Fred Spaulding

Fred Spaulding was born in Indianapolis, Indiana in April 1940. After high school, Spaulding waited a year before enlisting. Initially rejected by his first choice, the Marine Corps, Spaulding enlisted in the Army and went to Fort Knox, Kentucky for basic training then to Fort Benning, Georgia for advanced training. Once his initial enlistment ended, Spaulding left the Army but soon returned and received a deployment to Korea to serve first as part of the U.N. honor guard in Seoul then as part of the newly-formed 8th Army honor guard. While with the 8th Army honor guard, Spaulding spent in brief period in Vietnam as an advisor. Following Korea, Spaulding returned to the United States and joined the 82nd Airborne Division. While with the 82nd Airborne, Spaulding participated in the invasion and occupation of the Dominican Republic. Eventually, Spaulding attended OCS at Fort Benning, graduating in 1967, after which he joined the Special Forces and attended language school in Monterey, California before joining a Special Forces group based on Okinawa. While on Okinawa, Spaulding took part in several missions to Vietnam. Following Okinawa, in order for Spaulding to advance up the career ladder, he needed a company-level command, so he received an assignment to the 101st Airborne. Once he finished his time as a company commander, Spaulding first moved to S-3 at the battalion level then S-3 at the brigade level. While at the brigade level, Spaulding participated in the operations in and around Firebase Ripcord, including overseeing the evacuation of the firebase. Once his tour in Vietnam ended, Spaulding went to South Korea, where he turned a group of misfits into a highly effective company. While there, he learned that he was being demoted to his previous NCO rank, and chose to take a discharge. Not long afterward, he joined the National Guard, where he received an officer’s commission and trained a ranger unit, and did well enough that he was able to return to the regular army as an officer, finally retiring in 1987.

[@fowchiiiliedpuppiesdied]

Can the interviewer slow down, please? Perhaps turn the mic up for the veteran, and down on yourself.

[@johnmiddlebrooks8123]

Good interview but too much background noise

[@LeroySmith-y3h]

Great soldier and clear speaker: Wish interviewer would refrain from correcting the speaker or adding his own view of the events. I want to hear the speaker’s story.

[@markturner3821]

I would love to hear this with good sound quality.

[@detectivejohndyson]

Thank you for sharing your story. This was one of the most interesting and unique accounts I’ve heard.

[@bruceadams9542]

Thank you sir for your service💪 Thank you for your Amazing career story 👍👍👍👍👍

[@jonathanmorton9856]

Outstanding career fabulous human being. Thank God for men like him.

[@stephenmcgraw8871]

Amazing interview of an amazing soldier...

[@curtm3010]

Well done first person view of those times and our military operations.

[@sandeewood2948]

Thank you for your service you had a great career sounds like you were a awesome leader of troops…nam vet 68/69 25th infantry division 11bravo infantry…

[@VincentMMoore0]

Thank you for doing these oral histories and God bless these veterans.
One suggestion for the GVSU oral history program - please run these recordings through some sort of software to clean out or minimize the ambient noise.

[@danmurphy4472]

Thank You SIR..........for everything........welcome home.

[@lydiarosalieanndamiano7206]

Thank you for service sir!🙏🇺🇸🎉

[@Buce-ku9vx]

I'm thinking this is at least 10yrs old. Didn't hear a date, what year was this interview?

[@je1533]

First thank you for your service Sir. Also very curious to know if you have brothers named Russell & Jon??

[@ronaldclark8187]

Thanks!!!

[@rshowers7590]

You had an amazing career. Makes you wonder at the number of fantastic men who were done in by bureaucrats and how that relates to the horrific state of things in this country and particularly the military, today. Thank God for men like you, sir.

[@echoredfour]

With his DSC he probably deserves it as much as what he did in Ripcord as much as any MACV SOG operator. Countless SOG performed unrecognized heroic acts because their missions were secret and dangerous with whole teams disappearing. Im glad you’re able to mention your Snakebite missions during the interview. To some it’s just another TDY meaning not much to the uninformed. Oh btw I did tdy missions to Vietnam on Snakebite hihihi. Just another day in SOG……….

[@echoredfour]

Great career I’m glad he survived the post Vietnam RIF. We lost many great and dedicated soldiers in the mid 80s because of the RIF. Great nco couldn’t get promoted in combat arms because no slots were available. Re up time they just walked away. I would have too if it wasn’t I just reenlisted. Luckily for me it got fixed later but we still lost great soldiers. Not bad running around with at least two Medal of Honor receptient doing secret missions across the fence like Col Bob Howard.

[@Buce-ku9vx]

Interviewer asks poignant questions for clarification. Nicely done.

[@Buce-ku9vx]

Listened twice. Calling 100% 🐴 shit .

[@showbrat]

On what?

[@jimmyandkathyharrell]

After having watched many of these interviews it's interesting how officer perspective on Viet Nam war is much different than the enlisted perspective