Ira Caley talks about growing up on a farm near Grants Pass, Oregon and in the town of Springfield, Oregon. He speaks about the difficulty of his home life and joining the Marines at the age of seventeen. He recalls basic training, early rumblings about the Vietnam War in 1963, being assigned to the 1st Batallion, 11th Marines, training for jungle warfare in the Philippines, and landing in Vietnam as part of an invasion force in October 1965. He describes going on patrols and engagements with the Vietcong near Phu Bai. He discusses the daily life of a US Marine in Vietnam, interactions with the Vietnamese people, and the care most American soldiers demonstrated for Vietnamese children. He remembers getting shot in the chest during an incursion by the Vietcong, an injury that led to the end of his tour. He recounts his return to the United States and his difficulty in dealing with psychological trauma from the war. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
