Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans

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Charles Smith

WWII | Reconnaissance Company, 66th Armored Regiment, 2nd Armored Division

The points system that determined your discharge date was unfair in the eyes of recon company member Charles Smith, so he stayed on when he was eligible to be discharged. Looking back on his experiences, he urges all veterans to record their memories. (3:55)
After the Battle of the Bulge, Charles Smith had a pleasant interlude quartered with a Belgian family in the village of Trooz. Then, as he neared Berlin, he befriended a Russian soldier only fourteen years old, whose rifle was as long as he was tall. (4:24)
Just a farm boy from Tennessee, Charles Smith thought his basic training was a great experience. As a lefty, he was switched from a carbine to a machine gun because the spent shells kept hitting him in the face. Then, he "did not have to do much aiming." (5:15)
Charles Teague

WWII | U.S. Navy, 3rd Special Seabees, 5th U.S.N.C.B., 29th Battalion

Mr. Teague describes building Quonset huts and additional facilities during the time he spent serving in the Philippines. (:39)
Charles White, Jr.

Vietnam | 23rd Tactical Air Support Squadron

Pilot Charles White, Jr. was at the top of his class and wanted to go to Vietnam, but was devastated when the Air Force decided there were enough fighter pilots and made a Forward Air Controller out of him. Based out of Thailand and flying over Laos, he targeted movement on the Ho Chi Minh Trail for air strikes. (6:36)
Forward Air Controller Charles White, Jr. flew both day and night missions over Laos. The night missions required a two man crew with the man in the right seat using a Starlight scope, an early night vision system. He describes one memorable mission when he was in the right seat. (8:10)
It was an elite outfit of Air Force pilots working for the CIA in Laos. Shortly after his checkout to join the clandestine effort, Charles White, Jr. heard over the radio that a crew had been forced down by a surface to air missile and had to bail out. It was his friends Guy Miller and Glen Fleming. One of them was hanging from his chute a thousand feet up at the top of a cliff. (5:04)
Forward Air Controller Charles White, Jr. describes a heart wrenching rescue mission that ended when the enemy found the downed airmen. It was dangerous for the FAC's, too, and he was shot at many times. While supporting Laotian ground troops, there were no fighter aircraft available so he attacked in his spotter plane with white phosphorus "Willy Pete" marker rounds. (8:01)
Pilot Charles White, Jr. had a bounty put on his head for being so successful as a Forward Air Controller. He details the risky job flying low over Laos in a small plane, spotting and marking targets. He remembers one hit that went right down a cave shaft and blew up an entire hilltop. (5:50)
Lam Son 719 was an ill-fated operation that involved using South Vietnamese ground troops in an incursion into Laos. Forward Air Controller Charles White, Jr. describes the fiasco and how he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in Desert Rat, a twin operation nearby. (4:32)