Steve Bloch
Profilers:
Steves Experience in Vietnam
Transcription:
Intro:
My name is Steve Bloch and the Bloch is spelled B, L, O, C, H. My relationship to the Vietnam War was that I was drafted and went there for a year, actually only 11 months but I was there. Other than that I really had no other feelings about the war because I was married, lived a quiet, peaceful life and just worked. That was it.
Awesome, what would you say your life was like before the war?
Well like I just said, you know, it was a simple life. Enjoyable. Again I was married and I spent my life and my wife spent her life working. That’s what we did. We did a little traveling, did a little stuff like that, but it was a good life.
How did you become involved in the Vietnam War?
Yeah well, that’s an interesting thing, I was drafted and then I was sent to Fort Bliss, Texas, for infantry training for 30 days, I was sent to Fort Till, Oklahoma, for 30 days for artillery, and then sent for Fort Eustis, Virginia, where I ended up getting lucky so to speak. I had a certain skill that they needed which was typing, believe it or not. I had typing for half a semester in seventh grade but I stillI remembered how to do it. They sent me down to the 6th transportation battalion and had me type up some stuff. I did okay and they said that I could stay there until the new replacement came. In the end, they liked me so much that they asked me to volunteer for Vietnam, which I volunteered for Vietnam because I wanted to go with my unit. I liked my unit and I still feel like I am not sure why we went there, but we did.
How did you feel about your decision when you were there, as well as now?
Well, while I was there most of the time you are nervous and scared because you are fighting in someone else’s backyard, and you really don’t know the circumstances while that is going on. It wasn’t horrible. I ended up earning a medal, not for valor but accommodation medal for meritorious service, which means I went above and beyond my duties pulling guard, riding shotgun on trucks, and besides just doing some clerical work. Today, I really feel like I am not sure why we were there. I know that we were supposedly fighting against insurrection and communism, but it was a private war between North and South Vietnam and we should not have sent thousands of men and women there to die for no reason, what I feel no reason at all. That is my personal feeling that we should not have been there.
How would you say the war impacts your life today, if it has any lasting impacts?
You know what, because I was lucky and wasn’t in an infantry division, mentally and physically I came out of it fine. I don’t have any hard feelings about it. I did contract prostate cancer while I was there so I have to deal with that and side effects and issues, but overall I feel like I was very lucky that I didn’t die there.
When you think about the Vietnam War, what is the first memory that comes to your mind?
It’s a funny thing, not much comes to mind except for one individual issue that came up. One time we were attacked and they had been taking our weapons and locking them up. We didn’t know why and we were attacked and went to get our weapons and by the time we had stood in line and got our weapons, the attack was over. We had killed a bunch of them and we still didn’t know why they were locking up our weapons again. What we found out is our enlisted men were shooting at our officers. Why, probably because they felt they were treated wrong, who knows. It was an ugly war. That is what comes to my mind at certain times. Other than that it was just getting through it. You know it was 60 years ago, I don’t remember as much as I should remember now but it wasn’t a good time.
During your time in Vietnam while you were actively participating in the war, what would a day in your life look like?
Well you know, I had to do some clerical work for them. Then we had to stand guard. Then we had to be in trucks which we rode shotgun up and down the Cu Chi Trail delivering stuff to our soldiers. That went on day in and day out, the same repetition, the same stuff was going on. I did clerical work when I needed to, I did guard duty when I needed to, and I did shotgun when I needed to.
During the war, was there anything you held physically to keep you grounded?
I simply concentrated on doing what I was assigned to do. That kept me mentally focused on getting the job done. This is why I did win a medal, I earned a medal that they gave me over there for meritorious service because I went above and beyond my job duties. Other than that there wasn’t much going on, just the same repetition every day.
If you could say one thing to your younger self before the war, what would it be?
I can’t go back in time, it just doesn’t work that way. I mean would I say I would do the same thing over again, yes, that’s probably what it would be.
How did you feel when the Vietnam war came to an end?
Relieved that I made it and sick to my stomach that so many, 50,000 men plus had to die. These are 18, 19, 20 year old men who have lost their lives over what I felt was a tragedy. It should not have happened. They had to die for what I felt was a war that just wasn’t worth it.
Do you remember where you were when the war had ended?
Yeah, I was home because the war had still gone on when I had left. Not for much longer but it was still going.
What was the hardest part about coming home and do you feel like you were welcomed or misunderstood in any way?
I think, yeah there was a lot of protesting. There was a lot of anger about it. I was proud to have served my country, that I admit. I was proud to have served. I may not have liked why I served and where I served, but I was proud of that. I didn’t get too many people criticizing me for not standing up and not going. That type of thing. Again, I just felt proud that I was able to serve in the military and serve my country.
How did the war shape your view of the US government and their decisions surrounding the war?
I think that I had negative feelings about my leadership. I felt they didn’t really do the right things and made the right decisions. They sent us into a fight and did not clearly think this through. I just felt they didn’t think it through. I didn’t feel good about the administration’s thought process going forward.
What is one thing that you believe is incorrect in peoples discourse around the Vietnam War today and what is one more thing you wish people who didn’t live through the war could better understand about it?
The afterthought is ridiculous. We felt we were defending our country against communism and thought we were doing the right thing. War is never a good thing but some wars were necessary. Vietnam was not.
If you had an American War in Vietnam class, is there anything specific that you would want it to consist of? Are there any important figures or information that you would want to discuss?
I guess the problem in this question is i’m not smart enough to teach a class. Only that we did not belong in this war and that many men and women died or were horribly wounded for not a good reason. I would have to bring up statistics to that class to prove what I said.
Would you be able to discuss more details about how you got to Vietnam, where you were when you were in Southeast Asia, and how you got back as well?
At Fort Eustis, that’s when I ran into this guy coming out of a colonels office and he asked if anyone could type. I raised my hand and said I could type. They sent me down to the 6th Transportation Battalion and said type a letter to see if you can do it. I did it, slowly, but I did it. That’s when the sergeant later on asked me if I would volunteer to go to Vietnam with their unit, which I did. It was the right thing to do. Coming back, actually going over we went over on a boat and it took 31 days to get there. The only good thing about that was it was 31 days off of tour of duty in Vietnam. Boy did that ship stink. We were 4 hulls down and in hammocks. It was better than being in Vietnam.