"Guns on the Wing!"

May 12, 2007 11:25 AM

Sounds from the Vietnam War. Battle sounds, RTO chatter, speeches, briefings, LZ dustoffs, dogfights, and pirate radio. What war sounded like, in country and back the U.S.
posted by John of Michigan (12 comments total)

great find, thanks.
posted by j-urb at 11:36 AM on May 12, 2007

This is good. Thanks.
posted by Miko at 12:05 PM on May 12, 2007

One of my most vivid and surreal memories as a kidling was when my brother Steve sent us a new-fangled cassette recorder from Southeast Asia so we could trade tapes back and forth instead of writing letters. I recall a particular time when the family gathered to listen; he rambled on about mundane stuff while some sort of fire fight was going on in the background. Eerily oblivious, he neither reacted nor even referred to the explosions, as if he were simply inured. But my gramma jumped and gasped at every shell that popped to the point that we had to stop and calm her down.
posted by RavinDave at 12:15 PM on May 12, 2007 [1 favorite]

man, a gas-turbine helo spinning up is an infernal thing.

"If I could turn back the hands of Time" apparently came out in 1970; sounded more like mid-70s to me,

Last summer I bought a shelf of books to research the war; still debating whether I want to do a sim of it.

This search page can divulge a lot of interesting information on the US KIA if you know how to search, eg. the following table is enlisted (E2-E5) KIA by year, divided by Regular and Draftee. I produced this table to more fully understand the domestic war-support dynamic (or lack thereof) over this time.

E2-E5 KIA	1965	1966	1967	1968	1969	1970	1971	1972
Total Regular	1009	3468	5374	8440	5075	2406	1028	244
Total Draftee	252	1241	3476	5271	4224	2221	645	41
SSS KIA%	25%	36%	65%	62%	83%	92%	63%	17%

posted by Heywood Mogroot at 12:31 PM on May 12, 2007

Great post; I was obsessed by Vietnam for a long time and this is like instant immersion. Thanks.
posted by languagehat at 1:20 PM on May 12, 2007

+1

(Here is the obligatory link to Real Alternative for playing Real Media files without all the crapware.)
posted by Rhomboid at 2:23 PM on May 12, 2007

i dont do real. too bad, because this looks good...
posted by subaruwrx at 2:48 PM on May 12, 2007

Yeah, real nice find, John. Thanks!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:25 PM on May 12, 2007

Terrific post, this is going straight into my internet history classes.
posted by LarryC at 3:40 PM on May 12, 2007

See also: The Vietnam Tapes Of LCpl. Michael A. Baronowski.
posted by zamboni at 3:50 PM on May 12, 2007

Excellent post - I'm in my mid-30s so I only know about the era and war from family members both hawk and dove and books - so between this and items on archive.org from this war and the current war I can only imagine the sounds on the ground. Heywood, from the chart you posted and figuring advancements in battlefield technology I see of potential for parallel KIA figures ... I'm going to look for wounded in action for a comparison too ...
posted by mctsonic at 5:47 PM on May 12, 2007

My father in law was in Vietnam and ended up with a silver start and purple heart. I never had the nerve to ask him about it.

Great post. Thanks!
posted by DieHipsterDie at 6:35 PM on May 12, 2007