Interview With Specialist Six Alan West, U.S.

Interview with Specialist Six Alan West, U.S. Army Vietnam Veteran

Just over 53,000 men and women died in the Vietnam War, but the ravages of this war did not end in Southeast Asia. Although many Vietnam veterans experienced problems in readjusting to civilian society, most veterans used their GI Bill benefits to attend school and secure meaningful employment and have gone on to have families of their own. Today, many of these Vietnam veterans are political leaders, captains of industry, successful entrepreneurs and senior executives. This paper provides the results of an interview with a 60-year-old Vietnam-era veteran, former Specialist Six Alan West of the U.S. Army Support Command, Thailand. The results of the interview are followed by a summary of the experience in the conclusion.

Interview Summary

On March 2, 2013, Mr. Alan West was telephonically interviewed from his home in Sperry, Oklahoma. When asked about his relationship to the Vietnam War, Mr. West stated that he served in a non-combat role with the Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Army Support Command in Sattahip, Thailand from 1974 to 1975. Mr. West made it clear that he was initially against the War in Vietnam while attending high school in Wichita, Kansas and admitted to openly demonstrating against the war on several occasions in 1969 and 1970 and was tear-gassed during a demonstration outside the Wichita Civic Center during a speech by then-Vice President Spiro Agnew. Mr. West stated that the organization he belonged to, the Committee for Student Rights, was giving away baloney sandwiches to the demonstrators to mock the baloney being delivered by the Vice President when a "bunch of storm troopers" (Wichita police) showed up and gassed the lot of them to force them to disperse. These experiences and the draft combined to convince Mr. West that the United States was headed in the wrong direction, morally and politically. Immediately following his graduation from high school, Mr. West received his draft notice and reported for duty and was subsequently trained as a stenographer, MOS 71C. Mr. West was subsequently assigned to Camp Casey, Korea in 1972 where he served as the commanding general's secretary. The training he received and his tour of duty in South Korea convinced Mr. West that although the Vietnam War was still wrong, the fault was not the military's but rather the country's political leadership and he reenlisted for 5 years (Mr. West indicated that there was a $6,500 reenlistment bonus available for his MOS since it was scarce and that was a lot of money in 1972).

Mr. West was subsequently assigned to the U.S. Army Support Command in Thailand where he worked for the Inspector General in winding down operations as the War in Vietnam ground to its bloody conclusion. When asked if the Vietnam War had impacted the evolution of the United States, Mr. West replied, "This was a stupid war that taught us some expensive lessons in blood and treasure." Mr. West stated that he concluded his tour of duty at U.S. Army Support Command and was subsequently assigned to Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe where he served as the Supreme Allied Commander Europe General Alexander M. Haig, Jr.'s personal secretary until his discharge in 1977.