Monday, May 20, 2024
Freddie Williams takes a shower during his time in Vietnam.
Freddie Williams was only 18 years old when he felt the call to enlist in the Army — a decision that was largely influenced by his family.
Williams’ father, two uncles and older brother all served in the military, leaving Williams with a tough, yet noble path to follow.
His father and uncles all served in World War II, but in different branches. One of Williams’ uncles also experienced a traumatic encounter when he was held captive in a German prison camp for approximately 13 months.
After his older brother Dwayne enlisted in the Army in 1965, Williams talked his cousin into enlisting with him a week later on a “buddy plan” — an Army program that guaranteed Williams and his cousin would attend basic combat and advance individual training together and then be assigned to the same first duty station after graduation.
“I just felt like it was something I needed to go do,” said Williams, who resides in Briar. “That's what my dad and our uncles did and so, we wanted to do our part.”
Williams was deployed to fight in Vietnam where he served as an LRRP — pronounced “lurp” — short for long-range reconnaissance patrol, a team in which soldiers patrolled deep in enemy-held territory.
"We pulled ambushes and tried to take prisoners and went out in six-man teams, so we were kind of hung out there to dry except for if we got in big trouble, we'd call in the Air Force for an air strike and occasionally, artillery,” he said.
As part of the six-man team, Williams and his men were in charge of carrying many different types of explosive devices and ammo. Different kinds of grenades like claymore, smoke, and phosphorus along with regular hand grenades were part of their mobile arsenal.
“We carried an extra canteen cover and carried it full of grenades,” Williams said. “You never know how long you're going to have to stand and fight. The weight, we were probably carrying 70 to 75 pounds of stuff on our backs at all times.”
He said his six-man team would get dropped in the middle of the jungle to search for the enemy. He explained that the jungle in Vietnam was extremely thick.
"You can stand five feet away from somebody, and they could walk by and you would never see them,” he said. “Close to 50% of the time you'd make contact with the enemy, and if you did, if they knew where you were, you couldn't stay out there with only six men. It was dangerous, and so they would come pick us up. One occasion we couldn't find an LZ (landing zone) that was big enough for helicopters to sit down in and they pulled us out on ropes, dangling 110 feet in the air and they flew us back to basecamp.”
Williams said his troop was considered “elite,” doing tasks that most of the troops didn’t have to do.
“I think it was considered the most dangerous job in Vietnam,” he said.
In fact, a memory that stands out to Williams the most was when he thought he was going to die.
“We had been sent out to a field that had been defoliated with Agent Orange, and they also had hit it with the B-52 strike,” he explained. “They sent our team out because they wanted to us to go see what they hit. (The enemy) was still there and we run up into the middle of them. They outnumbered us. We were trying to escape and evade and we had gone so far, we jumped over into a bomb crater, and we called for an airstrike. I happened to be the assistant team leader at that time, so I sent a claymore grenade up behind us to try to help us escape when we decided to leave.
“When the bomber came around behind us, he let that napalm (a weaponized mixture of chemicals designed to create a highly flammable and gelatinous liquid) go and I swear I thought it was coming in right in that bomb crater. I was looking straight down its nose. My heart skipped a beat, but it looked like it was going to be short and after it got down closer and closer, then you could tell that it was going to go over. He made a really good shot. It did go over right where you needed it to. Napalm is unforgiving. If it splashes in front of you, it's going to cover you up and they tell you that it will burn all the oxygen out of the air and it's gonna kill you.”
He said he and his team didn’t really sleep out in the jungle; they just rested.
"When you worried about somebody sneaking up on ya, you didn’t sleep well,” Williams explained.
During the times that it rained, the team used a rubberized sheet as a blanket.
“It didn't make a lot of noise, but you couldn't put it over your face,” he said. “With the rain drops hitting it, you wouldn't hear the enemy coming in, so you could put it down below your chin and get a little warm from covering your chest, but that was it. It was an exciting time, believe me.”
Williams spent a total of three years in the military before heading to work in the fire department at Sheppard Air Force Base near Wichita Falls. He later transferred to Carswell Air Force Base, located northwest of Fort Worth and then the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth before retiring in 1997.
Now, at 75, Williams lives in Briar with his wife of 52 years, Karen. Together, they have two children: Kristie Smith, who works as a third-grade teacher at Springtown Elementary School, and their late son, Shane. They have seven grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.
Karen and Freddie enjoy watching television together, especially with Freddie’s most recent purchase.
“We Just bought an 85-inch TV. I figured if I'm gonna spend most of my time here, I might as well have a good TV,” Freddie said, chuckling.
When asked what he misses the most about the Army, he simply replied, “Vietnam.”
“Not that, you know, I want to go around and kill people all of the time or anything,” he said, hastily. “Just, you don’t have to put up with all of the stateside stuff. Over there, you were walking around and during monsoon season, it would rain days and days without stopping and we were walking around in the mud. We didn’t have to worry about spit shining our boots or breaking starch (making clothes smooth and crisp). Course, with the exception of being dangerous, it was just much better duty over there I would say.”
Freddie said he also misses the camaraderie he had with his six-man team.
He added, “I really like all the guys that I served with and especially the ones in Vietnam because we were a small unit, and you got really close to some of them.”
ashley@hcnews.com | 817-573-1243
