Veterans Day program gives insight into military life; Millage is guest speaker

Veterans, students and community members filled the school auditorium Thursday, Nov. 11, for this year’s Veterans Day program.

Speaker Steve Millage told those gathered at the assembly some of his experiences in the military — specifically about what life was like in Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

Millage was drafted in 1968. He went to Vietnam on his birthday and returned to the U.S. on his next birthday — spending his entire 24th year there.

“If I had to do it over again, I would. I don’t regret it,” he said of his time in the Army.

Millage was about two months into his coursework for his master’s at the University of Wyoming when he was drafted into the Army.

He said people had an exemption from the draft as long as they were in college, but they were eligible for the draft once they graduated with their undergraduate degree.

Millage went to the draft board and asked if he could finish out the semester and then join the service. The board declined his request.

“When your name comes up, you have to go,” Millage said.

He joined military intelligence, learning how to interrogate prisoners of war and about order of battle, which involved briefing the general on all available intelligence twice a day.

The first thing Millage said he noticed when getting off the plane in Vietnam was the smell of two-cycle engines. He said that the whole country smelled of that smoke, in his opinion.

Millage noted that he and others had been listening to stories about the Vietnam War for several years before arriving there in 1968, and when he got there, it was as if he was in a theater and he was walking toward the screen, which was Vietnam.

“As I got closer to the screen, it became more real, and after a bit I was in the screen participating in that story,” he recalled. “It’s just a strange happening, I guess, that I just blended into the war.”

Millage was sent to Camp Eagle, which was about 50 miles south of the demilitarized zone. He said they slept five people to a tent and lost a lot of the little conveniences people were used to in the U.S.

He said Typhoon Bess hit the area about two weeks after he arrived, dumping 19.5 inches of rain in three days. The tents, which Millage said only worked for about the first two or three hours, started to leak, forcing the soldiers to push their bunks to the center of the tents and drape their ponchos.

The noise was another thing Millage had to get used to. Much of it came from artillery and helicopters, and he can still tell certain types of helicopters apart just by hearing them today. He recalled asking how to tell the difference between the sounds of incoming and outgoing artillery rounds.

“It’s a slightly louder noise outgoing,” Millage said, “and incoming has kind of got a whoosh sound to it.”

When he first got to Camp Eagle, American forces there were getting attacked about twice a week with 122 mm rockets. Enemy forces would fire the rockets toward the camp and then quickly leave because U.S. forces had helicopters in the area all the time. U.S. firebases in the area would also use radar to help pinpoint where the rockets were being fired from.

Millage said the perimeter of the camp had bunkers, and each company was responsible for one bunker. Each bunker housed Claymore mines, a .30 caliber machine gun, the soldiers’ personal M16 rifles, an M79 grenade launcher and a night scope, which allowed soldiers to see enemy movement at night.

Millage described other technology that helped American soldiers combat the enemy in the guerilla war. Flying over the area at night, U.S. forces had technology that could locate anything moving over 4-5 mph, anything that was hotter than body temperature, and areas that had concentrations of ammonia, which could help locate spots the enemy used as latrines since urine contains ammonia.

“And this was all technology we had 53 years ago,” he added.

Taking questions from the audience near the end of the program, Millage was asked by third grader Jenor Frost how long he was in the Army. Millage said it was two years, two months and 22 days.

“That’s a long time,” Frost said with awe after a pause. Many other students may have been thinking the same thing as they reflected not only on Millage’s experience but those of the many other U.S. veterans who served to protect this country.

Students honor veterans

After learning that there were no entries in the Voice of Democracy contest this year, HHS freshman Ben Kleve volunteered to write a speech, which he delivered at the program to make sure veterans were honored.

Junior high students participated in the Patriot’s Pen essay contest, and those who placed in the top three read their essays during the program.

First place on the local level went to Teagan Martin, followed by Emersyn Goldenstein and Ellie Kleve.

The student speech and essays may be found elsewhere in this edition of the Enterprise.

The high school band played the official songs of the different military branches, giving veterans the chance to stand and be recognized when their branch’s song was played. HHS select choir, Sound Check, performed “For the Good of Many.” Mason Vernon played taps at the close of the program.

The day started with a breakfast for veterans in the high school commons area. Students from seventh to 12th grade volunteered to set up, cook pancakes, serve and clean up. Sixth graders greeted the attendees and served breakfast.

Seaboard Foods donated the bacon, Blisties donated time and resources to cook the bacon and deliver it to the school, and Village Inn donated the pancake batter.