REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. (Army News Service) -- This twice-wounded veteran saw some of America's best and worst during the Vietnam War.
Dick Gray had the opportunity to lead and fight alongside Soldiers in combat. That was the best part.
Probably the worst thing was being ridiculed by four hippies while on his crutches in February 1970 in a bank in Kailua, Hawaii. Fortunately the women tellers made them leave.
For Gray, a retired lieutenant colonel, the Vietnam War was truly the best of times and the worst of times.
"One of the greatest honors you can be given, the greatest thrills you can have, is to lead an American unit in combat. There's nothing like it," Gray said. "And to see ordinary men do extraordinary things is indescribable."
The Honolulu native graduated in engineering from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1964. "That's how I got in the Army and I enjoyed it, great career," he said. He entered the infantry and branch transferred to armor.
After his first tour in Korea, Gray went to Hawaii where he joined the 25th Infantry Division and then deployed to Vietnam. He served his first of two tours in Vietnam from 1966-67 with the 25th as a reconnaissance platoon leader. They did the initial regular Army reconnaissance from Saigon to Cambodia and the northern Mekong Delta. They also operated in the Iron Triangle just north of Cu Chi. Gray was a 22-year-old first lieutenant at the time.
Gray was first wounded during a small skirmish outside of Trang Bang in 1966 when he took a hand grenade fragment to his left hand. The injury required 10 stitches. He returned to the field within three days, although the medics wanted to keep him for 10, he said.
"No sense in sitting around when your troops are out there," Gray said.
About two-thirds of his 30-member platoon survived the war. Gray still keeps in touch with several of his former battle buddies.
"We were in mostly minor skirmishes and things like that. We set ambushes up and we patrolled and looked for things," he said. "I think Junction City (in early 1967) was one of the big battles we were in. We were helping another unit out when we got in a big battle there. Fortunately that worked out pretty well."
He returned to Vietnam in 1969 with the 173rd Airborne Brigade as a captain and company commander. They operated between Pleiku and the coast. Gray led a 175-man company including a reconnaissance platoon, an airborne armored cavalry platoon, an infantry platoon, 10 five-man teams and two twin 40mm "dusters," an antiaircraft weapon on a tank chassis.
November 1969, seven months into his tour, proved to be fateful on Sniper's Island. In one engagement involving two of his platoons, the unit killed 18 Viet Cong, apprehended two and captured many weapons.
But during an early-morning sweep of the island, Gray stepped on a booby trap and lost his right leg below the knee. Gray was the most seriously wounded of four Soldiers. One lost part of his hand and the others had minor wounds. "I was on both radios (when that happened). That was probably why I didn't lose my hearing," Gray said.
His war was over. He went to a field hospital and then Japan and then to his native Hawaii where he recuperated at Tripler Army Medical Center. He was on his crutches before getting fitted with his prosthetic leg when he encountered the hippies at a small branch bank.
"My men were treated poorly," Gray said of returning home from Vietnam. "We couldn't wear our uniforms or anything like that."
Gray, who earned a master's in mechanical engineering in 1972 from the University of Alabama, went on to serve 17 years in uniform. After arriving in Huntsville in 1978, he retired in 1982 from the optics division of the advanced technology center under the then Ballistic Missile Defense Command, a predecessor of the Space and Missile Defense Command.
From his Vietnam service, he has a Bronze Star Medal with "V" device and an oak leaf cluster, and a Purple Heart with first oak leaf cluster. Gray was inducted this year into the Madison County Military Hall of Heroes.
He and his wife of 46 years, Janet, have a daughter, Navy Cmdr. Jerri Gray, 41, of San Diego, who earned her doctor of nursing practice; a son, Scott, of Huntsville, chief executive officer of Twiggy's Hockey Tape; and a grandson, Tyler, 1. The Huntsville resident enjoys woodworking and pistol and rifle target shooting.
Gray shared his thoughts on this nation's commemoration of 50 years since the Vietnam War.
"I really feel like I've been welcomed home," he said. "I'm greatly indebted to everyone involved. I can't say enough about what Huntsville and Madison County do for their veterans. They do a super job."
Editor's note: This is the 98th in a series of articles about Vietnam veterans as the United States commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War.
Related Links:
The United States Of America Vietnam War Commemoration
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