00:00:00Barry Amole, April 11, 2022
Interview with
Barry Amole
Interviewed by
Isabella CampeseApril 11, 2022
Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries
Vietnam War Oral History Project
ISABELLA CAMPESE: This is Isabella Campese interviewing Barry Amole. It is April
11th, 2022 1:00 pm, and the interview will now begin. So, uh, just to start off,
where did you grow up?
BARRY AMOLE: Can, can I hit the continue because it is on my screen?
CAMPESE: Yes.
AMOLE: --Or just leave it alone?
CAMPESE: Yes.
AMOLE: Okay. Where did I grow up? Spring City, Pennsylvania.
CAMPESE: And, um, what was your family situation like?
AMOLE: Um, two brothers and a sister, my parents, uh.
CAMPESE: What did they do, like for a living?
AMOLE: Oh, they're all deceased. I was the baby, you know, the last one left. My
dad was a truck driver, and then he ran his own service station. Uh, y mother.
00:01:00Worked at Pennhurst, I don't know exactly what she did, that was the state home
for the retarded. My older brother was a mechanic at an auto dealership. And in
75, before you were around, there was a big gas crisis and he moved to Florida
and that's where he stayed. My other brother worked forty-some years for
Container Corporation in Oaks, PA. And my sister was basically, she worked some
part-time jobs but, she was a stay at home mother, I guess you'd call it.
Basically, you know. And me, I got out of the army, did some odd jobs, and then
00:02:00I got on with Baker Equipment Engineering Company and I was there for thirty-two
years. Retired from there.
CAMPESE: Um, what can you tell me about your schooling?
AMOLE: My schooling? Okay. I quit school in 11th grade 'cause I probably would
have said I had ADHD or something. And then I went in the army and I got out and
I realize the mistakes. I grew up in the army. So I finished high school and, as
my duties of Baker, they kept sending me to classes, and finally, when I was 59,
I got a bachelor's degree in business.
CAMPESE: You said you had, um, what they might call ADHD today, what was that,
uh, like, I guess? Can you elaborate on that?
AMOLE: Oh. I was going to say at times, I guess I'd be hard to handle if I knew
00:03:00that I was, I would, as I say, I grew up with a head. But, I don't know, the
Vietnam experience, after I came home, I seem to be able to control it. And I
don't, I, I assume that's just, you know, some of the things I used to set me
off. It's like, uh, it's not real big now. I don't know if that helps you.
CAMPESE: [Laughter] Yes. In terms of joining the military, did you have any
other family who served in the military?
AMOLE: Yes, I had. Uncles. Cousins, my older brother Um, my one uncle, was a
P.O.W. in World War Two. Um, my brother, he was drafted in the army. Now, he was
00:04:0011 years and one day older than I am. He was my oldest brother. And, he was in
army aviation, he said so much about it. And, when I want to join, I said I want
to go in the aviation division and they said, "Well, you have to go to
Philadelphia. Um, what'd they call that, down where that went, and I took the
test. I said I was, I had a written guarantee on aviation school. So that's
where I went. That's what I went into.
CAMPESE: Um, OK, so I guess leading up to, um, your service in Vietnam, when and
how did you first hear about the Vietnam War?
AMOLE: We've, [sighs] to tell you the truth when you're in the service, you
00:05:00didn't really watch all the news all that much, but you knew something was going
on. And that was the early 60s, 63 when I went in. I'm going to say most. Of
'64, I was in classrooms.
Um, I don't. You probably never heard it, but in the army is you keep in the top
of your class, you just keep going, you know, like, you know, so, I started out
as like, uh aviation. You would be like a helper for that M.O.S. That's military
occupation, specialty. And now they want to single-engine aircraft. Then I went
to multi-engine. So, uh, my, uh end M.O.S. multi-engine aircraft mechanic. So.
00:06:00Then when I got assigned to my company, the 540, that I went to Vietnam with, we
left. Then they said, "Okay, we're going to make you a specialist with one
particular aircraft CV 2 Caribou." They actually sent me to Canada for 13 weeks
to, uh schooling there. So,
CAMPESE: What was your experience with that, the schooling in Canada.
AMOLE: Uh, it's like crammed in, and so you didn't get downtown much, believe it
or not, only the weekend it was, you're, you're in a classroom, but it's in a
hangar and you got this and then they give you stuff they want you to do at
00:07:00night. And so basically, you know, it's just. It was different, they talked a
lot of French.
CAMPESE: Do you ever pick any up?
AMOLE: No. [Laughter]
CAMPESE: So, um what did you like, what did you know about Vietnam before you
were sent over there?
AMOLE: Well. I'm going to say this, I don't know how many people know, it in
June of 65, we all knew about it and, President Johnson goes on TV, but as
national broadcast to say, "we are not sending more troops Vietnam." That was in
June. I'm not sure the exact date, but I know right after the Fourth of July
they gathered us all up in a meeting. The whole company, and said, "Okay, you
00:08:00married guys, send your families home, get everything ready.
We're shippin' out to Vietnam. You know, a couple of the guys said, "Wait a
minute, the president just said, we go and we're not going." [Laughter] They
just said that he lied. But here's the paper, you're goin'. [Laughter]
CAMPESE: What was that like for you, when you got that news?
AMOLE: Um, well, you're going back years. This was '65. Uh, I think we sort of
expected it, because everything we do in Vietnam was basically done either with
helicopters or planes. And, there were the first ground, troops of the 1st
Cavalry that we were attached to them as a maintenance outfit, so. Then when I
00:09:00found out we're going over by ship, I thought, "Hm." But then, like I told you
before is one of the things I thought would be neat was going over the side of a
ship. And then you realize, oh, it's not so neat.
CAMPESE: Uh, what was your experience going over on that ship?
AMOLE: There's a lot of water out there. Uh, it was a troopship. And, I don't
know if you've ever seen anything, um, or the pictures of the bunks lined up.
Well, I was in the third row up. There was five and there's, there's, room where
two people could stand between them, and another row of them on each side. We
were on the fourth deck down. So it's, we're out, I'm gonna say five or six days
00:10:00and then they said, "You have to take saltwater showers." It's like, "What?"
They can't, however, they can't make enough water for everybody. So you go in
salt water, and then they have sinks there with fresh water to rinse off where
you just throw it on yourself. But you know, saltwater, you know. Yeah, you want
to run down, and all of sudden you want to get off of ya. So I didn't, I didn't
get seasick, we played pinochle. Or chess, morning, noon, and night.
And then I'm going to say it was after we, we stopped at Guam and the
Philippines for fuel after the Philippines, we were going and there was two
Russian, Russian fishing trips and it was fishing trawlers, and it was like, "Oh
00:11:00man, there's people over there!" You all run up top, just, just to see it, just
to see something else.
CAMPESE: That's wow, that's, I can't imagine. Um, what was it like, um, your
relationships with your other, with the other people on the ship? Like what was,
what was it like kind of being there together?
AMOLE: Um, you're just there with a group of guys that, you know, I'm going to
say, basically we got along because there's not, uh, you're not going anywhere.
You have to. But I say we got along, just, you look for different people, to
00:12:00play pinochle with, or chess.
CAMPESE: And when we talked before you mentioned, um the newsletter for your
ship, right? Could you talk about, expand on that a little more?
AMOLE: [Reaching to pick up papers] Look, these are all I brought home. [Showing
papers to the camera] So that is what it is, you know, the paper, uh, the ship
was called General Leroy Eltinge, and that was called the Eltinge Rag. Um, this
page is where we are in the ocean and everything they. The date, time, where we
00:13:00were, this page is the world news, that's that this is all the sports news of
the day. Now, this was who won the uh, chess tournament. That's just sports, and
I have a couple of these, that was just by accident that I do. I can't read that
I don't know if you could see it. That's the pamphlets that we threw out of the
plane as we flew over, that's what's on the other side, that's a family. We
always supposed it's tellin' them where to go for safe, or some.
00:14:00
But we can't read it, so. But that's, that was in there this. Is that good enough?
CAMPESE: Yes, that's wonderful. Um, so what was your experience when you first
arrived in Vietnam?
AMOLE: When you first arrived, you're. You have no idea what to expect. It, it,
I wouldn't. There's there's. The fear factor wasn't that hard yet, so. You, you,
nobody. Nobody knew what to expect, so we landed, we went up. We stayed in tents
for maybe I don't know, maybe ten days in [Nga Trang] and then we went to Quin
00:15:00Yon and then we lived in tents there. Then, we, we were would cover everything fine.
CAMPESE: Uh, What were your feelings when you were, when you were there, like
what was going through your mind, if you can remember?
AMOLE: No, I- um, I think I just kept myself busy. I, you get into the zone.
Number one, I wasn't a ground soldier. And, and that's-- but when you take a
00:16:00plane load or helicopter load of them out and drop them off, you're, you're,
you're in the zone, in the battle zone. The worst thing is picking up wounded.
That's, that's the worst part. I think. Either landing, taking off whatever, we
were shot at, that wasn't, that's just what it was, you know? Okay, we're good,
we got some holes to fix, something, and we're good. The first time you get
wounded, it's embedded. You know, that's. Reality hits you then. This is real.
00:17:00People get hurt here it's, you know.
CAMPESE: And how old were you when you first arrived there?
AMOLE: Nineteen.
CAMPESE: Wow, yeah, so I can't imagine. Being so young and seeing so much.
AMOLE: That's why I say, I always use a cliche, that's where I grew up, you
know. I, lost. There's no sense getting all out of shape over something you
can't control.
CAMPESE: Mm-hm.
00:18:00
So you were you would bring soldiers in and take them out, so did you, you never
really saw combat firsthand, did you?
AMOLE: No, no. But that's a, uh [Dismisses something on his computer]. When you
drop 'em off, they're shooting at you when you pick up the wounded, they're
shooting at you, but you get down on the ground or march out, no. There was a, I
just read something recently. Out of all the troops over there, the hundreds of
thousands, there was forty thousand that were ground troops.
00:19:00
CAMPESE: What were- what would you say your expectations of the war, or just war
in general were before you arrived in Vietnam?
AMOLE: Before I got there. It was probably like everything else you, you think
you know everything. I watched all the movies and all the heroes, and once you
see it firsthand, it changes you. You learn you can't do everything alone. You
got to rely on people. And what's really different is that you got to rely on
00:20:00someone you don't know. And, if you see, if we pass somebody in the street that
we see they served, we talked to them, and, it's, it's our own, you know? My
daughter asked me about the breakfast we go to for veterans, then she says,
well, ut she didn't understand it, and I said, you have to understand. These are
guys that you would never know, but you got to trust with your life. And it
always worked out. I hope that answers your question.
CAMPESE: Yeah, that's really I. Wow, what was that like, like for you? I mean,
00:21:00being, you know, barely 19 years old and having to--
AMOLE: We were all they were all close to that age.
CAMPESE: Really?
AMOLE: Yeah, it was the older ones were all your sergeants or stuff like that.
Like, all the ones that did everything, we're all that age.
CAMPESE: So do you think that affected the, uh, trust that you might have put in
them in any way?
AMOLE: No, I do. Uh, can you rephrase that?
CAMPESE: Yeah. Just the thought that you're all maybe 19, 20 years old, like,
what was that like just being with a group of basically your peers in such a
00:22:00tense, you know, life or death situation?
AMOLE: Just like being on a football team, you know. It's your team. That's
just. This the ante is a little higher. I hope that helps.
CAMPESE: Yes. Yeah. What do you think was the thing that you remember most about
your time there?
AMOLE: There's. There's a lot of things, but, probably the most likely, I say,
is, The first time we picked up in Ia Drang valley and we picked up wounded.
That will always stick out. The other things. It's, it's, I remember going into
00:23:00a village, uh, we flew in, we're going to set up a miniature camp to service the
helicopters and planes felled in the field. And. These people had no
electricity, no anything. And here we are, we ran, we ran a string of lights
down through the town, a little village of huts. But the first time they ever
saw that. You know, and it's like, here these people are, they don't-- they're
worried about where their next meal is coming from. They don't, they don't care
what uniform you're wearing. If you can bring something in to help them, they
00:24:00don't care. That stands out. You know, the people, you know, that's, you know,
you go, you look at the cities. And that's, you know, you look at Saigon and
there was always, that was a city, but you just get 35 miles from its pure
jungle. It, just and these people are living there.
But here we come in flying something in, and they're just staring at you,
they've really never seen it. Now now I gettin' out a generator, but. If. But if
it's just interacting with them. Even though you can't talk, they're askin' you
somethin' through the motions. But that's why I always thought, they kept
00:25:00telling us, you, you want to bring democracy to all that stuff. It's not
democracy to them because they don't know the difference. Not that I do not want
to say that they're ignorant or something, it's just they're worried about their
next meal where it's coming from every day, not, not what somebody in an office
is doing. You don't, you're gettin' the answers you need, right?
CAMPESE: Yeah, I'm getting everything, this is great, um. So what was, what was
it like when you weren't on duty?
AMOLE: We messed around a lot. Duty was mostly sunup to sundown. So you got to
remember that. Well, there were some days off somebody always had a football or
00:26:00somethin'. We had a, we guarded buildings down in downtown Quin Yon, and inside
of it was a soccer field. So we drove down there, played soccer, and I never
played it before, so I don't know what to do. So they put the goalie because,
you know, I could stay there and just stop, or whatever, but. You know, there
was a breach there, you go swimming. Uh, yeah, it's there, I mean, it's not, you
know, there's not buildings or anything.
00:27:00
CAMPESE: And how did, um, what was like, I guess relationships with your fellow
service members, like what was that like when you know you weren't on duty,
like. Did you make any lasting relationships there?
AMOLE: I've got to say you think you do, but you don't. But when you go back to
the reunion and they, you see them, it's like. Wow.
Everybody doesn't go, but the first one we had, the reunion, we took in our
outfit was in Vietnam from 65 to 72. So when they created the reunion committee,
00:28:00they took in all those years. So that's different people, different years. But
when I went, there were six of us that went over on the ship. And that was, you
know, like you look at how long it's like. [Laughter] Charlie, you know, you
have name tags. But you go in your little clique at the reunion. You know, it
might sound crude, but you know you. They're your boys. But my, my commanding
officer who was a pilot, so we knew each other. He didn't go to the first
00:29:00reunion. Now the Helicopter Museum over at West Chester, he always had a, what
was it? Rotor fest? You probably never went there, right?
CAMPESE: No, I have not.
AMOLE: That is that's a tour you should go to if you have time sometime. Not,
not just go over tour the building what it is, it's really so, but they have a
Rotorfest, and they have the military bring everything in. And I'm there, our
VVA group, Vietnam Veterans of America Group, we set up a little table. And then
they had all the military equipment fly over. And I'm standing there, looking at
this guy out there, this. He's familiar. And, I just kept staring at him. The
guy said, "Go ask if it's him," you know, so I go out and I look at him, and I,
00:30:00you know. That's Major Morrison and as a, he's retired military, you know, he
snaps to, a lieutenant colonel retired. You know, he looks at me and he stares
at me now. When you're in the military, you have your name always on your
outfit. My name's Amole. And my nickname naturally, was mole.
And he just looked at me and went, "Mole?" [Laughter] Then I finally sat down
and talk for a while. So he's actually from Michigan. His brother-in-law lived
in Downingtown. He was visiting, and he said "They're having this thing down
there and you should go down there," and he did. So he comes to the next
reunion. And, I always called him Major Morrison, because, and he said, "Nah,
00:31:00just call me George." So there's two of us sittin' at the table, and, just, we
can't do that. Just can't do that. And then the reunion after that, he was a
little older. I'm walking in the door to a hotel to sign in. And I don't know if
you understand this, he had the papers in his hand, and he said, "It's going to
be a good day, Amole, I got all the reports and your name's not on any of 'em."
If you understand that the daily reports that if you did somethin' wrong you'd
be on there. So, all it is, I told him, "Look, man, it was 47 years ago, did you
forget anything yet?" Go ahead.
00:32:00
CAMPESE: OK. You, um, your wife, you had a wife who was a nurse in Vietnam, correct?
AMOLE: Yes.
CAMPESE: So, um, did she talk about it with you?
AMOLE: Yes and no-- A lot of the nurses had a lot of problems. I don't know if
you read any of that, and she basically told me she put it out of her mind. The
nurse that she met in Vietnam, they both come back and went to Valley Forge Army
Hospital in Phoenixville. That was a, and, They became they were friends, and
00:33:00they lived less than two blocks from each other, for the rest of their lives.
Oh. But neither one of them would talk about it. I would say the only time she
opened up--
Gonna say, she died in '11. I'm going to say, 2009, 2010. They had a series of
Vietnam. And they play it every so often because it went by the years. Now. She
was there, 67- 68, I was 65-66. So, the one night they played 65-66, and I
00:34:00watched it. And I didn't sleep much that night, I just thought it's just certain
things. The next night, they showed, she was there during the Tet Offensive. And
the, their compound got hit that night. And all the nurses ran it, ran out and
got all their patients, they didn't lose anybody. They all got originally
reprimanded and then somebody else got all the records, and then they all got a
Bronze Star. For doing that. And what she saw that, that night, she didn't
sleep, she just talked. That's probably the most, the most she talked. And I'll
00:35:00say the other time. At West Chester University, they had, um, why can't I think
of her name, I got an autographed picture of the girl that ran out from. My Lai.
She was naked and burned. Um, I'm trying to think of her name, it's bad, she
spoke at West Chester. But to get her there, she wanted to talk to Vietnam
veterans and especially the nurses. So we went in the room and that's, I mean,
these there were maybe 20 nurses, and they all talked then. That was the most. And.
00:36:00
CAMPESE: Was there anything that she shared with you that you're willing to
share that really stuck with you? If you, if you can remember.
AMOLE: The one thing when we went to her 50th high school reunion she was from
Elmira, New York, she says, we're going to meet somebody there. And, she was in
Vietnam, in a field hospital in the tent, they brought this guy in, and, she
heard the name.
So she goes down there, here it's somebody she went to high school with. And
then he had this fever, then he woke up, he looked up and he says, "Did I die or
something?" And then she started talking to him, and she said, any time he's
00:37:00around, he doesn't live he lives in Syracuse, he's a federal judge and she says
if she's there, he'll be over. And he was, you know, he just goes right over to
her. But that was, you know, that's the first thing you wrote up after getting
shot was somebody in high school. He had a double shock. [Laughter] But that.
You know, it's like. I don't know anybody in your family like, the World War Two
soldiers come home and never said a word. It's like guys my age, you know, it's
00:38:00like. I didn't, I didn't know my dad did that, did you, I said, yeah, because I
seen, you know, I seen them at different veterans meetings. So, a lot of them
never talk and the saying, a lot of us never talked. Among ourselves. You should
do the interview at breakfast. [Laughter]
CAMPESE: Yeah, should be very interesting. Is there like, a reason, that, you
know, you don't really talk about it that much outside your circle, I guess.
AMOLE: It's, I, I think you're thinking they don't understand. You know, it's,
00:39:00it's like. I've got to say I guess that's it. You know, you have, the circle is
there, you know, it's real, and it's getting smaller. One died last week, one of
our regulars. You know, and, that's the only way I can answer it just, that
blind faith.
CAMPESE: So, when your service was up in '66, you, did you re-enlist or no?
AMOLE: No.
CAMPESE: And why did you not re-enlist?
AMOLE: I did not re-enlist. My M.O.S.
Well, they told me I could come home for 20 days and go right back over. And
00:40:00you're sitting there thinking, is this what a sane person would do? [Laughter]
You know, they've already been there, done that, do I want to do it again.
CAMPESE: What was it like when you got home?
AMOLE: Uh, different. First, off, when I came back, I went to Oakland. We landed
there. And it's going to sound very harsh. The first thing the MPs [Military
00:41:00Police] tell you, "don't go to the main gate, don't wear a uniform. Get other
clothes, you got the military haircut." Just so, you know, you keep telling
somebody, don't do this don't do that. You've got to walk out of the front gate
to see what's going on. I'm going to say a lot of people my age and younger were
standin' there, callin' you all kind of names, spit at you. They want you to
come after them because they already have the police are just sitting there. And
I ask the one MP, I said, "How do you put up with this, that stuff? He said,
"Well, they don't cross that line, we can't do anything." So that was a reality.
00:42:00You know, and that's why. I don't know, you're young and you probably don't
know. That's why there was the closet Vietnam, you come back. you went, you got
your job, you didn't, you didn't really say a little thing for a long time.
Cause it was like, part of your country really like you.
CAMPESE: Did you experience any of that firsthand?
AMOLE: Only out there. When I got back to Spring City, a small little town where
I grew up. When I first went in, I, when I left, I said that I don't need to
come back to this little town.
And I didn't realize, Well, this is the nice place I can be here. There was a
00:43:00different, different attitude. A lot of, a lot of the veterans' social clubs,
the Legion, the VFW [Veterans of Foreign Wars] did not want Vietnam veterans
because they had this notion that they're all wild and everything else. Not in
Spring City, it's named after my uncle. Well, It came to me and I can't
remember, and I've been active ever since. I, I was a district commander, and I
hold a state office now. I've been very active, I've been a volunteer, at
Southeast Veteran center since it opened. They have an advisory board I'm the
President Advisory Board. I help raise money. We take them out. The one thing
00:44:00I'm trying to do now, they take them out to eat, you know, I got in my mind. I
want to bring 15, 20 of them down to our, breakfast and join it as one with our
group because that's a state, that's a home for, but they get out, talk to
different people. They love that. That's what we're trying to work on now. So.
CAMPESE: Did you have any plans for your life after the military when you got
home or what was--
AMOLE: No.
CAMPESE: No?
AMOLE: No [laughter].
CAMPESE: So how did you decide, you know, what were you, what you're going to do next?
AMOLE: I got a job. When I got out, I signed up for unemployment and they told
00:45:00me all the places were hiring so I just, I went, I got hired. It was a factory
job. I didn't really like it. It was a union place. And then it had a strike and
during the strike. I went down to Atlantic Aviation and I got a job there, and
it was back on aircraft. And then I went to Baker Equipment, which is where I
stayed for 30 some years.
CAMPESE: Did you participate in the strike at Union, of the Union Strike, or no?
AMOLE: They have it, you know, you know, you can't, back then, when they strike,
you're, you're out. And I thought, Well. The only other thing I ever got me one
00:46:00time. I was, I was running a machine and it jammed up. So they call me in the
office, they say "It jammed up." Well, next thing I know a guy comes in, you
know, "I'm the union, you don't talk with him, you talk to me," and said, I
don't, I don't need anybody to talk for me, I can talk for myself." And he says,
"Well, you know," and I said, "What are they going to do? Machine screwed up.
What are you going to do?" You know, the supervisor called me the office, you
know, and they're all done, he said "Yeah, go 'head. So he said, "We have to do
this." I just, I just never myself, but my brother was in the union for years,
00:47:00and we never discussed it. I just never could have that mentality. I just wanted
to deal for myself, you know? Like. I remember, he was on the committee for the
contract. And now we both had a child later on. But I had, boom, boom, boom, and
then 11 years another one. He was the same way. But in his union contract. They
traded off more vacation time and cut back on the, uh, paternity stuff
[Laughing]. He said, like "Oh, my God!" and he asked "What about you?" And I
say, you know, you negotiated it, you know, you guys. So I thought I just. I
00:48:00just never got into that. Thank goodness I did. I was never there.
CAMPESE: So aside from the, um, I guess sort of, negative, uh, perception of
Vietnam veterans, when you got home, did you face any other difficulties?
AMOLE: Difficulties. No, I don't, I think,
I think being from a little town that I was, I think that helped me.
00:49:00
CAMPESE: So you, you definitely still keep in contact with other Vietnam
veterans, of course, with all the work you do.
AMOLE: Yes.
CAMPESE: What is that like for you?
AMOLE: Enjoyable. We go to, go to the Coatesville VA [Veterans Association], and
we put on a meal. We went over there and volunteered and I'm going to say the
hospice unit they built there, I don't know what you know about hospice, but
they that basically, they go in there and they figure they're not going to live
six months or more. But we, we went over and they asked us to bring some gifts
00:50:00and we did at Christmas time. And we just talked to all these guys just like,
you know. So we asked the, uh, the volunteer representative there, "What can we
do?" and they said, "They all want a spaghetti luncheon." All right. We can do
that. We're, so we come back, and we have a meeting and I will say. Put this, I
hope you get the perspective, the legion, I belong to a do the paperwork with at
one time we were 1,000 members and now we're down to 600. The Vietnam veterans
are135, but we get 30 to 40 to a meeting in the Legion will be 10 to 18. If, VFW
is the same way, but we get 40. So we sit there and we go to a caterer and we
00:51:00tell them what we want to do, where it's going to be at, he says, "Okay." He
said, um, I said, we'll be there to help. He said, "How many?" Um, twenty.
Twenty, for what? Oh, whatever. And we think the first one was twenty-three
we're ended up. He brought it over, he brought a machine that turned the pasta
in, and oh, we all got our jobs. And then it's all done, and we went and sat and
ate, and a lot of them are still there.
I'm gonna say seventy percent up in a wheelchair. These guys were sayin' "This
is great, this is great." And we're sitting there and we were looking out the
00:52:00window and we see this deck, you know, well, what's that for? Well, basically
it's not used because nobody goes over here and volunteers. The, the nurses,
they rotate there because they get to know 'em and, you know, they're going to
die. It's like, it's reality. And, we said, "How about we put a picnic on?"
Yeah. And the caterer was still there, we said, "Can you do this?" Yeah. So the
first year, we put a picnic on, the second year, we're doin' lunch, we said,
what do you want? Spaghetti. Evidently, they don't get that. I don't know. Then
we go over there, he takes the stuff over. Then they wanted a clam bake. And uh,
00:53:00a lot of these guys have to be fed. Can you imagine them trying to dig that
[Imitating opening clams]clam out? And the caterer, he says, "Well, Let me make.
Like I don't know what he called it, he put some crab in it, clam, in it,
lobster in it. Oh, they loved it. You know, it's like, here we are, we're
carrying this out. We get all these guys that just we just enjoy it. When we go
off to the side just eat, some ourselves know that something good.
CAMPESE: How would you say that your relationships with other Vietnam veterans,
um, are different from your other relationships with just people who did not
00:54:00serve or have no military experience?
AMOLE: I don't, no, I didn't know. I have another group of friends that doesn't,
uh, but I'm as close to them. But you're in a group, or whatever you want to
say. You know, two sons not in the military, one was, I get along with them, I
guess. Um, it's just different. You know, we--
00:55:00
CAMPESE: Can you explain how like--
AMOLE: We both went through the same things but in a different way.
CAMPESE: Can you explain how like, it is kind of, um, I imagine the shared
experience of the service. What effect? Like a relationship, like. You said
earlier, I believe that, you know, you see another service, another Vietnam
veteran, and you're able to talk to them like, how would you, what would you say
that's like?
AMOLE: That's just. Once you do you're both smiling when you walk away. You just
know. But first, they usually say either what year were they there or the
outfit. I was, I was getting gas yesterday. I noticed the guy had on his hat the
00:56:00pin from Fort Rucker. And I just asked him, when were you, when were you there?
He just looked at me, you know? And we said the dates, I said I was there then,
I was Caribou, and he goes, "Oh, I was a Raven pilot." You know, it's just,
you're gettin' gas, and we're just smilin' at each other and wavin' as we go
away. Might not ever see him again, but you know.
CAMPESE: Overall, how do you think your service in Vietnam changed, like, the
trajectory or path of your life?
AMOLE: Again, I'll go back there, I grew up, it took the madness out of me. No,
you didn't get your way, sometimes you get, and I don't get as mad. It, it just.
00:57:00I told one of my old buddies years back, "Don't get mad at something you can't
control." And there's a lot of things you know you can get mad at it, but you
can't control it, so you have to take it as it is, go on. You know, different.
CAMPESE: And how do you think your service changed, if it did, it all changed
your views on the war or, or not the war, but war in general and military
service in general?
AMOLE: Well. If you could stop it any other way, do it. I'm not the warmonger
that they-- I remember when, in '89. Desert Storm.
00:58:00
I was sitting there. And I have to make this up, you know, you're watching,
they're kids. My wife said, "Well, how old were you?" I said I knew what I was
doing. She said so do they, and that's like, Oh, okay, you're right. Now I.
First off, when I first looked at Afghanistan I thought was the wrong thing to
do. The Russians were in there for 15 years and they couldn't do anything with
them. Why do they think we could? Just pumping more money in there, it's not
about things like that, I don't. And if you're, if you're not. The one bad thing
00:59:00in Vietnam is our government didn't let us win it. You, you do something. And
then they go, OK, that's done, and they go away. And they come back, it's like--
And that's what they're doing now. You know, they go over there. You go, you
look at the Ukraine the way the Russians came in there. If somebody wanted to,
they could've stopped it right away. I mean, you're sending tanks down one road,
you just go in there with enough, boom boom boom boom boom, they would start
running to stop it right away. It might sound nasty, but if you can stop it
01:00:00before there's thousands dead, do it and they're all worried about, well, what's
it going to do to our image here, and this, and we gotta do these rules, but
they're not playing by the rules. You play their game, play their rules.
CAMPESE: So when you look back on like, how do you what do you think now about
the Vietnam War versus when you were there?
AMOLE: Uh-- They didn't complete the mission, but the, it's not the fault of the
Vietnamese people. They were nice people.
And I have talked to people that went back over, a group of my company went over
01:01:00and they took a thing. Our airstrip, it's all modern, it's now a mall. Right,
where our airstrip was. That's a mall that they used, that was probably the
first paved thing in that town and they use that for the mall. But now they have
paved roads, everything. There was just, it was political really, like this one,
like all of 'em.
CAMPESE: Is there any-, um, is there anything that if you could go back, you
would change?
AMOLE: You, my life or my military life.
01:02:00
CAMPESE: I'd, say, military life, I think, yeah, in terms of the interview.
AMOLE: Um. I would think I actually enjoyed my job, and I would have if we
01:03:00weren't at war, then I would have stayed in. It wasn't the military grind or
anything, you know, we kept aircraft in the air.
CAMPESE: Um, is there anything else that you would like to discuss that maybe we
didn't talk about earlier?
AMOLE: Like-- Well.
CAMPESE: If nothing comes to mind, that's all right.
AMOLE: I, I, I don't. Um. Well, I don't think so, but-- [pause] You know, you
always would look back and say you would change things, but. I always, I always
seemed pretty happy. [Laughter] I don't know. I did things that I wanted to do.
I always wanted to drive race cars, I drove them. I got one championship. I got
01:04:00away from that, but it's sort of like once you do it, the. Drive 'em for like
ten years and then you win, it's time. It's part of me that it's like, okay.
CAMPESE: So is that how you like you just did what you did, what you wanted,
lived your life?
AMOLE: Yes, I, I was fortunate my wife went along with it, you know, and things
worked out that way. I remember she always drove older cars that she,
she was a home mom. I had four kids. She always drove older cars. One day she
01:05:00told me, I want a new car. Said, "Okay, go get one." So she goes down, she picks
it out, when I go down, and it's raining the day we're getting it. And I signed
all the paperwork ready to go. She says, "Well I'm not driving rain," but what
are you going to do if it's rainin' tomorrow? she says, "I'm not driving home in
the rain." So I give her the keys to my car, and I ask the salesman said,
where's it at? He said, "You don't--" I said I got this for my wife. She drove
it, so she's happy. So he said, "Right there." And I get it and I drive it home.
That's just the way it was. You know, she was happy.
01:06:00
CAMPESE: And it sounds like you were pretty happy too.
[Recording pause]
AMOLE: There are things that stick out, but it's not because of the military or,
you know, well, I don't know if you want anything like that, probably not right?
CAMPESE: Honestly, this was a great interview. Like, I think I got a lot of it,
a lot of good information, good stories. [Laughter]
[Recording pause]
AMOLE: Really, it just really set me up for life. But it wasn't in Vietnam, but
it was in the army.
CAMPESE: Go for it.
AMOLE: We had a crew, work crew. There was one black guy, and he was from
Pittsburgh. Albert Dennis Price, you'd just call him Denny. A helicopter gearbox
01:07:00broke in Alabama. We were sent over to fix it. So we go over there, with, we fly
in another helicopter with the parts and everything, and we're going downtown to
have lunch. So this is, I'm going to say. February, March of 1965. I'm gonna get
graphic, with you, we get in there, we walked in this little southern
restaurant, you know, it looked like a little box of. So we walk in and there's
tables outside, there's a big window and we walk in.
And, "What do you guys want?" Well, we wanna get some lunch. "Well, you can have
01:08:00it. He can't. No niggers are allowed in here." Exactly what he said. He got to
go out to the window and get it. We said, you know, we're gonna eat together. In
here you're not. And then boys are just some of the boys in they're ready, We're
ready to have to do about it, a good bar fight about it. And, and Denny just
said, "Guys, let's, let's just get out of here." That's like, um, I think we
could handle these rats? We can handle these rats. Guys are looking, you know.
No, no, no. We're all get in trouble if, do you know? So we left. We actually
01:09:00had to stay overnight, so we got in the room and one guy was smart enough. He
ordered, one guy goes in with a card and gets the room and then we go in, and
they're watchin' us go in, and what are they gonna do. Then we said we ordered.
We said, no, we're just, we're just havin' a card game. You know, we've always
had cards, we got a card game, but I looked at him. I said that was a smart
idea. We ordered food. We ordered, we got back to the base, and they're, "What
the hell are you guys doing, ordering, you know?" And the sergeant who did it,
you know, he says, "You guys wait outside" the rest of us. As he told them, what
01:10:00all happened, he says, "All right. No problem." You know, no. But that, that
really, you know, that's when it hit, that the Jim Crow South that was still
really there. You know. I was 19 at the time. That's in your mind. It stays
there. And I, it really irks me when I read the paper, anything that they say,
if you're a white male over 60, you're prejudiced. I'm like, God, like, I could
just smack the guy that did that.
Then, you know, I went to Vietnam, but we had each other's back a whole lot. You
01:11:00know, the head of the Black Lives Matter and I always say, no, all lives matter.
People always say, you know, "what, what, why?" and I, I'll call Denny, and if
he tells me to? I'll go with it. I'll go with it. You know, he knows. The
background. So I don't know if it's good or not.
CAMPESE: No, that's really interesting. So when you were, you know, obviously in
America, you know, it's segregated, very tense race relations, but not, none of
that in the military or, was there any of that in the military?
AMOLE: Uh. Not, I'm going to say no, because we were at a time when you have to
01:12:00rely on each other. I think all of. I don't know how much time you have.
CAMPESE: I got time.
AMOLE: We had, we had a black first sergeant. Very nice guy. Now, we, we work
around the clock on, on the flight line, so we didn't have a big open barracks,
we had rooms or the one guy got done at 12 o'clock. He comes in and there's a
guy going through all the stuff in his locker and all. He gets him and knocks
and he nails him through a window, knocks him through a window, and he falls
down over a dumpster. He's hurt. So they call, you know, the MPs and our, our
01:13:00first Sargent. We're standing there, and he says, "Get that nigger out of here
and I don't want him back in my company." Well. People heard this, they started
bringing charges on him for being prejudiced. So we all witnessed this, we were
there, and a military trial's different than,. you know, the judge can sometimes
throw questions out. It's different. So he said,
"Sargent, how many blacks are in your company?" "Don't know sir." "So how many,
of, this?" He goes, "Well, Sargent, what do you know?" "I have 162 soldiers in
my company." So it's like, "Well, I don't care what color I think they are.
01:14:00They're all good, we've got all good results all the way down the line. They're
good men." And they looked, and the judge just looked around. "Case dismissed."
[Laughter] I don't know who the idiot was that brought the charges, but that's
the way it was. We were all the same. Really straight shooter. But that's right,
and that was outside of Atlanta, Georgia. [Laughter] So. I don't know if that's
good enough, or--
CAMPESE: I think that's great. Thank you so much for all this.
AMOLE: OK.
01:15:00
[End Interview]
