Veteran remembers beautiful country with bomb craters

1st Lt. Steve Milburn arrived in Vietnam in November 1968 for the first of his two tours, but both were shortened by injury.

“I got wounded on both of them, got two Purple Hearts,” the Madison resident said.

He arrived as an adviser to the 44th Vietnamese Ranger Battalion located in IV Corps, the Mekong Delta.

“As an adviser I was responsible for ensuring that the Vietnamese chain of command had as much access to the assets that could possibly be made available to them,” he said.

The Ranger battalions were highly mobile. They conducted sweeps and they provided flank or area security for other units’ operations.

But in spring 1969, he was injured for the first time: a clavicle wound, a bone fragment wound to his right leg, and he lost the knuckle of his index finger on his right hand. He was medically evacuated, recuperated and volunteered to return to a Ranger battalion in Vietnam.

The captain returned to the Mekong Delta in August 1969. He became a senior adviser to the 42nd Vietnamese Ranger Battalion.

That late September, they conducted an assault on a mountain cave complex. At one of the entrances, an enemy assailant stood up and shot him on the right side of his chest with an AK-47.

“The guy was about 20 feet away from me,” Milburn said. “He shot me, and I shot him.”

Milburn was again medically evacuated, this time with a chest and lung injury. He was hospitalized and sent home to the U.S. His war was over.

Drafted in 1960 after dropping out of college, he spent eight years as an enlisted Soldier before being commissioned as an officer. He described what he remembers about Vietnam.

“It was hot, damp and lots of bugs,” he said. “And I was fortunate to work with good Soldiers. Vietnamese Rangers were good Soldiers.

“I remember flying over very green, wet country. Lots of rivers and canals. Lots of jungles, rice paddies, those kinds of things. Just flying in a Huey. I couldn’t believe what a beautiful country that was – slowly being destroyed by war. That was my vivid recollection of Vietnam – bomb craters and artillery craters.”

Asked about the fear of being in combat, he said, “There’s a difference between being scared and being afraid. That difference is: Thinking about something beforehand, you’re scared; during the event, you’re afraid but you just go ahead and do your job.”

He received the Silver Star, the Bronze Star with two oak leaf clusters, the Air Medal, and the Army Commendation Medal with oak leaf cluster for valor. He was inducted into the Madison County Military Hall of Heroes in 2005.

Milburn retired from the Army as a major in February 1982 at Fort Monroe, Virginia, after almost 21 years in uniform. He served as an Army civilian for the next 24 years. He was a deputy project manager in Orlando, Florida, when he was reassigned to Redstone to become director of the targets management office in November 2000. He retired at Redstone, Dec. 31, 2007.

Born in Joplin, Missouri, he grew up in Southern California. His military career began after he left San Bernadino Valley College. He received a bachelor’s in management and accounting from Columbus University in Columbus, Georgia, in 1973. He received a master’s in management and finance from the University of San Francisco in 1985. Milburn received certification as a federal contracting officer in 2008 from the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

He and his wife of 35 years, Karlene, have a combined three children – two sons and a daughter – and four grandchildren. A second daughter died in 2019.

The retired major no longer competes in pistol shooting. Milburn, 80, is a member of the Madison County Military Heritage Commission and he occasionally visits various local veterans organizations. He has a 70% disability rating from Veterans Affairs.

Milburn shared his thoughts on the nation’s commemoration of 50 years since the Vietnam War.

“Thank God I live near Huntsville, Alabama. Huntsville has recognized Vietnam veterans and taken us to their hearts,” he said “I traveled a lot with my job here in civil service. I traveled to a lot of cities. And certain cities like Fayetteville, North Carolina; Columbus, Georgia; Killeen, Texas; they all put forth recognition for Vietnam veterans.”

Editor’s note: This is the 359th in a series of articles about Vietnam veterans as the United States commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War.