Charles A. MacNeill Jr.'s interview for the Veterans History Project at Atlanta History Center

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Catalog number: VIS 201.0715
In this interview, Dr. Charles MacNeill recalls his experiences serving in the United States Army during the Vietnam War. He describes growing up in Atlanta, Georgia, and when he received his draft notice he decided to enlist because an Army recruiter promised him he would go to Germany, not Vietnam. He received orders to Vietnamese language school instead. He describes language school and recalls that all the instructors there were Vietnamese women. After additional training in code breaking, he was sent to Vietnam and remembers his first impressions of the country. He describes his work with a Radio Research Unit in great detail, including the living conditions there and his duties. He remembers being assigned later as a teacher for a group of South Vietnamese Army (ARVN) soldiers and receiving a Bronze Star from that unit when he intercepted and decoded an enemy message that contained the entire spring offensive for the North Vietnamese Army. He recalls many of his experiences, including translating for medical teams from New Zealand and the loss of four men who were ambushed while traveling in their jeep. He describes his post-military medical education and career, including being asked by the Centers for Disease Control to set up a public health department at Fort Indiantown Gap for Vietnamese refugees after the fall of Saigon.