The Unexpected Explosion: an interview with Ken Eifes

This interview with Mr. Ken Eifes took place at the Canton High School in an empty classroom at 9:00 AM. This was my second interview, because the first time the tape did not record. This made me quite nervous, so I kept checking the tape to make sure it was working. This also explains why, during the course of the interview, I know some of the information in advance. Before the interview took place, Mr. Eifes gave me some pointers on public speaking, and that relaxed me a bit.

Sam: Ok, umm, what is your full name?

Ken: Kenneth Robert Eifes

Sam: Umm, what is your branch of service and rank?

Ken: Army, and uh, I was discharged as a staff sergeant or E6 or Grade E6, same thing.

Sam: Ok. And, you said before that you voluntarily drafted, right?

Ken: I volunteered for the draft.

Sam: Volunteered for the draft.

Ken: So, uh, but the way it worked out, I didn’t tell you this before, but the way it worked out [cleared throat] I think my number had come up anyway because I was asked to go to for my physical before my volunteer-- a month before my-- volunteer date. If I—everyone had a number and you were drafted based on that number and I volunteered for March first, but I was actually drafted on February first. I might have rocked the cradle a little, too, you know, by volunteering. And, I don’t know, but anyway it was close enough. It wasn’t a major surprise.

Sam: How old were you, about?

Ken: [long pause] …20, it was probably 20 February. My birthday is in March. I was drafted in February first so I was about to turn 21.

Sam: Ok. Umm, where did you serve, around, I know we discussed that before--

Ken: Yeah, I’ll explain it. I don’t mind. Vietnam from north to south was split into four major regions… I was in II Core, which they called the Central Highlands ‘cause it was mountainous…

Sam: … do you recall the September 1968 to September 1969 area?

Ken: Well, that’s when I went over there… it’s what they call a short tour of duty, which was one year…

Sam: Umm, ok and, does February 1968 ring a bell?

Ken: Does it ring a bell? Well, yeah, that’s when I left for Vietnam…

Sam: Ok, umm, what was a “normal” day like?

Ken: … Even out in the field, a normal day was pretty much the same. Being in the artillery, uh when there was nothing to do in the maintenance inn we would help, we would help, the fellows on the guns run their missions, help hauling ammo or something…

Sam: Ok, umm, the last time we did this, you mentioned the thing about the truck and, the mine.

Ken: Yeah, yup. Well it appeared to be a landmine. We were like a maintenance vehicle; we were like third from the end of the convoy. That’s why there was a lot of discussion about it because, you know, I would have had to swerve wide, wider than and of the other vehicles to hit it, if it was a landmine. Or it could have been a mortar or something like that that came in from farther out.

Sam: What’s a mortar?

Ken: OK, a mortar is a, [long pause] it’s a weapon. It utilizes a tube. They kind of drop this in the tube. First of all you site the tube, and you know from your charge like an artillery weapon, … from your powder charge, which propels it, and it explodes when it hits its target… it’s a short range type of weapon… but, something happened, and it was kind of exciting. But, the fellow with me, he kind of froze, and you know it happened on the left side of the truck and he was sitting on the right side of the truck. And he froze. I had to actually hit him to wake him up. And get him out the right side ‘cause I wasn’t going out the left side. I wanted to go out the right side, too; so, and then, you know, you get out of the truck and take cover. And wait and see what develops. But there was no development. It wasn’t like the enemy was right in the brush there on the side of the road or anything. That was the end if it. That was the start and the end of the whole experience. But.

Sam: Did you see the mine?

Ken: No, oh no, I wouldn’t have hit it if I saw it.

Sam: Um, when you were getting out of the truck was it a rush or was it just slow kind of to just get out?

Ken: No, rush, rush and take cover, ‘cause there could be another one of those right behind it. You [never] know where ever it came from.

Sam: What happened to the truck?

Ken: Well, the truck was destroyed. The front wheel came off, the hood came off, the left front fender came off. I can remember, my toes were a little numb for a while cause apparently the pedals came back real hard. And the oil pan, remember I told you about the oil pan, holds the oil under the engine? Well, it got blown. There’s a crankshaft in there, I don’t know if you know what those look like, but anyway, pistons connect to the crankshaft. But that oil pan took shape of the crankshaft, you know just the impact just molded it around the crankshaft… There was no ground fire … or anything, that’s all that happened.

Sam: And, you said you were in a convoy?

Ken: Uh-huh

Sam: So were there trucks in front of you?

Ken: Yup, trucks and artillery pieces and--

Sam: What was their reaction?

Ken: There were two trucks behind us. Uh, well the whole convoy stopped and got ready to … You don’t know what’s going on, so you have to take cover. You know, get on the ground try to get behind a hill or something, take cover and, and wait and see what the situation is. And then deal with the situation as it arises. But it wasn’t-- it didn’t go any further than that.

Sam: Ok, when you did get out, you just… did you just run across a—like-- did you go to run and like jump down and just wait?

Ken: Yeah, yeah, we got out the right side of the truck ‘cause we knew it hit the left side or the truck hit it on the left side … then we just, yeah, we ran and got down on the ground behind the little mound of dirt or whatever.

Sam: What about the dog?

Ken: And waited. I think the dog was still in the truck.

Sam: OK…

Ken: Either that or the other guy had the dog. I wasn’t really too concerned about the dog at the time. Hate to say that, but…

Sam: So this was during your second set of six months?

Ken: Yeah, well, OK, let me explain. The reason for the convoy is that the second six months I was attached to what they called a roving battery, a roving artillery battery. And we moved from one place to another like every two to three weeks. To run specific fire missions… But, yeah when we moved from firebase to firebase to do these different missions, there was always a convoy from one place to the other and that included, we had a 155 self-propelled artillery pieces. They look like a tank, they’re not a tank. A tank is a cavalry piece of equipment that shoots a smaller bullet…

Sam: Umm, do you remember what kind of truck you were in?

Ken: Yeah, it’s called a deuce and a half. A two and a half ton; it has a cab seats. Three, I guess. Uh, and in the back it’s just flat and open. You can carry personnel on it, or supplies…

Sam: Was the dog with you guys, like sitting between you guys?

Ken: I should have brought some pictures—I had some pictures. Yeah, I think so. I—you know, once it happened just took care of business, immediate business, and I didn’t make notes of where the dog was. I know I had to wake the guy with me up. He was, like, shocked. But he moved. Once he woke up, he moved fast. I think that was the fastest I ever saw him.

Sam: Do you happen to remember his name?

Ken: [long pause] You know, what I do remember is that he was from Missouri. And we did have a nickname for him, but I can’t think of it. Maybe Mo or something like that…

Sam: If I use that name, is that OK? Mo?

Ken: Mo, yeah.

Sam: OK, ‘cause I need to name him something.

Ken: Oh yeah.

Sam: Umm, do you remember, like after you had jumped out of the car, er-- um--

Ken: The truck.

Sam: The truck, and you were laying on the ground, do you remember how long you waited?

Ken: I think we waited until somebody else … I think the infantry we traveled with … they cleared the area. In other words, they went on their reconnaissance or their little patrols and stuff. And cleared the area and they came back and said everything was clear. I think that was the procedure we used…

Sam: Do you know what happened to the truck after everything was cleared?

Ken: Well, it either went, uh, it either went to a higher level of maintenance somewhere to be repaired or scrapped. Or disassembled for usable parts. I have no idea what happened to it, but those are the options.

Sam: Ok, umm, when everything was cleared, did you guys just go to another truck on the convoy and just move on?

Ken: Yeah, well what happens is our base camp eventually came out, uh, with a wrecker from the motor pool I was in the first six months; and they, they towed the truck back into the base camp. We stayed with the unit out in the field. But we were assigned another truck and asked not to ruin that one. [Both laugh.] I know I did see the truck again. Where we went, where we were headed, as a matter of fact I think we were headed into a base camp to spend the night before we went out on our next fire mission. And the truck was there. In their motor—no, they didn’t take it back to our base camp they took it to the closest base camp. And it would be dealt with there.

Sam: Umm, did you guys laugh about it later?

Ken: Eh, well--

Sam: Or was there little discussion?

Ken: Eh, well we didn’t talk about it much. One of those things. A lot of things—we were lucky. I mean what we saw, [long pause] there were a lot of people that saw more danger than we did…

Sam: Umm, was there any talking when you guys were waiting for the “OK” that everything was fine?

Ken: I think there probably was. Telling Mo, that’s what we are calling him to stay still, stay down, until we get the word. Just doing the proper things, the safe things.