Michael Crowe

“I'm sure for the rest of his life he's had nightmares and he's had a tortured, tortured soul.”

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Michael Crowe tells his son about his sergeant during the Vietnam War.

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Recorded in New York, NY.

Michael Crowe

Interview transcript

I’m like 19 years old and I’m impressionable as hell. He kind of took me under his wing for some reason and he goes do you want to see my pictures, my shots from Vietnam. He was one of those people that took Vietnamese people suspected Vietcong – maybe they were maybe they weren’t – up in helicopters they take two or three, three usually. They’d ask a question – I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know boss, I don’t know Charlie I don’t know. They throw him out. The other two would have this look and if the second one didn’t talk they would throw him out and they would get the information from the third one. Then he talked about how they would cut ears off of people after they were dead and they would make necklaces and I’m like no way – way – he showed me the pictures he showed me the photos of soldiers wearing ear necklaces. And then it got worse. Pictures of heads on stakes that they would put around a village that they had just gone through to scare the bejeebers out of people. And here I am I’m 19 years old and I’m like what am I doing?. I’m sure for the rest of his life Sgt. has had nightmares. And he’s had a tortured, tortured soul, because he was a good man. It’s hard to say , but it’s true
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