1 50 2 https://omeka-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/aac695d61df54203b2af110e2d327212.pdf eec3359ddc30fcbf9c753b0b4a212cd9 PDF Text Text Oral History Interview of Lieutenant Colonel Bryan D. Green, U.S. Army (retired) Interviewed on September 22, 2011 by Michelle Littlejohn on behalf of Dr. Browning's 2011 Fall American Military History Course at Appalachian State University. This interview took place at Bandys High School in Catawba County, NC where Lt. Col. Green is the current Senior Army Instructor for the JROTC program. �Transcript of Oral History Interview with Lt. Col. Bryan D. Green, U.S. Army, retired Date: 22 September 2011 Location: Bandys High School, Catawba NC Project for HIS 3823, 2011 Fall . Michelle Littlejohn: This is Michelle Littlejohn of Appalachian State University. Today is September the 22nd. I am at Bandys High School in Catawba interviewing Lieutenant Colonel Bryan Green. Okay, Lt. Col., to start with, what's your birth date? Lt. Col. Bryan D. Green: I was born the 25th of September 1961 in Davie County near a town called Mocksville. Littlejohn: Okay, is that in North Carolina? Green: Yes ma'am, North Carolina. Littlejohn: Okay. Now when you decided to go into the military, you said you did the ROTC program at Appalachian? Green: Yes. Littlejohn: What made you want to do the program? Green: Well, I had graduated from high school and I wanted to, I wanted to go into the military and my parents really didn't, weren't to excited about the idea of military service. My dad had served in the Navy, my grandfather in the Army and relatives had served in the Army prior to that. And it was the lure of doing something different and growing up in an area where you had furniture factories and textile mills there just wasn't a lot of opportunities in Davie County. Littlejohn: Uh-huh. Green: So I went to Rowan Community College for two years and worked for a year as an Assistant Store Manager with B.C. Moores and I really didn't, that really wasn't my thing so they had a program at Appalachian State where you could transfer your two year Associate Degree into a four year program. Littlejohn: Uh-huh. Green: And I don't know if it was a fairly new program or it's a pilot program but I looked into that and then called the recruiter, recruiting officer, the RO at Appalachian State, Captain Rogers and he got me hooked up to go to basic training and did whatever he needed to do to get me signed up for the fall semester so that, that summer I went to Fort Knox to basic and then started Appalachian in the fall as a cadet in Military Science �III student. And the program was a Bachelor of Technology, Bach - Bachelor of Technology and Business Education. I think the program was set up to train you to be a community college instructor. Littlejohn: Uh-huh. Green: Or you could teach public school but you'd have to get your teaching certification. So I think I belonged to the department of Education there at Appalachian as well as the ROTC department. And so I took that adventure and then did my two years at Appalachian and then, and then by the time I was ready to graduate in '84 there still wasn't any real job opportunities out there so I decided I was going to go ahead and give the Army a try and went on active duty. Littlejohn: Okay. How did you enjoy the program at Appalachian? Green: It was, it was great cause you already had a ready set made of friends. Littlejohn: Uh-huh. Green: And you already had friends and people that were there. You already had a team that you were part of, so it made the college experience a lot more pleasurable because you know, you going in you don't know any body and Col. Michael Scott was the professor of Military Science at the time and he was a Special Forces guy so we did a lot of fun things in ROTC at Appalachian. And while I was there I was in the Scabbard Blade and we did the football games, had to color guard and ushers for the game stuff. So got to see a lot of the home games there at Appalachian. Then they had started something called the Gold Bar Recruiting Program. So I got selected my last semester of my senior year to enter the Gold Bar Recruiting Program which was a good deal because they paid you as a Second Lieutenant and you recruited for Appalachian State so that also became my internship for my degree. So that worked out well. And so I was getting paid, you know, in lieu of not getting paid cause I was making- you got paid as a cadet by the Army and then I, my first semester I worked making doughnuts and getting up at three in the morning and going to the cafeteria and making doughnuts for a semester and then I, once I lived in Bowie and then you know walking all over the place and walking down to the cafeteria I said, you know I got an RA job so I was an RA the other semesters I was at Appalachian. So it was a good experience. I love Boone and that environment so I got to come on active duty early and work for Appalachian State till about November. Littlejohn: Uh-huh. Green: And then went to my officer basic course at Fort Sam Houston, Texas so I, I can say I was probably one of the first Gold Bar Recruiters for App. Littlejohn: Okay. �Green: So I got to come on early and got to go to all the feeder colleges for Appalachian State. Littlejohn: Uh-huh. Green: They had a old four wheel drive Dodge Ram and that was my vehicle so that was pretty fun driving down the mountain and up the mountain to the various colleges that feed Appalachian State. Littlejohn: So how was - you went through. boot camp? Green: Went through basic at Fort Knox. Littlejohn: Basic ... How was that? Green: It was an eye opening experience cause they were students, college students, from all over the country there at Fort Knox. To enter ROTC you either have to go through Military Science I & II as a freshman and sophomore or you would have to complete a basic training equivalent. Given the time frame I didn't have time to go through the Army standard basic combat training so cadet command ran what they call a Basic Camp which is equivalent to, they give you your credit for basic training at Fort Knox and the Drill Sergeants had just finished with a cycle of recruits for the Army and now they had cadets. They had all college students and I don't think they differentiated very much between cadets and college students but it was a good experience. It was filmed on same site that the movie Stripes was filmed on cause they still have the World War II wood ... Littlejohn: Uh-huh. Green: They had just filmed Stripes not too long ago so. Littlejohn: Oh wow. (laughs) Green: It, it was definitely a, it was a leadership experience cause they do the same thing they did twenty years ago, you know, you rotate into leadership positions, you have to lead your squad or platoon or company. Littlejohn: How did that differ with the officer training after you left the ROTC program at Appalachian? Green: Well, once you, once you earn your commission you are now a Second Lieutenant and they expect you to act and conduct yourself as a Lieutenant. We weren't treated like trainees but any means but they expected a high standard of behavior from you. �Littlejohn: Uh-huh. Okay. Let's see. Was there any memorable experiences frnm the training program that you took away or - ? Green: Met a lot of folks from all over the country. Especially the ones from Boston you know they eat with a 'folk and a spoon.' We saw quite a bit of attrition cause a lot of folks thought that this, this was gonna be an easy ... Littlejohn: Uh-huh. Green: Six weeks at Fort Knox and it was actually physically challenging. You were under mental stress. Littlejohn: Uh-huh. Green: So the first week there was quite a few that didn't make it. Littlejohn: Okay. And once you finished officer training, where did you go from there? Green: After I finished my officer basic course at Fort Sam Houston I was assigned to the 197111 Infantry Brigade at Fort Benning, Georgia to 2nd Battalion 69 111 Armor as their medical platoon leader. I got there in January and the brigade was deploying to Reforger in Germany so I was there for three days and just long enough to draw equipment and get on a plane and go to Reforger which is Return of Forces to Europe. This was during the Cold War so every, every year that as a show of force to the Soviets, the U.S. would deploy units from the States as well as deploy units and draw equipment in country. We actually brought our equipment from Fort Benning, which the big climate difference between Fort Benning, Georgia and Europe so we had a lot of issues in January on this exercise. Actual unit arrived in Amsterdam and the main body flew into Luxembourg and that's where I came in and I literally met my platoon on the ground during Reforger. And then from Luxembourg we went to Kaiserslautem. And Kaiserslautem was a staging base and from there we did the exercise all across Germany. It was a cold field, field experience but a good leadership experience to be with a combat brigade on a major exercise like that. Littlejohn: Okay. Where did you go after that? Green: Well I spent two years in the 2nd Battalion 69th Armor and then I was moved to the main forward support battalion in the 197111 to Bravo Company and spent another almost year and a half at Fort Benning and after Fort Benning I applied for flight training and got accepted, made it through flight training up to Instruments and then decided flying helicopters wasn't for me so then they sent me to the 4111 United States Army Readiness Group to train reserve component forces ·in Indiana and Ohio. Littlejohn: Okay. Now where did, where did your career take you after that? �Green: After serving as a Readiness Group Advisor I went to the Transportation Officer Advanced Course - it was in Readiness Group that I got involved with deployment and transportation stuff and after the Transportation Officer Advance Course at Fort Eustis, Virginia was assigned to Korea to 8th United States Army to the Yon Son Army Garrison. I originally was slated to go to 2nd Infantry Division but showed up in country, I ended up being the Installation Transportation Officer for the Yon Son Army Garrison. As a young Captain in a Major's job and had a fleet of about 1200 vehicles, 700 employees both Korean Nationals, Korean Service Corps, soldiers - had about 32 soldiers - and we did the whole range from shipping people's pots and pans to running a transportation motor pool to driver's training. I guess the highlight of that tour was doing the, cause we had 72 buses there in the fleet and 24 of those buses were ambulance buses so we did a repatriation ofremains from the Korean War so that was pretty cool. And handled the cars for the general officers. It was an interesting, good tour, learned a lot about transportation. Littlejohn: Did you enjoy your time in Korea more than you did in Germany? Green: Well I would go, I would be going back to Germany several times over my career but Korea was a good tour. It was an eye opener, an eye opening experience especially to see the demilitarized zone which is like a mile Ion- mile wide, most fortified border in the world. Unless you've seen it, it's, it's, it's, it's hard to fathom that you know we are always at the close brink of war there on the demilitarized zone. Most folks never see that and hear the speakers blaring, see the North Korean soldiers and at that time there was still Russians in North Korea. Korea was a good experience. Littlejohn: Okay. Now after you left Korea, where were you assigned? Green : I was assigned to the 24th Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Georgia. And it's a mechanized division. They had just redeployed from Desert Shield I Desert Storm. My advance course had gotten cut early, cut - cut - reduced by I think two months and they, there was several of us on the slate to go to the Middle East but the war ended early so they had to reassign us so I got reassigned to go to Korea and then by the time I got back from Korea most of the divisions in the States had redeployed back so I arrived at Fort Stewart as the 24th had redeployed from Desert Shield I Desert Storm and then of course there was a reduction of force after that operation so I saw a lot of friends get rifted out of the military. I went to the Main Support Battalion in the 24th Infantry Division, served as the Adjacent for the battalion that was 1200 soldiers ih the battalion, 7 companies and we had detachments up at Hunter Army Airfield that supported the aviation brigade. And then I commanded a company in the Main Support Battalion. That was a good experience being a company commander and after that they asked me to come up on Division Staff so I came up on Division Staff as a Senior Captain, worked as the Division Transportation Officer for three months until the actual Major came in from Command and General Staff College. And during that time, you know, I saw several deployments, everything from Haiti to Suriname to the Middle East. It was good, good experience working on Division Staff and rotations to the National Training Center. �Littlejohn: Uh-huh. Do you have any particular memories from any of those deployments that you Green: I remember one field exercise. A guy I worked with was from Alabama, a big tall, lanky guy, Major Floyd Driver. And he was a quiet, quiet guy, you know, he wasn't real loud and boisterous. But we were out on a field exercise and a gator had wondered into our bivouac area and I had the night shift, he had the day shift, was getting ready to change shifts, it was early in the morning and this gator had wondered almost up to our top. And I had never seen anybody actual wrestle a gator in real but he wrestled this gator and took some parachute cord, tied his mouth shut, tied him up and then the MP's came and got the gator later that day. So it was a good thing he knew how to handle a gator. Littlejohn : It sounds like it. Green: Cause we didn ' t have any ammunition or anything to take care of that alligator. Littlejohn: So did you see combat in any of your deployments? Green: I was never sent direct - well I was sent to the war zone in Bosnia. I had finished my tour at Fort Stewart and was offered a command in Alaska as a Port Commander. So I took the tour to Alaska. And got to see most of Alaska and the West Coast. Several deployments of moving the brigade in Alaska to Thailand or down to the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Chaffee. Moved ammunition and after I finished my command tour in Alaska I went to Combined, the Combined Arms Support Command at Fort Lee, Virginia, which I worked in Director of Combat Developments for fielding this new Striker Brigade, that's, that's what we worked on was the Striker Brigade it's called Strike Force and it ended up being the new Striker Brigade that the Army has. And while I was there I was sent to, deployed to Bosnia - originally supposed to go to the Intermediate Staging Base, Logistics Base in Tazar - but when .I showed up they told me not to unpack my bags, that I was doing down range to the 1st Armor Division. So I spent one night at the ISB and then was down range with the 1st Armor Division and spent the rest of my tour down range with 1st Armor in Bosnia as part of Stabilization Forces Eight. Yugoslavia, former Yugoslavia was basically the whole place was mined with mines. You could see signs of war everywhere. If you just think of a place where they didn't pick up the trash for about five years and you got Bosnia. Littlejohn: Oh wow . How did it feel to be over there? Was the feeling more intense than it had been in Korea or - ? Green: Yeah because, you know, actually seeing the mass grave sites and what hatred does to people and the horrible conditions these people had endured and it made you proud to be an American. Littlejohn: At any time were you afraid or fearful for your life or were you guys in a safe zone? �Green: No, we were actually in the operational zone. We had to have two vehicle patrols when you went out in certain sectors, three vehicles in other sectors, had to take a machine gun, combat life saver, had to draw your basic load cause it was still fairly dangerous. Crime was very bad because of the civil war that had been going on in Bosnia. People were still being found dead. General Ellis who was the commanding General of the 1st Armor Division actually put in one, one day, in an average day we would have 97 combat patrols and all the logistics that goes to support all that and that's what we tracked as the DTO, Division Transportation Office. So saw a lot of stuff there in Bosnia. Littlejohn: Did any of your men ever get injured while you were deployed? Green: As I look back through the career a lot of, almost every NTC rotation they would, somebody would lose their life in training. It was just the nature of the training. The Army is very safety conscious so it happened either with the unit I was with or with the unit that was there. Anything from getting pinched between two vehicles or a rock hitting a soldier in the head being thrown up from another tract. Of course the operations at night we were still fielding night vision devices at the time so one morning at National Training Center a tract flipped over, broke a guy's neck. Everybody that was inside the Fire Support Tract was injured so medevaced, all those got medevaced out. While I was in Bosnia, the only injury was to one of the contractors. They were working on a bull dozer and the guy didn't block up the blade correctly and the blade fell on him and the son was up at Camp McGovern. Littlejohn: So while you were away, how, what happened with your family? I know you have children so ... When did you get married? Green: Got married in 1984 and first child came along in 1986 while I was at Fort Benning and then the other two came along when I was at Fort Stewart. I'd say military life is pretty hard on family especially if you get to be, your kids get old enough to be in high school. Changing high schools is a lot harder than changing elementary schools and elementary kids tend to make friends a lot easier than kids when they're in high school. But I guess, looking back, it made them a stronger person. Littlejohn: Okay. Did any of your children go into the military? Green: No. My son, his eye sight was really bad so he wouldn't have passed the physical for eye sight and my two daughters had asthma so asthma is a discriminator for entering the military. He, he had thought about it but as a graduation present I got his lasik surgery. Littlejohn: How would you have felt if they would have joined the military since your family was not for you going into the military? Green: I would of been proud of them. And still proud of them. �Littlejohn: Okay. So while you were away, what would you guys do to entertain yourselves or-? Green: Usually there was no time for entertainment. It was long days when you were deployed, anywhere from 18, 20 hour days. There was days when you deployed you don't, you don't, the events dictate your schedule so a lot of time you'd go for a couple days without sleeping. But I can't remember anything enter-, some of the troops, you know, occasionally play cards and stuff but by time you figure in their guard mounts and duties, you know, as well as doing their regular jobs, there wasn't a lot of entertainment time. Now places like in Bosnia, the USO was there and, you know, they had morale welfare recreation had facility there and occasionally they'd show movies during, at least one or two movies, a week. I think they brought the Dallas cheerleaders in but I didn't get to go see them. Littlejohn: Okay. Where did you go after you left Bosnia? Did you get to come back to the States? Green: I came back to the States to Fort Lee, Virginia and then, and after I got back from Bosnia was offered a job at the Battle Command Training Program at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. And the Battle Command Training Program trained division corps and brigade commanders so basically I was with a team of Majors and Lieutenant Colonels that trained general officers and staffs of those, of war fighting divisions. So I started out as a Combat Service Support Observer Controller and after, after a year there I was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and became the Boss Chief, Chief of the Combat Service Support Team. So during that time I traveled and saw every division in the Army including some of the Guard, Guard Divisions and we'd do something called a War Fighter exercise where we'd train the commanders and their staff Littlejohn: Okay. So did you enjoy that experience? Green: Yeah. It was good experience, met a lot of folks. Littlejohn: Okay. And after you left that position, where did you go? Green: Left that position, I was offered a job in, at Transportation School as the Deputy Assistant Commandant and during that time I spent about a year as the Commandant and, and then Second Gulf War broke out and had deployed of the ?1h Transportation Group. General Dale at the time asked me to, to go over and take what was left of the ?1h Group which was a provisional battalion of about 1800 soldiers, 7 line companies and 3 detachments of Army buses, so I did that. Littlejohn: Where exactly did you go? Green: I was actually station - I was rear detachment at Fort Eustis. Littlejohn: Okay. �Green: But during that time we, we had everything outside of the theater of operations in Iraq so we had boats in Spain, we had boats in the Mississippi, we had boats down in the Caribbean supporting Special Forces, we had stuff down in South America supporting Special Ops in the Amazon, we had part of our company deployed out to Fort Lewis, Washington for a joint logistics over the shore operation and then, a given day out of that battalion we had about 90 soldiers that did funeral detail for that area of Virginia. Probably the hardest part, we had, I had, even though I only had 1800 soldiers, I had about 6,000 family members that were left behind so the operational side was second place to taking care of families. Littlejohn: Where did you go after that? Green: After that I went back to the Transportation School and retired. Littlejohn: Okay. So how long have you been retired? Green: Been retired since 2004. Littlejohn: And how did you end up at Bandys High School? Green: Started looking around, you know, cause I saw another reduction in force on the, on the rising and I ran into a JR OTC instructor there at Fort Eustis and I sort of came across the program when I was a Gold Bar Recruiter at Freedom High School cause that was one of the schools I went and sat up at so I said, "That sounds like a good job. I think I would enjoy doing it." So I applied to about six different schools and also applied at Freightliner and some other places, Target Distribution Centers, and cause a logistics officer' s in fairly, fairly high demand. So I got offered a job at Hickory and it was a new program so I started the program at Hickory and then after working at Hickory, I, I worked, Bandys was my host school so they were the ones that were looking after me as a new program and when Mike Colbert retired, I moved over to Bandys out in the county. Littlejohn: What made you stay in the military for all those years because you had many different positions, I'm sure you probably could of found a job fairly easily with your experience? Green : I would say it was the people. Littlejohn: The people? Do you still keep in contact with people that you were deployed with or people you led? Green: Yeah. I still, I still maintain contact. Littlejohn: Do you see them regularly? Green: No, not regularly. �Littlejohn: Okay. Green: Ever so often. Littlejohn: Every so often, huh? So what was your most memorable experience being in the military, the one thing that you took away from it? Green: Wow. That's a hard question. I'd probably say the camaraderie. You work for some good people and then, there was always a few turds in there but there's turds in every organization. Littlejohn: What was probably the biggest drawback of spending your life in the Army? Green: Being deployed away from your family. It takes its toll after a while but it was probably harder on the families than it is the servicemen. Littlejohn: Okay. Did you receive any awards or medals for your time in? Green: Yeah. I, I received a few. You need to know what they are? Littlejohn: If you'd like to tell me, that'd be great. Green: I got, I got 8 Meritorious Service Medals, 8 Army Commendation Medals, 4 Army Achievement Medals, a NATO Medal, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, a Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Ribbon, probably missing some in there but, quite a few awards I reckon. Littlejohn: How do you feel with your current job as the JROTC instructor, how do you feel that affects your, or your impact on students? Do you feel like you instill in them the lessons that you took away from the Army so that they may want to follow that career path themselves? Green: Well, our mission is not to recruit for the Army. We're more, our mission is to motivate young people to become better citizens and we're more of a character building program, teach leadership, we teach life skills, we teach them how to be confident, teach them how to dress. So we're, we're preparing them for life after high school cause there's no other program that'll teach a high school kid how to be responsible and how to be on time and how to follow instructions and how to gain some confidence cause, you know, there's, where else can you go and lead a squad or lead a platoon or a company and we use drill and ceremony, we teach teamwork and discipline, so and we do have students that do decide to go into the military and they, they do very well. If you, if you take JROTC and complete three semesters, you can enter the military- the Army, the Navy, or Air Force- as a, in the grade of E3 and that's about $500 a month raise. Puts you ahead of your peers so within a year you'll make your Specialist, within two years you could easily become Sergeant and then if you decide to go the officer route, you already �know how to wear a uniform, you know how military rank and chain of command works . You got a few leadership skills there to get you started and, so you're ahead of your peers even in ROTC if you, you learn what you needed to learn in JR OTC. But a lot of our students, I would say only 2 to 3% go into the military and the rest go ahead and pursue college or a career path in a trade. Littlejohn: Do many of them go on to the ROTC programs at college? Green: We, we' ve had, we usually have, like see last year's class, one at UNC Charlotte, 2, 3 joined the military. It varies from year to year based on you know, their academic performance, you know, can they get accepted into a college. Littlejohn: What would be your advice to them if they went into the military? Green: Do your best. And be honest and lead by example. Littlejohn: Okay. That's very good advice. That's good advice for everyone I believe. What do you plan to do after you finish up here at Bandys? Green: Probably retire and raise chickens or something. Littlejohn: (Laughs) Do you plan on returning home or you gonna stay in this area? Green: I hadn't decided. I like Catawba County and I, there's still a little bit of the farm left in Davie County so I hadn't decided whether I'd go back to Davie County or not cause I got a lot of friends up this area. Littlejohn: Okay. Well I really appreciate you taking your time to talk to me and it was a pleasure to hear your story and I'd like to thank you for your service to our country. Green: That's all you needed? Littlejohn: Yep. Is there anything that you wanted to add? Green: Nah, I don't have anything to add. Littlejohn: Okay. Thank you. � https://omeka-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/7b3b3aaf91d83e876ec83f409b826fb9.mp3 36b04bd44e609fac2185fbbc37653317 https://omeka-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/2ed5e381330bafa73db5546cf788dbe7.mp3 36b04bd44e609fac2185fbbc37653317 https://omeka-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/cdea871c58292d8756dbd0d607cafa16.mp3 36b04bd44e609fac2185fbbc37653317 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Appalachian State University American Military History Course Veterans Oral History Project Description An account of the resource Each semester, the students of the American Military History Course at Appalachian State University conduct interviews with military veterans and record their military experiences in order to create an archive of oral history interviews that are publicly accessible to researchers. The oral histories are permanently available in the Appalachian State University Special Collections. The project is supervised by Dr. Judkin Browning, Associate Professor of History at Appalachian State University and all interviews are transcribed by the student interviewers. Copyright Notice: Copyright for the Veterans Oral History Project’s audio and transcripts is held by Appalachian State University. These materials are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used (e.g. Veterans Oral History Project, University Archives and Records, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC). Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. File size 1.11 MB 28.8 MB Format, digital MP3 Military Branch military branch (U.S. Army, etc) U.S. Army Officer Rank Officer rank (major, private, etc) Lieutenant Colonel (retired) Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Littlejohn; Michelle Green; Bryan D. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview. Littlejohn, Michelle Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed. Green, Bryan D. Interview Date 9/22/2011 Number of pages 12 Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 0:31:18 Date digitized 2/10/2015 Checksum alphanumeric code 317530bcdee466bc2707b7c18e334580 ecff57664d5b47ba4e5a5f0001e20136 Scanned by Leah McManus Equipment Epson Perfection V600 Resolution 300 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright for the Veterans Oral History Project's audio and transcripts is held by Appalachian State University. These materials are available for free personal; non-commercial; and educational use; provided that proper citation is used. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived UA.5018. American Military History Course Records Recording rate A/V rate (48,000kzh x 16 bit) 48000kzh x 16 bit Format, original Document Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 5018_Green_Bryan_20110922_transcript_M 5018_Green_Bryan_20110922_audio_A Title A name given to the resource Interview with Lieutenant Colonel Bryan D. Green, U.S. Army (retired) [September 22, 2011] Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral History Language A language of the resource English English Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Littlejohn, Michelle Green, Bryan D. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a title="UA.5018. American Military History Course Records" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/167" target="_blank">UA.5018. American Military History Course Records</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright for the Veterans Oral History Project's audio and transcripts is held by Appalachian State University. These materials are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used. Description An account of the resource Lieutenant Colonel Green grew up in a military family in the 1960s in a small town, and saw his chance to make something of himself in the military. He didn't join right after high school, but went to basic training over the summer and started at ASU the following fall as a cadet in Military Science. He served most of his time during the Cold War. He now works for Bandys High School in the Junior ROTC program. Subject The topic of the resource Green, Byran D. Veterans Cold War United States Interviews army cadet Cold War Fort Knox Lieutenant Colonel Green military science ROTC Senior Army Instructor https://omeka-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/0ccb842014d24bfa48e576888d65f28c.pdf 9ebe8f31c5ccaeeecb9a7f422eaf0eb4 PDF Text Text Transcript of Oral History Interview with Cadet Jacob Smith. October 10, 2012 Boone, NC Holly Sovine: I’m Holly Sovine and I’m here with Jacob Smith, former enlisted infantry soldier, conducting an oral history project for military history. Let’s get started. Where were you born and raised? Jacob Smith: I was born right here in North Carolina, in High Point, North Carolina, raised in the Triad area. Sovine: And when is your birthday? Smith: Born June 12, 1987. Sovine: When and why did you choose to join the military? Smith: Joining the military was something I always wanted to do since I was a kid. I kind of flip flopped of course, as kids do, about what branch I wanted to do, there were times I wanted to be in the Marines or in the Navy. I know, even in the navy or be in the air force. [Laughter] But ultimately, as I grew up and matured and everything and it really started to come in that seriously I could do this if I wanted the Army is what best suited me. So that’s why I did that. Sovine: Okay. Is there any kind of family history of military service? Smith: No, not that I know of. I think my grandfather was in the navy for a short time when he was a younger man but other than that there’s no long family history of that’s the tradition or anything, no. Sovine: What are some memorable basic training experiences you had? Smith: Memorable basic training. I would say one would probably be when we used to do the bayonet course. We did that fairly early in our training and I remember that was the first time I felt like “wow” I’m really doing this I’m really becoming a soldier. Everything up to that point had been filling out papers and learning how to march. It just kind of…small things…it was the first time I was just like “wow” I’m going be an inftantryman and I’m going to do this and it was a big eye opening moment I had. Sovine: Okay, what are some other duty stations you had? Smith: After basic training I was stationed at Ft. Lewis, Washington as part of the first brigade 25th infantry. I wasn’t there very long though because at the time first brigade 25th was a striker brigade and the Army wanted a striker brigade to be permanently stationed in Europe so they chose our brigade and what we did was, over the course of a year, our brigade picked up personnel and equipment and moved across, pretty much across the �whole globe and were re-stationed to Vilseck, Germany and were re-flagged the second cavalry. The second cavalry’s history had always been in the European theater and the 25th has always been in the Pacific so they wanted to keep that kind of in that direction. Sovine: What does re-flagged mean? Smith: Re-flagged basically means they moved us and then they said “Ok, you are no longer the 25th infantry, you no longer wear the patch, you no longer have those unit designators, instead you are the second cavalry.” Sovine: Okay. Smith: It’s like when a football team moves and they change the name. Sovine: Oh, okay. [Laughter] Have you ever been deployed in a combat situation? Smith: Yes, I have been deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom in August of 2007 to November of 2008. I was one of the first people that was part of the troop surge that President Bush enacted with more boots on the ground and longer deployments to bring stability to the country. I was one of the lucky few to be considered a part of that. In fact, he was giving a speech the day we got into Kuwait, we were kind of curious as to whether that was us or not. Sovine: And what was your whole deployment experience? Smith: Deployment is an experience all in its own; it’s hard to kind of compare it to anything else. At first we were deployed to Iraq and we were on victory based complex on camp striker and our main operation area was the Hadar area. While in Baghdad, it was troops in contact just about everyday. Everyday something happens somewhere. It was in Hadar that we lost the first six guys from our deployment. The first two died just from simple ricochets, bullets that bounce off something and just happen to catch them in the wrong place. The next three died from what we call HBeds which are basically house born IEDs. Booby-trapped houses, they rigged the buildings themselves to actually blow up if somebody walked in them. And then the last, Geiger, was on one of the main routes they had emplaced an EFP or energy focus propellant. Basically it’s using copper to penetrate through the slat armor of the striker and that’s when Geiger died. So then our total was up to six at the time. Then we moved as part of an operation to push Al Qaeda out of a certain area in the Diyala providence that coalition forces really hadn’t had a big presence in so it was kind of a safe haven for them. So our battalion who dove into the Diyala providence to meet up with the second infantry division that was already there and move with them to push Al Qaeda out of that particular area. And so, the beginning of the operation it was kind of like Iraq. There was somebody in contact everyday. But that’s where we lost the last six guys while on our deployment. The Recon platoon before, on the way, in the transition had struck an IED. No deaths. A few injuries and a vehicle was decommissioned because it was flatlined and it had to be majorly repaired before it could ever roll again so the Recon platoon was already down men and equipment and when they walked into a building Al �Qaeda had already had all four corners of the structure and the roof of first floor, the floor of the second floor, basically laid down with explosives. So when they walked in the entire structure blew up. Killed the platoon sergeant, two squad leaders, two team leaders, and a grenadier and injured a bunch of other guys. It basically combat ineffected that entire platoon with al the casualties and everything. [Sovine: Yeah] After that though, gloves came off. If we though that Al Qaeda was using any building at all for storage of equipment or using it as a hideout or anything like that, if we suspected that we made sure no one was around the immediate area and we’d drop 500 pound JM bombs off of an F15 on top of it. [Laughter] And so once we started blowing up houses Al Qaeda kind of backed off and we drove them out. And the rest of the deployment was…I don’t want to use the phrase “smooth sailing” but it was not constant contact everyday. Sovine: So did you or any other soldiers in your platoon receive any kind of awards? Smith: I personally didn’t, other than just an end of tour award that kind of everybody gets it. Kind of congratulations thank you for, you know the end of the deployment and everything. But a few of the guys did. A lot of Army Accommodation medals with valor and a lot of bronze stars all around for guys who did something heroic but I personally didn’t. Sovine: Okay. So how did you come to end up in Boone, North Carolina? Smith: After deployment, went back to Germany, finished out my year, and separated from the Army. I loved the Army. The Army was great to me but I always wanted to go to school. At the time, my wife she had just finished. By the time I had got done with the Army, my wife had just finished her bachelor’s degree here at Appalachian. And so she wanted to continue on to get her master’s degree and I wanted to start my undergrad so, and she specifically wanted to get it at Appalachian and I wanted to get it at Appalachian. They were good to her while she was here and I’d come and visit her a few times and I really enjoyed the area and I really liked the university. And so….[Long pause]…[Laughter] That’s why I’m here. Sovine: So how did you come to be a cadet with the ROTC program? Smith: You know being a cadet was a really hard decision. I had about a year from when I transitioned out of the Army to when I started school and I really wasn’t sure if I wanted to do it. But I signed up for the class and started taking it and kind of did to keep my face…to put my foot in the door but I really wasn’t sure if I wanted to commit. I toyed with a lot of emotions. There were days where being in the Army was great, you were completing the mission you had a clear assignment of what your objective was and what you were doing and it made you feel accomplished and good, but then there were days when you really just kind of didn’t like what was going on. It’s like any other job you know? I really had a hard time with making a decision to become a cadet. I did a lot of self-reflection, a lot of you know praying to myself, I thought to talk to my wife and everything. Getting in with the program and getting back in the feel of the Army and deliberating with my wife I decided I wasn’t done with the Army and that was the best decision for us. �Sovine: Good good. All right, well is there anything else you’d like to include in the interview that we haven’t covered? Smith: It’s not so much now that the Iraq war is dwindling down but at the time, when we were there we used to watch the news and the news used to kind of make what was going on over there sound much worse than what it was so I used to tell people all the time when they asked me how it was take what you watch on the news but scale it back some. Any time anyone gets into contact or anything ever happens a report is filed obviously and so one thing we would do is we’d watch the news and hear about something…gunfire where ever in some province and we were like “okay” and we’d go back and we’d go and we’d dig up you know and find the report from the actions that happened and everything and the news would make it out to be some massive fire fight and really it was just some guy leaned out of his window with his AK and popped a few rounds off and then coalition forces just shot the crap out of the side of the house. I mean it’s really not as bad as what it sounded as the news was making it out to be so yeah they would kind of blow things out of proportion and not only that but you got to keep in perspective that when…I would tell people keep in perspective that when you hear on the news everyday “more gunfire more this and more that,” it’s not happening to the same people. Iraq’s a big country. That’s like saying that crime is happening across America, well yeah but America’s a big country. [Laughter] Somewhere in the country it’s going to be happening but it’s not all happening in the same little town. So you know it would be hours of…minutes of pure adrenaline you know when something happened, but then you’d go hours and days without anything. It would go like a week or so and you’d be thinking to yourself “God, I wish somebody would shoot at me just so I’d have something to do.” [Laughter] “I’m tired of just driving around and walking around just kind of making my presence known.” You know I used to always tell them, the news they question a lot you know why we’re there and everything else but until you’ve actually stood there and you’ve fought the enemy but not only that you’ve helped build the infrastructure, you’ve helped the locals, you’ve made their life better, you’ve started to establish them and get them back to a state of normalcy…until you’ve actually done that you see the positive change you know the positive change and all the good things we did no matter how minor they were that’s not what makes the news. It’s always the bad stuff. So until you’ve actually stood there…you didn’t…I could understand where they would question it but you really just don’t know. Sovine: All right, well I want to thank you for your time and this was a great interview. Thank you. Smith: Thank you. � https://omeka-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/15e80041c2eb220296a7798fded4381e.mp3 372a7121d89471962c3739bd2eac4d58 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Appalachian State University American Military History Course Veterans Oral History Project Description An account of the resource Each semester, the students of the American Military History Course at Appalachian State University conduct interviews with military veterans and record their military experiences in order to create an archive of oral history interviews that are publicly accessible to researchers. The oral histories are permanently available in the Appalachian State University Special Collections. The project is supervised by Dr. Judkin Browning, Associate Professor of History at Appalachian State University and all interviews are transcribed by the student interviewers. Copyright Notice: Copyright for the Veterans Oral History Project’s audio and transcripts is held by Appalachian State University. These materials are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used (e.g. Veterans Oral History Project, University Archives and Records, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC). Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed. Smith, Jacob Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview. Sovine, Holly Interview Date 10/10/2012 Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 0:12:27 File name 2013_063_Smith_Jacob_interview 2013_063_Smith_Jacob_transcript Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview with Jacob Smith, 10 October 2012 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Sovine, Holly Smith, Jacob Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a title="UA.5018. American Military History Course Records" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/167" target="_blank">UA.5018. American Military History Course Records</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright for the Veterans Oral History Project's audio and transcripts is held by Appalachian State University. These materials are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used. Extent The size or duration of the resource. 4 pages Language A language of the resource English English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Subject The topic of the resource Iraq War, 2003-2011 Veterans Smith, Jacob Personal narratives, American United States Interviews Description An account of the resource Jacob Smith, born in 1987, talks about his work with Operation Iraqi Freedom. He fought against Al Qaeda and explains that it wasn't as bad as the news makes it out to be. 25th infantry Al Qaeda bayonet cadet Jacob Smith Milennial Generation Operation Iraqi Freedom ROTC striker brigade