Oral history interview of Albert L. Boemker, part 2 of 3

In part two of this three-part interview, Al Boemker shares his experiences in a tank battalion during the Vietnam War. He describes conditions there, including being wounded in the neck. He recalls being in the head wound unit and describes a baby abandoned by its Viet Cong mother who had been a prisoner. He remembers a double amputee there who refused to wake up. He recounts hearing on Armed Forces Radio Network that Lyndon B. Johnson would not run for re-election and that he and his friends were all elated because they thought that would mean the end of the war. He recounts finding a diary of a Vietnamese soldier and the trouble he got in because he kept it instead of turning it in. He recalls a new soldier who was convinced he was going to die in Vietnam and made a lot of mistakes. He tells of having his eardrums blown out and how their unit killed a farmer carrying a hoe that they mistook for a rocket launcher. Hammer and anvil strategy; triple-layer canopy jungle; mortar rounds; Iron Triangle; Good Morning Vietnam; ambush; M-113 tank; medevac; 90th Evacuation Hospital; MASH unit; triage; base camp; Thunder Run; Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album; claymore mines; rice paddies; rocket propelled grenade (RPG); IED; water buffaloes; Tet counteroffensive; military intelligence; Banana Hill; minesweepers; herringbone formation; tracer rounds; smoke grenades; night defensive position (NDP); venereal disease; 93rd Evac Hospital; Al Boemker was in the 11th Armored Cavalry, 2nd Squadron, E Troop in the Vietnam War.