Photo By Chuck Cannon | Vietnam veteran fireman Michael Kuk sits atop his red fire tank in Vietnam.... read more read more
More than 40 years after his service in Vietnam, Michael Kuk, retired Fort Polk Directorate of Emergency Services fire chief, said the good and the bad he experienced in the Vietnam War is what made him who he is and still impacts his life. “The Army started my career as a professional fire fighter,” he said.
Kuk likes to say he “let” himself be drafted into the war. “I’m a World War II Marine brat. My dad was a highly decorated Marine with two Purple Hearts. He knew a lot of recruiters, but even with a six-year enlistment prospect, none of the military branches could guarantee that I would become a fireman. The Army recruiter probably had the best advice when he told my dad, ‘let him get drafted and work his way up. Tell him to volunteer and he’ll figure out how to get the job he wants.’”
He was right and everything worked out the way I wanted,” said Kuk.
Kuk arrived at Fort Polk in 1969 to go through basic training. “I also went through advanced infantry training here because it was the only path to the military occupation specialty that I wanted — 51M, combat fireman. I wanted that more than anything,” he said.
Kuk said the officers and noncommissioned officers at Fort Polk that provided him with instruction in both basic and infantry training were professionals that saved lives.
“The instructors were superb. Most of them were veterans of the war with one or two tours in Vietnam. They taught us everything from avoiding booby traps to perfecting our weapon skills and more.
The training was tough. “I don’t know what basic is like today, but back then it was brutal. I thought I was in pretty good physical shape when I got here, but I was wrong. I was amazed at how the Army could build you up without stepping foot in a gym. Our physical training consisted of using our bodies to improve our bodies. They wouldn’t let us have sodas or candy bars. You had to be disciplined,” he said.
Kuk said the toughness of that training helped him survive in Vietnam, but Fort Polk’s location also played a part. “Coming from the Midwest, I wasn’t exposed to a sustained period of hot weather. When we got to Vietnam, our average temperature during the day was around 103 degrees. The Fort Polk climate played a huge part in preparing us for that,” he said.
Kuk became an 11B (infantryman) first, which would allow him to be hand-picked as a fireman. “I worked hard and tried to excel at everything. I even volunteered for every crazy assignment or detail that came up. Nobody really wanted to volunteer for things back then, but it benefitted me in the long run and I succeeded in becoming a fireman,” said Kuk.
Kuk was deployed to Vietnam in 1970-71. He said it was a remarkable experience, though frightening for many of the young men serving there.
Kuk was a corporal, but there was no recognized rank in the Army fire department. “That’s the reason I didn’t stay in the Army and make a career of it, though I loved being a fireman. Instead, I got out and became a civilian fire fighter,” he said.
While in Vietnam, Kuk was the noncommissioned officer in charge of a 21-man detatchment of firemen.
Being a fireman in Vietnam was a “scrambled eggs” affair, said Kuk. “There were a limited number of cadre in country, maybe 200 at most at the time. We were hand-picked to become special troops at Long Binh Post — at that time the biggest military installation built anywhere by the United States in a foreign country,” said Kuk.
Kuk’s firemen stayed busy because so many of the Army’s medevac helicopters were coming in short of base and crashing because the Viet Cong (North Vietnamese) were shooting them. “They would crash 15 to 20 miles from base. We would leave post and head to the crash site. There was either a gun jeep in front of us leading our fire engine pumper and water tanker, or behind us. We wore battle fatigues with steel helmets, flack vests and carried fully loaded M-14 automatics with scopes and side arms (45 caliber),” he said. “I believe we were the only dual weapon MOS at the time. We went to these crash sites fighting our way in and out. When the Viet Cong saw choppers falling out of the sky, they would come scurrying like ants to sugar. We were basically the Navy Seals of fire fighting.”
When they arrived at the crash sites, Kuk said he and his team did what they could to save the Soldiers in those choppers.
“There were times the chopper was on fire and some of the Soldiers were dead on arrival, while others were severely injured,” he said.
Beyond the heat, blood and fear, Kuk said what stands out most from Vietnam is the unique brotherhood he found with his fellow firemen.
“We were a mix of the American population. We were white, black and Hispanic, but the color of our skin didn’t matter. We got along great. We went to bat for each other and shared the same hardships and horrors,” he said. “As I look back on it now, I am so proud of all these guys that I served with. For me to be their leader — I had a little bit of fire fighting experience, but not like what I have today. They trusted my judgments and I valued their comments and contributions. It was a unique environment. They were guys who believed in being Soldiers and doing the right thing.”
Though hard to believe, said Kuk, their biggest danger was smoke. “Back then we didn’t have a breathing apparatus as part of our list of equipment. That’s why newspapers like the Stars and Stripes used to call us Smoke Eaters when they wrote stories about us fighting fires. Everybody ate smoke. Everybody got sick. Often we found ourselves unable to change our position while fighting the fire. The smoke would give us headaches, dizzy spells and make us throw up, and yet nobody went on sick call. We just kept on doing our job.”
Eating smoke and inhaling Agent Orange are a couple of the reasons Kuk believes he has lost 40 percent of his lung capacity.
Kuk said he had two vital needs while deployed. “The two things I kept with me at all times in Vietnam were my helmet and matches. The helmet protected my head, but why would a fireman need matches? Vietnam was wet and we had to travel through water. As soon as we got to the other side, we had to check for leeches. They would get everywhere. It was horrifying. As we found them, we would use the matches to burn them off our bodies,” he said. “To this day I have nightmares about the leeches.”
Kuk said the things he experienced in that environment propelled his level of experience exponentially. “I simply wouldn’t have acquired some of the skills I absorbed if I hadn’t been in the middle of a war zone,” he said.
Two weeks before he returned home, Kuk said one of his unit’s supply warehouses was hit, resulting in a huge fire. “Things were going really bad for us and a drum of chemicals blew up about halfway through fighting the fire. I took shrapnel from it and my face was ripped up. I was a mess,” he said.
As Kuk was being driven to the airport to leave Vietnam, he said he felt uncomfortable about leaving. “I felt like I still had a mission to accomplish. When I got home to the States, that uneasy feeling stayed with me and I felt like I needed to go back because I knew these people (our Soldiers) needed help,” he said. “It’s something that has weighed on my mind almost daily. I wish I could find everybody, but I’ve only been able to locate one other Soldier that was there with me. I have no idea what’s happened to everyone.”
Once he touched down in the States, Kuk said he was happy to see his family — his grandmother, mom, dad and two younger sisters were there to greet him at the airport. But he said the situation was surreal for him because he didn’t think he was going to make it home.
“I had all my possessions cleaned up and put away before I shipped out because I figured I was coming home in a pine box. The death toll was so high. So many young men that I had graduated with, died,” said Kuk. “I was lucky to come home.”
| Date Taken: | 11.09.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 11.09.2018 09:32 |
| Story ID: | 299370 |
| Location: | FORT POLK, LOUISIANA, US |
| Web Views: | 196 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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