This audio is an oral history interview conducted by The Army Heritage Center Foundation to preserve the memories of Soldiers’ and their Families, honor their service, and help educate the American public about the Army’s and its Soldiers’ contributions to the Nation.
“The whole year over there I know for a fact I never shot at anyone. And if anyone ever shot at me, evidently they missed.”
Lonnie Frampton – US Army, Newville
The U-8D aircraft pictured is similar to the ones flown by Lonnie Frampton’s unit.
“Every story has to have a beginning somewhere,” Frampton said of his first tour in Vietnam. “Mine begins in Berlin Germany in 1966. The day before Thanksgiving I got a phone call from the personnel office at headquarters in Frankfurt. I got on the phone and this captain got on the line. He said ‘Sgt. Frampton, you’re due to make Warrant Officer on 1 December, however, in order for you to get it you have to accept assignment to the 509th Group. Do you know where that is?’”
Frampton laughed. “I assured him I sure didn’t. He asked ‘Do you still want your promotion?’ I said yes. So he said, ‘In order to get your Warrant you’ve got to be in country by the 20th of January.’ That’s how I got to Vietnam.
(Read more stories from this veteran and others at: Voices of Service)