 My name is Allie. Hi, I'm Matt Neeson, your grandpa. You're very, very proud of you. I'm going to start asking you some questions about when you served. So, like, what branch of service were you in? I was in the Army. What was your job in the Army? Well, I had quite a few different jobs, depending on where I was stationed at the time. Before I went overseas, I went through training at Fort Dix, and I also drove trucks for taking the troops out to the field or to take them there for food as a job, as a detail, they call that. After that, I went to Germany, and I was in an outfit there that we set up, let's say, companies and assigned men to those different companies, and I also went all over Germany, inspecting other companies to make sure they were doing it right and that they were following the rules. And my next tour was in Vietnam. And in Vietnam, again, I had a lot of different jobs there. We used to build roads, so I was out on the roads there where we used the big equipment to grade them, and then we would go in, actually, with bags of cement at times and break them up, and that was nasty, dirty stuff. But we would lay out the roads and build them. We would build the buildings. We would build bridges. But then also, at times, I would do inside work where I was what they call an orders clerk, and I would type up orders and directing other people what they have to do, transferring them when they came, when it was time for them to go home, and things that had nature. So I had a lot of different jobs. Even made coffee. Where did you serve? Well, first I served in Fort Decks, New Jersey. That's where I received my training. Then I went to Germany, and it was a little town that was called Zufenhausen, and that was near the big city of Stuttgart. I was in Germany for ten months, and after that, then I volunteered to go to Vietnam. So I came home on leave, and Grandma and I got married while I was home. And then three weeks after we got married, I went to Vietnam. I was there for a year. I came home, and I was stationed in Albany for six months at the end, and that's where I got out of the Army. I was in Albany, and I was processing other men into the service. So I would get them signed up if they were drafted or enlisted. So I processed them into the service. Why did you go into the military? Well, because, believe it or not, at that time I felt very strongly that it was a duty to serve my country. I was brought up as service-oriented. There were six boys in my family, and five of us served in the Army, and my father served in the Army as well. So my sixth brother served in what they call the Civil Defense in New York City. So he didn't have to go on a service, but all the rest of us served in the Army at different times. And one brother, he served in Germany. My younger brother, he served in Vietnam after I came home. And the other brothers, they served in the United States. They didn't go overseas. How long did you serve? Three years, because I enlisted. So I enlisted for three years. So I was 64 through 67. In fact, this month is my anniversary. It'll be 53 years ago that I went in, and 50 years ago that I get out. Was serving in the military positive or negative or both for you? It had both. There was a lot of pros and a lot of cons, depending on what I was doing. I actually felt honored to be in the military, so that was a positive. I was able to serve the country. I was able to work with a lot of great guys, made very close friends, especially in Vietnam. And so I was quite proud to do that. It was at that time, you could either get drafted, and that's where the United States military would send you a letter and telling you, we want you, and they would take you in. And you didn't volunteer. So that was a draftee. I was an enlistee, so I volunteered to go in for three years. What was the hardest part of being in the military? Again, a number of different things. The hardest part was being away from the family for so long. And the word you call out there was kind of disheartening to be away from them. Naturally, we kept contact with letters. In Vietnam, I was never able to make a phone call. We just didn't have facilities to do that. In Germany, I was able to make two phone calls in the 10 months to grandma. But that was all. So that was the hardest part, being away from family, missing them. What was military training like? It was, you know, strenuous. They really worked here. There was a lot of different aspects. There was the physical aspect. There was the mental aspect. And a lot of it was fun. When you went to their range, they taught us to shoot the various weapons, told us how to operate certain equipment. In my case, I really got lucky because I got to be a truck driver as a detail. But the yuckiest part was what they called KP, where you went to the mess hall to where the guys ate and you had to often fix the food, but the worst was cleaning the pots and the pans afterwards. So that wasn't fun. What was your favorite moment? Oh, wow. Actually, my very favorite was in Vietnam, believe it or not, because my best friend, who I went in the Army with, he went to Vietnam first. And when I finally went over, we were able to connect and able to get together and visit with each other a couple of times. So that was because we were best friends before we went in the Army. We joined the Army together. And after we went to Fort Dix, we went separate ways. And he ended up in Vietnam first. I got there almost a year later, and we were only a mile apart when we got there. So that was my favorite part. Did you form any friendships in the military? Oh, a lot. Every place we went. Because we were all close, and especially in being overseas, where naturally we were all Americans, so we clung together. We worked together and we played together. We had a lot of good moments. And when we were finished like work for the day, it was kind of difficult at times to communicate with the other people. Because I didn't speak their language, and most of them didn't speak our language. So that was difficult. What did you do in your free time? Ah, again, depending on where we went, believe it or not. They used to have what they called a rec hall, where you could go over and play ping pong, shoot darts, play cards, go to the movies, just hang out. When I went to Vietnam, where I was stationed was right on the South China Sea, just like being at the beach. And we used to do a lot of swimming, going into the beach or into the, it was the bay, but it was part of the South China Sea, they call it. So we used to do a lot of swimming. And believe it or not, we even used to have barbecues. And we would make like a fireplace. And when we were able to get meat and the steaks, we'd have a barbecue. So that part was fun. Yeah, it was fun. What are you most proud of for serving our country? Well, the fact that I was able to serve, and it was an honor to me, because I have garnished a lot of good things thanks to our country. And I felt that it was an obligation for me to do that. And I was able to represent our country in different countries. I was able to serve and help a lot of people in different places that I was stationed, mainly in Vietnam, where we were actually helping people who needed help. So that is what I was most proud of of going there. How many medals have you earned? If so, how did you earn them? Well, there are medals and near medals. What do you call it? I think I'd rather classify them. You know, let's say as awards, but they gave you a medal. For the various things that we got, I got either seven or eight. But some of those were just for being some place. For example, in Vietnam, if you served in Vietnam, you got where they go, all the Vietnamese service medal. That said, you were here. That's really all that does. Vietnam campaign medal, which just showed that you participated in work there. And then you had medals like for being a shop shooter with your weapons or an expert. I was lucky. I did pretty good with that. I got the expert medals on it. And then you also get honorable medals or ribbons, as you want to call them, for doing your job. And that's the portion that I was most proud of was getting an army commendation medal for doing a good job. So I was recognized. And that's the most prevalent one that I think. And then after you get three years, if you've never gotten in trouble, you got what they call the good conduct medal. So all the guys, no matter what service, as long as you didn't get in trouble, you got the good conduct medal, which is also an honor. A lot of guys didn't get it. Sometimes they messed up so they weren't eligible. So it really just shows that you did your job. What did you like to eat? Let's say hamburgers. And actually hot dogs. And that was really the favorite. Once in a while we would get steak. But a lot of times our cooks really didn't do a good job cooking. And what machines did you use? When we were paving roads, we utilized pavers. We used bulldozers. We used trucks. When I was performing duties, cutting orders and stuff like that, typewriters, printers, copiers, and of course good old pen and pencil. And paper and pen. So a lot of different kind of things. Especially when I was in Vietnam when we did a lot of different jobs in the construction field. We did a lot of that. Cool. Well that was the last question on the interview sheet. Well I thank you very much for doing what you're doing. You should be very proud of yourself because I'm proud of you. And you should get an honor too. You've always got my appreciation. And I am very proud of you, believe me. Because I see the stuff you do.