Norfolk Vietnam Vets discuss the way it was

By Colleen Gundlach

In the 40 years since the fall of Saigon essentially ended the Vietnam War, people who lived through it have strong memories of the tumult, upheaval and ultimate sacrifice of this period of our history. More than 58,000 American military members were killed fighting the Viet Cong, purportedly to stop the spread of communism in Southeast Asia.

Our country sent nearly three million men to Vietnam to uphold the commitments made by presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon and Johnson. Four of these men, Norfolk Vietnam veterans Tony Thomson, Jim Stotler, Mike Sconyers and Ron Zanobi recently sat down to share their experiences and insight.

Thomson enlisted in the military as an alternative to being drafted. In 1963, he joined the Army and eventually was assigned to the First Infantry. Initially stationed in Germany in 1966, he volunteered to be sent to Vietnam. The U.S. government-led coup d’etat that overthrew Vietnam President Ngo Dinh Diem had occurred a few years earlier, but Thomson arrived in the country on the cusp of President’s Johnson’s escalation. Thomson served in the administration of the troops at division headquarters in the town of Di An.

About a year after Thomson arrived in Vietnam, Stotler began the first of his two tours there. He arrived in January 1967, and was stationed with the MCB4 Battalion of Navy Seabees near Da Nang. He was a driver for the battalion commander, and also drove heavy construction equipment. Stotler assisted in the building of the Liberty Bridge, the longest timber bridge in the country, above the Thu Bon River in An Hoa, 21-miles southwest of DaNang.

When he was sent home at Christmastime, Stotler and his future wife, Sandy, were engaged, but plans were cut short in February 1968. With just two weeks’ notice, he was sent back for a second tour of duty. This was shortly after the Tet Offensive, when the Viet Cong attacked American troops unexpectedly during the cease fire called for the Tet, or Vietnamese New Year. The offensive went badly for the Viet Cong, basically wiping them out, which ominously opened the door for involvement by the North Vietnamese Army.

Sconyers joined the Marines in 1965 and was deployed to Vietnam in October 1967 after earning his pilot wings. With Marine Aircraft Group 16, he flew Huey helicopters carrying troops, supplies and weapons to the battlefront. Taking off from DaNang, Sconyers flew numerous missions in and around Quang Tri, Phu Bai and Qua Viet. It was in Vietnam that the United States relied on helicopters more than ever before in its history. Heavily armed helicopters not only provided close air support to troops on the ground, but were able to quickly transport men in and out of combat areas.

Zanobi was 20-years-old when he enlisted as a Third Class Petty Officer in the Navy, and was sent to I-Corps in the northernmost district of South Vietnam where he was part of the Seabee’s Naval Mobile Construction Battalion-3 (MCB3) in 1970. In fact, Zanobi’s outfit was responsible for repairs to the Liberty Bridge, which Stotler and MCB4 had assisted in constructing. During his tour, Zanobi was attached to Alpha Company, at DaNang in Camp Haskins South.

The people of Vietnam were on the minds of the men who served during this time. Zanobi recalls that they would hire local people to do work for them, paying them in Military Payment Certificates which were worth five cents each and could be redeemed for goods or food in military facilities. The fear was always there, though, that one of the villagers would prove to be a suicide bomber, as the Viet Cong often sent women or children with bombs strapped to their bodies to the American bases.

The war in Vietnam was unlike any other in that it was fought guerrilla-style in jungles, and, according to the Norfolk vets, we didn’t learn from the French. “We were fighting people who had been fighting for centuries,” says Sconyers. “We should have learned from their (France’s) mistakes. We went on secret reconnaissance tours with two huge, noisy H34s and two Hueys. Don’t you think they knew we were coming?” As Billy Joel sang, “they heard the hum of the motors and counted the rotors and waited for us to arrive.”

Thomson agrees, “It was very frustrating for our troops to work hard and see their buddies killed capturing a hill or a town, just to let it be taken by the enemy again due to inexperienced leadership, lack of communication and faulty strategy.”

They recalled friends who had been killed during their time in Vietnam. One spoke of two of his groomsmen, who were also in his Vietnam squadron and were killed while flying missions in support of the ground troops. Another spoke of being two vehicles behind a buddy when his lead Jeep hit a land mine, and everyone was killed instantly. One more recalled with sadness a college roommate, Phinney Works, who was killed in action. No one was immune to the loss and sadness of the war.

All of these Norfolk veterans cited lack of communication and poor leadership as the main problem in the war. Thomson cites, “complicated, conflicting regulations that tied the hands of commanders and led to confusion in the ranks.” Stotler says, “The Pentagon basically had no idea what was really happening in the field. Our guys lived in holes, getting jungle rot and immersion foot, and the media made it look like a day in the park. Then our men were sent home one day and within three days, for example, were sitting in their living rooms, still ducking. There was no transition.”

In a book he published in 2011, titled “Eat Your Heart Out, Ho Chi Min” Thomson summed up the general feeling of the group when he wrote, “American government activism has a nasty global side effect. Our compulsion to right the world’s wrongs ensures that, along the way to losing our own freedom, we gratuitously kill lots of foreigners in the name of some hopeless cause.”

Editor’s Note – The veterans interviewed for this article are a sampling of the many men in Norfolk who served during the Vietnam War. It is not intended to be a complete listing. Comments and memories from other veterans are welcome and can be sent to editor@nor-now.org.

Photo by Tony Thomson.