46]>> Okay. What kind of drills and and other activities did they do there?

[00:01:49]>> Different maneuvers. You learn to uh go on patrols. You learn to fire advanced weapons.

[00:01:58]Learn long hikes.

[00:02:01]Build your endurance and stamina.

[00:02:05]>> How soon were you assigned to the 39 Marines?

[00:02:09]>> Well, it's quite interesting. I moved around a lot in the Marine Corps.

[00:02:14]When I got out of infantry training, I wanted something different rather than being a boot grunt.

[00:02:22]So, I applied for sea school.

[00:02:26]What that is, they assign a detachment of Marines aboard aircraft carrier.

[00:02:32]And I got that assignment. This is in '64, '65.

[00:02:39]Interesting story. While I was aboard it, we were off of Japan and they had a USO tour come on. Ann-Margret was there and Johnny Rivers. And I was part of the honor platoon that uh honor guard, actually, that uh when she got aboard ship, we kind of guarded her escorted her around.

[00:03:03]>> That's rough duty, hanging out with Ann-Margret.

[00:03:05]>> Oh, I wanted a hug so bad, but there was no way.

[00:03:10]>> Did she talk to you?

[00:03:11]>> Yes.

[00:03:12]>> What was she like?

[00:03:14]>> Very personable.

[00:03:17]>> How important were the USO shows to you guys?

[00:03:20]>> Very important. Gave us a break from reality to reality.

[00:03:27]>> Yeah.

[00:03:28]>> And she was a great entertainer. Johnny Rivers was good.

[00:03:32]And then in 1960, the end of 1965, I was at Camp Lejeune with the 2nd Marine Division.

[00:03:43]And I got We spent 4 months in Gitmo Bay.

[00:03:47]And that was interesting duty.

[00:03:50]They have a leeward side and a windward side and we started out on on the leeward side which was naval installations.

[00:03:58]That's where the fence was.

[00:04:01]And we patrolled the fence and we had guard stations throughout.

[00:04:06]And what's interesting is behind us about 50 yards is a minefield.

[00:04:13]So you had to be careful and there was always deal deer and wild animal losing their life to those mines.

[00:04:24]But and then we went on the uh the weaver the windward side and that was again marine tactics different drills.

[00:04:35]So and then after that I was back on the Yorktown again 66.

[00:04:43]There was my first tour in Gulf of Tonkin.

[00:04:47]We were support group and if they ever needed us they flew us in by helicopter.

[00:04:54]And when I wasn't doing that I was in charge of the brig.

[00:04:59]And that was a lot of fun.

[00:05:01]I had about six or seven prisoners.

[00:05:04]And we took them to the meal room and we made them uh showered ate then I put them to bed.

[00:05:14]And then after that I spent three months at Little Creek, Virginia.

[00:05:21]I was an instructing hand-to-hand bayonet fighting.

[00:05:25]And then I got my orders for boots on the ground for uh Vietnam.

[00:05:32]And I got to Vietnam I think it was um March of 67. Flew into Da Nang.

[00:05:41]They flew me in a C-130 to Dong Ha.

[00:05:45]From Dong Ha by truck to Cam Lo, and then from Cam Lo, we hiked up to outpost called Charlie 2.

[00:05:56]You never hear about Charlie 2.

[00:05:59]I looked a lot of history books, nothing about Charlie 2 as an outpost.

[00:06:06]That was between Cam Lo and Con Tien. That was the next place I went to.

[00:06:13]I was there there in September 1967.

[00:06:17]That's when I got hit.

[00:06:19]They said at least 500 rounds a day of enemy rockets, artillery, and mortar rounds came in on us.

[00:06:29]>> Well, let's change that history. Tell me about Charlie 2.

[00:06:33]>> Uh Charlie 2 was just an outpost.

[00:06:36]We got hit a couple times. That's where I first experienced a round going past my head, and it explodes when it goes past your head.

[00:06:47]And we had a protect it. It was an outpost. It was kind of protection between Cam Lo and Con Tien.

[00:06:55]>> Uh explain what was happening near the DMZ in terms of what you were trying to accomplish and what the enemy was trying to accomplish there.

[00:07:03]>> The enemy was trying to en- accomplish to overrun Con Tien. They overran Khe San in '68.

[00:07:13]I went from uh Con Tien to the rock pile before I headed back home.

[00:07:19]And we'd send out patrols.

[00:07:22]We had a two or three different 105 howitzer bases there.

[00:07:30]And of course, they couldn't reach the NVA had artillery that would far out shoot what we had in the 105.

[00:07:41]But at Camp Carroll, that's where they had the big guns, the 175 155 mm.

[00:07:48]That was able to get into North Vietnam a little bit.

[00:07:52]But the 105 was just do what they could.

[00:07:57]Behind now Con Thien, you had Gio Linh to the right of us heading, I guess it'd be west, and then the Gulf of Tonkin would come in.

[00:08:10]The Rockpile was a 700-ft hill or mountain.

[00:08:16]And then and Route 9 was a popular route. That's what the NVC used a lot, that route behind it. So our objective was to control that to stop a lot of the NVA from coming in that way.

[00:08:33]>> Tell me about the fight at Con Thien.

[00:08:36]>> It was terrible. I think they tell me, and I only read about that we were surrounded for 30 days, and we lost so many men that I ran out of body body bags, and they just started stacking the bodies on top each other.

[00:08:54]And we got those explosions daily, and we played a crazy game. It got so bad and I played against your mind, you would wait till the last second before you dove into your hole before it exploded.

[00:09:11]When you would hear a thump, you got about six five or six seconds to take cover before it hits.

[00:09:18]So playing crazy games like that, and my hole was my home.

[00:09:24]And then September was monsoon, so we had a lot of rain.

[00:09:29]So I had my hole was up to almost my waist in water. That's what I lived in for a while, and I slept with my arms outside the hole while in that mud and everything.

[00:09:44]And we go on patrols, and it was hot.

[00:09:48]But I would shake, and the men would shake at times because of the humidity and the rain. It was actually felt cold.

[00:09:56]But it was my job there was a platoon sergeant was to make sure my men I was in charge of had food, ammo.

[00:10:08]I have a we call an R&R list, and I would check off names, make sure that they would get their R&R.

[00:10:17]I delivered mail.

[00:10:19]I was always out of my hole. My best friend was my doc.

[00:10:23]And uh whenever they called Corman up, Corman up, he would call on me, "Sergeant Morland, come with me."

[00:10:33]So I It was not a place to be.

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[00:11:55]>> Tell me more about being surrounded by for 30 days. How big of an area is this that you're surrounded in?

[00:12:02]>> It's a pretty good size hill. It's not a high hill, but a pretty good size. Surrounded by concertina wire.

[00:12:12]And we had positions down below.

[00:12:17]But uh we couldn't get supplies in or bodies out for that time. And I don't know who broke through and saved us.

[00:12:27]I heard it was the army. Bless their soul.

[00:12:31]>> Wow. So, you had no food coming in for 30 days?

[00:12:35]>> We had what we had was sea rats.

[00:12:39]My sea rat You know what a sea rat is?

[00:12:41]>> C-rations.

[00:12:42]>> Yes.

[00:12:42]>> Yeah.

[00:12:43]>> Mine was dated 1942.

[00:12:46]But it was still good.

[00:12:48]So, that's whatever you could find, you just parsed it out.

[00:12:53]>> And was there water anywhere?

[00:12:57]>> There were water buffaloes. That's big tanks of this water.

[00:13:02]Plenty of rain, so you capture the rain as much as you could.

[00:13:09]>> What's it like to be freed, for lack of a better word, after 30 days? To be rescued?

[00:13:15]>> Well, I took one breath and they said, "Sergeant Marlon, we're sending you to the rock pile."

[00:13:22]So, [laughter] I off I went there. And we had infiltrators come and go. I remember one night they said, "Sergeant Mullen, we got infiltration." So, I ran out of my little hooch.

[00:13:36]Think I was in my underwear with a.45.

[00:13:41]Everything was okay, but you never knew.

[00:13:45]>> Wow.

[00:13:46]>> So, it's the continued pressure and fear of it.

[00:13:51]>> How do you describe combat?

[00:13:55]>> Very destructive.

[00:13:57]Both to the soul and to the mind.

[00:14:01]It's You see the worst in in man when you you're in combat.

[00:14:06]Fear, uh depression, all that. Very emotional.

[00:14:12]>> Was it quite a bit different than what you expected?

[00:14:17]>> I don't know if you expect anything at all until you're actually there. And it's either you or them.

[00:14:28]You make that decision.

[00:14:31]>> What What weapons were you carrying?

[00:14:34]>> Uh-huh.

[00:14:35]I started out with an M-16.

[00:14:38]I don't know if you're aware of it, but uh wasn't a very good weapon at the time.

[00:14:44]It uh jammed a lot.

[00:14:47]So, I ended up with a Thompson.45 submachine gun and an M-79 grenade launcher.

[00:14:55]So, I had two weapons.

[00:14:57]And a bolero or a band of ammo like this here.

[00:15:03]Kind of looked like a gangster or something. I don't know.

[00:15:07]>> You mentioned that you trained for patrols during advanced infantry training.

[00:15:12]Um explain how a patrol is conducted.

[00:15:15]>> Well, you have a point man.

[00:15:18]And usually you have an officer or lieutenant that goes with you the radio man.

[00:15:23]And it's usually a squad, sometimes it's smaller.

[00:15:29]And you go out and your mission is to hunt and destroy.

[00:15:36]So, that's what we did.

[00:15:38]>> And did you usually have the same position in the patrol or did it rotate?

[00:15:43]>> I was a sergeant at the time, so I rotated.

[00:15:47]Sometimes I was point, sometimes I wasn't.

[00:15:51]>> What did you prefer to be?

[00:15:54]>> Well, I certainly didn't like it at point.

[00:15:58]But, you had to do what you had to do.

[00:16:00]>> Mhm.

[00:16:01]Mhm.

[00:16:02]And you're walking through fairly thick jungle a lot of the time.

[00:16:06]>> Oh, yes.

[00:16:06]>> So, how do you spot where trouble can be?

[00:16:11]>> It was hard. Sometimes you didn't. They were masters at uh deception and camouflage.

[00:16:18]So, a lot of times you were caught off guard.

[00:16:21]>> So, they they often shot first?

[00:16:23]>> Yes.

[00:16:24]>> Okay.

[00:16:25]And then how did Did you have a specific way of scrambling or getting into position to to engage? How did that work?

[00:16:33]>> Well, normally the instinct is to get off the trail, but you had to be careful. They had punji sticks along the trail.

[00:16:44]So, sometimes that trail was loaded with booby traps.

[00:16:49]>> How did you guard against that?

[00:16:52]>> You don't guard against it. It's it's the good Lord above who's protecting you.

[00:17:00]You learn to hear. You depend a lot on your hearing and seeing.

[00:17:07]>> I have spoken with so many platoon commanders, officers, who said, "There's no way I could have done what we did without my platoon sergeant. So, I'm sure that was the case with you as well. How How well did you get along with your your officer?

[00:17:28]>> I wasn't that close to him. We kept losing our second lieutenants.

[00:17:34]Me and the gunny tried to tell them you don't do this. They had a certain habit. They would go right behind the radio man or right in front of him.

[00:17:43]Well, the VC picked up on this.

[00:17:46]And they would get dinged. So, we'd go through lieutenants.

[00:17:50]And I never saw a captain, so I don't know where they were.

[00:17:55]>> Those giant antennas on the radio, right?

[00:17:58]>> Yes.

[00:17:58]>> It's a bull's-eye almost. What about the fight at Dong Ha?

[00:18:02]>> Dong Ha was just uh for me when factor I was introduced to the Russian 122-mm rockets at Dong Ha. And I landed there and we got hit that night.

[00:18:18]That was the only experience of Halloween day I went to Cam Lo. So, I didn't spend much time at Dong Ha.

[00:18:25]>> Now, you were asked to do a third tour in Vietnam, is that correct?

[00:18:30]>> Yes.

[00:18:31]>> And you said no.

[00:18:33]>> I said no. I was at the rock pile.

[00:18:36]And they said, "Well, we'll give you an extra stripe."

[00:18:41]But they were going to send me to Khe San.

[00:18:44]And that place is overrun. This is in December '67.

[00:18:49]I think it was overrun in '68.

[00:18:53]>> Wow.

[00:18:54]>> So, I probably wouldn't be here talking to you now.

[00:18:58]>> So, what did you do after that second tour?

[00:19:02]>> Well, it was my time to leave, so I grabbed a couple hand grenades, some extra ammo, climbed aboard a a truck, and headed back down towards Dong Ha where I got on a C-130, then to Da Nang, from Da Nang to Okinawa.

[00:19:25]>> And you said you stayed in the Marine Corps until 1969. What did you do between leaving Vietnam and leaving the Corps?

[00:19:34]>> I was uh Well, I met my wife in psychology class and and I was married in '69.

[00:19:43]But you're still in the reserves even after active duty for a couple years.

[00:19:48]>> Okay.

[00:19:49]Okay.

[00:19:50]Well, Floyd, what are you most proud of from your service?

[00:19:54]>> The men I fought with.

[00:19:57]They're the real heroes, and you've heard it said, are the ones that didn't come back home.

[00:20:03]What was tough was fighting an enemy over there, coming back here and then fighting another enemy, the people's mentality.

[00:20:12]We were called baby killers.

[00:20:15]All kind They would spit on us and everything.

[00:20:19]So, that was hard.

[00:20:21]And I would do it again spiritually, but I don't have the body to do it again.

[00:20:29]>> Tell me why that is. Why would you do it again if you could, if you had to?

[00:20:32]>> Because the country means so much. It's a great, great country.

[00:20:37]We have our problems.

[00:20:39]We have our weaknesses, but as a whole, the people are good and they're worth fighting for.