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Bill Acebes

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Two things Bill Acebes remembers vividly from Vietnam: the lack of drinking water in the field and the teak trees he used for cover. Ponchos were used to collect rainwater but there was something wrong with that and he can taste it to this day... The teak trees were good for cover but could also prevent evacuation, as he learned during a particularly bad day. (4:44)

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Bill Acebes literally dodged a bullet when he fell down during an operation in Vietnam and the ricochet hit a WWII veteran who was still serving. He couldn't escape the sharp edge from a C-ration lid, though, and that led to an angry exchange with a medic. In what he considers his closest call of the tour, he noticed, just in time, the tiny trip wire next to his Lieutenant's boot. (7:15)

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During his first tour of Vietnam, Bill Acebes experienced the distaste of searching for a missing soldier who turned out to be a coward but he also enjoyed the awesome sight of a new Huey Delta gunship. As he was leaving, he made Sergeant, then could barely get out of the country due to incoming fire. After a short run at college, he returned for a second tour as an advisor. (6:07)

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With Airborne training and two tours of Vietnam behind him, what Bill Acebes really wanted was to go to Ranger school, but those slots were hard to get. It took a little luck and a friend who was an aide to a General to make it happen. Once he had his Ranger tab, a chance encounter in a hallway gave him his next boost. (5:11)

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Leading a small Ranger reaction force during Operation Urgent Fury on the island of Grenada, Bill Acebes secured the airfield and the nearby medical school. He took charge of a motley group of vehicles that included a Russian jeep, a cart with yellow fringe and a Jaguar. He gave the chaplain the cart and you can guess which one he drove. (6:19)

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Even in a small operation like Urgent Fury in Grenada, there is the tragic result of war and Bill Acebes tells of comforting a junior soldier who witnessed a multiple plane crash near the medical school full of American students. In lighter moments he showed the newbies how he used C4 explosive in Vietnam for a common purpose. (4:26)

Bill Bates

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The Army and the Navy offered him commissions in support units but there was a war on and Bill Bates was not going to let the adventure pass him by. It was the Marines for him. (2:58)

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New Marine officer Bill Bates was first assigned to the Marine detachment aboard a troop ship, then aboard the carrier Lexington. He sailed both oceans in the last year of the war, ferried missionaries and guarded German prisoners. He went ashore in Japan for occupation duty. (8:03)

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There were plenty of crashes aboard the USS Lexington says Bill Bates, who commanded the Marine detachment aboard ship. He describes the hazardous landings that were routine for Navy pilots and tells how the crew managed to shoot down a kamikaze before he could finish his work. (2:15)

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At the end of the Big War, Bill Bates served as commander at two Marine barracks including Lakehurst, New Jersey, where airships were stationed and where a famous zeppelin had crashed. Then it was back to Quantico for amphibious warfare school, where he learned the complex and difficult aspects of landing troops on an unfriendly beach. (4:26)