My Personal Experiences

Allow me to introduce myself.  My name is Larry D. Tyler.  Rather than write a paperback book about my experiences in Vietnam that no one would read, I decided when I was in my early sixties to start writing about my Vietnam experiences and include it into this website.  The website consists of four sections, first is to document the history of the Hotel Company, 2^nd Battalion, 5^th Marines Regiment, 1^st Marine Division’s combat experiences  and its involvement in the Vietnam War; secondly, my personal experiences in the Vietnam War; thirdly, to remember our KIA and all my brothers who served with me in the war; and fourthly, to record and communicate about our great reunions throughout the years.

I was 1 of about 70,000 Marines in Vietnam.  I was 1 of the 42,633 Marines that were drafted in the Vietnam War.   I was drafted in April 1968.  I entered boot camp on August 1, 1968, after finishing my first year of college.  I left for Vietnam on January 7, 1969.  I arrived in Vietnam on January 9, 1969.

As a Marine radio operator in Vietnam during the year 1969, I stood many radio watches, day patrols and sweeps, night ambush patrols, and listening posts, and went on several convoys.  I was in more firefights than I can count and lived mostly in foxholes I dug myself for the first half of my tour in Vietnam.  The second half of my tour was completely different which you can read about in this section of the website.

There were a dozen times or so during my first six months in combat when I wasn’t in the bush fighting the enemy.  We came to An Hoa – H 2/5 Rear to rest and sleep a couple of days before going out again into the rice paddies or out into the jungle in the mountains.  Went to Da Nang at Stack Six, at the Naval Hospital, 1st Marine Division HQ, Hill 65, or Phu Loc 6 where I got a cot to sleep on in a tent rather than being in a foxhole at night.  Most of the last six months in Vietnam, I wasn’t in combat daily.  You can read about My Personal Experiences to see what I did and experienced in Vietnam during the war.

Three questions most often asked of me over the years:

1. What was it like to “Go to War in Vietnam”? See all my writings on the Hotel25vv.com website in the section “My Vietnam Experiences” for my answers to this question.
2. What was it like with the hostility toward you when you returned home from the war? There’s a post somewhere on the website to discuss this along with my response.
3. Who was the enemy? Communism?  The Viet Cong (Charlie) and the NVA were the enemies we faced daily, but the ultimate opponent was, quite simply, “death!”.  I stared at death almost daily during my first six months in combat.  I got shot at and saw friends and other Marines shot, hurt, maimed, or killed constantly.  The vast majority of us combat Americans performed honorably and bravely under extremely difficult circumstances.  Many of us gave our lives and came home in body bags.  Others of us came home physically and/or emotionally wounded.  And many of us came home from the Vietnam War exhausted, all intact, but were hated, spit upon, cursed at, called awful names, and rejected because we served our country faithfully.  The real enemy, is EVIL.

This website has been designed to answer these questions and more.  I trust you will enjoy reading about my personal experiences in the Vietnam War.  Everyone who served in Vietnam has their own unique story to tell.  We hear about their stories at our annual reunions.

Larry D. Tyler