Steven Skolochenko, interviewed by J.R. Irving and Jason A. Higgins, recorded remotely from Blacksburg, VA, on September 13, 2024.
This interview is part of a collaborative oral history project, entitled “The Things They Still Carry,” led by Dr. Jason Higgins, digital scholarship coordinator for Virginia Tech Publishing, in partnership with Dr. Jim Dubinsky, Associate Professor of English and cofounder of the Veterans in Society Initiative, and Capt. Jamey McGrath and the VT Corps of Cadets. In commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, we are interviewing Virginia Tech alumni who served in the war and providing opportunities for students and current cadets to learn from Vietnam veterans. Dr. Higgins is training and supervising students and cadets at Virginia Tech, providing educational and experiential learning opportunities to students, as well as a way for alumni and veterans to share their experiences with students and the Library of Congress Veterans History Project. This project benefits from the generosity of a Virginia Tech University Libraries Collaboration Grant and resources at Virginia Tech Publishing. Currently, four student workers are helping to carry out this project and process the interviews, including JR Irving, Autumn Curnutt, Mya Kelly, and Ian Quiachon.
[00:00:01] introductions
[00:02:11] Active duty, US Army 1965 to 1980, reserve 1980 to 1992, retired as a Major
[00:02:24] I was in Vietnam from roughly March ’66 through July ’67.
[00:03:03] background, hometown, Oxon Hill suburb of Washington D.C.
[00:04:28] parents’ occupations
[00:06:27] brother also served in the Army
[00:08:04] high school and interests in chemistry and childhood friend
[00:13:26] path to college and decision to attend Virginia Tech, attended1960-65
[00:15:01] experiences in the Corps of Cadets, and Army ROTC
[00:18:01] attending a mostly male university and dating women from Hollins and Radford, going to dances
[00:20:02] pranks and a friend who was court-martialed
[00:22:47] 50 year reunion at VT
[00:24:21] recalls the assassination of President Kennedy
[00:26:32] recalls the assassination of Dr. King in 1968
[00:27:55] deployment to Vietnam in March of 1966
[00:30:53] how well did training at VT and Aberdeen prepare you for Vietnam?
[00:33:24] arriving at Tan Son Nhut Air Base
[00:35:05] average day in Vietnam in his role
[00:36:31] experiences of combat and dealing with road mines
[00:39:01] vehicle hit a land mine in Hue City
[00:41:32] job repairing vehicles
[00:42:29] small firefights and perimeter breaches
[00:44:25] losing friends in Vietnam
[00:46:39] how did soldiers decompress? Bars and brothels
[00:48:53] relationships between officers and enlisted men
[00:51:53] what did soldiers talk about?
[00:53:02] fraggings
[00:54:49] keeping a notebook
[00:57:08] use of drugs: marijuana and heroin
[01:00:43] use of alcohol
[01:03:37] discussion on morale
[01:06:24] antiwar movement
01:08:14] poor attitudes among men
[01:08:58] opinion on the war and how it changed over time
[01:10:42] the draft and counting down the days of deployments
[01:14:13] coming out of the bush and spending time in the rear
[01:16:01] C-rations
[01:20:25] helicopters and landing in zones
[01:23:12] purple heart incident
[01:24:59] counterinsurgency in Thailand in 1971
[01:26:41] criticisms of Nixon and McNamara
[01:27:31] views of the war changing in the 1980s, the Pentagon Papers
[01:29:48] Cambodia and Laos
[01:31:01] radio in Vietnam, news, and types of music
[01:34:09] racial discrimination
[01:37:32] women and Red Cross, Donut Dollies
[01:38:33] R &R
[01:41:04] story about Hong Kong
[01:42:42] other memories from Vietnam
[01:45:30] artifacts from Vietnam, knife
[01:45:56] interactions with civilians and hooch maids
[01:47:44] coming home from Vietnam; claims he was spat upon by antiwar protestors
[01:51:18] meeting wife
[01:51:54] Walter Reed Hospital
[01:54:34] talking about Vietnam with wife or others
[01:56:14] no involvement with veterans groups
[01:58:11] how long did it take to talk about Vietnam?
[01:59:01] experiences of PTSD; discusses being upset by the killing of 13 Americans during the withdrawal from Kabul
[02:02:57] The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall
[02:04:27] fall of Saigon and Kabul
[02:06:56] resigned that the US would lose the war. Believed the US should not have been there, or perhaps that the US should have used nuclear weapons at Dien Bien Phu in 1954
[02:08:18] advice to Afghanistan war veterans
[02:10:17] discusses a non-profit organization Tunnels to Towers
[02:11:39] Vietnam War was politically motivated; discusses Cold War context, and the politics of the prolonging the war
[02:13:38] lessons: question authority
[02:18:39] how would you like to be remembered? Conclusion
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