Spectrum 547. What were we fighting for? Part 1

Alwyn Owen introduces the story in August 1964 when Mike Sylvano joined the United States marines as a seventeen year old, to fight in the Vietnam War. Joining because he felt that civilian life offered him no motivation and because the marine core offered what he felt young men needed ‘guidance, discipline and training’.

In 1966 Mike went to Vietnam as a fighting marine. He did not question his own countries involvement in the conflict and believed that he was righteously defending the very notion of freedom. He believed they were there to stop the suffering of the South Vietnamese people. The ethics of intervention were never questioned by the young men enrolled in the armed forces. Mike tells Alwyn that contrary to their expectations the Vietnamese people were not pleased to have more foreigners turning up and interfering in their country.

Mike recounts his arrival in Vietnam, being dropped in the middle of a rice paddy in the middle of Saigon in sweltering weather in the Mekong Delta area. Swarmed by insects and flies it was an extremely hostile environment that they were completely unprepared for. Over time the men became more subdued and anxious knowing that there were plans for a large scale engagement underway that without doubt some of them would not come out alive from. When they were eventually engaged in their first big operation they were initially dropped into the demilitarised zone. The next day fighting began and under heavy fire assaulted a village and took possession of it. The village contained lots of fortified fox holes so they began to search it. Mikes says his role as a bazooka man was to be aggressive and support the infantry. Marines he says, are trained to be offensive not defensive fighters. He believed he was there to do a job and that’s what he did. Mike describes the differences in health and physicality between the North and South Vietnamese people.

The average age of his fighting compatriots was between eighteen and twenty one years. Mike describes a battle where he used his bazooka weapon until he had run out of ammunition and then swapped his weapon for a rifle. His first experience of seeing a friend killed and how that experience changed him and make him ask ‘why are we doing this?” He describes carrying the dead weight of his friend back to be put into a body bag. At this point the First Sergeant told the remaining men to go through the dead man’s pack and take anything that they needed. Anything that might help them and not to feel bad for it. The men however were unable to take anything as they felt it was not right. That night Mike found himself apologising to Christ for his own actions. That night he realized that the cycle of fighting and defeat would go on and on and the success of winning one battle meant nothing.

Mike was hit three times as he woke up from sleeping in his fox hole. He saw his foot being blown off and covered in blood was in immense pain. Describing how he had to drag himself out of the fox hole to respond to some of his comrades calls for help from pain. Mike was then hit again. The screaming became more intense and the pain became more intense. He could feel himself becoming weak so thought he must act. With his good foot he cradled his injured foot and crawled out if his fox hole and found 20 other wounded men. Mike begged the others to try and not let the enemy know they were all injured as he feared it would then be over for all of them. Mike was given a shot of morphine. That night he slept with his boots on and that act saved his feet. The boots were lined with stainless steel innersoles designed to protect the feet from punji traps.

“I relived it many times. Sometimes with regret, remorse, or a feeling of deep sadness... a lot of strong, youthful men who after one action either ages ten years or literally decreased into half their physical size”