HomeMy WebLinkAboutFrank Dickey Radio TranscriptionCity of College Station
Heritage Programs Oral History
Interviewee: Frank Dickey
Interviewer: Tom Turbiville
Place: College Station, Texas
Project: Veterans of the Valley
Transcriber: Brooke Linsenbardt
00:03: Tom Turbiville (TT): I like to talk about veterans on Bravo Brazos Valley because here under the shadow of Texas A&M University, we are the home of more than just a few. Like
Frank Dickey. 11th Bravo. 4th Infantry. Stationed in Pleiku, Vietnam. Frank Dickey was a ground soldier with a rifle. Cutting through the brush, looking for the enemy. Hoping to find
them before they found him.
00:26: Frank Dickey (FD): What we did was search and destroy missions. Our basic, philosophy was that we were going to try to weed out the Viet Cong. They were hiding in the jungles
and on the outskirts of villages and, we would use intelligence gathered by whatever methods. And, we would go and search. And it wasn’t just blind. You know we had a plan and we knew,
that you know, they were supposed to be there. But, you know they were wily little devils. They, they moved. You know we would get to one place and they had already moved, we could
tell, that they had been there. And we used that intelligence to, to move on and, and try to find ‘em. So basically we just hunted a-, around Vietnam for the bad guys.
TT: Frank Dickey says they spend 80% of their time looking for the Viet Cong, 20% fighting ‘em.
01:20: FD: Obviously you remember that 20% because when you’re shot at, it’s a lot different. But as, as also that I, I mentioned, the elements were, were horrible. And, and those were
day to day. And not being able to brush your teeth as many times as you would like. You know ta-, take a bath. You know get clean. Wash your hair. Those would wait till you went back
to base camp and, and you know had a few days to stay back there.
TT: When Frank Dickey of College Station was on the ground 40 years ago, when north Vietnam launched the Tet Offensive of 1968.
01:58: FD: We were kicked pretty hard. I, I know that in, in, in our unit, at that particular time we were near Da Nang. And, boy. That was, I can literally say that that was the most
fighting, most intense combat that I experienced over there. And uh, you know they were cranked up and fired up and, they were trying to take the city of Da Nang and all of our bases
there and everything. And it was, you know we fought, very very hard. We, we pushed ‘em back and this is when I told you when we got separated. We got, we were really cut off for about
three or four days. And, it was, it was not a pretty thing. We, lost about 50% of our company.
TT: A salute to Frank Dickey of College Station for his brave service. I’m Tom Turbiville, this is Bravo Brazos Valley. Brought to you by Meis and Associates.
[Meis and Associates commercial]