William Van Eck

William Van Eck was born in June 1942 in Passaic New Jersey. Before he was drafted on March 9, 1964, he had a full-time job to which he would return after his service and stay for another thirty-seven years. At the time Van Eck was drafted, he felt that the mood of the country was favorable concerning the Vietnam War, which was at a low level of intensity at the time. He was not the only one in his family to serve in the military, as his brother was a quartermaster on a ship in World War II.

When he was drafted, Van Eck was initially sent to Fort Dix, New Jersey for basic training. He explained to the interviewer how his Boy Scout experience helped him adjust to life in the military. 

After Fort Dix, Van Eck was sent to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where he was trained as a cannoneer and the driver of a personnel carrier, as well as an M107 175 mm. self-propelled artillery piece in the 2nd Battalion, 32nd Field Artillery Regiment, aka the “Proud Americans.” He stayed there for fourteen months and described it as being like a home. The buildings were in adobe style and still stand today. Van Eck and his battalion were sent to Vietnam on the USS Gordon with 3,500 other men. Many units got off in Hawaii, and Van Eck recalled that his battalion was the only one sent to Vietnam. The Merchant Marine crewed ship stopped in White Beach, Okinawa and took a total of twenty-nine days to get to Vietnam. Three men who were not connected to Van Eck’s unit got arrested for partying too hard, and were being held in the ship’s brig. They decided to light the brig on fire instead of getting in trouble for whatever they did, killing themselves in the process! Van Eck remembered feeling relieved and happy when he got off the ship.

Van Eck landed in a Vietnamese shore town, where he boarded a plane and flew to Bien Hoa. At the time, Bien Hoa was under attack; so, the plane he was on remained in the air for an extra thirty minutes. While in Vietnam, Van Eck moved a lot to various places west of Saigon. The most significant one he remembered was when his battalion was stationed in Trung Lap, and detailed to support a search and destroy mission by the 173RD Airborne Brigade. This was the brigade’s first large operation, and they had created a special forces camp without knowing that the area was full of tunnels used by the Vietcong! Van Eck would later learn via a History Channel show that around 10,000 men had access to these tunnels at any given time! He was also a part of creating the large 25th Division camp at Cu Chi, which would house around 29,000 men.

Van Eck recalled civilians being amazed at the large equipment that he transported. He also explained how the roads were dangerous; sometimes they were mined, or enemy troops would ambush vehicles and shoot them up. Van Eck had a tough time trusting anyone, even the translator for the South Vietnamese unit that he worked alongside of. Van Eck was a part of a battalion with an official strength of 105 men. but the unit was always understrength due to rotations and casualties. Looking back, he felt that the strategy being used for the war was pointless, as “one thing is you were always fighting a ghost,” explaining that when a place was cleared, and American troops left, Vietcong would come right back and occupy it again.

Van Eck volunteered for a gun crew that beat back the enemy and saved members of his unit who were pinned down during an ambush. (Read his eyewitness story told by him in his short memoir here.) Van Eck voluntarily extended his service in Vietnam, so he could be discharged early. He had three false alarms for his discharge before he was finally able to leave. Van Eck spent 36 hours in the Oakland Army Terminal after arriving back in the United States before making it back home. He felt that the war made him start to think differently, and said: “it makes you view things in a unique way… you start to think ‘is there an easier way’”. William Van Eck served from 1964 to 1968; some of his service awards received include the Bronze Star for valor, the Vietnamese Service Medal and the Good Conduct Medal.

Additional Resources:

• CBSNews.com
  
• NorthJersey.com