Page 47 - Stand Down Vietnam

My mother was more worried about me jumping out of
planes than me going to Nam. We were church-going
people and I prayed a lot while in Vietnam. I know
that my Lord looked out for me while I was there.

It only took a few days after arriving in Vietnam for
my squad to be sent out on patrol. My first day was
getting uniforms issued, that sort of thing. The guys

in my squad knew I didn’t play the drugs and alcohol
thing. You’d hear them talking to each other and
saying: “Sergeant Campbell don’t play that.” We didn’t
have any of that around me. My men respected me.

The thing I least want to remember about my time in
Vietnam is pulling night-time ambushes. It seemed that
my dang gone squad was always being chosen. You see,
when you pull an ambush, it is always just a little bit
before dark. You have a map and things, but you have to
find these trails. You lay down – listening and
guarding that trail; trying to catch Charlie Company
(Viet Cong) down that trail.

My most vivid memory of Vietnam is about one of our
companies got caught in an ambush near Dac To; Alpha
Company got caught in an ambush. Our Battalion
Commander asked for my Company to go bail them out.
So, my squad was asked to lead the Company. I led my
men.

The route that I chose to go through the jungle; I was
coming right at them (Viet Cong), I heard them before I
got right upon them. I heard them sitting around,
laughing and joking about what they had done. They was
bragging about catching Alpha Company in an ambush and
things.