I interviewed Bill Furan in January 2006 at his Tyler residence. I mourned his passing in 2017 and am sharing his Vietnam service to help commemorate the impact of the Vietnam War on persons in our region.

Bill was born in Tracy, but moved to Marshall with his family. He graduated from Marshall High School in 1962.

The military draft reached him in 1967. He enlisted in the Army with the goal of attending Officer Candidate School (OCS). His Army odyssey began with basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri and continued with leadership training and advanced infantry training at Fort Gordon, Georgia.

Bill’s dream of serving as an officer ended when the Army concluded they did not need him for OCS. The Army sent him, instead, to Airborne School and then the Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) Course, both at Fort Benning Georgia.

Bill was not a strong student in high school, but paid attention during his Army training. Believing he would experience combat in Vietnam motivated him to focus.

When he completed the NCO Course, Bill added the three chevrons of an Army sergeant E-5 to his uniform. Although not an officer, he had accomplished his goal of becoming a leader able to influence what he and his subordinates would do in combat.

Bill’s final training involved a training cycle with an advanced infantry training unit at Fort Lewis, Washington. During that training he received assignment orders to the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Vietnam. This was in February of 1968.

After taking a month’s leave at home, Bill returned to the West Coast for the long flight overseas to Vietnam. He recalled that flight.

“I was scared. [The aircraft had] a whole bunch of GIs, just full of them. Some guys had already been over there and had come home for some family reason. I ran into another E-5. I quizzed him about everything I could on the way over there. He was pretty good about it, though. He was with a combat engineer unit and we sat and talked.”

The long flight across the Pacific stopped in Hawaii and Okinawa before landing at Cam Ranh Bay. Bill recalled his first encounter with Vietnam.

“I’ll never forget it. It was so hot — so hot and sticky. You could take a shower at nine o’clock in the morning; put on a new set of greens; and you’d be sweating so much that fifteen minutes later the whole thing would be all wet.”

Bill’s journey was not yet complete.

“From Cam Ranh Bay they put us on a C-130 (cargo plane) and flew us to Qui Nhon. From Qui Nhon they put us on a helicopter and flew us to the Brigade headquarters in An Khe.”

An Khe, location of the 173rd Airborne Brigade’s Camp Radcliff, is in Vietnam’s Central Highlands region. Bill’s brigade introduced him to Vietnam with more training.

“At the Brigade headquarters we went through an orientation. We actually went out in the boonies a little bit for those that were going to go out in the boonies — what to look for — things that I had already done. But it was over there and I was serious — I was focusing”

Bill’s specific unit of assignment was Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 173rd Airborne Brigade, which was located close to the South China Sea.

“From An Khe they flew us to LZ English, which was the name of the base camp for our battalion. It’s by a little fishing village called Bong Son. It’s on the river coming out of the Central Highlands. We were about where the Central Highlands come down and meet the ocean. We’d go from there to the Cambodian border and the Central Highlands and both valleys on each side of the Central Highlands — that was our AO (Area of Operations).”

Bill’s company first sergeant told him the company was in the field. Bill would go out with a soldier returning from R&R. Bill explained the nature of service in Alpha Company.

“They were out in the boonies. Rarely were we back at the battalion base camp. At stand-down every sixty days or forty-five days maybe, we’d come back for three. Otherwise, we were humping in the boonies or doing combat assaults out of helicopters.”

He also explained his position as a squad leader.

“I was assigned as a squad leader and given ten infantrymen. When you run an infantry squad you have two fire team leaders. They have four guys with them and I have an RTO (Radio Telephone Operator) with me. So, actually there was twelve of us, counting the RTO.”

The R&R soldier returned, so he and Bill rode a helicopter to where their company was patrolling. Their arrival was memorable.

“I remember the first night I went out to my company! We were taking rounds coming in on the helicopter. They were shooting at us and the helicopter guy said, “You get out of here!” I jumped. I must have jumped 10-15 feet to hit the ground. I had a ruck sack. I threw that on the ground first and then I jumped because they wanted to get out of there.”

Welcome to the ‘Nam, Sergeant Furan.

The Lyon County Museum is organizing an exhibit about the impact of the Vietnam War on Lyon County. If you would like to help share stories of the war’s impact or help with the exhibit, please contact me at the email address below or Jennifer Andries at the museum at 537-6580.

I welcome your participation in and ideas about our exploration of prairie lives. You may reach me at prairieview pressllc@gmail.com.