James McComic recalls undertaking operations as a gunnery sergeant with the Marines and how his time deployed impacted his family life.
It was a conflict that spanned two decades, from 1954 to 1975. The Vietnam War was long and costly, and it called 2.7 million American men and women to duty, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
The war also divided Americans, so many Vietnam veterans have never told their stories; including one from Niantic. Now the retired Marine Corps gunnery sergeant opens up about his experiences in Vietnam for the first time.
“I wear my Vietnam shirt when I go out. I'll wear my Marine hat,” James McComic said. “So everybody in Niantic knows that I'm a Marine, that I spent four times in Vietnam over four-and-a-half years.”
It’s a uniform James McComic first put on in 1963.
Get top local stories in Connecticut delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC Connecticut's News Headlines newsletter.
“I entered the Marine Corps at 17 years old,” he said.
Fresh out of high school, the Cherokee-American teenager originally from Dallas, Texas was deployed to Vietnam shortly after enlisting.
“I had my senior prom in Vietnam,” McComic said.
Local
After boot camp, McComic was part of airstrip security in 1964, and then went back to the States, briefly.
He returned on the aircraft carrier Iwo Jima in 1965, providing backup with Marines to missions like Operation Starlite.
“Then we came to an operation called Harvest Moon,” McComic said.
That was the Marines’ last large-scale conventional operation in 1965. It came with loss for the U.S. forces.
“They called us from the ship to go in. There was 10 choppers on there, and we were waiting to get in,” McComic said. “The 10 choppers took off. About 20 minutes later, the choppers came back. But there was only eight.”
In another operation near a U.S. base in the Da Nang area, McComic recalls encountering danger again.
“I took my recon squad out to a night patrol about a mile and a half off the perimeter, and he had a trip wire, my lead man. And the grenade went off,” McComic said. “It wounded my lead man very badly, and my two Marines in back of him. I knew we had to get them medical care as soon as possible.”
Picking up the wounded Marines, the group rushed back to the battalion, where medivac choppers got called in to get the injured men care.
“They said, ‘Thank God that you got them here as fast as possible, you probably saved their lives,’” McComic said.
There were many missions. Yet for McComic, 1966 brings something unforgettable.
“Operation New York. When all those Marines had to die,” he said.
McComic remembers being part of a sweep near the Phu Bai Combat Base, when they learned soldiers from North Vietnam were in the area.
“The whole battalion was in the woodland. We walked in, and they hit so hard with automatic fire,” McComic said.
McComic says they fought from 6 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon. When it was over, survivors were surrounded by bodies from both sides.
“We walked through the battlefield, and it was unbelievable,” McComic said.
In another sweep a few weeks later, McComic found himself under fire again. He took decisive action, running into gunfire and launching a grenade, after four Marines beside him were killed.
“You don't mind trying to give your life for your Marines, and that's what I did,” McComic said. “I love my Marines. That's why I wanted to go out there and take care of them. They were my brothers.”
Back stateside in 1966, McComic shipped out with the Marine Corps to Connecticut. He met his wife, Nancy, who was working at the New London Sub Base.
“I said, ‘Gee, I'm gonna marry that girl one of these days!’ I said, I really liked her,” McComic said.
Despite getting married just a year later, his ongoing military career meant time away from family, even after the birth of his first son, Robbie.
McComic went back to Vietnam in 1968. It would be two years before he saw his son again, in 1970.
“At Bradley International Airport, my wife was standing at the airport with my son beside her. He was 2-and-a-half years old,” McComic said. “She took care of my son by herself for two years and two months. That's what kind of woman she was.”
In all, McComic now looks back on 57 years of marriage, being a dad to two children, and a 20-year-military career that spans from 1963 to 1983.
Yet the Vietnam War was a lengthy conflict that led to the deaths of 3 million people, including more than 58,000 Americans, according to the National Archives. It bitterly divided Americans, something veterans like McComic have felt. He describes the reception he received when coming home:
“There wasn't any,” McComic said.
Many Connecticut leaders, from Gov. Ned Lamont to Sen. Richard Blumenthal, have sent McComic certificates of recognition.
“This is for being in Vietnam all those years and for serving over 20 years in the Marine Corps,” McComic said, holding a certificate from Sen. Blumenthal.
Mementos of a long history, that now, he holds close.
“I knew what I had to do, and it just didn't bother me. I knew I had to do it for my country,” McComic said.
McComic reached out to the Twilight Wish Foundation, a non-profit that honors the lives of seniors. He told them his wish was to finally tell the story of his time in Vietnam.
