 Hello and welcome to Think Tech Hawaii and It Never Got Quiet. This is a half hour program that explores the Hawaiian connection with the Vietnam veteran and the Vietnam War. I'm your host, Vic Kraut. The Vietnam War began over a half century ago when Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, giving then President Johnson extraordinary powers in dealing with the conflict in Southeast Asia. There were close to 9 million uniform members of the United States Armed Forces who served during the Vietnam era, over 3 million of them being deployed to Southeast Asia. More than 58,000 were killed. Many people today either do not know about the war or have a vague recollection of it. As time goes on, more veterans of the war will pass away and the experiences and wisdom these people gain will be lost forever. This program is an attempt to capture some of those experiences so that we may benefit from them. Wars are fought by individuals. The grand strategies and political goals become meaningless to those who World War II cartoonist Bill Baldwin termed the benevolent and protective brotherhood of them what has been shot at. The domino theory is irrelevant when hot lit is flying past your head. We named this program It Never Got Quiet as most of us from the time we arrived in Vietnam to the time we left were never too far from the sounds of war. Some of us have never truly become rid of those sounds either. In this program and in future ones we will talk story with the Vietnam veteran who will explore their experiences, motivations and how the war affected them, their family and the life after the nom. We begin with what we hope to be a long running series here on the Vietnam war and in think take away with what many would consider the most essential element in the prosecution of war. And that's the infantrymen. Our first guest is Miles Nishimoto. Miles was attached to the first air cavalry in the central highlands between 1966 and 1967. Miles received the bronze star and purple heart for wounds sustained in combat and was medically discharged from the army after spending two and a half years a tripler. Miles spent 11 months in country before being wounded. Welcome Miles Aloha thank you for being here. Well thanks for having me on the show. I'd kind of like to start off with what did you do before you went into the service? Well what had actually happened right before I got drafted into the military. I finally landed a job as an apprenticeship program with the heavy equipment mechanic and at that time my hobby was more or less pulling out with the automobiles anyway. And I had this one passion to build racing cars. So if you can imagine whatever money I earned was all invested into my speed machine. And that continued to be a great great hobby I would say as well as during my past time. And I really enjoyed it. So along came the draft and plucked you from that experience to sending you to the mainland. Yeah and what had actually happened we knew that the draft was going to come mainly because of the fact that there was a new order that increased the draft per month from practically zero to almost 30,000 personnel per month. And this being the case it says hey all our friends we got together one afternoon it says hey so what are we going to do? We're going to wait for the draft or we're going to volunteer. And majority of them says you know what I'm going to volunteer for the Army. The other guy says well maybe I might consider Army Reserve. The other guy says well Air Force is for me. And finally when it came down to me I said you know what guys I think I'm going to wait for the draft mainly because of my apprenticeship program. And by the time I'm done with it hey I can get drafted go in there serve two years. You guys are serving three to four years by the time you get out you're going to be surprised I'll be home before you will. It started that way. I was going to say I look at the time line and you were in country probably what a year after you were or less of the year after you were here. Oh yeah I think it was about five to six months. And then you spent 11 months in combat and then we're wounded. That's right. And then spent two and a half years as a tripler so you didn't get out before they did. No. So long story short they came up to the hospital and visited me and they said hey are you still in the military? Well but then of course I mean on the other hand friends are always great to have around but don't forget we also meet some new friends while being in the military and also being in Vietnam. Yeah. So friends was always part of my memories yeah good. So when you went through basic training and AIT or advanced infantry training you went through I think you went started at Fort Ord for your basic. I started Fort Ord California that was a basic training and if you can imagine being a typical local boy from the islands being adjusted to military life was not an easy task for me mainly because I felt that the military was very organized and that wasn't my style. But after a couple of article 15 I said you know what I'm going to start paying attention it's not being able to change my ways to adapt to the military ways otherwise I'm not going to graduate I'm going to be out of the military you know. Well we ought to explain to the audience what an article 15 is that's part of the universal code of military justice an article in there it's a disciplinary action but I never expected that for me and Miles. Oh my god like I said I did have my challenges with the military when I first joined but then of course everything worked out pretty well I was able to graduate my class. You know being at Fort Ord it was a different experience too because at that time they had that meningitis crisis and if you can imagine sudden I mean in Fort Ord California it was already cold and in the evenings we had to sleep with the windows open and wow I mean it's quite a challenge but there were a few guys that came down with meningitis and but I was one of the fortunate ones so everything worked out well and thereafter upon graduation I was transferred to Fort Polk Louisiana and Fort Polk Louisiana if you can imagine was more for advanced infantry training and jungle warfare training and that by itself was a new experience too mainly because like being a local boy from Hawaii you know Hawaii is more like the melting pot we've got a lot of different ethnicity here and we all got along and being over in Louisiana the first experience that I have experienced was like wow you know there was so much segregation going on between the blacks and the whites and we couldn't believe it that one afternoon while going out to the PX to have a beer all of a sudden we see this one car driving on the sidewalk and we see the black jumping over the hinges we want in there how is that you know but that's what there was more or less like our first first exposure to hey this is what has been happening here in the mainland U.S. and if you can imagine now that was what just a little more than 50 years ago so there has been tremendous changes as far as attitudes and acceptance and being able to live together I would say you know so all in all it's it's a good story but yeah but for us it was quite an experience I can imagine so from Fort Polk I remember some of the stories of guys going over by ship I don't know if you're one of the lucky ones that went in a stretch eight or now what had happened was when we received the orders to go to Vietnam we shipped out from Oakland and Oakland was more like the repo depot at which they're rather going by ship though we flew out there was a more like a chartered flight and we were fortunate because we got there pretty fast instead of the ship you know otherwise my tenure would have been that much longer right but yeah we got into country and I was assigned to the first aircraft division which was in the Central Highlands in An Cabe Vietnam and boy there was a home of the first aircraft division and was really quite an experience to be attached to a first aircraft I remember you telling me one of your first assignments was with a fire team or in a platoon you were the M60 carrier yes the M60 is we've discussed it as the grand piano of the concert orchestra in terms of combat weapons that's correct and it is a heavy son of a gun or it sure is but then of course I mean even if it was heavy I mean when you looked at the amount of firepower that you could have out of the weapon there was really remarkable then of course I mean I'm sure glad that every one of the platoon members or the squad members helped carry with the ammunition and I didn't have to carry the whole thing with myself otherwise it would have been a problem yeah but yeah from there from being a machine gunner and I got a chance to think of as a squad leader and from the squadron's position it became part of our responsibilities to also participate in the Long Range reconnaissance patrol which is called the LURPs and we all had special training on that and we're able to select a team to go out into enemy territory to do some reconnaissance and it was really quite an experience quite exhausting if I must say because boy spending some sleepless nights you know just worrying about your people there was responsibilities that even at a young age it was quite tough to cope with you know but I'm glad everything worked out all right though you know Well you participated in a couple of significant battles if you want to call them battles I know that uh were you in the second battle of Yodering? No, Yodering battle was the first one was in November 1965 and that was the one battle that they had a movie on and by the time we came in we were more like the replacement of those who lost their lives there and got injured and but then of course we also went back to Aidrang for a couple times and Aidrang is a name of that valley if I remember correctly was like the valley of the dead right and it was a funny feeling when you got there you know it's eerie but yes we did have several firefights in there but we lost a few but again I was very fortunate to have been able to survive and at the time I didn't get wounded or anything I was one of the very few that made it back and we're talking about battles I mean they were out of battle areas that we participated with in the right outside of Pleiku and the Bong Song Happy Valley and all of which was quite an experience though you know because when we first got in country we didn't really understand the purpose of why we're down here but then our company commander one day shared the beliefs of the objective as to why we are there we were there and it was mainly to stop the invasion of communism from the north into the south and I'm pretty sure there was much more to that however that was the only reason that we can understood from the simple language spaces that hey that was basically our purpose but as I mentioned while I was stationed in Fort Ord I was really exposed to the type of segregation that they had but while I was in Vietnam I gotta admit one thing our leaders in Vietnam were tremendous leaders they clearly explained the real purpose of why we as soldiers need to look at each other and support each other and even if a person gets wounded it is our responsibility to make sure that hey we're going to do our ultimate best to bring that person back to the line and making sure that we can accommodate this need for a minute back and everything else so I think the idea of getting close with our comrades was a key lesson that was learned and I think those experiences of being able to interact with others has been a very good key learning something that you're going to remember for the rest of your life and even those that we had lost good friends good comrades I mean it was very very hard to accept however you know there was never a dull moment they made you think and dwell on those periods so I for one I can be extremely extremely happy of the fact that I was able to cope with the changes cope with the circumstances and also looked at different ways that we could still contribute to our comrades that myself was something that it can be with me for the rest of my life yeah why don't we go ahead and take a quick break here and we'll be right back with Miles Lushamoto this is Think Tech Hawaii raising public awareness welcome to Hawaii this is Prince Dyches your host of The Prince of Investing coming to you guys each and every Tuesday at 11 a.m right here on Think Tech Hawaii don't forget to come by and check out some of the great information on stocks, investings, your money, all the other great stuff and I'll be your host see you Tuesday research says reading from birth accelerates the baby's brain development and you're doing that now oh yeah this is the starting line push this is over you're dead read aloud 15 minutes every child every parent every day welcome back to it never got quiet we're here with Miles Lushamoto and we're talking about his experiences in Vietnam Miles we kind of left you there with you're talking about the leadership and the quality of the people there I think that you had a great life lesson we've discussed this before I don't want to bring back any hard memories or bad memories but Miles and I belong to a group that's sponsored by the Veterans Administration it's out the West Oahu Vet Center and it's a very it's where the rubber meets the road as far as getting in touch with veterans and that's how Miles and I got to know each other and it's an excellent program and we get together on Monday nights and you held a spellbound one night with one of the stories that you have and I don't know if that was from your experience when you were wounded or it was from some other engagement but when you end of the story we were just everybody was silent we couldn't say anything and it was very emotional and I don't want to bring that up but I will bring up the business of you going to the hospital after you were wounded as we said we were joking about it saying yeah the guys who got wounded most were the ones who first came in country or the ones that are about to leave country that's correct you got lucky I got lucky you were the one that was about to leave country 21 days before you de-roast that's correct yeah you know as a matter of fact you know as I mentioned about the comradeship and the relationship that we built over that period of time that we've been in Vietnam together I can still vividly remember the day that it got shot and when I came to I knew I needed a tunicette because I could see but a mom was down and my other half a mom was up in the air and at that moment I asked my my buddy there hey by the way help me out I need a tunicette and when he turned to me and he saw what was happening to mom and he started crying and he mentioned that you know when I was in this and he first said class I don't know how to make a tunicette I said you know what I'll talk you to it and slowly but surely I talked him through it and it was very patient and I had this excruciating pain and everything else but yet I didn't really want to put him into a panic and I think because of him I my life was saved mainly because the fact that I never went into shock and because I had to talk him through the procedures and after that I thanked him for it he felt so glad that wow I saved the life you know and even when I was ready to leave he came up to me and he thanked me for talking into that procedure but you know it's just exactly like what I'm saying I mean those are some of the the moments that you kind of cherish a lot you know knowing that here it is a person from San Antonio Texas and here's another guy from Honolulu away the only time we met was in in the war and how it became closed but yet it didn't matter what nationality you were and basically the leaders had always mentioned about making sure that we tend to the needs of our comrades and that was one example you know so I'm really really grateful for that very grateful now I know you spent two and a half years a tripler and that had to have been a heck of an experience that a lot of us I don't think we've wanted yeah experience but I know that afterwards you had your mindset and what you wanted to do and I know you've been successful and in business and as a parent and got two great kids and in professional capacity but do you think your military experience had anything to do with that or is what what direction you took I personally contributed a lot of my successes to what I've learned in the military and for example while a patient in a hospital if you can imagine right after the Ted offensive that hospital was absolutely full they even had beds in a hallway so this being the case now the amount of help that the hospital needed was insufficient they had some uh volunteering notes from the outside seven and one coming down to help out and I for one I was watching it that I had my significant other to come in there and wash down my wounds and making sure that it's properly clean and the funny thing about all the help and support that we needed especially with the other patients in the hospital knowingly that they went into surgery at certain times this morning knowing about approximately what time they're coming out we're all made at the point that hey somehow whether or not we'll chair or somebody can push us on the bed or whatever we're going to be there when they come back to to welcome them and to congratulate them that hey the surgery went all right you know and I think more like a more outbooster and I think that by itself had helped a lot of the veterans to really recover and still look at their lives on a very positive basis but I think that by itself has also been a key learning for me and even when I got out on the military and started with my business that by itself always helped me to understand exactly who people are what must we do to continuously help them to develop themselves to have the patience of course and to even thank them what is what it's so hard to thank them for a job well done in this crucial day and age you know right now is everything is a hustle bustle businesses got their own personal challenges and one of the things that I think a lot of the leaders fail to realize is hey how to treat people the way they would want to be treated and I think this by itself part of the learnings that I've had in the military about helping each other I would say was a good listen learn and has lasted a lifetime would be anyway so those are some of the skills and knowledge that I stated that I needed to continuously try to improve on them so what is it that you would like people to remember or learn from our experiences in Vietnam well I think when I look at today's existing situation across the country people always say that it's really quite divided but you know when you really think about it back in 1965 it was also divided I still remember when I first came back home and I didn't have no we didn't have no welcoming committee we didn't have no parade if anything there was a riots going on even at the local university and we were known as baby killers and otherwise you know and it was just a funny feeling like wow why is it like that now compared to yesterday year and what is happening right now cheerfully what is the big difference is the opinions of others I think that is created this dividedness but until such time that we can continue to look at how do we make things better it starts with us no matter how you look at it you know and just like what I mentioned just imagine a little more than 50 years ago there were segregation and look at it today I mean we're past that but now it's different circumstances so again I think you know that's become some of the key things that we all need to realize that everything will happen but how do we adapt towards accepting the changes and trying to overcome those things you know I think that becomes something that we all need to be working ourselves to be committed to doing that's great yeah what else do you think we could learn from this well I think the the other good things about it is you know people will always give you the dismal side of any situation that a wall may bring on fairing to realize that you know I can still remember this back end wow we're some good times too you know and just the idea of being able to be an out to give out in a field and like that local to say talking story and being able to kind of understand what is that for this guy who is living in New York I mean what is so different about his lifestyle versus my lifestyle here in Hawaii but you know there were a lot of similarities after all you know and the good thing is that wow I'm pretty sure I was fortunate and I just hope that they were also fortunate that they were not able to dwell on things they were able to look for it and kind of get over that you know and I know it's a it's a problem for a lot of people but a lot of comrades but you can see that the VA now we have so many different support and help and like for the here and now group at Kapolei under the leadership of Ed Deguzman I mean wow you know he is a terrific servant of the veterans and I for one can admit that this is one person who goes above in the yard and just imagine now he doesn't have to do it but he just enjoys doing it to help the veterans out and you know there aren't enough people like him really big oh when I was trying to get at it I think that a lot of us have lost a sense of service or at least those who haven't served in the service and we look at our generation and what we were faced with I was drafted twice once when I was in basic trading the other time when I was in Vietnam so my number came up or whatever I look at it and think of the things that we take from there and what we learned and what we can bring into the community is that sense of service and I know that you have that sense of service and have brought it not only to work but in your life and you brought it through the rest of this and I mean that's our contact with one another and I want to thank you for that because you've enriched my life in that way and I appreciate that oh I appreciate it yeah but you know like the last thing maybe I can close with is that sometimes we take things for granted and we look at our success story I was like wow you know I became successful because of me failing to realize that you know we've got significant others that we should be very thankful about because my significant others being the fact that I did a lot of traveling because of my national business she was always there to act as a mother as well as a father and I still remember this one occasion I came back from Japan and my wife told me hey you better go start throwing some ball with your son man I enrolled him in Little League Baseball oh yeah fine so I get out of there and say to her to throw some ball so he throws the ball back to me and says hey by the way who's teaching you how to throw a ball you're throwing that like a girl you know and he says mom but again that's the reason why I'm saying you know behind every person is always a greater person so I would support you that is that is something that we tend to forget is the support that we've received from family and I know it's caused a lot of friction and a lot of different people and seen divorce rates and a lot of spousal abuse and things of that nature but and one of the things that we try to do is enlist a lot of the kids from the Iraq conflict so and so they don't make the same mistake that we did exactly yeah yeah I would like to thank the staff here at Think Tech Hawaii and their support and assistance and truly without them there would be no never got it had never got quiet I'd also like to put in a little bit of a pitch for a photo exhibit that's at 4th to Russie right now it ends at the end of the month or the 31st of August if you're interested in some of the photos it's at the US Army Museum very historical and very interesting and I believe it's all free too it's just a donation if you want to leave a dollar at the door so thank you very much for being with us hope to see you again here next week