Interview with Bud Whiteye

My name is Bud Whiteye. I served in the U.S. Marine Corps from December '63 to December '67. I joined the U.S. Marines particularly because I didn't hear much about the Canadian services. They didn't seem to be a world traveling kind of outfit. I knew that the U.S. Marines were all over the world, and I knew that they were the first team in if anything went wrong around the world. After getting out of residential school and not learning a whole lot in there, I thought the best way to learn something was to see the world so I joined the U.S. Marines, and felt that would be a good way to get some education. I went to Norway, to Japan, all through the Caribbean, I served two years at sea, and the last part of my service was in Vietnam. When it seems imminent that you're going to go, it's in the back of your mind - the first thing that seems to be in the back of everyone's mind - is, "Will I make it back? Will I get killed?" It doesn't overwhelm you or anything like that. It's not something that subdues you or cripples your thoughts. It's just something that pops up, knowing that you're going to be actually shot at and that people are actually going to be trying to take your life. That's their job. The odds were good that they were going to get you because in those days the body counts were two or three hundred a day, as opposed to the two Iraq wars where there were one or two a day and sometimes eight a day, or sometime ten a day. But in the Vietnam War it could easily be two hundred a day in a good firefight or in a good head-to-head battle. Everyone's counting days. From the time they get there, they know how many days. Thirteen months is the regular tour in a combat situation. One year and one month. They get down to two hundred days they start feeling pretty good. They get down to ninety days and they're feeling really good. Down to thirty days and then you have more to worry about because you're down to thirty days and you think, "Wow. Can I make it? I made it all these other thirty days. The last twelve thirty days, I made it through those. I have one more set of thirty days. Can I make it? Will I step on a mine? Will a sniper get me? Will I get caught up in an ambush or something?" When I left Vietnam in 1967, I felt privileged. That doesn't mean that I like war or that I'm a warmonger or anything like that. I felt privileged to have looked death in the face and how to deal with it when you do see death all around you, and death looking right at you. Not too many people have this chance to come close to death and then come out of there and try to tell others that it's not a thing of glory. It's not... if you're going to join the services in either Canada or the United States, don't join it because you think you're going to be a hero or it's something for glory, because it's not. If you're going to join the service for those reasons, you should see a doctor first because there's something wrong with you.