When Frank Cruz of Koloa watches TV and sees the faces of young U.S. soldiers fighting in the streets of Baghdad, or elsewhere in Iraq, he sees himself back in Vietnam 36 years ago. “I see the faces of those
When Frank Cruz of Koloa watches TV and sees the faces of young U.S. soldiers fighting in the streets of Baghdad, or elsewhere in Iraq, he sees himself back in Vietnam 36 years ago.
“I see the faces of those guys, and it reminds me of when I was in Vietnam, the youth,” he said. “The face that I see, I see myself.”
Cruz, 55, served in the U.S. Army as an infantryman in Vietnam, and recalls vividly some of the chaotic fire-fights he was involved in there, and has some advice for the youngsters fighting in Iraq.
“There’s gotta be some guys there that are experienced, and I would advise them just to listen to those guys,” because that’s what he did as a teenager in Vietnam.
“Those are the guys that brought me home alive,” he added.
“Keep an eye out for each other, and back each other up out there, and listen to the guys that are experienced out there, because they know what’s going on,” he said.
“And I know that it takes a lot of courage to even walk down the street in an area, especially when you know there’s somebody out there gunning after you,” he said.
The weapons and technologies have changed, but the fears and realities of war remain the same, he said. “It’s a different type of war, but war is war. Being shot at is the same,” said Cruz, president of the Kaua’i Veterans Council.
Being a war veteran doesn’t necessarily mean he supports war, but he does support President Bush “and the troops over there, I know the boys are just following orders.
“I don’t like war. I don’t ever want to see my kid or anybody’s kids go through what we went through,” Cruz said.
Cruz was fresh out of high school, finished his Army basic training and was immediately shipped out to Vietnam.
Initially, he didn’t know what to expect. “I was young. I didn’t know what war was,” and didn’t think about being scared because he had not experienced war before.
“The thing that went through my mind was survival, do whatever I could to survive,” he said.
“In a fire-fight, the scariest part is that everything is flying your way. You’re just looking for a place to put your head behind and survive the day,” said Cruz.
“You do whatever you had to do to survive, and that’s what I did when I was there,” he said of his two years in Vietnam.
“As far as scared, yes, I was scared,” he said. “I’ve been so scared that at times I can’t move.”
He served in the U.S. Army for eight years, retiring as a staff sergeant.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
