Vietnam vet recounts time in Navy, Marines

The Beacon News (Chicago): Vietnam vet recounts time in Navy, Marines
The night of March 30, 1971, was just like any other. Stationed in Da Nang, Vietnam, Steve Barrett hunkered down his barracks for dinner and then went to sleep. He had no idea that the next day would be one of the worst of his life.

Morning broke with news that the Viet Cong had bombed a train in the mountainous and low visibility area of Hải Vân Pass, resulting in 22 casualties. Barrett was a Navy hospital corpsman, trained to administer medical attention to those in need. Since the Marine Corps did not have medical personnel, Barrett was serving with a Marine unit in Vietnam. Upon hearing the news of the train bombing, he headed to a medevac helicopter with his crew.

“We went into the air and over to the train crash, but as we were coming in to pick up the victims, the enemy hit us with an RPG (rocket launcher) and our helicopter went down,” said Barrett, now a 63-year-old resident of Oswego.

The crash was catastrophic; shrapnel killed four Marines. Barrett was lucky to be alive and suffered serious cuts and a broken back. Thankfully, help was on the way.

“Our Marine unit was there to cover us, and they were able to secure the area in about 30 minutes,” Barrett remembered. “It took us three trips, but we got all of the victims out of there.”

Coming home

Barrett was sent back to the U.S. later that year, at the end of a 13-month tour of Vietnam. He met his wife, Lynne, in his native New Jersey and then traveled cross-country to San Diego to serve Navy sea duty onboard a ship docked on the coast.

In early 1972, just two weeks before he was to be discharged from the Navy, Barrett received bone-chilling orders.

“They told me I was to go to Vietnam again,” he said. “They wanted me to re-enlist. I got on the ship and got as far as Pearl Harbor. I wasn’t going to re-enlist, and they realized that then, so they sent me back to San Diego.”

Barrett was discharged in April 1972. He and Lynne loaded up their car for the long trip back to New Jersey, but decided to stop in Illinois on the way to visit family. They never left.

“My plan was to go to pharmacy school back in New Jersey, but Lynne’s sister lived in Woodridge, and we stopped there for her wedding,” Barrett said. “I was going to go to Rutgers, but the school was confused with my in-state application because I had a San Diego address, so I started school at North Central (College in Naperville) instead and switched to manufacturing engineering and then metallurgy.”

Barrett became interested in computer science and soon landed a job with AT&T. He joined the military reserves just three months after being discharged, and the couple had two children. In 1999, Barrett retired from the military after 20 years of service.

Present day

Today, Barrett is the assistant superintendent for the Veterans Assistance Commission of Kendall County, in Yorkville.

“I really enjoy working with veterans and helping them,” he said. “A lot of these guys have no idea what type of medical compensation they are entitled to on the local, state and federal level.”

Looking back, Barrett said he enjoyed his time in the military.

“I go to my ship reunion every two years,” he said. “It is great; there is a lot of camaraderie.”