CASPER, Wyo. - One of the nearly 700 Vietnam veterans gathered in Casper for the statewide reunion and welcome home June 4-7 was former Wyoming Army National Guard Commander Brig. Gen. (ret.) Henry Castillon, who retired in 1998 after 36 years of soldiering.
Prior to becoming assistant adjutant general, Castillon was commander of the 115th Field Artillery Brigade and commander of Camp Guernsey among many other notable roles in the Wyoming ARNG.
The Green River resident was somewhat surprised to discover there were so many Vietnam vets in the state, that didn’t continue a career in the Guard.
“We had a handful,” he said. “We should have had more, and I don’t know why we didn’t.”
On top of acknowledging Americans’ widespread opposition to the war, Castillon highlighted an often overlooked reason why many soldiers returning from the Vietnam War weren’t recognized in the same way many are today when their unit returns together at a local airport brimming with cheering families, friends and media.
“As you’ve heard throughout the reunion, when most of us did come back we really did not get an opportunity to welcome back Vietnam veterans,” Castillon explained. “I attribute a lot of that to the fact we didn’t really deploy units. We deployed soldiers and fillers to locations. We had location soldiers and location fillers, as opposed to today how we deploy units. Now you leave as a unit and come back as a unit.
“As far as this reunion this weekend, it’s really something we needed to do for the soldiers, and I thank all the organizers and political entities and everyone that made this happen. It’s good.”
Castillon joined the Army while still in high school, starting out as an enlisted radio communications wireman. With encouragement from his NCO leadership, he went on to the military academy and became a commissioned officer in 1968.
His first tour in Vietnam, from 1968 to 1969, was as an infantry forward observer. He said he loved working with the infantry, but chose to stay in country after that tour and expand his knowledge and experience in the role of an aerial field artillery observer.
Then he returned to the States where he completed the Field Artillery Advance Course and soon after, his active duty career, which would include an uninspiring command of a basic training company at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.
“I might have stayed active duty, but you know, you fill out your dream sheet of assignments you would like to have and mine were all field artillery. Then I’m at a basic training company saying, nah, this is not for me.”
From there he joined the Guard and was assigned as executive officer of B Battery.
“I didn’t miss a lick,” Castillon said of his return to Wyoming. “I came right into the Guard and started the various stages of the military education system.”
He said the transition from active duty to being a National Guard officer was made easier by “a lot of good mentors. I had a really good chain of NCOs. That’s really been the key to my success—the folks that I work with.”
Vietnam confirmed some notions he had about himself and cemented what would be his lifelong credo.
“I’ve always been a risk taker,” Castillon said, “If you’re not taking some risk, you’re not doing your job. One of the highlights of my career as a brigade commander was taking the whole field artillery battalion and brigade headquarters to Korea which was unheard of during that time and it made a lot of people mad here, but we got a lot of support from NGB and I Corps, and it was good training in the place our unit first deployed. It was definitely a highlight of my career, risky, but a highlight.”
Since retiring and returning to Green River, Castillon served two terms as mayor, and is active in veterans’ organizations including American Legion, VFW and Military Order of the Purple Heart.
“Like I tell my fellow veterans, we were dealt a bad hand, but we have to deal with it.” Castillon said of his continuing leadership role in the military community. “But you know, we went, we answered the call to our nation, we took an oath to support the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic, and I think that’s something sacred and honorable. Now we’re part of history and I believe there is a silver lining.”
| Date Taken: | 07.02.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 07.06.2015 15:49 |
| Story ID: | 169160 |
| Location: | CASPER, WY, US |
| Web Views: | 96 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Castillon one of the few to go Guard after Vietnam, by SFC James McGuire, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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