My father James Crawford was interviewed about his experiences in the service particularly during Vietnam and around the Battle of Firebase Ripcord. I am so proud of him sharing his oral history with the GVSU Veterans History Project. The video go his oral history is on YouTube and will be stored in the archives of GVSU as well as the Library of Congress.
It’s 90 minutes and if you’d like to hear some history, some of it funny, some of it horrific, some of it depressing, some of it hopeful. An honest and earnest oral history from his point of view.
Here’s the biography of my remarkable father on the website.
James Crawford was born in Corpus Christi, TX, in 1947. He enlisted in the Army and trained as a combat medic. He wanted to go to Vietnam, so of course was assigned to duty stations in the US, but eventually got to Vietnam in January, 1970. He served initially with A Company, 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, and then transferred to the medical unit in the 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, and served with them through the latter part of the campaign around Firebase Ripcord. He returned to the US in December, 1970, and was discharged the following year. Drawing on his medical experience, he qualified as a nurse, and later became a doctor. He enlisted in the US Navy in 1979 and took a commission as an officer, and trained and served at several different bases and hospitals around the country. He served during Operation Desert Storm in 1991, and returned to civilian life in 1993.
