Soldier became an ally of Vietnamese people

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Paul Sechtman trained the South Vietnamese to fight early in the war. / Kinfay Moroti/news-press.com

Source: News-press
Nov 7, 2011

Paul Sechtman is a career soldier who, if he had it all to do over again, would change nothing.

The Cape Coral resident, 75, served with the special operation forces in Germany and then Vietnam.

He started his military career in 1958. He went to Vietnam in 1963-64, and again in 1968-69.

Sechtman, who served in the military for 28 years, has more than 20 medals, along with ribbons and citations for his service, he said. They include the Distinguished Flying Cross, three Bronze Stars, and two Purple Hearts.

Service is a tradition in his family.

“I went to the Virginia Military Institute,” Sechtman said. “I always wanted to go into the service. My father served in World War I. My father-in-law was a Naval officer.”

The military tradition continues with his son, who is a Naval officer in Norfolk, Va.

In Vietnam, his job was to build compounds and train the South Vietnamese to fight. He was the operations officer for a team of 12 who included medics, weapons specialists, radio specialists and an engineer.

His team went to about 25 to 30 villages, training and recruiting young people. The compounds had screened siding, thatched roofs, a medical clinic. There were fighting pits all the way around and several mortar pits.

“We trained about 900, I think,” he said. Some also were trained medically to take care of the villagers so they could continue to care for the people after the team had left. His medics delivered about a dozen healthy children, three by Caesarian section, he said.

“We clothed them, we paid them, we fed them,” he said. “It was kind of like running your own little city.”

The North Vietnamese were not heavily involved in Vietnam in 1963, he said. Instead, his team was dealing with communist South Vietnamese. There was some combat, “mostly mortars, small arms, hand grenades typically,” he said.

The CIA funded the operation. “The CIA was generous,” he said. Special forces at the time reported directly to the ambassador for South Vietnam,Sechtman said.

Sechtman said they were welcomed in the villages. They worked closely with the people and integrated themselves in the community.

Sechtman also enjoyed working with the Montagnards, the indigenous people of Vietnam. They were similar to the American Indians, or aborigines in Australia.

“They were good fighters,” he said. “They did not like the Vietnamese, who had abused them for centuries.”

What made the most impact was the friendship the team developed with the South Vietnamese and the natives.

“You lived together,” he said. “You spoke together. You ate together. We actually became very close to these extremely friendly people.”

He had no trouble with protesters or others against the war except the glares he exchanged in Penn Station in New York, he said.

How does he feel about the welcome, or lack thereof, soldiers got?

“I’m a professional,” he said. “In America, I believe the Constitution gives everybody the right to be an ass.”