July 17, 2024 • 19 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, remaining effective and calm under fire, from the undergrowth of the Vietnamese jungle to the rivers and skies, Ted Godlove concerned himself not with the hopelessness of a situation or who would get the credit for a victory, but rather with fighting the enemy and protecting his brothers in arms. Michael Williams, author of The Boys of Milo, tells the story of one man, among several from his hometown, who volunteered to face this fight.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
And we returned to our American stories. Up next a
story of a soldier who braved the jungles of Vietnam,
from the wild pigs to the stench, to what some
might call a holy experience. Here to tell the story
is Michael Williams, a listener of the show and the
author of The Boys of Milo, which tells the stories
of the men from his small town in Iowa who
(00:34):
had drafted or chose to fight in the Vietnam War.
Let's get into the story. Take it away, Michael, I have.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Seen something under the sun. The race is not to
the swift, or the battle to the strong, Nor does
food come to the wise, or wealth to the brilliant,
or favor to the learning. But time and chance happened
to them all over. No man knows when his hour
will come. As fish are caught in a cruel net,
(01:06):
where birds are taken in a snare, so men are
trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them. I
want to talk about Ted. Godlove. Ted grew up in Milo,
(01:27):
along with his older brother Edsel and younger brother Lee,
and his family lived on the far west end of
Main Street. In all the years I knew Ted, I
never once heard anyone call him by his first given name, Allan.
He had always been Ted, Godlove to me. On August
(01:49):
twenty sixth, nineteen sixty eight, just a few short months
after he graduated from high school, five rough and ready
guys from the area volunteered for induction in the United
States Marine Corps. All on the same day. All departed
the tranquil surroundings of small town, Iowa, and embarked on
a journey that took them first to Camp Pendleton for
(02:09):
basic training. With basic training completed, additional orders followed and
directed them to their next assignment. All that is except Ted.
He was the only one in his platoon that did
not receive orders for his next assignment. His gunnery sergeant
quickly realized the snaff woo and made and on the
spot decision. Sarcastically, he spouted, for the love of God,
(02:33):
God Love, You're going to recon. Members of recon units
were comprised of the corps elite soldiers and were called
upon to accomplish missions that ranged from point reconnaissance to
direct action. On one of his missions, early on during
(02:53):
his time in Vietnam, Ted lay in the underbrush of
the jungle with several others on his patrol, waiting and
watching vis movements. Suddenly they heard voices and a group
of about twenty Viet Cong appeared perhaps fifty feet away
on the trail. Ted and his teammates remained motionless and
let the viet Cong pass and made note of the
type of small arms they carried. Just a few minutes later,
(03:16):
more voices followed. Again, the Marines remained quiet and held
their breath without the slightest of movement. This time sixty
North Vietnamese regulars in uniform prayed past them. They stopped
and chattered among themselves. Ted not only heard the voices,
but was close enough to even smell the od of
marijuana that they smoke as they walked down the trail.
(03:40):
Another noise ahead of them in the bushes aroused the
marine's senses. Ted pushed a selector switch on his sixteen
rifle with his right comb from safety to full automatic,
ready for the assault. Then a squeal came from the bushes.
A wild boar suddenly ran across the trail in front
of the North Vietnamese regulars, and they fired their AK
forty seven's at the pig. The boar raced into the
(04:02):
jungle directly toward Ted's patrol. They held their fire, knowing
that they were vastly outnumbered. The pig raced right past
Ted only about ten feet away, then abruptly swerved to
the right. With the North Vietnamese regulars in hot pursuit,
they fired away at the boer. They wanted fresh pork
(04:22):
for dinner. That evening, more shots were fired by the
North Vietnamese than shouts of joy. As they downed the
wild board, Ted quietly breathed a sigh of relief, booshed
his selector switched back to the safety position. The North
Vietnamese feasted that night on fresh pork. Ted and his
patrol survived that potentially disastrous situation. They slowly crawled further
(04:44):
away from the trail, grateful that they were not discovered
by the pig hunters. On September nineteenth, nineteen sixty nine,
Ted and seven others were inserted by helicopter into the
jungle near Kwan on yet another recon mission. That afternoon,
his buddy Frank Montes from Salinas, California, heard voices on
(05:08):
the nola ahead of them and smelled food cooking. Frank
and private head moved closer to investigate. A lone VC
spotted them and opened fire. Frank returned fire and killed
the soldier. Two more VC appeared and retrieved the body,
and then the fight was on. The eight Marines were
soon surrounded by superior numbers. A firefight ensued and continued
(05:33):
from late afternoon about four point thirty into the early
morning hours of the next day, September twentieth. Ted called
in air support to beat back the Viet Cong. Bullets
flew everywhere. Gunships fired from the sky, the Marines fired
from the ground, and the VC fired back at both.
(05:53):
At four o'clock in the morning, the helicopter was able
to get in and attempt to extricate the recon team.
Private Head had been shot in the foot of the
eight man team. Ted and Frank were the only two
not hit by enemy fire. In the darkness of night,
Ted turned on his flashlight and guided in the hueing
(06:15):
His light drew immediate fire. Frank held Private Head's arm
draped around his own neck as he Ted and Head
scrambled to the landing zone for support. Frank interlaced his
other arm into the harness of Ted's tactical vest a
single round hit Frank Montes, and all three tumbled to
the ground. Ted shouted out, Lord Jesus, don't let me die.
(06:44):
Ted recalled a calm that overcame him. He later reflected
on the moment, I don't know if it was ten
seconds or ten minutes. It was as if no time
constraints existed. It seemed as though there was some kind
of electrical field around me. A zapping noise pierced the air. Light,
flashing sensations surrounded me, and I remember free falling through
(07:07):
a golden tunnel. It sounds crazy, but my life passed
before me like a fast forward slide show. Then I
saw a figure in the distance. I couldn't see the face,
but he spoke to me and said, you have to
go back. Ted thought to himself, My God, was that Jesus?
He thought himself. Am I dead? Flat on his back?
(07:30):
Ted blinked his eyes as he looked up. He heard
the heavy noise caused from the chopper blades that pushed
against the night air. He turned his head to the
right and saw his buddy, Frank Montes. Half his face
was gone. Ted grimly recalled Frank's hanging cheap tissue that
flapped freely from the wind from the rotor wash of
(07:51):
the chopper. As it settled in, he jumped to his feet,
grabbed Frank and threw him onto the floor of the helicopter,
then went back and lifted Private Head and two the chopper.
The other five wounded grunts from his patrol hobbled to
the l Z and tled to help them on board.
As the Huey pulled, pitched and deed, he maud from
the hellhole. As the Huey reached altitude, Ted glanced down
(08:14):
at the area they had just left. It was lit
up like a Christmas tree on Times Square. The Air
Force pound the area with napalm. Once they got word
that the extrication had been complete, Ted thought to himself,
kill him, kill him all. Five days later, Private Goldmeyer,
part of the recon team, died from his wounds. Frank
(08:36):
Montes also died in the early morning darkness. Of the
eight man team, two were killed five other wounded. Ted
exited the ordeal as the only person unscathed. The Marine
Corps later posthumously awarded Frank Montes the Silver Star for
his heroic actions. On September twenty, nineteen sixty nine, Ted
(08:57):
knew the true story, but never contested the Corps honor
to his friend Frank for the award. He knew who
guided the Huey Inn and who carried the wounded aboard.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
And you're listening to Michael Williams, who listens to our
show on who in Des Moines one of our very
first and earliest adopters were proud to call who one
of our early homes. You're listening to Michael Williams, who's
the author of the Boys of Milo, telling the story
of Ted Godlof and what a thing to do in
(09:28):
August of nineteen sixty eight, when kids were doing what
they were doing, protesting the war, burning their bras, running
to Woodstock. Soon thereafter, he and his pals, right after
high school, decided to volunteer for the US Marine Corps
and for the war or against the war, or whatever
you thought about it. My goodness, what patriots. When we
(09:49):
come back more of Ted Godlove's story here on our
American stories, and we returned to our American stories, and
(10:12):
the final portion of our story, Unted Godlove telling the
story is Michael Williams, the author of the Boys of Milo.
When we last left off, Ted had just had an
encounter with Jesus deep in the jungle on a recon mission,
who told Ted that he had to go back. Let's
return to the story.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
After the mission to kwan Nam, Ted felt a sense
of ease come over him. Gone was the battlefield fear,
the constant reminder that death walked beside them each moment
in the jungle. That release of fear would serve him
well into the future. He continued to have close calls
and simply shrugged his shoulders. Twice he thought he had
(10:54):
been hit by rifle fire, only to feel that his
canteen attached to his web belt took a round. He
felt the warm fluid running down his leg, but it
wasn't blood. It was water from the canteen. How lucky
can a guy be, he thought himself. What else would
one expect from Marine who had just met Jesus and
(11:15):
was told you must go back. In the fall of
sixty nine, he took time to relax and had a
few beers at the Dnang Recreation compound. While engaged in
a game of billiards, he looked up and look and
behold in walked Larry Flynn, his high school classmate and
(11:37):
comrade in arms who enlisted in the Marine Corps the
same day as Ted. Larry just happened to be passing
through Danang and new Ted's unit, so he took a
chance he might find him. What a joyful rendezvous it
proved to be. They played a few games of pool,
reminisced of their innocent days back in Milo, and despite
the fact that they were hard in combat veterans back
(11:59):
at home in Iowa, they were not old enough to
even legally purchase alcohol. Larry spoke out with the phrase, well, Toto,
I don't think we're in Kansas anymore. I mean Iowa.
Here's to us. As they chugged a beer, Ted chimed in,
that's for sure, Toto, we're not an Io anymore. Here's
mud and your eye. And they tipped their warm cans
(12:22):
of slitched beer and guzzled it down. They looked at
each other with empty beer cans in hand, and laughed
out loud. Little did they realize the significant meaning of
their toast, Here's mud and your eye. The origin behind
that toast for good health can be traced to Biblical times,
as noted in John nine point fifteen. Their Jesus healed
(12:42):
a blind man when he rubbed his mud in his eyes.
I once was blind, but now I see with that toast.
In God's blessings, Ted and Larry were in good hands.
On April eighteenth, nineteen teen seventy, I myself as home
(13:02):
own leave back in Milo, fresh out of boot camp
with the Air Force. That same day, halfway around the world,
Ted was twelve days shy of his twentieth birthday and
conducted duties as a patrol leader of a six person
long rage reconnaissement team in the Thong Duck area of
kwan Nam. While on patrol, his team encountered a numerically
(13:25):
superior enemy force that approached his guys. He told his
troops to high tail it to a suitable landing zone
while he remained behind a loane and delayed the advancement
of the vietcom As the enemy approached, Ted detonated four
anti personnel minds that killed four VC soldiers. He engaged
the others with small arm fires, then directed airstrikes on
(13:48):
the enemy positions that aborted the attack. During yet another
insertion into the jungle, Ted's recon team encountered hen of
the enemy forces and knee An immediate extraction. He radied
for a helicopter to pull a six man team out
of harm's way. Within a short time, a chopper arrived,
(14:08):
but with no clear landing zone. His team was extricated
through the jungle forest with a stable harness. The stable
harness is a device that is highly effective means of
extricating or inserting soldiers when ground landings are impossible, and
allowed them hands free capability to their weapons. While hanging
in the air, Ted and his team snapped their carabiners
(14:32):
into the line and began lift off. They came under
a fire immediately as a UH one h Iroquois pulled away.
The rescue helicopter was hit by gunfire and began to
lose altitude, and Ted and his crew dangling beneath it
became evident the chopper was going down. The pilot fought
to keep the battle damage chewy under control. During the
(14:54):
rapid descent, He guided it towards a nearby river, knowing
that if it hit the trees, those hanging freely would
be seriously injured, if not killed. Ted hit the water
and found himself and others being dragged down the river.
Thoughts of drowning in Vietnam never entered Ted's mind until now,
but it became an instant reality. He tried to disconnect
(15:16):
his tethered line, but his own weight and the force
of the Huey was too much to overcome. Suddenly, the
chopper hit the water and flipped onto its side. Ted
popped to the surface. He was a hard landing and
could have been much worse. Ted disconnected his car binger
made his way to the shoreline. Others followed. The helicopter
(15:38):
crew bailed out and also made their way to the Marines.
All including the aircrew, escaped without major injuries. Within a minute,
a second huey hovered above them that observed the events
prior to the crash. Hooray for the backup team. Sed
talked to himself. Nobody said a word. They didn't need to.
(15:58):
All rushed to the airworthy chopper hoped on board, and
a senate upward and into the heavens, destined for friendlier territory.
As the hue he reached altitude, Ted shook his head
and tried to put the day into perspective. He just couldn't.
(16:19):
On November tenth, nineteen seventy, Ted Godlove discharged from the
Marine Corps back where it all happened at Camp Pendleton.
To say he served his country honorably and with extinction
would be a gross understatement. During his two years, two months,
and fifteen days of active duty with the Marine Corps,
of which one year, seven months, and ten days were
(16:40):
in Vietnam, Ted received the National Defense Service Medal, the
Vietnam Service Medal with two Devices, the US Navy Commendation
Medal with Valor, the Vietnam Campaign Medal with Device, the
Republic of Vietnam Crossover Gallantry with palm and frame, the
Bronze Star with Valor in the Combat Action Ribbon. What
(17:04):
caught his attention when he first stepped foot in Vietnam
was the oppressive heat and unbearable stench of open air
sewers and latrines. Reflecting back on the moment, he commented
that perhaps was the easiest thing to endure during my
nineteen months and ten days in Vietnam. The horrific odor,
but like a terrible stink, the lousy smell of war
(17:26):
stuck with Ted after his departure and lingered with him
some forty plus years into his future. He went to
his family doctor, doctor Adeline McCormick from Milo. Upon examination,
she found a festering wound in his left leg. Ted
could have gone to the VA hospital but thought it
was no big deal. What doctor McCormick found shocked her.
(17:48):
A fragmented piece of shrapnel had worked its way to
the surface of his left leg. Ted recalled the incident
in Vietnam but thought it was just a scrape, a
superficial wound, nothing to worry about. He told me, I
wish I'd kept that some little piece of metal as
a souvenir for my time in Vietnam. Instead, he tossed
it away. Ted never reported that Andrew while in Vietnam.
(18:11):
He said, I didn't want a purple heart, never bothered
with the paperwork. That's just the kind of guy Ted
was the commonly used phrase. Been there done That fits
Ted perfectly. He added, I've got the T shirt too.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
And a terrific job and the production editing and storytelling
by our own Megan Pitcock herself a Hillsdale student and
a Hillsdale intern here at our show, and we put
our interns to work. And I know you like hearing that.
We also love hearing our own listeners tell stories about
their own people, and in this case it's Michael Williams
(18:48):
from Des Moines, Iowa. And what a story Michael told
about Ted Godlove Boy, that meeting in Denang. What a
source of relief to ke a buddy just walk in
while you're shooting pool, the buddy you and listed with
in Iowa, and to just clank the balls around, clank
those beers and then have to go back into it. Well,
it gave him some hope. And then there were those
(19:09):
words that he heard from Jesus, you must go back,
and that released him from fear. When soldiers are released
from fear, they get to do their job best and
have the least to worry about. Fear often kill soldiers.
The story of Ted Godlove here on our American Stories
And we returned to our American stories. Up next a
story of a soldier who braved the jungles of Vietnam,
from the wild pigs to the stench, to what some
might call a holy experience. Here to tell the story
is Michael Williams, a listener of the show and the
author of The Boys of Milo, which tells the stories
of the men from his small town in Iowa who
(00:34):
had drafted or chose to fight in the Vietnam War.
Let's get into the story. Take it away, Michael, I have.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Seen something under the sun. The race is not to
the swift, or the battle to the strong, Nor does
food come to the wise, or wealth to the brilliant,
or favor to the learning. But time and chance happened
to them all over. No man knows when his hour
will come. As fish are caught in a cruel net,
(01:06):
where birds are taken in a snare, so men are
trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them. I
want to talk about Ted. Godlove. Ted grew up in Milo,
(01:27):
along with his older brother Edsel and younger brother Lee,
and his family lived on the far west end of
Main Street. In all the years I knew Ted, I
never once heard anyone call him by his first given name, Allan.
He had always been Ted, Godlove to me. On August
(01:49):
twenty sixth, nineteen sixty eight, just a few short months
after he graduated from high school, five rough and ready
guys from the area volunteered for induction in the United
States Marine Corps. All on the same day. All departed
the tranquil surroundings of small town, Iowa, and embarked on
a journey that took them first to Camp Pendleton for
(02:09):
basic training. With basic training completed, additional orders followed and
directed them to their next assignment. All that is except Ted.
He was the only one in his platoon that did
not receive orders for his next assignment. His gunnery sergeant
quickly realized the snaff woo and made and on the
spot decision. Sarcastically, he spouted, for the love of God,
(02:33):
God Love, You're going to recon. Members of recon units
were comprised of the corps elite soldiers and were called
upon to accomplish missions that ranged from point reconnaissance to
direct action. On one of his missions, early on during
(02:53):
his time in Vietnam, Ted lay in the underbrush of
the jungle with several others on his patrol, waiting and
watching vis movements. Suddenly they heard voices and a group
of about twenty Viet Cong appeared perhaps fifty feet away
on the trail. Ted and his teammates remained motionless and
let the viet Cong pass and made note of the
type of small arms they carried. Just a few minutes later,
(03:16):
more voices followed. Again, the Marines remained quiet and held
their breath without the slightest of movement. This time sixty
North Vietnamese regulars in uniform prayed past them. They stopped
and chattered among themselves. Ted not only heard the voices,
but was close enough to even smell the od of
marijuana that they smoke as they walked down the trail.
(03:40):
Another noise ahead of them in the bushes aroused the
marine's senses. Ted pushed a selector switch on his sixteen
rifle with his right comb from safety to full automatic,
ready for the assault. Then a squeal came from the bushes.
A wild boar suddenly ran across the trail in front
of the North Vietnamese regulars, and they fired their AK
forty seven's at the pig. The boar raced into the
(04:02):
jungle directly toward Ted's patrol. They held their fire, knowing
that they were vastly outnumbered. The pig raced right past
Ted only about ten feet away, then abruptly swerved to
the right. With the North Vietnamese regulars in hot pursuit,
they fired away at the boer. They wanted fresh pork
(04:22):
for dinner. That evening, more shots were fired by the
North Vietnamese than shouts of joy. As they downed the
wild board, Ted quietly breathed a sigh of relief, booshed
his selector switched back to the safety position. The North
Vietnamese feasted that night on fresh pork. Ted and his
patrol survived that potentially disastrous situation. They slowly crawled further
(04:44):
away from the trail, grateful that they were not discovered
by the pig hunters. On September nineteenth, nineteen sixty nine,
Ted and seven others were inserted by helicopter into the
jungle near Kwan on yet another recon mission. That afternoon,
his buddy Frank Montes from Salinas, California, heard voices on
(05:08):
the nola ahead of them and smelled food cooking. Frank
and private head moved closer to investigate. A lone VC
spotted them and opened fire. Frank returned fire and killed
the soldier. Two more VC appeared and retrieved the body,
and then the fight was on. The eight Marines were
soon surrounded by superior numbers. A firefight ensued and continued
(05:33):
from late afternoon about four point thirty into the early
morning hours of the next day, September twentieth. Ted called
in air support to beat back the Viet Cong. Bullets
flew everywhere. Gunships fired from the sky, the Marines fired
from the ground, and the VC fired back at both.
(05:53):
At four o'clock in the morning, the helicopter was able
to get in and attempt to extricate the recon team.
Private Head had been shot in the foot of the
eight man team. Ted and Frank were the only two
not hit by enemy fire. In the darkness of night,
Ted turned on his flashlight and guided in the hueing
(06:15):
His light drew immediate fire. Frank held Private Head's arm
draped around his own neck as he Ted and Head
scrambled to the landing zone for support. Frank interlaced his
other arm into the harness of Ted's tactical vest a
single round hit Frank Montes, and all three tumbled to
the ground. Ted shouted out, Lord Jesus, don't let me die.
(06:44):
Ted recalled a calm that overcame him. He later reflected
on the moment, I don't know if it was ten
seconds or ten minutes. It was as if no time
constraints existed. It seemed as though there was some kind
of electrical field around me. A zapping noise pierced the air. Light,
flashing sensations surrounded me, and I remember free falling through
(07:07):
a golden tunnel. It sounds crazy, but my life passed
before me like a fast forward slide show. Then I
saw a figure in the distance. I couldn't see the face,
but he spoke to me and said, you have to
go back. Ted thought to himself, My God, was that Jesus?
He thought himself. Am I dead? Flat on his back?
(07:30):
Ted blinked his eyes as he looked up. He heard
the heavy noise caused from the chopper blades that pushed
against the night air. He turned his head to the
right and saw his buddy, Frank Montes. Half his face
was gone. Ted grimly recalled Frank's hanging cheap tissue that
flapped freely from the wind from the rotor wash of
(07:51):
the chopper. As it settled in, he jumped to his feet,
grabbed Frank and threw him onto the floor of the helicopter,
then went back and lifted Private Head and two the chopper.
The other five wounded grunts from his patrol hobbled to
the l Z and tled to help them on board.
As the Huey pulled, pitched and deed, he maud from
the hellhole. As the Huey reached altitude, Ted glanced down
(08:14):
at the area they had just left. It was lit
up like a Christmas tree on Times Square. The Air
Force pound the area with napalm. Once they got word
that the extrication had been complete, Ted thought to himself,
kill him, kill him all. Five days later, Private Goldmeyer,
part of the recon team, died from his wounds. Frank
(08:36):
Montes also died in the early morning darkness. Of the
eight man team, two were killed five other wounded. Ted
exited the ordeal as the only person unscathed. The Marine
Corps later posthumously awarded Frank Montes the Silver Star for
his heroic actions. On September twenty, nineteen sixty nine, Ted
(08:57):
knew the true story, but never contested the Corps honor
to his friend Frank for the award. He knew who
guided the Huey Inn and who carried the wounded aboard.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
And you're listening to Michael Williams, who listens to our
show on who in Des Moines one of our very
first and earliest adopters were proud to call who one
of our early homes. You're listening to Michael Williams, who's
the author of the Boys of Milo, telling the story
of Ted Godlof and what a thing to do in
(09:28):
August of nineteen sixty eight, when kids were doing what
they were doing, protesting the war, burning their bras, running
to Woodstock. Soon thereafter, he and his pals, right after
high school, decided to volunteer for the US Marine Corps
and for the war or against the war, or whatever
you thought about it. My goodness, what patriots. When we
(09:49):
come back more of Ted Godlove's story here on our
American stories, and we returned to our American stories, and
(10:12):
the final portion of our story, Unted Godlove telling the
story is Michael Williams, the author of the Boys of Milo.
When we last left off, Ted had just had an
encounter with Jesus deep in the jungle on a recon mission,
who told Ted that he had to go back. Let's
return to the story.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
After the mission to kwan Nam, Ted felt a sense
of ease come over him. Gone was the battlefield fear,
the constant reminder that death walked beside them each moment
in the jungle. That release of fear would serve him
well into the future. He continued to have close calls
and simply shrugged his shoulders. Twice he thought he had
(10:54):
been hit by rifle fire, only to feel that his
canteen attached to his web belt took a round. He
felt the warm fluid running down his leg, but it
wasn't blood. It was water from the canteen. How lucky
can a guy be, he thought himself. What else would
one expect from Marine who had just met Jesus and
(11:15):
was told you must go back. In the fall of
sixty nine, he took time to relax and had a
few beers at the Dnang Recreation compound. While engaged in
a game of billiards, he looked up and look and
behold in walked Larry Flynn, his high school classmate and
(11:37):
comrade in arms who enlisted in the Marine Corps the
same day as Ted. Larry just happened to be passing
through Danang and new Ted's unit, so he took a
chance he might find him. What a joyful rendezvous it
proved to be. They played a few games of pool,
reminisced of their innocent days back in Milo, and despite
the fact that they were hard in combat veterans back
(11:59):
at home in Iowa, they were not old enough to
even legally purchase alcohol. Larry spoke out with the phrase, well, Toto,
I don't think we're in Kansas anymore. I mean Iowa.
Here's to us. As they chugged a beer, Ted chimed in,
that's for sure, Toto, we're not an Io anymore. Here's
mud and your eye. And they tipped their warm cans
(12:22):
of slitched beer and guzzled it down. They looked at
each other with empty beer cans in hand, and laughed
out loud. Little did they realize the significant meaning of
their toast, Here's mud and your eye. The origin behind
that toast for good health can be traced to Biblical times,
as noted in John nine point fifteen. Their Jesus healed
(12:42):
a blind man when he rubbed his mud in his eyes.
I once was blind, but now I see with that toast.
In God's blessings, Ted and Larry were in good hands.
On April eighteenth, nineteen teen seventy, I myself as home
(13:02):
own leave back in Milo, fresh out of boot camp
with the Air Force. That same day, halfway around the world,
Ted was twelve days shy of his twentieth birthday and
conducted duties as a patrol leader of a six person
long rage reconnaissement team in the Thong Duck area of
kwan Nam. While on patrol, his team encountered a numerically
(13:25):
superior enemy force that approached his guys. He told his
troops to high tail it to a suitable landing zone
while he remained behind a loane and delayed the advancement
of the vietcom As the enemy approached, Ted detonated four
anti personnel minds that killed four VC soldiers. He engaged
the others with small arm fires, then directed airstrikes on
(13:48):
the enemy positions that aborted the attack. During yet another
insertion into the jungle, Ted's recon team encountered hen of
the enemy forces and knee An immediate extraction. He radied
for a helicopter to pull a six man team out
of harm's way. Within a short time, a chopper arrived,
(14:08):
but with no clear landing zone. His team was extricated
through the jungle forest with a stable harness. The stable
harness is a device that is highly effective means of
extricating or inserting soldiers when ground landings are impossible, and
allowed them hands free capability to their weapons. While hanging
in the air, Ted and his team snapped their carabiners
(14:32):
into the line and began lift off. They came under
a fire immediately as a UH one h Iroquois pulled away.
The rescue helicopter was hit by gunfire and began to
lose altitude, and Ted and his crew dangling beneath it
became evident the chopper was going down. The pilot fought
to keep the battle damage chewy under control. During the
(14:54):
rapid descent, He guided it towards a nearby river, knowing
that if it hit the trees, those hanging freely would
be seriously injured, if not killed. Ted hit the water
and found himself and others being dragged down the river.
Thoughts of drowning in Vietnam never entered Ted's mind until now,
but it became an instant reality. He tried to disconnect
(15:16):
his tethered line, but his own weight and the force
of the Huey was too much to overcome. Suddenly, the
chopper hit the water and flipped onto its side. Ted
popped to the surface. He was a hard landing and
could have been much worse. Ted disconnected his car binger
made his way to the shoreline. Others followed. The helicopter
(15:38):
crew bailed out and also made their way to the Marines.
All including the aircrew, escaped without major injuries. Within a minute,
a second huey hovered above them that observed the events
prior to the crash. Hooray for the backup team. Sed
talked to himself. Nobody said a word. They didn't need to.
(15:58):
All rushed to the airworthy chopper hoped on board, and
a senate upward and into the heavens, destined for friendlier territory.
As the hue he reached altitude, Ted shook his head
and tried to put the day into perspective. He just couldn't.
(16:19):
On November tenth, nineteen seventy, Ted Godlove discharged from the
Marine Corps back where it all happened at Camp Pendleton.
To say he served his country honorably and with extinction
would be a gross understatement. During his two years, two months,
and fifteen days of active duty with the Marine Corps,
of which one year, seven months, and ten days were
(16:40):
in Vietnam, Ted received the National Defense Service Medal, the
Vietnam Service Medal with two Devices, the US Navy Commendation
Medal with Valor, the Vietnam Campaign Medal with Device, the
Republic of Vietnam Crossover Gallantry with palm and frame, the
Bronze Star with Valor in the Combat Action Ribbon. What
(17:04):
caught his attention when he first stepped foot in Vietnam
was the oppressive heat and unbearable stench of open air
sewers and latrines. Reflecting back on the moment, he commented
that perhaps was the easiest thing to endure during my
nineteen months and ten days in Vietnam. The horrific odor,
but like a terrible stink, the lousy smell of war
(17:26):
stuck with Ted after his departure and lingered with him
some forty plus years into his future. He went to
his family doctor, doctor Adeline McCormick from Milo. Upon examination,
she found a festering wound in his left leg. Ted
could have gone to the VA hospital but thought it
was no big deal. What doctor McCormick found shocked her.
(17:48):
A fragmented piece of shrapnel had worked its way to
the surface of his left leg. Ted recalled the incident
in Vietnam but thought it was just a scrape, a
superficial wound, nothing to worry about. He told me, I
wish I'd kept that some little piece of metal as
a souvenir for my time in Vietnam. Instead, he tossed
it away. Ted never reported that Andrew while in Vietnam.
(18:11):
He said, I didn't want a purple heart, never bothered
with the paperwork. That's just the kind of guy Ted
was the commonly used phrase. Been there done That fits
Ted perfectly. He added, I've got the T shirt too.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
And a terrific job and the production editing and storytelling
by our own Megan Pitcock herself a Hillsdale student and
a Hillsdale intern here at our show, and we put
our interns to work. And I know you like hearing that.
We also love hearing our own listeners tell stories about
their own people, and in this case it's Michael Williams
(18:48):
from Des Moines, Iowa. And what a story Michael told
about Ted Godlove Boy, that meeting in Denang. What a
source of relief to ke a buddy just walk in
while you're shooting pool, the buddy you and listed with
in Iowa, and to just clank the balls around, clank
those beers and then have to go back into it. Well,
it gave him some hope. And then there were those
(19:09):
words that he heard from Jesus, you must go back,
and that released him from fear. When soldiers are released
from fear, they get to do their job best and
have the least to worry about. Fear often kill soldiers.
The story of Ted Godlove here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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