Staff Judge Advocate goes from jungle to desert

Courtesy Photo | Col. Dwight Warren, 3rd COSCOM Staff Judge Advocate, proudly bears the patch of the Americal Division, 23 Infantry. Warren served with the Americal Division, 23rd Infantry, in Vietnam as Infantry man.  

02.17.2006

Courtesy Story

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More than a generation ago, young Soldiers left their homes and families to fight in Vietnam. Today, some of these same Soldiers are here on Logistical Support Area Anaconda, ready to pass their experience on to a new generation of Soldiers.

Currently, Col. Dwight Warren is the 3rd Corps Support Command Staff Judge Advocate and top legal advisor for 3rd COSCOM. But in his first deployment, Warren was one of several Soldiers in the Americal, 23rd Infantry Division, slogging his way through the dense foliage of Vietnam many years ago.

"I actually began my military career as a tanker in Germany," Warren said. "But I was transferred to Vietnam and became an infantryman for eight months."

Warren described his experience in the infantry as being fairly routine.

"You put one foot in front of the other, carry your gear on your back, do what you're told and get down when the shooting starts. There wasn't a whole lot to it," Warren said.

When Warren fought in Vietnam, almost 40 years ago, the Army was a very different organization, he said. Technological advances have led to a more mechanized fighting force, he added.

"When I was in the infantry we carried everything on our backs," Warren said. "We would leave base camp for 30 days at a time with a pack weighing 80 pounds. Now, Soldiers are fortunate enough to get rides,"Warren said.

The nature of combat has changed as well, said Warren.

The combat in Vietnam was more man-to-man than it is here in Iraq, Warren said. When we were attacked in Vietnam it tended to be an all out attack, not the hit-and-run tactics favored by the insurgents here in Iraq.

"In this war, our Soldiers seem to be victims of circumstance," Warren said.

"In Vietnam the camps were occasionally attacked, but those were all out attacks. It was mano a mano, it was (man-to-man). You could have an influence over your destiny. This is true of all wars . . . You don't have an opportunity to defend yourself."

While military technology has changed since Vietnam, other aspects of war remain the same, said Warren.

"Like most wars this is 90 percent drudgery and probably even less than 10 percent exciting," said Warren.

From the beginning of the war, opponents of the war have alleged that Operation Iraqi Freedom is a mirror image of the Vietnam War, a never- ending conflict that we are destined to lose and never should have started. Warren disagrees with this assessment of the current conflict.

"I think people who say that are either members of the media trying to write a story and can't come up with anything original or they don't know what they are talking about," Warren said. "I think this is an opportunity here to create a potentional for democracy. The Canadians are a democracy but they don't always walk in step with us, nor do the democracies of Western Europe or Japan. But they have more in common with us."

Warren feels that OIF is different from Vietnam, not just militarily but politically as well.

"Another way it is unlike Vietnam is that we are fighting a distinct minority I believe," Warren said. "These are hit- and- run insurgents who do not mind killing their own people. They prey upon them. We could have won Vietnam easily I think, if the American public had the fortitude to stick with it."

Despite his Vietnam experience, Warren does not see himself as superior or the possessor of any great knowledge simply because of his combat experience.

"Just because I've gone to Vietnam doesn't make me more qualified to give advice. There has been just as much time between my time in Vietnam and now as between the Civil War and the Spanish American War. It is an entirely different era."

Warren is nearing his 60th birthday and is looking forward to retirement, like many other Soldiers who served in Vietnam.

The Vietnam War ended three decades ago, but the hard-fought lessons of a hard-fought war live on, not just in the history books, but in the memories of the brave men and women who lived through it.

• Date Taken: 02.17.2006
• Date Posted: 02.17.2006 03:47
• Story ID: 5418