10 Questions with a Vietnam War Veteran

 

Image Courtesy of Bettmann/CORBIS

Steven Schillinger is a Vietnam war veteran. He was born in Hollywood, California where shortly after his time in the military he went to Sonoma State university and earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology. During his time in the military he worked as a Combat Cameraman and saw things the average American doesn’t. Some for better, some for worse. I sat down with him to learn more about his experience and how it still affects him to this day.

Did you join or were you drafted?

Well, I was there from 1968 to 1969. I was 21 or 22, something like that. I joined but I was going to be drafted anyway. I had already had my draft physical done and I wasn't sure what I was going to do. Then I heard about this program in the Navy where you could get in for two years active and it was basically just pushing planes around an aircraft carrier. They gave the training to the guys lined up for a career, but I ended up doing technical things instead.

What was your job in the Navy?

I was a Combat Cameraman for the navy department which included the marine corps and the seals and all kinds of great stuff. So, most people think of the Navy as being on board, but I was in the naval air force. I just kind of talked my way into it.

I had done photography all through high school and when they asked me what I wanted to do I just said photography. They called that a dream sheet usually, but every work that came out of my mouth, in boot camp and things like that, was “photography.” For some reason I got into a Combat Camera group. Don’t ask me why!

What did an average day look like as a Combat Cameraman?

It could be anything from pretty heavy and scary to pretty boring. Just like when you make a movie most of it is boredom, setting up stuff and everything. Then when stuff happens it happens so quick.

Understand, I had to explain this when I was going for disability for PTSD. Since I had no station I couldn’t even tell you everywhere I had been. That's not because it’s top secret, I just don’t remember.

You never knew, a typical day could be boring as heck and another typical day might be you just got back from a job and next thing you know North Koreans shoot down an airplane, and I’m on the enterprise. That was not a typical day, but a lot of them weren’t. Every job was different.

Where were you stationed?

San Diego, California. Basically, I was stationed in San Diego. Most people that went to Vietnam were over there for over a year, which was a permanent change in station -- I was never stationed there. I was just on what they call a temporary active duty. My home station was still San Diego, but the satellite bases were places such as Yokosuka, Japan and Saigon, Vietnam.

What was your first day in Vietnam like?

I’m in Yokosuka, Japan. That’s where you start out for your first days because Japan was a lot more fun. It’s about a four to six hour flight from the Air Force air base we went out from in Japan to Vietnam. I think the whole way over I had these flashbacks going on in my head from old movies about World War two. The kind with intense music playing in the background. So I got there and it was midnight. We walked out of the plane. It was probably still 108 degrees and 90% humidity -- it hit me in the face. I went down and threw up. I vomited within the first minute of being in Vietnam.

What was the Vietnam War about?

Oh, It’s hard to say. Imperialism. Let’s see, the overbearing communists threat that people had. We had this whole thing around keeping the communists over there, but the war -- I don’t know what it was about. But it killed a lot of friends. It wasn’t a real war, there was no real reason, no danger. There were no Vietnamese coming over trying to take over the country.

What was it like making friends and building bonds during a war?

We were really close. I had a couple of friends and we hung out a lot. When we were working we were in crews of two or three. We got pretty tight with each other. Out there it was my crew and back in San Diego we partied. We were pretty close. I’m sorry I didn’t keep in touch with them, but I really just wanted to leave.

What was the worst part of the experience for you?

It just came up in the last year or year and a half. I guess what most repulses you is what you forget the most. I had a dissociation thing going on with my camera, that’s what a psychiatrist told me. I was so into my camera that I would really try to ignore what was going on around it. 

It kept me from the incident at the time, but when I was on certain jobs like chopping through the jungle and everything -- just the smell of dead bodies and uh, the sight. It would just be all over the place. I had blocked that out until a year or year and a half ago.

Can you recall any good memories?

Oh yeah, you had your Navy buddies that would go out together. When we were in Saigon we would have some fun. You could drink there. It was a fun place, but it would be unsettling at night because you would hear, it was like the wild west, you would hear gun fire all around in the streets. Luckily we were in a three story building. Japan was fun too. I would spend money traveling the country and see a lot.

What did you learn from your time in the military?

I learned that there’s not one answer for anything, there’s usually several. What you do is pick the best one and go for it.

At-a-Glance

Name: Steven Schillinger

Age: 74

From: Hollywood, California

Military Branch: Navy

Stationed: San Diego, California

Job: Combat Cameraman

College: Sonoma State University

Degree: Bachelor’s in Sociology VA

Graduated: 1974