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Episode 2772 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about Army Vietnam Vet Homer Hickam and how he served his country in and out of uniform. The featured story appeared on The U.S. Department of Defense website and was titled: Vietnam War Was Learning Experience for Renowned Author. It was submitted by Skip Vaughn, an editor with the Redstone Rocket.
In his story, Vaughn reported that Homer Hickam joined the Army in January 1966 under a college option program which promised to send him to Officer Candidate School if he successfully completed basic training and advanced individual training.
The Virginia Tech product went to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, for eight weeks of basic training and eight more weeks of advanced individual training in infantry and engineering. Next came 23 weeks of Officer Candidate School at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Stone enlisted in April 1967. He requested combat duty and that’s exactly what he got. He arrived in South Vietnam Sept. 16, 1967, assigned as an infantryman to the, 25th Infantry Division (The Tropic Lightning), stationed near the Cambodian border.
Hickam said “Vietnam was a learning experience. It was a learning experience on how people react under extreme pressure. I actually learned how good people can be under that kind of pressure. I just saw men under extreme pressure. They never broke. I learned a renewed pride in America.”
“I would hope that the American people would show gratitude to the men and women who served over there,” Hickam said. “In many cases, they gave their lives. People went because they thought it was the right thing to do. Honor the men and women willing to do that at a time when so many were not willing to.”
Listen to episode 2772 and discover more about Army Vietnam Vet Homer Hickam and how he served his country in and out of uniform.
