We have been learning about Marshall’s George Seldat and his Vietnam service. George grew up in Decatur, Illinois, attended a year of college before enlisting in the Army in 1967 after receiving a draft call, trained at the Army’s Military Intelligence School, and deployed to Vietnam in April 1968.

The Army assigned George to Detachment 2 of the Military Intelligence staff of 1st Field Force Vietnam, headquartered at Nha Trang base on the South China Sea in the central region of Vietnam. George traveled around the region, visiting forward fire bases and units collecting information on their communications and information security.

One of George’s missions found him heading north aboard a helicopter.

“We were flying along the coast and had to stop in the air. The pilot yelled back at us, “Do you want to watch the New Jersey fire?” I said, “Sure.” So, we flew over and watched the New Jersey fire, which was unique because this was a huge, WWII battleship. When that thing fired, if you really worked at it, you could almost see the projectile. When they hit, it was like a small atomic explosion — a small, mushroom-shaped cloud. When they were through with their fire mission, we flew over the area and it was a moonscape. There were huge holes in the ground. You wondered how anyone could survive that.”

George smiled as he recalled receiving mail from the States.

“My cousin, Jane Williams, was in school at Illinois State University. That gave me perspective on what was happening around the country politically. She was faithful about writing and very supportive. I got a lot of letters from my mom. She always sent little bundles of relief. She’d send a jar of Tang or something and pack it in popcorn. The guys thought it was great because we ate the popcorn.” (George laughed)

George was a non-commissioned officer, responsible for a squad of soldiers in Detachment 2. He felt the weight of that responsibility.

“I’ll be very blunt about it. I figured my biggest concern was making certain that those guys got back home. Really, that was it. The mission was not important to me from that standpoint.”

His awareness of what had occurred with other units he encountered kept him on edge for his own troops

“I spent a lot of time with the forward, firebase units. It was not uncommon for them to get infiltrated. I ran into the 1st Cav when I was in Pleiku and there were young men there you could tell had some very tough experiences. We once took our unit to the beach. We scrounged a bunch of steaks and cooked them and had beer. But just that morning a body had washed up on the same beach. You never got away from it. I did not see a lot of drug use. That may have happened after, because I got back in ’69, but there was a lot of drinking. There were some guys who chose to stay drunk most of the time as a way to cope. I chose not to because you couldn’t do any good for your men, so you kept your head together.”

He found responsibilities elsewhere as well.

“I spent time at one of the (Catholic) orphanages and set things up for clothing to be sent over. I’m looking at children at this orphanage and there were blue-eyed, blond-haired babies and there were Black babies there. When I had time I would go to a school called St. Joseph’s Mission. I taught a couple classes there. I got to know a few of the monks — wonderful people. And the children that were there — I have an art collection because I taught a drawing class and I brought back their art.”

Between his missions; looking out for his squad; and helping at the orphanage and school, George’s tour passed and he hit day 365.

“The last day I was with the unit we came under attack with rockets and mortars. We got in the bunkers and I heard yelling for me to get out of the bunker, so I came out. There was my CO, (Captain John Walters) yelling for me to get in the jeep. I jumped in and we went to the airstrip. They weren’t actually shooting at the airstrip. They were shooting at the ordnance and the fuel areas. We got to the airstrip and I said, ‘What’s going on?’ He said, ‘I don’t want you to miss your flight.’ He wanted to make sure I got out of there.”

George’s flight returned him to Saigon and to a flight back to the States.

“I got on the plane and you’re sitting on the runway. You’re nervous because you’re thinking, ‘We’re a sitting target here.’ Finally they got us on the runway. We were going down the runway and the front wheels picked up. You know that feeling when the back wheels come up and the plane kind of sinks a little bit? As soon as that happened — you’ve a planeload of a few hundred men — there was a spontaneous, shout that went up. It was pretty emotional. You knew you’d made it. That was a moment that you’ll always remember.”

George was on his way back from Vietnam, but he still had nearly two years remaining on his enlistment.

The Lyon County Museum is organizing an exhibit about the Vietnam War and Lyon County. If you would like to share Vietnam experiences or help with the exhibit, please contact me at prairieviewpressllc@gmail.com or call the museum at 537-6580.