Texas Navy Vet on his Vietnam War tours

Marines up and down the coast, dropping them off and picking them up wherever needed and giving them a little R&R and cleaning them up, putting them back. And then my second tour, I went over, I was embedded in Vietnam with a Vietnamese Navy Marine Corps unit. What was that time like in Vietnam? Pretty scary, actually, but it was an adventure, and I came back with all my fingers and toes, as they say, and so it was an experience I will never have again, and I never would have had it had I not joined the Navy. The paramount thought back in those days was just, A, survive, and B, yes, get back home to your family. In those days, we were over there for a year. There were no cell phones. There were no satellite calls. I mean, you were completely cut off. You wrote somebody a letter, and you got a letter back two weeks later. That was it. So it was a lonely time, but I made new friends, both American and Vietnamese. As I said, I saw things and had adventures that I never would have had, and so it was an incredible, life-changing experience, really. I've heard a lot of Vietnamese stories, including going out into some basically Stone Age villages almost and seeing how people lived in open fires and loincloths, etc. But obviously being in the Navy for over three years and just living afterwards, I have a lot of friends. I knew people that didn't make it in the military. And so... For all veterans, I'm grateful for their service. It's an experience that on the one hand is scary and you think, why should I do that? On the other hand, I will tell you, you will be glad you did it and you will look back on it for the rest of your life and say, I'm so glad I did that. It was a tremendous experience learning cultural everything. In addition to his service in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam era, Perich previously served as a Foreign Service Vice Consul with the U.S. Department of State. Outside of his preservation work, Perich is a Houston-based banking and finance attorney. We thank you for your service.