Time Code | Speaker | Narrative |
00:00 | Emily | Interview conducted for the Witness to War: Serving A Nation project at Nauset Regional High School on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. |
00:09 | Natalie | For the sake of this interview, please state your full name and community, in which you now reside. |
00:14 | Mr. Miller | I am Martin Miller and I reside in Sandwich, Massachusetts and I was born in 1940. |
00:29 | Emily | Okay. We’re gonna start with questions now. Um… When and why did you join the Army? |
00:39 | Mr. Miller | The reason why I joined the Navy instead of the Army because I got my draft notice. When I got my draft notice I said I don’t want to be in, on the ground in Vietnam. I don’t want to be somebody to be shot at. So when I joined the, when I joined the, went down to the recruiter’s office and joined the United States Navy to keep from going to Vietnam and to being on the ground. Just, just like most, most people at this time they didn’t want to go, but a lot of people did and they didn’t come back. |
01:23 | Emily | Why were you drafted? |
01:26 | Mr. Miller | Well, my, I was still young enough that the those times were me my number came up and that’s the reason why I was drafted and also the Vietnam took more more men to in service than they anticipated. |
01:46 | Emily | Um… How long did you serve for? |
01:50 | Mr. Miller | I, I served for four um four year term. And the Navy would if you join it’s a four year term. When you’re, when you’re in the in the Army it’s a two year term when they draft you and I uh. So I spent four years in service. |
02:08 | Emily | How old were you when you joined? |
02:09 | Mr. Miller | I was twenty-two years old when I joined the service. |
02:17 | Emily | Um… What were your thoughts before you, um, were drafted? |
02:23 | Mr. Miller | Well like, like a lot of fellows at the at the time I had um joined is that you didn’t want to join. You didn’t want to be over there. You didn’t want to have the problems that they all were having and. And a lot of people at that time were uh were called draft dodgers for going up into Canada and avoiding service with their country. But if everybody did that where would we be today? |
02:59 | Emily | How was your family affected by you going into the war? |
03:04 | Mr. Miller | Well, like most mothers and dads, my folks were concerned that I would, possibly you know get hurt and that’s, you can be hurt just walking down the street at times. So I thought about these things before I joined and I wanted to do the right thing for my country. |
03:33 | Emily | What was it like arriving at the base, bases? |
03:41 | Mr. Miller | I, whenever I um went into service at the first camp was um bootcamp. And like all bootcamps, you learn the basics you learn how to work with other, other men to help you um I, I’ve lost my place (chuckles). That’s alright. Um whenever I was kinda nervous, like I am right now, I’m a little bit nervous. And uh whenever we went into bootcamp you don’t know really what it’s all about and what’s going to happen until you get there and you spend a little time. Then, you understand why some people are and do anticipate and wonder why they’re doing this. And uh and after as long as I kept each and everyday and I found out that I was um working for Uncle Sam and uh and learning how to become a soldier but not a soldier but a person in the Navy and, and after I’d got through bootcamp they asked me where I wanted to go and I said I wanted to go to uh AQ school. AQ school is um a technician’s school for aircraft which handled um in this um got my thoughts all messed up but anyway what’s the next question? |
05:44 | Emily | How was the ship different from the US, like in Vietnam? |
05:55 | Mr. Miller | Aboard ship you didn’t have the worries about being hurt being shot but you could always be hurt uh because some of the jobs were dangerous that were in the service but then you um the difference between being on land and and being in the ocean is that at this particular time all the action was on on shore. It wasn’t out to sea or out there with the military like it was back in the Second World War and that’s one reason I chose to be in the in the Navy because it helped me feel a lot better I wasn’t as afraid because if you’re if you’re in the Army you always have a better tendency to or a bigger tendency to be uh shot or hurt or being um blown up is as they are doing right now in Iraq and that they’re having um landmines and stuff they didn’t have out in the ocean with ships and the ship I was on off the coast of Vietnam was the Constellation. |
07:14 | Natalie | Um.. How was a daily... um… life and how was your reaction with the crew on the ship? |
07:31 | Mr. Miller | Um the daily routine was um what uh each and every soldier and each and everybody in the Navy we had to go through boot camp you have a routine you always follow and this is what the service is all about it has a routine and things it does with uh each and everyone. And you learn to follow these routines and and to help helps you become a better person to get into a habit of working and to help people understand what the routine um |
08:21 | Emily | Okay… Um… (Emily’s dad interrupts) For your routine what was it? When did you get up? |
08:34 | Mr. Miller | Oh my routine was um I got up at let’s see uh my regular routine was I’d be up at be up at six. Do exercises and that would take an hour or so and then you had breakfast and to the regular job by eight o’clock. And just like a regular routine of work today whatever you go into work from eight to five and an hour break for lunch then you go back again and at six o’clock you have your evening meal. And after the evening meal, uh you has your time to yourself to write letters home to be able to um be with different ones in the crew that you were with and your rigger shop. And uh to talk over what happened that day and to go into knowing what what mistakes you made and to help correct those mistakes and to be a better person and to in your shop and in your field to be a better person in that squadron that you were with. |
09:50 | Emily | What was your job? |
09:53 | Mr. Miller | I was a fire control technician and uh in an air squadron. My air squadron was VAH6. And that’s just uh one of the many squadrons that were aboard aircraft carrier and there was um nine squadrons that were on board the ship plus uh all the others that came aboard. And there’s some were around five thousand men aboard the ship and aircraft carrier. And what the squadrons they all had to be working as a well oiled machine to get all their work done they can do what they need to be done for each and everyday. And uh this is why we went to bootcamp to help learn what we were on board to do and to help help our country and help do the job we were assigned to do. |
10:59 | Emily | What type of equipment did you use and what did your uniform look like? |
11:05 | Mr. Miller | The type of equipment uh we used was uh oscilloscopes um voltmeters, and also specialized electronic equipment. And used computers to maintain and help repair the aircraft that came back in that were damaged or with that were uh something had gone wrong. Because what an aircraft launches from a ship as and especially aircraft carriers you go from zero miles per hour to over a hundred and sixty miles an hour within a hundred and something feet. And when you get that kind of a shock and get the equipment jammed sometimes it doesn’t hold up as well and that’s why you uh constantly keep checking it, keep um. Before each flight you go out on deck and you hook up the aircraft you help rerun the aircraft and make sure it’s working so that they don’t have to worry about the last minute everything was working so you have a good qualified crew working on an aircraft and help in many ways like that. |
12:27 | Natalie | Can you please elaborate on what the equipment was like and what was its job? |
12:33 | Mr. Miller | Oh, um, the specialized equipment that we used was for the different navigation systems - the radar the that’s the two systems that I worked on. And there were several other systems within the aircraft that everybody had to work on and make sure everything worked worked well. Especially the navigation system that whenever you went to automatic pilot they would take it to their point of interest and bring them back from that point to their ship. And the ships all circled whenever they got within a short range of where they dropped, where everybody went off. And uh usually they from the time they started launches till they quit wasn’t a very long time at all because they wanted to know they’re be over and back in a short time and your other part of your question was uh what? |
13:35 | Natalie | Um… What did your uniform look like? |
13:37 | Mr. Miller | Oh, my uniform was um dungarees which was uh had a flight sweater on and uh dungarees which helped identify each group like you see right now over on um movies and stuff they show off of a carrier. Well the carriers have each group has a color coordinated group and if you’re certain things happen within each of those color coordinated groups to let them know what’s taking place, where the aircraft is at and what it what it’s main specific um body of um function is. So that they know that when uh when uh an aircraft is off and ready to go that everybody gives the thumbs up signal and that and the pilot when they’re in there and they’re turning up the aircraft they know what’s uh expected of each function and they’ll be. And the pilot of the aircraft will be looking down right at his plane captain and the plane captain will give him a thumbs up whenever each and every one of us has completed our jobs we give him a thumbs up also and when they’re ready to do that that gives them a confidence feeling that this plane is going to launch and we’re gonna get there and we’re gonna get back. |
0.15.28 | Emily | How did the military affect your life? |
0.15.31 | Mr. Miller | Well the military helped from when I came a civilian was the work ethic the responsibilities, the ability to take and ah do my job. Where I was at as well as I can be expected because they take and always expected of me and that way I knew where I take and go and be able to handle the job I was required to do in civilian life. |
0.16.08 | Emily | What was your proudest or happiest memory? |
0.16.16 | Mr. Miller | I guess the happiest memory was whenever I had gotten and left the service and come home from the navy I saw my son he was already four minutes, four minutes yeah, I wish it was four minutes, he he had he was um, this is the whenever I take and had uh, four months after he was born, I saw him for the first time. And whenever I take and um I got my notice that my chief told me and he says “You are a father of a son.” so I was so that was my proudest moment and whenever and I wouldn't trade that for anything for what I have done so. |
0.17.15 | Emily | What was your darkest memory? |
0.17.19 | Mr. Miller | I think the darkest moment was whenever we had taken uh when an aircraft came in for landing and we were standing along the catwalks along the edge of the aircraft carrier on uh deck. But this aircraft didn’t catch its last wire like it should and it slammed into the calling tower and blew up. And the Fuel that he still had in his tank and sprayed all over the deck and caught other aircrafts on fire and the bombs that already had not been off loaded are dropped, some of them exploded, and this brought a time of real worry, that was about the darkest moment I take and had to help out with putting out the fires that it created. |
0.18.18 | Natalie | Was the ship affected greatly by the explosion? |
0.18.23 | Mr. Miller | No because but I thought it was affected greatly, but it didn’t but within a matter of hours they pushed all the planes off and they um on fire. And they take an clean up the deck, they put resurface and got it going in a matter of four hours. It looks worse than it is but it wasn’t as bad as they thought. And somebody, like myself, that had been in that situation, and you know the thought of it was really the darkest time. |
0.18.59 | Emily | When you hear Vietnam, what do you think of? |
0.19.03 | Mr. Miller | Whenever I was, before I went into the service, if somebody told me that I would be over off the coast of Vietnam, I’d say “really? that’s not a good thing” because they take and worry about the people on land, the ones getting shot at and the ones taken have more problems with, with the communists that came, and come and hurt them. And uh say that question again please. |
0.19.46 | Emily | When you hear Vietnam, what do you think of? |
0.19.47 | Mr. Miller | Just like the soldiers of today, they don’t want to go, but they go because they are trying to help their country and they take and make it safer for everybody here. |
0.20.15 | Emily | If I came to you and said I was joining the military, what advice would you give me? |
0.20.26 | Mr. Miller | Hm, joining the military is if we weren’t at war, if we weren’t at war, and of the branches of the service would be great. But uh looking at since I had been over there, I think the navy would be the least one you would have problems with because you get more training and more education through them, than through the other services, but through the navy. And you take and get a world experience, and be able to go around the world. As part of your education. |
0.21.19 | Emily | Where else did you go besides Vietnam? |
0.22.21 | Mr. Miller | I, my first two years of service was whenever I taken and live in, right after boot camp I went to A school, after I went to A school I went to my squadron. Stationed in Washington, Washington State. and off the coast there right in the Whidbey Island, Washington, was the naval air station. Then went and stayed there for four months. And then take and went to our first duty station, which was uh over in the Mediterranean, but we flew from the Whidbey Island Washington, to um Norfolk, Virginia. From Norfolk, Virginia to the Ship The USS Forestall and after we take and uh went on and spent several months, well about a year. From the time we left to the time we got back, over in Vietnam, but over in the Mediterranean. And while we were in the Mediterranean we played war games, and the communists or the US…USSR taken and were right there with us whenever we taken. We had several times they would try and interfere with our hard time of doing of whatever we were assigned to do. And Ah and that’s one thing that we’re here to do, is to guard this country, to guide it and to help it. |
0.23.14 | Emily | When you came back, how did you feel? |
0.23.19 | Mr. Miller | I felt relieved….and also I felt very proud of I can take and say that I was the member of the military service. That takes and help guard this country and help it. And I thank you ladies for taken and help...helping me to take and relive some of the times I had in the service and I appreciate it very much, Thank you. |
0.23.53 | Natalie | (muffled) You’re welcome. |
0.23.54 | Emily | How did the military affect you after you came back? |
0.24.03 | Mr. Miller | It helped me whenever I got my first job. Knowing that I had doing it, I am repeating myself on this but it did help me when I got back I could do my job and do it well. And take and be proud of what I was doing. |
0.24.26 | Emily | What was your job when you came back? |
0.24.29 | Mr. Miller | When I came back, I had several jobs, but the first job I had, in which lasted a several months. Uniroyal tire company, and I was the tire line supervisor, and I take and help making tires, which we all ride on today. |
0.24.57 | Emily | When you see what’s happening now with ISIS, how do you react to that and how does that make you feel? |
0.25.08 | Mr. Miller | I feel sorry for the men that are on the ground and their and what they're up against and all that they go through. They need everyone's support and and everybody's hand, and to take and keep going and take and um because right now we are coming against one of the worst threats that even this country, world has seen so far, and take and need to be so aware of what it can do and not take it so casually. But to take and think, what if they were standing next to you today? |
0.25.58 | Natalie | Do you think that there’s a lot more technology than there is, than there was back, then with the ships and everything? |
0.26.03 | Mr. Miller | Oh Yes, there is a lot more technology in the aircraft I think have now more a days is so more uh uh advanced. Even the helicopters and the manner of which the ships that they are aboard and are floating out there in the water. And the Army and Navy and and the military all take and have air force, have so much more and to give so much more and they give you more education and take an use this education that they are giving you instead of saying “Oh”. So many times a lot of people think they are being smart aliky and not helping themselves but whenever you learn all that you can learn about computers and all of what it can do for you, what it can do for you, not run away from it and make fun of it but what it can it do for you. It will take and it will help you out and will help you for your next job. And because for the majority of the educational programs should be around uh computers, computers, computers. |
0.27.28 | Emily | How, when did you move to Cape Cod and why? |
0.27.33 | Mr. Miller | Ah three years ago I moved to cape cod, excuse me I was corrected four years ago somebody put up some fingers, laughs, and the reason I came to cape cod is because my son lives here and two beautiful granddaughters, oh and one of them is interviewing me right now. |
0.28.13 | Emily | Did you get to go to college? |
0.28.19 | Mr. Miller | I took a few courses for college, but I did not complete college, I just, my forte was not to go to college but to just to take and work like an “Average Joe”. |
0.28.47 | Emily | Thank you for your service. |
0.28.50 end 0.29.00 | Mr. Miller | O Thank you, thank you ladies, Thank you for being so thoughtful and helpful. |