The
interview with Sergeant Byko took place at 2:10 PM on May 22, 2001, in the
Canton High School Library.
Sergeant Byko is a veteran of the Vietnam War, and was interviewed in
order to both record his story for a collection as well as gain an
understanding of the war from someone who experienced it first hand. After I talked to the man over the
phone and heard his abnormally mellow voice, I asked myself some interesting
questions: How old is this man?
Could he be 46, or 56? Why
does he work at home? Is he
disabled? Can I handle that?
Regardless of these questions, I knew he was a Sergeant in the U.S.
Marine Corps, so he was less likely to be a die-hard anti-war Vietnam
veteran. It was also very likely
that his stories would be very interesting, and I was both nervous and excited
to conduct the interview.
Byko:
Full name-Steven John Byko
B: I
was in the Marine Corps from 1966 through 1970
P: Why did you go into the Marine Corps and how exactly did you get into the Marine Corps?
B:
Well, I think I went into the Marine Corps for two reasons: one, my father was
a Marine during the Second World War, okay, so I always had, you know, a high
regard for the Marine Corps and you have to remember back then the probability
that you would go to Vietnam was pretty high so my feeling was if I was going
to go, maybe, to Vietnam, that I wanted to go with the best branch of the
service, so then my chances of survival would be a lot better than any other
way.
B: I
just decided I was going to go in and went down to the recruiter office, you
know, interviewed with the recruiter, took a series of tests, and that was
it.
B:
Oh yeah, it was my choice, I wasn’t drafted.
B:
Eighteen
P: And your rank in the Marine Corps was...
B:
Well, when I got out I was a Sergeant E5
B:
The E5 is just a... E stands for enlisted, 5 is you start with private, PFC,
and so on, so this is like the fifth rank up.
P: What was your job originally when you went in and also what was it when you moved up to Sergeant?
B:
Well, my job basically through the whole thing was... I was in
helicopters. You know, it was a
combination of electrician and gunning, so it was two jobs and, you know, that
was what I did pretty much through the whole thing. Your management responsibilities change a little bit as you
get higher in rank, but I did basically the same thing.
B:
My whole tour over there was in a place called Phu Bia, which is between the
Nang and the White.
B:
Well, I think the major was...I was in what’s called HMH
squadron—Heavy Marine Helicopters.
Ours was primarily a re-supply, troop transport, go into zones, drop off
people and supplies, and then get out of there, so our missions were all up and
around through the DMZ, and the South, and wherever there were some conflicts
going on.
B:
You know, I can’t even remember, that’s going back too far, I
can’t remember.
B:
You know, when your in the Marine Corps... the Marine Corps sort of had two
groups. One is the infantry group
is probably more directly involved in combat and the tough... you know, and
ours was the air wing, and the air wing tended to be more educated and I think
more self-directed, and so we didn’t have a lot of contact with our
CO. My recollection though is that
while we were in Vietnam he was great.
He didn’t bother us, we did our job, but as soon as we went back
to Okinawa, things changed—Inspections, and all kinds of stuff, and that
wasn’t fun.
B: First thing you go through is you go
through boot camp, I think it was 12 weeks of a combination of boot camp and
advanced infantry training.
B: This
was at Parris Island. Parris Island
and Camp Lejeune, and from there my training on helicopters was at a naval air
station actually in Florida. And
once you’re going over to Vietnam, you spend—I don’t know how
many weeks you spend—about three or four weeks on the west coast in Camp
Pendleton is where we were, and we’d go through infantry training, combat
drills, and that kind of stuff just to get us ready for going over.
B: You know I... I’ve lost track of probably most of them, you know, but there’s a number of them, three of four of them, that I think of in particular, and I’ve tried from time to time to track down their names through the internet, and so far I haven’t had any luck with it. I don’t know where they are. I actually put my name on... there’s a kind of a veteran’s site, so I’m hoping one of these days, as new members come in, a few will see my name or I’ll see theirs—not from around here. I did go in the service with a guy by the name of Richard Anderson, he’s from Bristol. We went in under the buddy program, we went to high school together... we weren’t close friends but just happened to be interested in going at the same time-he died this last year of lung cancer.
B:
Yeah, there was. I think there
was... a division within the group.
Most of the blacks seemed to stay pretty much to themselves, and the
others stayed pretty much to themselves.
There were some race conflicts, and I think some of it was kind of an educational
level, you know if someone was lazy, didn’t want to do work, there was
some conflict. It was kind of the “Black
Power” period in history...next to camp Lejeune there was a fight that
broke out between the blacks and Hispanics and whites, and it was kind of a
silly thing. One of the guys in
our group was a man by the name of Marino, who was Hispanic, and guys kid each
other, and somebody said “You dumb spick” or something to that
effect and somebody from the table over took it the wrong way and it escalated
into a fight.
P: What do you immediately think of when you think of the Vietnam War? Are there any immediate associations?
B: You
know, when I think of it, I think of probably a couple of things. My attitude I think was different when
I first went there. I think I
really believed in what we were there for, that we were going to liberate
Vietnam from Communism, but the longer I was there, the more I realized that
the people that were there...they really didn’t care, you know, for the
most part. They were farmers, they’re
crop people, the one thing they wanted was for everybody to go away, to just
live their lives, and not to be in the conflict that went on, and so my philosophy
changed in the years I was there.
P: How were your relationships with people back in America, while you were in Vietnam? Did you keep in contact with anybody?
B: Well
family, and you now, I think relationships were fine, and I remember coming
home on leave from... and my girlfriend went to New York, came up out of the
subway, and there was a big protest going on, against the war, and you know, while
I had my beliefs and what I felt was important, I felt that this was part of
what Democracy was about. People
have the right to express their beliefs however they choose.
B:
Well, I think, I feel I’m glad I did it. It’s an experience of a lifetime, I just kind of like
doing things differently, you met some good people, I’m proud to be a
marine, and even now, whenever I’m with other marines they feel the same
way. I’m not sure, as far as
Vietnam itself. I think if we ever
found ourselves in another conflict in a similar situation, I would probably
protest against it, because then I think unless we’ve really, really a reason
for us to be there, ...I’d probably protest.
B: No, I don’t, I really don’t. I’m glad I did it, I’m glad to say I can do it, and I came back with all of my pieces intact, and a lot of people didn’t.