Bank of America Employee Stories: The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War remains one of the most divisive and controversial events in American history. PBS recently released The Vietnam War, a landmark documentary series, by film makers Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, which explores the war’s impact on society and culture from the perspectives of soldiers, civilians and protesters on all sides.

Bank of America is a proud sponsor of the film, and believes that fostering different perspectives and civil discourse around important issues helps further progress, equality and a more connected society. In support of this, Bank of America employees have been sharing their own Vietnam era stories.

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Pang Xiong
Mike Stevens
Jodie Hardman and Nikki Graham
Bruce Beagley
Maureen Torres
Don Norton
Martin Herman

Pang Xiong’ Story

Pang discusses how her parents escaped Vietnam during the war and moved to the United States while she was a baby. She shares what the story means to her and how it impacts her today.

On Screen Text: Bank of America employees have been sharing their stories and perspectives about the Vietnam War.

Pang Xiong: Growing up, I guess I always had just a different sense of belonging because I wasn't born here.

I came here with my parents when I was a baby.

I was about 9 months old.

So, I know my parents had recently married.

They married right around when the war was coming to an end and the Secret War was coming together.

They pretty much escaped to the surrounding jungles of Laos.

My half-uncle, he was able to secure an escape route to Thailand. So, I imagine it was very tough living there, you know, living among other refugees who were -- who escaped the same way they did.

It was a difficult time, I'm sure, for them, you know, not knowing where you're going, not knowing what tomorrow really brings but knowing for sure that you can't go back to how you live.

When my father saw the opportunity to leave, to get out of there, and come to the U.S., he took that as a vision. And my parents going through all of that journey, it must have been extremely traumatic.

And, of course, my father, he's always like, "No matter what you do, just finish school. Finish school. Find a job. Make a good living."

It may seem like simple words to many people, but it really does carry a heavy weight with me.

So, at the same time, I think that that is what drives me to just succeed in life, really.

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Learn more at bankofamerica.com/vietnamwar

Elderly man standing in Military uniform

Mike Stevens’ Story

SSGT Mike Stevens was dangling from the end of a wire a hundred feet from the winch and another sixty from the ground when the helicopter started taking heavy fire from enemy combatants in the jungle below.

The Crew Chief looked down at Mike and gave the signal: we’ve got to get out of here. As the helicopter tore away, Mike was dragged behind through the canopy of the jungle until he slammed with full force into a tree. “Half of me went one way, half went the other.” He dropped and fell down the length of the tree, hitting every branch on the way down.

Mike was drafted in 1968. During basic training, he saw a recruitment notice for the Air Force Special Operations Group and applied. He was assigned to the most rigorous training regimen that exists in any branch of the military: the Special Operation Group. During his time in Vietnam, Mike’s responsibilities included collecting intelligence and tracking coordinates, determining locations and carrying out various missions. It was one such mission that had Mike helplessly tearing through the jungle canopy. Working off intelligence that sent them into a supposedly safe area, Mike’s encounter with that tree was a reminder that “intel” is often not the same as fact.

After his unlikely survival from the fall, Mike observed the damage that the tree had done to his right leg — injuries he still carries today. “Every muscle and fiber of my leg was ripped, torn, crushed ― you name it: it happened to that leg.”

Mike was the last of a three-man team to reach the ground, the others having been lowered safely through the canopy before their helicopter was spotted. His teammates found Mike first and immediately had to find a place to hide. They bandaged him up, dosed him with morphine and then began a tense, silent game of hide-and-seek over the next 72 hours. During that time they evaded Viet Cong guerillas while travelling 11 miles to an arranged extraction point. “The adrenaline got me through those 72 hours,” Mike remembers, “but you don’t even know what I started feeling once that adrenaline wore off.”

Mike’s time in Vietnam didn’t end after that accident — although it should have. Because Mike had an older brother who had also been drafted, he pulled in a lot of favors to stay despite his injuries. He knew that certain regulations could allow for his brother to be less likely to reach the warfront as long as Mike was in the thick of it.

His brother, Jack, served six months as a platoon officer in the Central Highlands in Vietnam before being able to return home. Mike succeeded in keeping Jack out of harm’s way. In a big war, keeping his brother safe was a victory that made it all worth it for Mike.

Jodie Hardman and Nikki Graham’s Story

On October 6, 1972, an F4E-Phantom jet piloted by U.S. Air Force Colonel Robert Anderson was shot down in Vietnam. The pilot’s wife Jerry and three daughters Debra, Lynda and six-and-a-half year-old Jodie were at home in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.

Eleven days later on October 17, another Air Force pilot Captain Allen Graham of Mobile, Alabama, was similarly killed in action leaving his wife Susan and only child Nikki behind.

Years later, Jodie and Nikki, the airmen’s daughters, became employees of Bank of America, and in 2006 they were working for the same manager, but based in different states. Having noticed their similar stories, their manager introduced the two and they became friends.

Over time, they realized just how close their fathers’ stories were. Both men were sports fans, both loving fathers of daughters, and both had a real love of flying. They also both flew their missions out of Thailand and each man was missing in action for years after their planes were shot down ― Captain Graham for six years and Col. Anderson for 20. In 2009, Nikki and Jodie were both volunteering as mentors at the annual Student Leaders Summit in Washington, D.C. During the visit, Jodie had an opportunity to visit the Vietnam Memorial Wall. She located and photographed the inscription of her father’s name from among the 58,000 names that appear on the wall. But when she showed the photo to Nikki, her friend immediately saw her own father’s name, just below that of Jodie’s father.

“I started crying,” Nikki said. “We were both stunned and amazed and couldn’t really comprehend the coincidence.” Somehow Col. Anderson and Captain Graham’s names are engraved inches apart on the Memorial Wall, separated by one line.

“We realize that there’s more to discover and to share, to learn and to know,” said Jodie “We share this bond that is almost bizarre. In a company of so many employees, for people who work together to have both their fathers die in the same way and have their names two inches apart on the Vietnam Wall is incredible.”

Bruce Beagley’s Story

Bruce discusses the draft and shares how his time in Vietnam helped shape who he is today.

On Screen Text: Bank of America employees have been sharing their stories and perspectives about the Vietnam War.

Bruce Beagley: It was a pretty tense time, and 1968 was crazy. The draft hung over us all the time.

You know, I wasn't going to try to dodge the draft.

I knew that.

I was going to do what I had to do, and I served for 365 days.

I was assigned to the 8th PSYOP Battalion. We took raw intelligence from the field and tried to put it all together and plot it on maps where we thought major units were.

And the purpose of this is that we had messaging through both leaflet-drop campaigns and loudspeaker campaigns.

It wasn't all a negative experience.

There were some good times, and there were some really tough times.

I don't wear Vietnam on my sleeve.

Most of my acquaintances probably don't even know I was there.

You know, when I first got back, I was still pretty much thinking that we were doing the right thing over there.

Over time, I've certainly changed my mind. So, I have a completely different perspective on it now, I think.

I think the whole thing was a mistake.

But I think it really made me who I am today, and I don't think

I would exchange my experiences for anything, so I'm not bitter about it.

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Learn more at bankofamerica.com/vietnamwar

Maureen Torres’ Story

Although she was only seven-years old, Maureen Torres was already changing lives. Maureen was fortunate not to have any immediate family members deployed to Vietnam, but it felt a lot like she did when her neighbor and close family friend, Lee, was shipped off. “We weren’t family, but we might as well have been. Our families were that close.”

As a child, Maureen kept a list of friends’ and family members’ birthdays, in date order and carefully underlined. “I never let a birthday on that list go by without doing something to celebrate it,” she remembers. “I was obsessed!” So when Lee’s birthday came around, she wrote him a birthday card and put it in the mail, despite the fact that she knew he was on the other side of the world.

A few weeks later, she received a letter back from Lee expressing just how much that birthday card meant to him. He even promised her a kiss upon his return – an idea that simultaneously excited and disgusted seven-year old Maureen! Months later, after a year-long tour in Vietnam, Lee returned home and she remembers him chasing her around to deliver the kiss he promised.

He was awarded a Purple Heart, following the loss of part of his hearing from an explosion. But it became clear as Maureen grew a little older that the scars of his service cut far deeper than she could have imagined. Maureen recognized that he suffered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder following his experience. “I knew him before he had left, so to see him come back in so much physical and mental pain was hard,” said Maureen. “He would wake up in the middle of the night and think he was still in Vietnam.”

Lee married and had children of his own, but his struggle continued due to the severity and intensity of his PTSD. Maureen is certain that his wife never stopped loving him, but she and the children could no longer live with him because of his affliction. “His time in Vietnam changed his life forever,” Maureen said. “It ruined his life, even though he was just doing what he was supposed to do.”

Lee passed away from a heart attack in his 40s. “It seemed as if he was just tired of struggling,” Maureen laments. She still has the letter that he wrote back to her when she was seven. Maureen is proud to have known such a patriotic and selfless man, and despite what came after, she remembers the handsome boy who lived on their street and the impact that one letter from a seven-year-old girl can have.

Don Norton’s Story

Don discusses his Vietnam War experience and shares how he feels today as a veteran of the war.

On Screen Text: Bank of America employees have been sharing their stories and perspectives about the Vietnam War.

Done Norton: I hadn't really thought or talked about Vietnam in years -- many, many years.

I don't remember the last time I talked about Vietnam.

I don't know if I would have gone into the service if I had not been drafted, but I knew my number was coming up, so I joined the Navy.

I was an Aviation Storekeeper Third Class. It was kind of an accountant role. 12 hours on, 12 hours off, 7 days a week. I was also kind of like their Radar O'Reilly of MASH, if you recall that. I was the guy that was gutting all the airplane parts and things like that.

It was a long time at sea, and I can certainly remember being very lonely.

I can remember watching planes come on and take off, and probably the scariest time that I had, when there was a plane that was coming back from a mission in Vietnam.

It came down on the flight deck.

There was a huge fire on the flight deck.

There was probably five or six people that were killed. I don't look at that time as being right or wrong.

I don't have any personal conflictions of Vietnam being right or wrong today, as I did then. It was a very confusing time.

When you see a veteran, walk up to them, shake their hand, and simply say, "Thank you for your service."

It will mean more to them than they can possibly imagine -- just that simple phrase.

But at a minimum, don't look away.

Bank of America

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Learn more at bankofamerica.com/vietnamwar

Martin Herman’s Story

Martin shares one of his proud moments from Vietnam, and discusses an uncomfortable encounter when he returned home.

On Screen Text: Bank of America employees have been sharing their stories and perspectives about the Vietnam War.

Martin Herman: I was in Cu Chi, Vietnam, fighting the good fight-- and whenever I would go out, I was petrified.

I had never experienced anything like this before and I just didn't know what to do. But after about three months, you just became, "Well,whatever happens happens."

The good thing that happened over there is I got an opportunity to go help out at a Vietnamese Catholic orphanage.

It had all these little kids, and, you know, we got to go help them out and work with them and all like that, and that was a good thing.

Once you woke up that last day, it was, "All I want to do is get out of Dodge."

In the airport in San Francisco, they had a lot of protesters, And they had a lot of the hippies, and I was just trying to get through them and all like that. But this one guy came up and spit on me and called me a baby killer, and I didn't take kindly to that.

It was a strange and different war, and I'm very proud to be part of Bank of America that would think enough of us to decide that this is a story that absolutely needs to be told.

Bank of America

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Learn more at bankofamerica.com/vietnamwar