Photo By Staff Sgt. Felicia Jagdatt | Soldiers with 4th Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment pose with Vietnam Veterans from the...... read more read more
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The Texas State Council of the Vietnam Veterans of America visited the 1st Armored Division at Fort Bliss April 5.
The visit was a chance for 1st AD to showcase advancements at Fort Bliss since the Vietnam War era, and the Veterans were taken back by how different the fighting force is presently.
“We didn’t have anything like this back then when I was in the service,” said Tommy Rey Waldrep, a Houston resident who served in Vietnam as an Infantry Soldier with the 82nd Airborne Division. “We had to get out there in the field. There was no technology that systematically trained us to save money and focus energy. It was a different world.”
Waldrep was one out of 40 veterans and their spouses throughout Texas who attended the tour of Fort Bliss, which consisted of visiting the Close Combat Tactical Trainer and the footprints of the 4th Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st AD and the Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st AD.
For some, it was not their first visit to Fort Bliss, but it was a unique experience from their first.
“Some of the guys here have been to Fort Bliss before,” said Humberto M. Nevarez, president of the Vietnam Veterans of America Lucio G. Moreno Chapter 574 in El Paso. “Some went to basic training here and some came here before they deployed. It is awesome to hear their stories of how different things are now from what they remember.”
“It’s totally 100 percent different,” Waldrep said. “My goodness. I wish we would have had this back in my day. You all are spoiled, but smart. That’s the way to work. Smart.”
The excitement of having the veterans at Fort Bliss was shared by the Soldiers as well.
“An event like this shows that we are all family,” said Capt. Rick Gonzalez, commander of Company A, 4th Bn., 6th Inf. Regt. “Our Soldiers are able to bridge the gap, learn first perspective history and show our present capabilities.”
“It is a learning experience for everyone involved, and it’s fun,” Gonzalez said.
| Date Taken: | 04.05.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 05.10.2018 14:13 |
| Story ID: | 276578 |
| Location: | EL PASO, TX, US |
| Web Views: | 89 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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