Collection:LPB

Genre: Interview

Place Covered: Monroe, Ouachita Parish, Louisiana, Vietnam

Copyright Holder: Louisiana Educational Television Authority

Date Issued: 2017-10-11

Duration: 00:24:00

Subjects: Vietnam War, 1961-1975 | United States. Air Force | Military | Veterans

Contributors:

• Littleton, Gary Interviewee

An oral history interview conducted on October 11, 2017, with Gary Littleton of Farmerville, Louisiana. Littleton served in the United States Air Force during the Vietnam War. He discusses: his decision to join the Air Force; his assignment with First Air Rescue; their role in picking up the wounded in combat zones; his captain playing Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony to distract the enemy during their helicopter rescues; the difficult experience of comforting the wounded during their helicopter rides to the hospital; being shot down and put in a prisoner-of-war camp; being rescued from the POW camp by the Marines; being shot in the left thigh and having the bullet removed years later; not being a hero; his visit to the Vietnam Memorial; his struggles with nightmares; his efforts to help homeless veterans; being spit on at the airport when he returned home from the war; the negative treatment of Vietnam veterans; and his work with the Monroe chapter of the Disabled American Veterans.