In June 1969, Ed Campbell received his masters degree from Indiana University.

Eleven months later, four college students on a campus in neighboring Ohio were killed, and nine more were injured, as they protested Americas military expansion into Cambodia. Twenty-eight National Guard soldiers had fired 67 rounds into the crowd at a peace rally at Kent State University.

"The unrest in this country with the college kids was unbelievable," Campbell recalls. After Kent State, "it just grew to monumental proportions."

And yet, the war continued. One month after the Kent State shootings, 1st Lt. Ed Campbell was blasted by hot, soupy air when the door to his military transport opened after touching down in Vietnam.

Reluctantly, he stepped out of the plane, anxious to complete his two-year ROTC obligation.

After a brief assignment at battalion headquarters, Campbell was welcomed to Vietnam with a case of dysentery and then pneumonia, requiring two hospital stays. When he finally was declared healthy, he was reassigned to the 378th Maintenance Support Company of the 185th Maintenance Battalion.

It was the same battalion that provided support during the drive into Cambodia in April 1970, the impetus for the Kent State peace rally.

His company was composed of men primarily from two very different backgrounds, the rural South and urban Midwest. While most were mechanics, they had little else in common and they rarely socialized.

"These were basic guys that didnt have anyone to pull any political strings for them. They just got pulled into the draft and wound up in Vietnam," remembers Campbell. "They just knew they were in a freakin miserable place, and they acted accordingly. They did their job, but they didnt do it with a lot of enthusiasm."

Unlike their World War II heroes, Vietnam soldiers lacked a clear enemy and objective, explains Campbell.

"Mussolini, Hitler and Hideki Tojo those guys were right out of central casting. You couldnt have asked for worse bad guys than those three bozos," he says, adding that America had a clear stake in the outcome of that earlier war.

But in Vietnam, he says, the war "just seemed to drag on and on. There was tremendous dissension in the U.S., and that spilled over to the soldiers."

And the men of his company were no exceptions. "Of the 200-plus guys in the company," Campbell says, "Id say about three-quarters of them would have gotten on a plane the next day to get out Vietnam if they could have."

Campbells motivational and leadership challenges were compounded by the availability of drugs in the region, and their popularity among soldiers who used them to numb the psychological and physical pain of this unpopular war.

"The television news shows from that era Huntley-Brinkley and Walter Cronkite were going on ad infinitum about the drug problems in Vietnam, and they werent exaggerating," says Campbell. "Half the guys from my company were smoking marijuana, and there were a significant number who were screwing around with heroin."

Campbell points to musicians such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and The Doors who had glamorized drug culture. "All these pop stars from that era were trying to paint themselves as druggies, and that appealed to the kids at the time.

"The soldiers had access to this stuff. Unfortunately, the Army couldnt stop it. Soldiers werent very happy about being in Vietnam ,and it was so easy to get the drugs over there."

Campbell is quick to point out, however, that he never saw soldiers using drugs when they were out in the jungle, because they "realized the potential for danger when away from their home base."

As unit officer, Campbell earned the nickname, "Easy Ed." He understood the stressors, used reason instead of force, and tried to earn his soldiers respect by keeping them on task, focusing on just getting everyone home safely.

"I didnt break chops," he recalls. "As long as they did their jobs, I just left well enough alone. I wasnt any kind of career Army type. I didnt want to be the next [General] Westmoreland. I was just doing my time, too."

He almost accomplished his goal of finishing his tour of duty without an incident, until the day he was told that he was going to be shipped home a month early.

"I was happy as a clam," he says. "I went into my little hooch, the little hut that I lived in, to just get some stuff together that I was going to send back. I was in there for just a short time when a runner came up and said, You got to get back to the orderly room. "

Without getting an explanation, he followed.

As he entered the room, Campbell saw "a group of whites and a group of Blacks. There was no love lost between the two groups. They were going at it."

Obscenities were flying, and there were some Army-issued M16s in hand.

Being "Easy Ed," he tried to speak to the two groups of soldiers to defuse the situation. When that didnt work, Campbell let loose, countering with his own obscenities and the threat of dishonorable discharges, plus punishment at Leavenworth penitentiary.

Deep down in his heart, Campbell recalls siding with the Blacks. "There were less of them, and I knew that some of them had got screwed pulling guard and doing other Army grunt-type jobs. They had gotten the short end of the stick as far as promotions."

Stunned by Campbells explosive rant, the two groups of soldiers parted ways, averting a crisis.

Unbeknownst to him, Campbell was being watched by a respected Army sergeant major who had tried without success to break up the melee prior to Campbells arrival. He was impressed by Campbells bravery and later recommended him for a Bronze Star for his actions, noting in his report that he suspected alcohol and drugs had played a role in fueling the soldiers anger, putting "fire in their eyes."

Campbell never found out what really precipitated the fight "the problems had been brewing for a while." Maybe it was discontent with their miserable situation and the resulting frustration, or it could have been alcohol and drugs, as the sergeant major suspected.

But Campbell also thinks that "maybe someone said the N word just one too many times."

Within a week of the confrontation, he was back on a plane, bound for home.

While that day at Long Binh Post happened in 1971, the death of George Floyd made him think of it once again.

Ed Campbell wonders what might have happened if he had already left Vietnam, or if he had decided not to intervene in that fight almost 50 years ago.

Do you know a veteran with an interesting story? Do you offer a program or service focus on serving retired military? Are you planning an event aimed at veterans or their families? Email Mary K. Talbot at ThoseWhoServedAmerica@gmail.com

Go here to read the rest:

Veterans Voice: Memories from the jungles of Vietnam - The Providence Journal