Interview with Robert L. Whetstone, May 8, 2022

Interview Transcript - Exact Verbatim

Paul Hand: Today is May 8th, and I'm interviewing Robert L. Whetstone. His birthday is September of 1944. My name is Paul Hand, and we are doing this through West Chester University. So, uh, Robert, um, tell me about where you were born.

Robert L. Whetstone: Where I was born?

Paul Hand: Where you were born.

Robert L. Whetstone: I was born in town in Delaware County, Chester, Pennsylvania.

Paul Hand: And what can you share about uh, where you grew up and spent your childhood?

Robert L. Whetstone: Well, I think the best way to characterize it at the time my father was in World War II, so they developed World War II housing, and we stayed in there until I was through basically elementary school, and then we moved.

Paul Hand: Can you tell me anything about your family?

Robert L. Whetstone: What would you like to know?

Paul Hand: Anything about them.

Robert L. Whetstone: Well, both my parents were-- My dad was a uh, welder. My mother eventually became a welder. She worked for, didn't work for, but she became a little bit of a Rosie the Riveter. She welded tanks for the Korean War.

Paul Hand: Wow

Robert L. Whetstone: And my father was always a uh, uh, a welder, and my mother was in and out of welding. And I kind of followed them a little bit, became a welder while I was going to college.

Paul Hand: Okay. That's interesting. So um going along with that, what was your early and middle education like?

Robert L. Whetstone: Middle education you mean seventh, seventh grade.

Paul Hand: Yeah. Around that time, around that time.

Robert L. Whetstone: Yeah. Well, that's uh that's when we moved and started New School and it was I liked it. It was I don't know what what I can say more about it. It was just intricate. It was interesting. I think seventh, eighth, ninth grade

Paul Hand: Yeah Robert L. Whetstone: participated in some of the school activities.

Paul Hand: So at that time, like what were your main aspirations? What were you looking forward to doing with your life?

Robert L. Whetstone: Oh. Didn't give that much thought in Middle school. I just tried to get through school, but as soon as I got into high school and stuff, I got I've picked up an interest in science. I followed through with that. I think at one point uh, I had a course in biology and uh, I really took an interest in biology. And I at one point I thought I was going to move on to be a marine biologist.

Paul Hand: Okay. That's funny. I uh, I'm in some of those classes right now myself. Umm, so when did you hear about when did you first hear about the Vietnam War?

Robert L. Whetstone: When I was in college.

Paul Hand: In college?

Robert L. Whetstone: Yeah.

Paul Hand: And what was your overall opinion, or what was the overall opinion of the war around the country at that time?

Robert L. Whetstone: Well, I didn't have an opinion at that point. I just knew it existed. I didn't know a lot about the politics of it or anything like that. I know it was creating a lot of social upheaval. My focus was I was trying to get through school. I was working full time job and carrying a full load through 00:03:00the day. And that was my focus.

Paul Hand: Yep. So what could you tell me about the anti-war movement?

Robert L. Whetstone: Not much. I didn't participate in it, other than the fact that it was creating a lot of social upheaval and uh, that some people were very against it. Some people for it, some people, you know, just don't want to be bothered with it.

Paul Hand: Yeah.

Robert L. Whetstone: And like I said, it was a lot of that was going on when I was in school. So. I stayed focused on schoolwork.

Paul Hand: What was your. Where did you go to? Where did you go to college?

Robert L. Whetstone: Pennsylvania Military College.

Paul Hand: Okay. And um, so you mentioned military college. Can you tell me anything about that?

Robert L. Whetstone: Well, yeah, it was Pennsylvania Military College, which is in Chester, now referred to as Widener University. Paul Hand: Okay Robert L. Whetstone: And they had done away with the ROTC program by the time I, day student ROTC program. So I was strictly a day student going there while there 00:04:00was still a cadet corps there, very prominent cadet corps. And I was in the science curriculum. Let's just say I started out in a different curriculum and finally ended up switching curriculums into the science end.

Paul Hand: Okay. Umm, So just to transition a little bit, why did you enter the military and when did this take place?

Robert L. Whetstone: Well, the military you got to realize during that time, there was always that there was the draft, it has always existed. And at least from my memory, and I knew that was hanging over my head. And I had finished, I finished school, got a job out of school. And when you uh, when you reach a certain age, you had to register with your local selection board, and which I did. But then I found out after school in my employment, I found out I was deferred. I had a deferment. And that deferment, Then I understood the deferment 00:05:00made you your draft eligible. Then up until 35, your eligibility for draft I think ended at 26 or 27, I'm not sure. So that added another seven years on. And I was thinking hmm, I don't want that I could end up with a house marriage child, whatever. I didn't want that. I didn't want that hanging out there as an unfinished piece. So that's when I uh, stepped forward and put my name into the into the kitty to be drafted.

Paul Hand: Yeah.

Robert L. Whetstone: The other thing is I should qualify that too. When I, when I knew I quit the job came back, I interviewed, I knew that put me in the role in the pool now to be drafted. So I went around and interviewed all, all the services and a lot of those services were located in the post office in Chester, Pennsylvania, and they were all down there. So I went talked to them all and I 00:06:00figured the Navy offered me the best opportunities and they had a deferred program. So I signed up for the deferred program. I got tired of waiting for it, went to the, I said, Let's put me in the next group that's going out and that was in March of 67', and I was sent to Great Lakes. Very, very cold. Very cold.

Paul Hand: So I was going to ask, why did you become a marine specifically?

Robert L. Whetstone: Actually, it's not why I became one. I just came on, became one because the MOS I was in the Navy, which was the Medical Corps. The Marine Corps itself is a branch of the Navy. And they are a part of the Department of Navy. So the Marine Corps staff gets their religious and medical personnel through the Navy. And because I had gone to corps school, And then uh randomly they select the various companies out of corps school to go to another type of 00:07:00school which is field medical training down at Camp Lejeune. So my company was selected and we went down there and that put me, that got me an MOS of 8404 and that threw me into a different pool. So that meant that the, the Marines could end up depending on manpower and whatever they could pull from that, could take people from that pool and sign it within the Marine Corps branch. So that's how it.

Paul Hand: So what can you tell me about your first days in service? What did that feel like?

Robert L. Whetstone: First day uh, I'm uncertain? My first day you realize in the Navy at Great Lakes and everyone left out of 401 North Broad. It's a big retention center and you give it and you were sent orders through the mail or 00:08:00whatever, and you were told to report 401 North Broad I figure around 8:00 or 9:00 in the morning. And from that point on, then you were, you were the property of the military, so to speak. And we just waited for assignment. And I can remember leaving out of 30th Street on a train to go to Great Lakes.

Paul Hand: Okay.

Robert L. Whetstone: And I ended up hooking up with one of the guys I never thought I would become friends with, became lifelong friends from that point.

Paul Hand: Okay. So what can you tell me about your boot camp or training experience at Great Lakes?

Robert L. Whetstone: At Great Lakes, Well, we were all put into kind of a holding area for new people coming in. And what you were doing, you were being processed administratively. You were being processed. You know who you were, that type of thing. Being assigned a company within boot camp, that type of 00:09:00thing. And you were just so you were in for a week then you were being you would get to get some sort of indoctrination. You would get issued military clothing and the whole thing. And then at that point, you were given, I think, if I recall right, you were given a box, sent your civilian clothing home. They were very they being the military in the Navy was very prompt. And make sure you correspond with the family. They wanted I mean they were very adamant about you send notes from your your family, let them know what's going on. So I think I was in, we were in that role for about a week. And then we got transferred over to the other side, which were which boot camp started.

Paul Hand: Um, what can you share about your instructors there?

Robert L. Whetstone: I ended up with a very good instructor. I'll never forget his name. Robert Carter? Robert C. _____? I think his name was. He was a good uh, I don't know if you want to call him a drill sergeant, whatever. But he was a good company commander. And I have fond memories of him. And he was, He was a 00:10:00good person.

Paul Hand: Yeah.

Robert L. Whetstone: Yeah.

Paul Hand: So how did you get through that there?

Robert L. Whetstone: Well, and the guy I told you about at 401 North Broad, he and I ended up at the same company together. We traveled on the train together or whatever. So he and I kept we got selected for different roles within the company. So he took on the role of RPOC, which is Recruit Petty Officer Chief. And I ended up in some other administrative role. So he was in command of the company, so he drilled us, or whatever. And myself I was in more administrative roles. So I got, what they didn't know. And I finally realize that after a couple of days, my role, I'm getting all the information at least a day in advance of everything that is going to happen. So he and I supported one another for all of this. So. And it was very helpful to me. Eased a lot of the 00:11:00apprehensions and trust that I knew a day in advance what was going to happen. What I don't think whether they realize that or not, I don't know. But I can remember one time he got sick. He, uh, had a reaction to one of the shots for her. And if he got and his his arm swelled up from the wrist up to his elbow, he reacted to it. And if they had found that they being the administration would have found out, they would have sent him back. So I hid him for for a weekend. I knew he was sick. He was tired. He couldn't, so, I knew being in my role, I knew where all the nooks and crannies were within this building. And what he needed to do was sleep a lot. So I knew were what was going to happen on the weekend. Who was still going to be doing what? So I knew where to hide them for a week, for a couple of hours so he could sleep. Sleep well. And then I would it's going 00:12:00to happen. Then I move into some other place. So we got through the weekend never got sent back.

Paul Hand: So how did you exactly get the information before him?

Robert L. Whetstone: There would be, uh, There's another commander. But maybe the people are. So they would send a roster down or an agenda of what's going to happen the next day, what's going to happen, very time oriented 8 to 9. You know, you're up at six in the morning. 8 to 9. There's drill. Or eight to nine breakfast will say 8 to 9. You're going to do this? 8 to 10 to 10 to 11. It's going to be this class 12. So it's going to be this class. So I knew the day's event. I knew what the schedule was that day in advance. So that helped a lot.

Paul Hand: That must have been very nice. And I'm sure it did relieve some stress and some pressure.

Robert L. Whetstone: Oh, Yeah, I mean, it was. And then the other thing, it's too, what I used to do this in my own technique, we were in boot camp. I think 00:13:00the there's like 70 guys in the in the rooms, were all in bunks type thing, almost everyone had a different either recruits or you had another role within the company. But I didn't want to be in. And then you had a had the. They had the head, the bathroom. I didn't want to fight seventy for Sinks, so I used to have the guard wake me up a half hour before he woke everybody else up. So I go in there, I do my shave, I do the whole thing. So I was already done and I could focus on other things and everybody else was doing all the other stuff.

Paul Hand: I feel like I'm the same type of person with my roommates. I like to get up early in the morning and do my stuff before everyone else.

Robert L. Whetstone: I did it once or twice, Bob you got to figure out another way to do this. So I always told I told the guard I found out who the guard was around that time. Said you wake me up at 4:00.

Paul Hand: Very smart. So where did you go after the Great Lakes?

Robert L. Whetstone: After the Great Lakes went down to Camp Lejeune. I had a two week two week leave and then they sent me down to camp Lejeune for. I think it was eight weeks, two months. And then we were in barracks, so to speak. We did a lot of field training.

Paul Hand: And yeah, so what what exactly did you do down there? What was uh.

Robert L. Whetstone: it was it was applying medical care and treatment under combat conditions.

Paul Hand: Did you have any prior experience with medical training before that?

Robert L. Whetstone: Uh, let's see. Well, I. When I was in college, I was pre-med.

Paul Hand: Okay?

Robert L. Whetstone: So I was taking I had a lot of the coursework and that that helped me immensely through corps school. I mean, some of the stuff they were, you know, that we were being instructed on was kind of basic elementary. I always had a feel for medical anyway. It didn't bother me so. Prior to that? No.

Paul Hand: So you didn't even pick to be?

Robert L. Whetstone: Yes, I did.

Paul Hand: You did choose a medical path.

Robert L. Whetstone: I mean, that's it was just, you know, there's certain things in your life you'll do and you never realize how pivotal some of those things are until years later. So we were in boot camp in the Navy. They gave you all sorts of testing to figure out what your strengths and weaknesses are, whatever your interest, that type of thing. So we did all of this testing and then your counsel, you know, and if you have an opportunity to select your MOS. And I came out more on an administrative personnel type side for some of the testing, but I had already had this education. I was interested in it. So I said no. I said, if it's an opportunity, I said, I'd rather go into the Medical end Medical Corps, Medical Service Corps. You said you realize what you're doing. He said at the time he was trying to give me a heads up, but either I missed it or too naive to understand it. I don't know. But what he was telling me is you're 00:16:00throwing yourself into a pool, going this way, You'll avoid this. If you go here, you're almost certainly to go there. And I said, Well, basically, I said, Well, I'll take my chances. That's what I did. So that was a very critical, pivotal decision on me. And I didn't understand it at the time. I look back on it now, and I said yeah.

Paul Hand: It makes sense. So what exactly did you learn at Camp Lejeune? You said you were doing obviously medical training and that was like for in the field?

Robert L. Whetstone: that that was all in the field. Obviously, there was PT morning and night. Learn weapons. We had some yeah. We had firing range weapons were responsible for rifle cleaning and the whole thing then. Then there was 00:17:00like a week. I think it was a week where we went out on field. We lived in the field and, you know, you had various events that would happen, that you were responsible for taking care of a wounded soldier.

Paul Hand: Like a scenario.

Robert L. Whetstone: A scenario. Taking taking a soldier out of Harm's way, or if they if they got a belly wound, how do you treat them and keep them alive, the whole purpose was to how to treat to keep them alive till the medevac came in. And that's what it was all about

Paul Hand: at the time--

Robert L. Whetstone: I've got to say one thing. I had some of the best chow when I was in the field. I don't know What those field kitchens were putting out but boy they put out some much chow?

Paul Hand: Yeah.

Robert L. Whetstone: Yeah,

Paul Hand: What was it?

Robert L. Whetstone: I mean, it was a field. It's a field kitchen. It's a big piece. And the cooks and I can't even think about it. But I do remember walking away like years later thinking, you know, some of the best chow I had was when I 00:18:00was out there in the field.

Paul Hand: That's awesome. And you wouldn't expect that.

Robert L. Whetstone: Ah, you wouldn't. That's it. That's why I remember. Because I wouldn't expect that.

Paul Hand: Yeah. So did you feel at the time that you were retaining a lot of this information, that you were prepared for that kind of scenario.

Robert L. Whetstone: Oh, yeah,

Paul Hand: yeah.

Robert L. Whetstone: Oh, yeah. Well, after you're done there, I wasn't assigned a marine Corps unit right away. I then they got orders, and they sent me back into the Navy, so to speak, at a hospital. And I end up being I was started out as a basic corpsman on the surgical floor. And then through the as people were rotating through, I ended up becoming the senior corpsman of the surgical ward, which means I kind of ran the war too long and supervised the other four or five corpsman that were there. And I work hand in hand. And the floor, the ward, whatever was really overseen by a nurse, a Navy nurse, and generally they were 00:19:00lieutenants, and then there was a medical doctor and he'd make his rounds. And then I would accompany the doctor or nurse and myself. We'd make rounds every morning talking about and reviewing the case of every soldier or Navy person that was there, generally the Marines, most of them.

Paul Hand: Where was this hospital?

Robert L. Whetstone: Naval Philadelphia.

Paul Hand: Philadelphia?

Robert L. Whetstone: Philadelphia Naval Hospital.

Paul Hand: And what would have been your rank at that time?

Robert L. Whetstone: My rank at that time was. E-4 and just before I left, I became an E-5, which would have been corporal to sergeant.

Paul Hand: Okay. So where. Where? Where did you go after that hospital?

Robert L. Whetstone: After that hospital. That's when I ended up in Nam.

Paul Hand: Okay. So, um, did you want to go to Vietnam?

Robert L. Whetstone: I wasn't anxious to go to it. I mean, that's that's the way threw it out. But I can tell you one thing. When I knew I had my orders, having 00:20:00treated all the Marines that were in that ward, that were wounded in some way because we used to get the wounded in there that they were on the battlefield 36 hours ago. And some of them came in with some pretty nasty wounds,

Paul Hand: shipped back to Philadelphia.

Robert L. Whetstone: Yep, they were shipped back. They were wounded. They got triaged. And then I there's several of the cases that still stick with me, but they maybe I was maybe a little longer than 36 hours, I don't know. But it seemed like they rotated out because they would cut some. Someone would come in at the battle, bandages still on them.

Paul Hand: So after seeing some of these Marines, some of these guys coming back from Vietnam. What were your expectations like before you went to Vietnam? Because it must have been

Robert L. Whetstone: I wanted to be well trained. I wanted to be well versed. And my biggest worry was, will I be able to do my job?

Paul Hand: Yeah, I feel like that's a valid level of stress.

Robert L. Whetstone: Yeah. I mean, it's and I could tell you this too, when I knew I had my orders, I saw people. I saw these soldiers coming back, parts missing, lost eyesight, the whole thing. And I got my orders during the fall. And fall is one of my favorite seasons. I'm thinking Okay, so when I had leave or when I had, I used to go up to French Creek State Park, and I'd hike up there. But I figured I may not be able to do this again.

Paul Hand: Yeah. So when did you arrive in Vietnam?

Robert L. Whetstone: Uh, let's see. I think it was January. January 68'. January 68' I think it was.

Paul Hand: Okay. And where exactly did you go first in Vietnam?

Robert L. Whetstone: Well, in Nam or my way over.

Paul Hand: On your way over.

Robert L. Whetstone: Okay. I got orders, and I think. So my orders sent me to Treasure Island, which is an island in the Bay of San Francisco. Okay. And then I was there for a week, and then I got orders again, and they shipped me to Camp Butler, I think it was, in Okinawa. I was there for a week and then from there I landed in Da Nang and someone was there to pick me up and they took me to a headquarters a little bit outside of a Da Nang, and I was there for less than a week, maybe four or five days, and that's where I was being assigned a unit I was going to go to. And I and I didn't know it was luck of the draw it was whoever it was. And I came down put in a jeep, and was driven out to where I was going to go.

Paul Hand: Were you alone at the time, this whole time going over

Robert L. Whetstone: Yeah, you just who you whoever you made friends with or whatever? I remember eating pork fried rice in a place on Camp Butler, 3:00 in 00:23:00the morning Paul Hand: in Okinawa.

Robert L. Whetstone: In Okinawa, with two or three other guys. Paul Hand: Wow. Robert L. Whetstone: I mean, it was just a bizarre schedule, bizarre time. Just couldn't think about anything.

Paul Hand: How old were you at the time?

Robert L. Whetstone: Lets see, 67'. 23, 24.

Paul Hand: Wow. And that's a lot of experience that you had already beforehand, working in the hospital as a senior advisor. You're not much older than I am right now, so

Robert L. Whetstone: yeah,

Paul Hand: that must have been a lot of responsibility. Um, how, how did you feel being that young and with all this responsibility and being shipped over to Vietnam?

Robert L. Whetstone: I, I don't know how you mean. I was just kind of nervous. I was kind of like, you realize I worked on patients marines that have been wounded for a year, over a year. And I. I see when I've seen what physically 00:24:00would happen to them. I used to work third shift well in that ward and they would come up and they'd unburden themselves. It was at night you'd hear stories and I was the only one there and I ended up talking and it was kind of therapeutic for them and unburden themselves. So I heard a lot of a lot of stories and I think they were I was helping them work through their issue.

Paul Hand: Yeah. Just by being a being an ear.

Robert L. Whetstone: Yeah. I didn't, it was just yeah, they needed to talk to somebody. A lot of them didn't sleep, you'd hear the nightmares, the whole thing.

Paul Hand: Yeah Robert L. Whetstone: And one of the tragedies I remember not so much that, one of the tragedies I remember, one thing that always kept me from getting involved. I would see these guys. Wounded in some way, trying to work 00:25:00through their wounds, trying to work through their, their emotional uh, problems. And I see the girlfriend come in, or I'd see the wife come in. I've seen wives walk up to This guy and hand him divorce papers and walk out. And then I also saw wives come in, and be very supportive. Go out in the hallway and cry their eyes out.

Paul Hand: That's tough. It's got to be tough to watch. What when you arrived in Vietnam, what were your first impressions about where you were going and what it was like?

Robert L. Whetstone: I, I didn't. First impressions i'm like, where are you going to send me? What's going to be my responsibilities? Am I going to be able to do the job? I, it was kind of a sense of apprehension because you didn't know 00:26:00what to expect. You've heard all of all the horror stories then. But you just didn't you didn't know what you what you were going to do to, until you were there.

Paul Hand: Yeah. Um, So tell me about your base when you arrived there. Can you describe that for me?

Robert L. Whetstone: My base?

Paul Hand: Wherever you went first.

Robert L. Whetstone: You mean in Nam?

Paul Hand: Yes.

Robert L. Whetstone: Okay. They sent me to headquarters. It was kind of a secure area, we'll say. They sent me orders and I got driven out into the field, kind of dropped off. So they took me up to the people to handle the personnel type thing. And I basically checked in. They said, There's your tent. That was that was it.

Paul Hand: What was your tent like?

Robert L. Whetstone: It was, you know, military tent. Fortunately, though, they 00:27:00had it set up. The Seabees come in and had set, you know, plywood floors up on stilts a little about a couple of feet. And then the tent was over that and the tent had cots in it, no air conditioning.

Paul Hand: No AC. Robert L. Whetstone: No air conditioning. Paul Hand: Did you have a bunk mate?

Robert L. Whetstone: Did I have a bunk mate? Yeah. Oh, there was one, two, three when I go by. So the armorer, there were four other guys in there.

Paul Hand: Okay. So what was your what was your company like? Where were you assigned? Who were you with?

Robert L. Whetstone: Well, I got assigned to, like I said at first 1st battalion 11th marines, which is an armored artillery group, first Marine Division fleet marine force referred to as FMF and that was my sole responsibility within Nam, and I was supposed to take care of them medically. And that meant your immunizations. Make sure no one gets malaria. If they get malaria, how to treat 00:28:00them. And then if there's any hostilities that results in wounded, then I take care it.

Paul Hand: What were the guys in your company like and, How did they get along?

Robert L. Whetstone: They got along great. And I got to say. You want to you want to meet a diversified Country, the military Is it, because they come from all over the place. I mean, I have fond memories of several guys. Yeah, one guy was from Boston another guy was from Louisiana. Some guy was from the Middle West. They were all over and with all different backgrounds and beliefs, but they all were there to do the job. And they expected me to do my job. And that's. I know it's a little bit of an action, but, you know, you're you're worried and you're scared, but you kind of get a fatalistic attitude after a couple of weeks, maybe a month, if say, well, if it's going to happen, It's 00:29:00going to happen.

Paul Hand: Yeah. So what was your specific job? Can you go into a little bit more detail like,

Robert L. Whetstone: oh, okay, I would hold uh. I had to take care of the sanitary conditions, make sure they were taken care of, have sick call every morning, if I remember right once a, once a week I had to make sure they all took their chloroquine-primaquine tablets and there would be a formation. We always had formation Every morning, there'd be a roll call, there would be announcements. You know, what you're going to do this day? What's expected to this day? There would be ammo runs. I would I was I used to go on the ammo runs. We were very, not very close, We were like 35 miles from China Beach, which was a major depot. And we would go there, pick up the ammo and come back. And then 00:30:00the evenings, it was same thing we would. It quiet down a little bit, but at night it was a little sketchy at night. And, One thing I liked. I liked it when it was full moon.

Paul Hand: Yeah,

Robert L. Whetstone: because that was one week where you're not in total darkness. You can see what's coming.

Paul Hand: Yeah. Did you have any help with your specific job?

Robert L. Whetstone: Any help?

Paul Hand: Anyone who held the same?

Robert L. Whetstone: Well, there weren't, you know, I was in, I was in Alpha Company. There were two other batteries, Bravo and Charlie. They were in different locations. Now, I had access to a physician, a medical doctor. But again, they were a phone call. They weren't there with me. I was the only one there. So let's just say if you had income and you had a firefight so that

Paul Hand: you were the sole corpsman,

Robert L. Whetstone: I was the sole corpsman. Now, I think there were supposed to be two corpsman assigned to the unit, but it never worked out that way. There was always an overlap. Like I came in, the guy I was relieving somehow he got injured. He got his foot caught in barbed wire, tore up his ankle or whatever, got a bad infection. So he was he he came back a little bit but didn't stay long or rotated out. Then it was just me. And then towards my end, towards my last 90 days, another guy came in. Then we transitioned a little bit. I told what was going on, introduced him the whole thing, and then when I left, he was the one.

Paul Hand: Um, so you were pretty much making kind of your own orders or decisions. I learned a little bit about that. How did that feel being so young?

Robert L. Whetstone: I kind of liked it. I mean, it didn't it didn't bother me. Okay I was responsible. I knew my job duties were I knew how to do them and. I 00:32:00ended up taking on some extra roles. I used to go out, again realize we were shooting Howitzers, these six Howitzers. So these big guns and they have azimuth or circumference and they rotate around that and you never really fully slept. And I knew where my piece was, so I would hear the gun say 240. Oh, that's going to come right over me. So I'm gonna feel a concussion, I'm gonna, you know the whole thing. So if it was 2:40 or if it was 120, I said, well, they're shooting over that way, I can relax a little bit. But you kind of knew that whether you knew that unconsciously or not, but that's what you were reacting to.

Paul Hand: You mean the direction that they're shooting in? Those numbers?

Robert L. Whetstone: Yeah. You've got to figure that the 05 is within a circle. 00:33:00Okay. And then you might they call and they call in the coordinates for the firing mission, and the coordinates would go around. That's only one of the there would be elevation or something, something else. So they would go around. And then this piece in here, this arc is my, my tent was way over here, but I was within this arc. So when they shot.

Paul Hand: Over your head, you knew.

Robert L. Whetstone: Yeah. And then an artillery round back then was made up of I think was seven. Have you ever seen an artillery shell.

Paul Hand: Big.

Robert L. Whetstone: They're big. That's that's projectile. But then you've got the brass

Paul Hand: casing.

Robert L. Whetstone: Casing. Well, in that brass. Yeah. You got a firing pin, but you got seven or eight bags of power. Individual powders that are in different configurations. And part of the call for firing mission would say, 00:34:00would tell you how many bags of powder you want, that would give you the distance.

Paul Hand: Yep

Robert L. Whetstone: So you had that mission. Then you had the elevation, and then you had the, the azimuth.

Paul Hand: Who was in charge of all this?

Robert L. Whetstone: Every, Every gun had a crew.

Paul Hand: You said you had six?

Robert L. Whetstone: huh?

Paul Hand: You had six guns? Robert L. Whetstone: If I remember right, there were six. Had six 05's, and each gun had a crew. And the crew was made out. One, two, three, four. I think four or five people and each gun had an ammo piece here, an ammo bunker, and that's where they would keep it and that's how they loaded. But I used to go out middle of the night. Sometimes I couldn't sleep and what was going on, on a group. And those guys had a tough day. They didn't get sleep, they didn't the rest the whole thing. So I used to go out on one or two of the guns and relieve somebody. I would never relieve the guy with getting in 00:35:00the firing mission, the coordinates. That, that would be I wouldn't want. So I would relieve the guy maybe that had the firing, you know, had the firing with it or whatever. And I can remember doing a relief with one gun and that guy, I was there. He says, you want to relieve us, you take care of the lanyard. I said, all right, I'll take care of the lanyard. So I'm on one side of the gun and it's taken, guy taking the firing mission says Hey Doc, You pull that thing, you run at the same time. I said okay I run at the same time. So, yeah, I do. What you don't realize on that, people don't see it is they're going to set a set up in a triangle, just like that's how well at the end of triangles are like hose. And you pick it up when you're moving it around to change. Okay, well, that's. That gun's not set. It's not. So you pick it up those and this the first 00:36:00shot that sets the gun. And if you don't run at the same time. The guns are going to come up over you. And that's happened to a few people. They forget. And that's how some of the guys get injured. The gunmen come over and they end up getting either a broken bone or whatever. That's, that can happen. That's what I tell you. Once it's set, they're okay.

Paul Hand: Did you ever have to treat anything like that? Guys getting hit like that? Robert L. Whetstone: And do what again?

Paul Hand: Did you ever treat anything?

Robert L. Whetstone: No, I never had to treat a guy for that.

Paul Hand: Okay

Robert L. Whetstone: They were pretty well trained. They didn't do that, but they made sure I was alert to that. And once you're alert to it, then, you know, you don't think about it.

Paul Hand: You don't want to mess that up. Robert L. Whetstone: No. Paul Hand:So what kind of, well, let me start with this. How many people were in your company?

Robert L. Whetstone: Bout a, I think, 100, 125 people.

Paul Hand: And again, you were solely responsible for all those men and their healthcare.

Robert L. Whetstone: I'm a response for the immunizations. And that's another thing. Every every payday they would get, there's a there's a payday we'll call 00:37:00it a payday. Where they would get the paymaster would come in, they set it up. And that was the time I would. Prior to that, I would go through everyone's health record and make sure they were up on their immunizations. And if they weren't before they got paid, they had to pass through me.

Paul Hand: mm hmm

Robert L. Whetstone: And there was plague, typhus, typhoid. "GG", Gamagata that was a that was the aid and not getting infected type thing. So I would not everybody missed the same shots. Everyone's shot schedule was different. And that's going on. I gave them the shot and it was done. Then they go over to Paymaster. Some guys in after they went straight, straight to the paymaster, they were up to date on their shots.

Paul Hand: Yeah. What kind of equipment did you have? Like antibiotics, 00:38:00painkillers? What did you got?

Robert L. Whetstone: Uh, basically vaccines. Had a few. Had the chloroquines, a lot of battle dressings, a lot of ointments. Wasn't, there wasn't a lot. You had to make do with what, what was there. But it was mostly things for bites, rashes, immunizations, plus the fact there was it didn't have to do much with insulin. I don't remember any diabetics.

Paul Hand: Okay. So what was the state of medical triage like back then?

Robert L. Whetstone: What do you mean by state?

Paul Hand: As of compared to now.

Robert L. Whetstone: Ah well in some regards I think triage today is much more advanced, medical treatments are much more advanced. I think getting, getting someone from the battlefield injury back to something is is better. Plus the 00:39:00fact that they have more tools at the, on the battlefield than they did back then. I think it's I don't know, other than say it better, i believe.

Paul Hand: Yeah. What did you think? What was your personal opinion about the Vietnamese?

Robert L. Whetstone: I like them. They were good people. I mean, I, I end up being. Not so much while I was there, but when I came back, I ran into a number of Vietnamese that were kind of, got out refugees and stuff like that. And I think the Vietnamese people are very nice people. I think why I was there, they were in hardship because they were in the midst of all of this between the VC and North Vietnamese and ourselves type thing. They were caught, I empathize 00:40:00with them, they were really caught, they were almost in a no win situation for themselves.

Paul Hand: Did you have much interaction while you were over in Vietnam with the Vietnamese?

Robert L. Whetstone: Only, uh, initially I used to go on some village sick calls when I first got there. I didn't do that a lot. That was when I was kind of waiting to get my orders to where I was, Paul Hand: Okay Robert L. Whetstone: And it was kind of sick call and basically what it is the kids get to you. They don't know what's going on, type thing, and they're the ones that they're innocent or they're whatever and they're the ones that are suffering. Some of the adults understand it, but even then you got to realize it's mostly where I was a lot of Vietnamese at that time were farmers. And they were agriculturally inclined. It wasn't so much an industrial complex. So.

Paul Hand: Um, did you ever see combat specifically?

Robert L. Whetstone: Mm hmm. Many times.

Paul Hand: Yeah. And did you carry a weapon yourself?

Robert L. Whetstone: I carried a .45. I made sure I knew how to use it. The other thing I made sure because one of my roommates, so to speak, bunkmates, was the armorer. I made sure I knew how to operate every weapon in the compound. Not that I wanted to use it, but I wanted to know how to operate it, in case I was thrown in that position.

Paul Hand: So did you ever have to you said you helped out with the Howitzers. Did you ever have to fight yourself or did you only specifically provide care?

Robert L. Whetstone: Uh fight.. I was primarily providing care. I didn't have to pick up a gun and shoot it at anybody, No.

Paul Hand: Did you ever have to, did you experience any firefights?

Robert L. Whetstone: say again?

Paul Hand: A firefight. Did you ever?

Robert L. Whetstone: Oh, yeah, several. Since we were a howitzer and we were in an enclosed compound, we had to worry about attacks on the line, attacks on the 00:42:00wire and also incoming. So we'd get rocket attacks. We had one or two attacks on the line or guard post at one time. I can remember if I remember right. It got so sketchy. And I was biting my lip. It got so sketchy that they had a, they had a round called Beehive if I remember right. And then the order came through to lower the guns to ground level, instead elevate it, bring it down and you load it with Beehive. And Beehive which you're going they're going to break through the line, going to get overrun. It's big buckshot.

Paul Hand: Yeah.

Robert L. Whetstone: And you got sentries out there, too. So you got to worry about some of your own people. So we never came to that. But the order was pre-- We were close to making that order.

Paul Hand: They were aimed?

Robert L. Whetstone: Yeah Paul Hand: They were aimed.

Robert L. Whetstone: And in one. I can remember one time. I'm standing on one of 00:43:00the guns. Cause we're all on alert, so I'm out in one of the guns. And next thing you know, I'm on the ground. You know, what the hell happened? Here a rocket had come in. Didn't even hear it, didn't even hear it. And it blew up one of the hooches, but it pushed me and the other guy I was standing next to to the ground and I hear him yelling, Oh, my head, my head. I'm thinking, oh no, I'm going to crawl over there, put my hand underneath his helmet, and I'm going to have a big head injury on my. That didn't happen. What he got? You got a lot of the stone. And he caught some in his arm. But it wasn't life threatening or anything like that. And uh, but the odd thing is, I was like ten feet away from him. I didn't get anything.

Paul Hand: Where did the rocket hit and how close?

Robert L. Whetstone: Behind us. Behind us. Oh it must have hit behind us, maybe 00:44:0015 yards.

Paul Hand: Were you the closest i'm assuming then?

Robert L. Whetstone: Huh?

Paul Hand: You were closest to that hit?

Robert L. Whetstone: Yeah, we were that close. It fell behind the gun, hit the hit the guys tent. And the blast threw out stone. And that's what we were. That's what but the blast threw us to the ground.

Paul Hand: Yeah.

Robert L. Whetstone: But he, he caught all the stone and I didn't get anything

Paul Hand: Almost like buckshot, stone flying? Robert L. Whetstone: Yeah. Paul Hand: So on that topic. In all of your experiences, what types of wounds did you have to treat in some of these combat you saw?

Robert L. Whetstone: Shrapnel wounds. I had a guy that I got called out to the pit one time. And the guy said oh doc you know, My pants are wet. Ughh, I said okay, drop the drawers. And look here he had a shot, he got shot in the hip. 00:45:00Through and through. He was fleshy, didn't hit the bone, whatever it was a through and through. I said you got shot! So bandaged him up a little bit and then the following day and to go to the battalion aid station or whatever. But the other thing I told him, I said what they used to do. When you're on the guns, there's a big tree line way out here. What they used to do is uh at night they had to use flashlights to, you know, get their settings and stuff. You forgot to turn off the damn flashlight. They would stick it in their pockets. But you don't realize how light shines when you're in total darkness. Somebody out there in the tree line took a shot at the light, caught him.

Paul Hand: That's how it happened.

Robert L. Whetstone: Yeah,

Paul Hand: Right at his hip, right. Pretty much right where the light was.

Robert L. Whetstone: I mean, I can remember being on an alert. Some guy lights up a cigarette. I just about freaked out on him almost. I said, What are you trying to do? I said, You just about put a spotlight on us!

Paul Hand: Yeah Robert L. Whetstone: So you don't realize how little candle and total darkness shines, it shows up.

Paul Hand: Wow. Robert L. Whetstone: There's no streetlights, where we were at.

Paul Hand: Yeah. Robert L. Whetstone: No

Paul Hand: But the full moon.

Robert L. Whetstone: When, when that week came around with a full moon, Oh. Because you could really, you could really see what was going on when that full moon went down and it got dark or it was, it's sketchy.

Paul Hand: Yeah. Were there any casualties in your unit?

Robert L. Whetstone: Any what?

Paul Hand: Casualties?

Robert L. Whetstone: Uh. No, I would. There were people that got hurt, but they weren't casualties. They were simply active duty the same day or the following day. There were some casualties in a sister unit, I forget what you call them, 00:47:00but they used to do firing missions or not firing missions. They used to go out and do, uh, Firing range familiarization. Well. It was outside the perimeter. And why they did that? I don't know. That's where they kept it. Well, it got booby trapped.

Paul Hand: Hmm

Robert L. Whetstone: And one of the guys stepped on a booby trap.

Paul Hand: And what was that trap?

Robert L. Whetstone: Pressure pushed it down.

Paul Hand: A mine?

Robert L. Whetstone: Yeah, a mine. If you want to call it a mine. An explosive.

Paul Hand: Yeah.

Robert L. Whetstone: Well, he got some, and he got severely injured. The other five guys that were out there with him got shrapnel wounds.

Paul Hand: yeah Robert L. Whetstone: And we we had to impromptu call a medevac in. So we're out there in this. But then because everyone thought it was mines, we had to walk back through this field and no one knew whether there were more mines.

Paul Hand: That's scary, Were you there? Robert L. Whetstone: Huh?

Paul Hand: You were there?

Robert L. Whetstone: I was oh, yeah. I was one of the guys there treating, covering the guy while the medevac, while they diverted the chopper that had another mission that was close by. They called in, diverted, the chopper, he landed was one of these big Hueys landed and we loaded the wounded onto there. And then the wounded were they were taken to Da Nang.

Paul Hand: Um, how did you feel about some of those experiences where you saw some more serious wounds and?

Robert L. Whetstone: Well, they stay with you and you got to compartmentalize a lot of this stuff. I mean. I don't know how to answer that one. I mean, they just have an impact, but.

Paul Hand: Tell me about a couple of your most memorable experiences.

Robert L. Whetstone: My memorable experiences, well some of what I'm relaying to you are memorable experiences, not necessarily in a positive way.

Paul Hand: Yeah Robert L. Whetstone: But they are, that's what I remember. No, I 00:49:00don't know. You mean while I was there?

Paul Hand: Anything. Robert L. Whetstone: Oh, anything? Paul Hand: Positive, positive or negative. Robert L. Whetstone: Huh? Paul Hand: Yeah. While you were in Vietnam.

Robert L. Whetstone: It was just, I can't think of. Paul Hand: Yeah that's okay.

Robert L. Whetstone: Okay.

Paul Hand: So how did you stay in touch with your family?

Robert L. Whetstone: Letters.

Paul Hand: Was that often?

Robert L. Whetstone: Yeah. I tried to write them frequently, and fortunately I also had some other people that would send, which was very helpful as a care package. I'd get tasty cakes or something or other or, you know, one or two people would send a care package and it was very helpful. I appreciated them. And then when I. There was a friend of mine who was military to ex-military. His daughter ended up going into a Peace Corps situation. And then I used to make an 00:50:00effort to send her care packages because I knew how much they meant.

Paul Hand: What would of a care package been? What would have been in that? What would have been in a care package?

Robert L. Whetstone: Oh, odds and ends. Mostly it's kind of, like I said, tasty cake type stuff. Maybe you've written home and said, Hey, I'd like to have this. Could be crackers primarily It was food or could be clothing or it could be a novelty game or. Just anything that would kind of lift your spirits or something. And even when I was in Desert Storm Shield, somebody used to send me a care package.

Paul Hand: Yeah.

Robert L. Whetstone: And so that's why I said when that guy's daughter ended up in the Peace Corps over, I think in Uzbekistan? I made an effort, she wanted a diary. She wanted a few things. So I would pack up a care package, and she wanted power bars, you know, those power bar type things. Paul Hand: mm Hmm. 00:51:00Robert L. Whetstone: So some of the things too, you used for for trade. In other words, let's say you had a little kid just want to treat the kid, you know, give him some chocolate bar or something or other .

Paul Hand: Mm hmm. What was the food like while you were in Vietnam?

Robert L. Whetstone: Food wasn't bad, I mean, we had, there was a mess hall I had to walk over to and It was I can't say, you're in the field, It's a mess hall and I can't say I complained about food.

Paul Hand: What were some of it? Do you remember any of the meals you had,

Robert L. Whetstone: Basically anything you would have here.

Paul Hand: Really?

Robert L. Whetstone: I mean, it wasn't the best cut of meat sometimes, but you'd have mashed potatoes, you know, vegetables, whatever, because it was a mess hall type thing. Now it wasn't, wasn't like you're out in the field.

Paul Hand: yeah Robert L. Whetstone: One of the, now we're talking about this type of thing, you get hungry in the middle of the night. So they had, they still had some of the old World War II, Korean War K-rations, C-rations, the 00:52:00whole thing. So some of these rations were pretty decent. So what you like to try to get your hands on was a, the box, the particular K-rations. Now I like the pork and beans ones. You know, they were good. Then there was another one. So if he had these things that somebody else you'd be, with that became barter, you'd start trading them off, type thing. But yeah, we used to do that in the middle of the night sometimes.

Paul Hand: Did you have plenty of supplies while you're there?

Robert L. Whetstone: Plenty of supplies? Yeah. I can't say I had any issues with supply.

Paul Hand: Was there anything you did that was special uh, for good luck?

Robert L. Whetstone: For good luck. You mean, like, did I have a talisman of some sort for girls or not? No, nothing like that, I wasn't.

Paul Hand: Were there entertainers at all?

Robert L. Whetstone: Yeah, there were two, two USO shows that came through. I didn't know who they were. I mean, they were entertainers, singers, dancers, comedians, that type of thing. But they weren't of anybody like Bob Hope or anything like that. We were too far out that way. Now, that may have happened further in, like in Da Nang or some place like that, but I didn't have the access to get there.

Paul Hand: Yeah. Now did you get leave at all while you were?

Robert L. Whetstone: Yeah, I went to Australia for two weeks.

Paul Hand: How was that?

Robert L. Whetstone: I was nice. I enjoyed it. It was nice. Got out, And I ended up in Sydney, stayed in a nice hotel, Sydney. And I did, I did, I did my R and R close to when I was going to be rotating back.

Paul Hand: R and R what is that?

Robert L. Whetstone: Rest and relaxation. Paul Hand: Okay Robert L. Whetstone: So I did I knew I was going to be going back in January or February if everything worked out. And so I went in October. So I wasn't way down here.

Paul Hand: Hmm mm. What did you do while you were in Sydney?

Robert L. Whetstone: Did a lot of sightseeing, took in a lot of dinners, took in a couple of shows, you know, when I say shows or plays type thing, but that was about it. I mean, you just want to get away from the routine. Plus, the fact when you got there, you went through a another check area and you bought civilian clothes. It's just be around. If they took your cause you went down a military clothes. They put those aside, and then when you're coming back, you change those out. And then either keep your civilian clothes, pack them away and keep them, or you would send them home.

Paul Hand: Um, do you recall any particularly humorous or unusual events?

Robert L. Whetstone: Uh. Lets see, oh, yeah. Yes. I don't know whether it's humorous, but I think of it today. At around dinnertime, we were underneath, we, there were other people in the hooch. But I was daydreaming. And weapons are plentiful, they were all over, you got the handguns the 45, 38's, you got the M-16's, the whole thing. So I'm sitting here and I'm daydreaming, it's around dusk, 5:30. And this guy's im not s-- This guy's 45 is hanging there. Don't ask me why, daydreaming. Something to do. I take the guy's 45, and I'm looking at it. Again, daydreaming, muscle memory type thing. I lock and load, you rack it. And I got the guy's 45, and then there's, and there's a mascot. No, no. There's a guy. He can't see me. He's walking down. He's walking down, he's about from me, to your hallway. He can't see me. You talk--

Paul Hand: About 15 feet-ish.

Robert L. Whetstone: You talk about a memorable event.

Paul Hand: Yeah.

Robert L. Whetstone: This has stayed with me forever. I sight in to this guy. I sight in. I believe I must have kept this guy. I just sight in on this guy. And I let up. And I stop, we had a mascot dog. I sight in on the dog. Then I turn, then they had these ammo cans. We call them ammo cans. They came with the fuzes and stuff, we used the empty ones to wash our clothes. I sighted in on the can, and when I pull that trigger and it went off, Scared the crap out of me.

Paul Hand: Wow.

Robert L. Whetstone: I mean, we're talking a span of 15 seconds. That sucker wasn't supposed to be loaded. I pulled that trigger and that thing popped off. Guy in the hooch froze. He didn't know what was going on. I didn't know what was going on. I just knew it wasn't supposed to go off. And it did. So I'm thinking 00:57:00to myself, okay, wait a minute. Drop the clip. Get the clip out of it. And I said, okay, there's still one, there's still one round in this chamber, we got to get rid of it. So I get rid of it. He's seeing my actions. He realizes this was an accident. I hadn't had a psychotic event.

Paul Hand: Yeah Robert L. Whetstone: And I was like, So. But he went out. I didn't know it at the time. Bout ten, 15 minutes later, he came in handed me the bullet. He dug it out. I have it at home yet.

Paul Hand: Do ya?

Robert L. Whetstone: And I have it thing. It's in a shadow box. And then it says "It wasn't supposed to be loaded"

Paul Hand: That's super neat.

Robert L. Whetstone: It's. But the idea is, to me, I could have changed the history and the dynamic of two families if I had fired on that guy. That was a big lesson to me.

Paul Hand: Just general gun safety.

Robert L. Whetstone: General gun safety, always check it. But I could not, I 00:58:00couldn't have missed that guy. I would have change that guy's life, or changed my life. For some reason. I didn't do it.

Paul Hand: Wow. Um, What did you think of your officers or your fellow soldiers?

Robert L. Whetstone: They were good. I can't. They, they really left me alone.

Paul Hand: Yeah.

Robert L. Whetstone: Yeah. As long as I was doing my job, they didn't. And there was another incident that another memorable. They're not always positive the type thing. But there were. There are. I was also, I also acted as a confidant for a lot of the troops. And it was nothing for me to be woken up at 2, 3, 3:00 in the morning. Yo Doc, I got to talk to you. Okay. So I'd sit there at some time and they would unburden themselves about something that was either family, it was something with another party in the unit, or a personal thing that they're going through. Well, apparently they started to have some drug issues 00:59:00and I said oh, man. And this guy was coming in with nightmares. He said I feel like I'm on fire all the time, I'm having these dreams of being surrounded by fire and whatever. And we talked through a little bit and I said, what's going on? Well, every once in a while, I get a hold of some marijuana. What the hell are you doing this for? You know, I said what you don't need is distorted reality going on for you. Not under these circumstances. So, he straightens himself out. And then I go to the commander. I said, Listen, I think we got to do something. I'm hearing more and more about this. He said who, he wanted to know who it was. I said, I'm not going to tell you, if I tell you, I lose my credibility within this unit. They'll never tell me another thing. I said what I will do is do a program or I'll do some other, you know, get some films. I could 01:00:00get into Da Nang get some films to make them more aware of certain things. What I am not going to is tell you who told me this stuff. And he didn't push the point. I think he knew what was right.

Paul Hand: Yeah.

Robert L. Whetstone: So. But that's what I meant. I had that type of rapport with the commanding officers there that they trust my judgment.

Paul Hand: Yeah, I think that was very responsible and respectful to obviously to keep your confidant role there.

Robert L. Whetstone: And I told myself, lose that confidence and I know that they will trust me anymore. And I said, I don't want that. I don't need that and neither do you. Paul Hand: Yeah, exactly. Did you keep a personal diary at all?

Robert L. Whetstone: No. It's something I wish I had done.

Paul Hand: Yeah,

Robert L. Whetstone: I didn't. I wasn't a diary person. But looking back on it and the fact that lady that was I sent, I encouraged her to keep a diary. I said it may mean anything to you now, but in 20 years later it will. Paul Hand: Yeah.

Robert L. Whetstone: It's something I wish I had done.

Paul Hand: Did you see guys keep diaries there ?

Robert L. Whetstone: Say again?

Paul Hand: Did you see any other guys in the unit that kept diaries?

Robert L. Whetstone: I guess if they. If they were. It was, It wasn't evident to me.

Paul Hand: Yeah. So when did you leave Vietnam?

Robert L. Whetstone: Uh. When did I leave? Oh. January, February, the following year, 68', would have been six, been around-- I get my dates mixed up a little bit. Probably 70'.

Paul Hand: Okay.

Robert L. Whetstone: So 66. Yes, 69. So yeah, I was there and 69 and left in 70' that's what it was.

Paul Hand: In January or February. And how did you feel at that time?

Robert L. Whetstone: Honestly, I was mixed emotions. I had, actually, started a process for extension for another six months

Paul Hand: Really?

Robert L. Whetstone: Yeah, and at the time, if you went in for six months, extended yourself, you could go for a month anywhere free, in the free world. 01:02:00They give you a month's leave. You go any place you want.

Paul Hand: If you extended your time?

Robert L. Whetstone: If you extended your time. And I had papers drawn up. I was going to do that. Cause I had nothing back here. I mean, I had my mother, my father and immediate family. But other than that, no girlfriend, no wife, no nothing, because I made a conscious effort not to do that after seeing when I was in the hospital as I'm not get emotionally involved like that.

Paul Hand: Yeah Robert L. Whetstone: So but then on my way, I'm walking down, walking down to the tent to sign the papers and don't ask why I said, I'm not going to do this. I turn around, I came back, and then I, then that's when I was sent back to Okinawa again. No I got sent to another. They took me out of the compound. My replacement was already there. I left there, got in a jeep. They took me some other place, BAS, Battalion Aid Station, some other place on another hill. I stayed there. I remember sleeping on the OR table following 01:03:00morning. I got, I was in Da Nang. I forget, I got on a flight with a bunch of other guys and we ended up in Okinawa.

Paul Hand: Wow, And why were you leaving Vietnam at the time?

Robert L. Whetstone: Why was I?

Paul Hand: Yeah.

Robert L. Whetstone: My rotation had come up.

Paul Hand: Okay. And so someone else came in and relieved you?

Robert L. Whetstone: Yeah, he was already there. Paul Hand: Oh, Okay. Robert L. Whetstone: He was already there. He came in about two months before I was to rotate out. Paul Hand: Okay. Robert L. Whetstone: And the other thing that most people start, they call it a short time calendar, 90 days before your shipment date or your suspected rotation out. Everyone starts the 90 day calendar. You start--

Paul Hand: Yeah.

Robert L. Whetstone: Huh?

Paul Hand: Counting the days.

Robert L. Whetstone: Counting the days.

Paul Hand: So what took place today? Your services. Oh, well, we already talked about that. And you said you went to Okinawa. Uhh, so what did you do in the 01:04:00days and weeks afterward?

Robert L. Whetstone: What was that again?

Paul Hand: What did you do in the days and weeks afterward? Once you were in Okinawa, what what was next?

Robert L. Whetstone: Well, Okinawa was you know, you're rotating out. You've got gifts you want to send things back home. Sometimes you needed a uniform. You had to have that sent to you. Then it was just kind of killing time, really. And again, it's administratively working you through the system.

Paul Hand: What was next? Where did you go after Okinawa?

Robert L. Whetstone: Okinawa? I uh, where did I go, wait a minute. I ended up in Philly, they ship me, oh, I didn't go to Philly right away. There were some people I wanted to see, Okinawa to San Francisco. That's right. Okinawa to San Francisco. Myself and another guy, uh, we were so tired. I remember this, we were so tired, and just kind of were out of harm's way so to speak. Paul Hand: 01:05:00Yeah. Robert L. Whetstone: We were so stinking giddy in that airport, here we're just laughing our heads off about anything. It wasn't even funny, but it was just a relief of the tension.

Paul Hand: Yeah.

Robert L. Whetstone: And so he went his. He was from Florida. I still remember him, Jim Cecil. I think his name would be. He was from Florida. We went or in fact, we ended up hooking up. He somehow found himself in my compound for a day and we talked a lot. But then I saw him again. We rotated out the same time when we were in Okinawa. I told him. I said we were in Quonset huts. And watching human behavior type stuff. Now. I made sure I had a bunk by the front door. I said, Jim, we want a bunk up there by the front door, not the back, the front door. So anybody comes in and there's going to be changes. People can't make 01:06:00flights, whatever. They're going to walk into that, only the front door they're not and just want to know who can go. They're not going to go to the back. They're going to come in the front door three steps and that's it. Sure enough, that's what happened. We were there for about four or five days. I was sitting in there. We got up. Who wants to go right there?

Paul Hand: Front door.

Robert L. Whetstone: The front door? I said to myself, the other guy, I said, He just went over, he's in the latrine. I'll tell him. So two of us got on a flight out.

Paul Hand: Smart. Very smart. Um, So once you arrived back in that airport, were you in uniform and everything?

Robert L. Whetstone: Was in uniform and uh, we stayed to ourselves. But you know, the climate at the time, so we just stayed to ourselves. And uh, I ended up, he went, I don't know where he went. I think people back home, I ended up going, making a stop over in Denver. Some people I wanted to see I had served with, stayed there for a few days, then went to Philadelphia.

Paul Hand: So typically when people would arrive back, they would receive some 01:07:00backlash, like you said. Did you get any of that when you were in uniform?

Robert L. Whetstone: What's that?

Paul Hand: Did anyone come up to you in the airport and--?

Robert L. Whetstone: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Paul Hand: What were some of the things that you heard?

Robert L. Whetstone: Oh, you know, nasty, swear at you, and everything else. You had to dodge a spit every once in a while. So to avoid some of that. And so you didn't want to get into that type of confrontation. You tried to make it to a men's room and change out of your uniforms as quickly as you could.

Paul Hand: Yeah.

Robert L. Whetstone: And that's a sad commentary, but that's what you had to do, you know. Otherwise you can find yourself in some sort of physical confrontation.

Paul Hand: People just didn't understand.

Robert L. Whetstone: They didn't understand a damn thing.

Paul Hand: Yeah. So once you were back in Philadelphia, what was your, what was your next step?

Robert L. Whetstone: Well, then I had or-- I had leave. Then I had orders. And I 01:08:00went to my next duty station, which happened to be a dispensary in Philadelphia.

Paul Hand: Okay. Um. And. And describe that dispensary for me. Like what?

Robert L. Whetstone: Well, dispensary was really, I was in charge of the dispensary and dispensary had a mult, had a lab and an X-ray, had medical, what else was there, had all the types of different functions. And it was, had a name called the Naval Publications, a form center in north north Philadelphia. And there was a medical doctor and there was administrative staff and a couple other corpsman and myself. I ended up being in the senior role, again. Running myself along with the doctor, ended up running the dispensary, administratively and logistically. Paul Hand: Um, And you mentioned a few, uh, friendships you made. Did you make any close friendships while you're in Vietnam and did you continue 01:09:00any of those?

Robert L. Whetstone: You know, it's an odd thing, but it's for my. From my perspective, you get in the military, you're generally at duty stations, one to three years. And you form friendships. But then you move on to another location and you've got to start all over again. Every once in a while, you might have a friendship that sticks. But it's generally starting all over again? Okay. That was my duty there. I made good friends. But now I'm in another situation and you start all over. I did like the guy, I ended up with four or five very close ones, which I stayed in contact with after, after all of this.

Paul Hand: And how long did those friendships last?

Robert L. Whetstone: Well, they lasted up till now.

Paul Hand: Yeah.

Robert L. Whetstone: Some, I got to admit, one or two got lost along the way because life got in the way.

Paul Hand: Mm hmm

Robert L. Whetstone: But the internet made it much easier to find them again. And I did find him. And we've been in communication, letters, phone calls, 01:10:00primarily phone calls, or email, ever since.

Paul Hand: Yeah.

Robert L. Whetstone: Unfortunately, some of them have past.

Paul Hand: Mm Hmm, Um, How did your time in Vietnam change you? Like, what was the impact that it had on you?

Robert L. Whetstone: Oh. I don't know whether it's much changed me. It just made me more aware of. I don't know. Maybe it has, but. I don't know how to answer.

Paul Hand: Yeah. Did you join a veterans or--? Well, you were still in the service, so we'll get to that later then.

Robert L. Whetstone: Well, let me. Okay, let me straighten out a little bit. Was in the Navy, got out.

Paul Hand: Yeah.

Robert L. Whetstone: Had a break in service. Used the GI Bill to go back to school.

Paul Hand: Okay.

Robert L. Whetstone: While I was in the dispensary, I picked up an interest in pharmacy. So I went to pharmacy school at Temple. I own it because I already had a prior degree, Pennsylvania Military College. I don't have to do the last three years of professional school. So finished that. At the end of that, then I joined the Naval Reserve. And the Naval Reserve it was there full out of the Philadelphia naval yard for a while, but that didn't offer the opportunities I was looking for. So I then I broke that. And then I was working with someone who was in the Army, again, background pharmacy, the whole thing. So he said, Oh, there's a unit over there. So I got a direct commission as a Captain. And I joined the, I joined the Army, and I ended up staying with the Army. And then I 01:12:00retired out of the army. While I was in the Army, That's when I got deployed for Desert Storm, Desert Shield. But I was still in the medical service corps, but more pharmaceutical and more medical logistics than I was in the Army.

Paul Hand: After that education that you received?

Robert L. Whetstone: Yeah Paul Hand: So tell me a little bit about after the dispensary, it was education and then to the Army?

Robert L. Whetstone: Right.

Paul Hand: Tell me a little bit about your experience in the Army.

Robert L. Whetstone: The Army was good. I mean, most of it was kind of reserve, activity, but again, a number of different people, diverse backgrounds, but a lot of like because it was a hospital, you had nursing, you had physicians, you got physical therapy, you had all of these other departments within the hospital. And essentially that whole group would get together at least once a month or be interaction. You're training at a military hospital in most cases. 01:13:00So. That's then, then you would move around in panic sometimes. You would get your rank. You might go first lieutenant to a captain or whatever. Well, as a captain within this organization, there is no billet, no room for you. You have to go out and find someplace else. And then you kind of have to move yourself around like that. While I was in there was that's when I got orders, along with a lot of other people, to order them to Desert Storm/Desert Shield.

Paul Hand: And where were you--?

Robert L. Whetstone: Say again?

Paul Hand: In Desert Storm/Desert Shield, where were you?

Robert L. Whetstone: I, I ended up actually in a combat support role in Germany. In a place called Pirmasens, and that was the main medical depot for all of Europe and I sent all the medical supplies down to Kuwait.

Paul Hand: Wow.

Robert L. Whetstone: So all of that. So any, all the medical supplies to any U.S. , uh, facility in Europe came out of this place, so that and all the embassies, any other places duty stations or whatever that were at your level. So plus the fact we were getting material being shipped from the states there that had to be categorized and then it was sent to wherever, primarily was being sent down to Kuwait.

Paul Hand: So why did you choose to stay in the military for over 30 years, I think?

Robert L. Whetstone: Yeah, well, actually, that was kind of a decision.

Paul Hand: Yeah.

Robert L. Whetstone: Finished pharmacy school. Then I started working in a hospital, Crozier Chester Medical, I said okay, figure I'll do this for a year. Well, I ended up doing it for five years and it was every other weekend. So I 01:15:00had a full time job during this time too, So I'd work ten days. Had a full time job and do the part time work. So I was working out of 14 days, I was working 12 days.

Paul Hand: mm hmm

Robert L. Whetstone: So I got a thinking that, you know, this is going to get into your paycheck. I want more than a paycheck. I want something else down the line. So I said, what do I have in terms of my background that I can, Massage into something that will benefit me later on. I said, well I got the military and that's then I started talking to that guy where I work, and then it just took off from there. So I left the hospital and picked it up with the military and I stayed with them, but I had to make, because I had come in right at the deadline that I had to make every year count. Every year was based on points and there was a minimum number of points you had to achieve, to make sure it was a good year and there were certain categories you got points for, membership, you 01:16:00know your MOS, your training, you know whatever. You get points and you had to have X number of points for it to be considered a good year. And I had to have a every year, a good year to find out if I stumbled or tripped in one year It was all down the, for six years

Paul Hand: For what you were trying to gain out of it.

Robert L. Whetstone: Yeah. Yeah.

Paul Hand: Wow. Did you ever, at any point in your service, did you ever consider leaving the military?

Robert L. Whetstone: No.

Paul Hand: No?

Robert L. Whetstone: A lot of people are not against it. They just uhh you know. I kind of liked it. I liked the organization. I mean, think about it, you got to be organized to move a large mass of people in one direction.

Paul Hand: Hmm

Robert L. Whetstone: Or a large mass of people in different directions that haven't come back to the same point. And it takes discipline, both primarily 01:17:00individually and as a collective group. So you're taking a lot of different people, different attitudes, different beliefs, whatever. But they fundamentally come down to one and you organize them and move them in a certain way. That takes skill both on the leadership as well as on the individual.

Paul Hand: Yeah. When did you retire, from the military?

Robert L. Whetstone: January 2001.

Paul Hand: And what was that like? Robert L. Whetstone: Oh, there's nothing official about it. It was just, I had a number of years, I had the number of points. And for me, I feel okay, it's time, you know. So I just put the paperwork in and I just waited for paperwork to be approved. And where I was said goodbye to a few people. We had a little happy hour afterwards type thing, 01:18:00but and that was about it.

Paul Hand: And where were you at the time?

Robert L. Whetstone: I was at a. I was at a unit in Chester.

Paul Hand: What were you doing at that time in Chester?

Robert L. Whetstone: Well, I was a time I was in a senior administrative role going over training. So when I was in the military, I used to run different programs. In fact, I. I was part of the drug and alcohol abuse officer. So through the year, I was responsible for running drug testing and I'd had to do it randomly and I'd just walk in. I just would walk in, but I work it out. Commander, say, okay, this drill, we're going to do drug testing. And so they would come in, then you'd have to maintain security uh uh chain of command over 01:19:00the sample. And unfortunately, some people got caught. I had to sit in a couple of quarters that.

Paul Hand: Yeah What was the typical drug?

Robert L. Whetstone: Yeah, drugs. It was primarily cocaine.

Paul Hand: Yeah.

Robert L. Whetstone: So we also when I was, we were on a Desert Storm, Desert Shield. The same thing was going on, too.

Paul Hand: Yeah Robert L. Whetstone: We'd walk in to the where we were going to be working and all of a sudden, boom, here's the MPC we're doing. We're doing testing. So even when I was on the active duty part of it, when I was Desert Storm shoot, the same thing was going on. Only I was running and I was just starting to have to give my sample. They run it.

Paul Hand: Do you think your uh any of your experiences in Vietnam kind of led you to that position where you were doing the drug and alcohol abuse or anything like that? Or was it more so?

Robert L. Whetstone: No, I think my whole background, once I found out my 01:20:00medical background and stuff, I became the logical choice for that.

Paul Hand: Yeah, So once you finally retired, you said January 2001, I think.

Robert L. Whetstone: Yeah. January 2001.

Paul Hand: What did you go on to do as a career after your service?

Robert L. Whetstone: A lot of already in my career.

Paul Hand: That was your career?

Robert L. Whetstone: Yeah. I mean, General Reserve military duty was in addition to what a recruiter read. I was already in the pharmaceutical industry career. So once I left, that was just kind of hang up the uniform file, unnecessary papers and that was a and then

Paul Hand: and that was it

Robert L. Whetstone: I'll return then and stay in touch with whatever friendship you wanted to continue to nurture over all of these years. Stay in touch with that. And then because of that, or were along the years, you had to stay on top of or submit or then that kind of. Nothing to it.

Paul Hand: Yeah. Did your military experience influence your thinking about war or about the military in general?

Robert L. Whetstone: Well, I don't know whether that is true, but war itself just can't stand it. I look at it. I watched a lot of the History Channel, a lot of Smithsonian Channel. And they're now showing a lot of unclassified, declassified film from World War Two or whatever. And why do we have to go through this? Why do we have to go through all of this destruction to get to the point we should have been there earlier. I don't, basically, you know, it's. Everyone has a bully in their life, whether they admit it or not. There's always a bullet someplace. And the bully will be on your back until you stand up to. Okay. You might get a bloody nose if it comes to that. But you. All right, all 01:22:00right. You come up with a bloody nose. for that guy or that girl. No problem. Stand up to.

Paul Hand: Mm hmm.

Robert L. Whetstone: And there'll be a little more hesitant about doing it again. Unfortunately, on the world stage, it's much more dramatic. And that's kind of the same thing. You got one country pulling another one either either over resources, finance, political or whatever. And that's got one country pulling another.

Paul Hand: Yeah.

Robert L. Whetstone: And I and all the destruction that takes place over the whole and how many times we have been in a conflict with the country, have been in a conflict. We've turned around and rebuilt the country just bombed into. Marshall Plan for Europe. Look what's happened to Vietnam. An economic powerhouse. We do trade with them. I just. Sometimes you just don't understand 01:23:00it. But if it has. If they're going to be doing this type of thing, I just don't understand it. I don't like it. It's a pitch to me if anyone's participated in the war and they like it and they want to do it again, They're stuck in the matter because you do not want to go back to it again.

Paul Hand: Yeah

Robert L. Whetstone: don't, if you've seen on the touch. Emotionally, physically, whatever. To individuals and to a country and to a community. No.

Paul Hand: And you even had that experience before you went to Vietnam,

Robert L. Whetstone: whats that?

Paul Hand: I said, you had that experience in the hospital before you even went to Vietnam.

Robert L. Whetstone: Yeah. I mean, let's face it, I was working in a hospital and I was seeing all of this coming in. Think all my. But I don't know how to characterize I mean I was ended up in mobilization called again I Tropico.

Paul Hand: Yeah

Robert L. Whetstone: I would go. But. I just. I just don't like it. We just 01:24:00don't like the destruction of the Oval.

Paul Hand: Yeah, So did you join a veterans organization?

Robert L. Whetstone: Not right away. In fact, when I came back, the veterans were one or two of the veterans organizations were not very supportive.

Paul Hand: Really?

Robert L. Whetstone: Yeah.

Paul Hand: How So.

Robert L. Whetstone: We walked in into. They just didn't have anything to do with you. They were very cold and. Indifferent. It wasn't the one or two of us that helped this. I don't think this.

Paul Hand: Mm hmm

Robert L. Whetstone: And it's only recently that I did join an organization, and that's been a long time because they they really saw me.

Paul Hand: Yeah.

Robert L. Whetstone: And I have a feeling I wasn't the only one. I think that's happened to a number of people. So yeah, I went to one and probably I won't re I'll never forget the reception. Okay. I don't need that somehow.

Paul Hand: Yeah.

Robert L. Whetstone: I never went back to any of them.

Paul Hand: So I was going to ask, did you go to any reunions or anything like that?

No, I gone to our unit reunions if they happen, but never through another organization like that.

Paul Hand: Yeah. Looking back, how do you make sense of the Vietnam War?

Robert L. Whetstone: I don't. I uh. You know. When, you know, I don't know how to characterize that. I can't. I did it. I was there. They asked me to go. I went. I felt it was a duty type thing. But that was then. Hindsight now. When you look at everything that's happened, why the hell did this happen? You know, particularly when you read about what Bob McNamara did and what he knew about it and what he did, how he could know what he knew. And still make the decision she 01:26:00was doing is beyond. And. I don't know. There's a lot of. Oh four again if comes back to politics, it comes back to, Being a bully who's going to be doing what?

Paul Hand: The ugly side of war.

Robert L. Whetstone: The ugly side. Not only that, she has to be safe politically, too.

Paul Hand: Yeah.

Robert L. Whetstone: I mean, I don't know how to answer some of those questions politically. I mean. It was just the other things, too. You look at World War Two and you look at what's going on now, World War Two. There's a country you have a country participating in the skirmishes today, or worse, they aren't that way. We still go along our normal life very often. But there's a major conflict, war going on over here. World War Two, everyone. There is rationing. There was 01:27:00all sorts of things going on in World War Two as a country. Now you have Korea and Vietnam. This was talk before. There all tend to be localized. It don't affect the way you live. You still get up in the morning, still hungry cause you look food on the table. You still go out and go to the movies. You take your vacation. There's no sacrifice over here to have this happen or to do. The data. They don't have it now. So there's a different headset to the whole thing.

Paul Hand: Yeah. So just a little recap. How did your military service in Vietnam change you or impact you in any way I can you.

Robert L. Whetstone: I don't know. I don't know where. There's so much to change me. Oh. You're looking for a change of what?

Paul Hand: What did you learn?

Robert L. Whetstone: What? Well, I learned. What am I? I don't want to do this again. I guess, or tolerance. I tried to be more tolerant.

Paul Hand: Yeah,

Robert L. Whetstone: but I came out with very strong opinions, which puts right what's wrong. They're my right

Paul Hand: shape.

Robert L. Whetstone: Yeah. They may not be yours. So talk more patient type thing. But. I don't know. I guess fundamentally I was the same person, my father. So, you know, you hear about this PTSD. I can't say I ever suffered that. But then again over there, there were duties spread out all over the place. I didn't have it as bad as some guys. I didn't have it as good as some others. Some people over there had a didn't have a bed. Then there was other 01:29:00guys that were they had a beer. Maybe they. I'm just kind of in between all of that. I had my moments. We had our moments and. So I wasn't under that this type of stress at the other end. I hadn't. Like, here's an incident. Two, You talk about memory somewhat more. We were at dinner time again in the evening. All of a sudden, these jets come two jets, come out treetop level, they come barreling through it, everybody. What the hell is going on? And they come in and they go into one of these barrel rolls. They took. Your. All of a sudden, they're coming down on us. They're coming down on us. Everyone scatter here. They're dropping 01:30:00napalm and they're dropping bombs. And there are shrapnel all over here. Here Somebody called in all the radio reporters. They thought the enemy was out there

Paul Hand: where you were?

Robert L. Whetstone: where we were. They weren't necessarily bombing our camp that were bombing right outside of it. But somebody had called in the wrong. Words because I could hear the groups screaming and yelling into the likes, you know, get them off somebody, you know. And they went through one or two runs. But I got it. Nobody. Got injured. Fortunate cause it wasn't in the compound. It was on the outside of the compound. But I tell you, you don't want to be on the other end of those things. I mean, there was a piece of shrapnel. We found a piece of the compound that was about like this was that long? And it was about 01:31:00that wide that was from one of those bombs. And one morning I got up. I'll never forget this to talk about marriage. I guess I get up one morning and watch all this activity going all over the place is going on. Right outside the bottom or steps are huge. There's a whole five projects a living for. It was sandbagged that you talk about an eye opener and you talk about little sick in your stomach. Was embedded into the ground. It was sandbagged. It ended up being. And but I wouldn't be here talking to you. I can think of a number of occasions where. By the grace of God. I'm here because there are a number of circumstances. I can remember walking down. Almost fell into a booby trap. I'm walking down. We're walk this. We're going down in a cheap flak jacket and a rope. That's all, man. Let's get. Get another plunger. I go to kick the 01:32:00flapjack. I should, Bob. Bad mistake. I could stop it. It could have been booby trapped. And that's exactly what they set up. It could have been a grenade, a mine. Anything. I could have opened it howitzer plat a number of occasions where I look at it. There was providence somewhere for me there. Allow me to be sitting here with you.

Paul Hand: Wow. um, So not just Vietnam, but is there anything you'd like to add? How did your total military service and experiences affect your life?

Robert L. Whetstone: I think in a positive way. I mean, I've enjoyed that background. I've enjoyed the experience with it. I can recognize I think I can recognize some behavior that is going to lead to. Not a good outcome. Try to avoid it type of thing. But. There's a camaraderie of ex-military people because 01:33:00they've all been through a similar thing. They've been through boot camp.

Paul Hand: Mm hmm

Robert L. Whetstone: They know what a boot camp was like. They've had the same types of sacrifices. Now, families make a tremendous sacrifice, particularly a wife and children there. But yeah, the guy may be out in the field, maybe doing his thing, but there's big sacrifice for the for the for the for the wife and the child that are involved when they're moving around. So I don't know whether I'd want to be in the military with a family. I know some people are and what happens, but

Paul Hand: it's a lot of weight.

Robert L. Whetstone: Huh?

Paul Hand: It's a lot of weight.

Robert L. Whetstone: It's not that it's a lot of weight. It's a lot of responsibility. And it's a lot of that weighs on.

Paul Hand: That's all I have. Is there anything else you would like to add that we haven't covered?

Robert L. Whetstone: I don't. Right now. I can't think of anything. I'm sorry if 01:34:00I rambled on, you know?

Paul Hand: Yeah. Thank you for sharing. It was an incredible story, and I greatly.

Robert L. Whetstone: I don't know whether I've answered half of what you want it. I know. Like I said, I ramble with it, so

Paul Hand: it's exactly what I want to.

Robert L. Whetstone: Okay.

Paul Hand: I think you did great again. Thank you for your service was an incredible story and I am truly grateful that I could sit here and listen to it with you and that you could share that.

Robert L. Whetstone: Okay.

Paul Hand: I think that's all I have.

Robert L. Whetstone: Okay. Well, now what happens with all of this?