Roger Williams recalls his early life in Castle Rock, Colorado, his enlistment in the US Marines, basic training, and entering the Vietnam War as a gun mechanic in a machinist unit in An Hoa (Quang Tri Province) in 1969. He describes the lack of equipment and tools that left his unit, District Support Unit I, with little to do but remain on standby. He gives him impressions of Vietnam and the Vietnamese people. He remembers racial tension that existed between African American marines and white marines. He talks about being eacuated from Vietnam for an injury sustained to his hand, his return to the United States, and his care at Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Denver. He speaks about American attitudes toward soldiers and the war upon his return and using the GI Bill to attend agricultural courses. He describes his belief in the US Marines as a fighting force. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
*Photograph from the 1964 Douglas County High School yearbook.
