Donald Dahlin

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D:        My name is Donald, middle initial A..  Last name is DAHLIN, Dahlin.

I:          Does that have an ethnic origin?
D:        Swede.

I:          Swede.

D:        Yeah.

I:          There are many Swedish here in South Dakota.

D:        Oh yeah.  A lot of them come from St. Louis, Kansas City to Sioux City, Iowa and then disperse out through Southeastern South Dakota.

I:          Um hm.

 

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And are you a veteran?
D:        Yes.  I’m a Viet Nam veteran.
I:          When did you go there?
D:        I was drafted in 1965.  And I was in Viet Nam in 1966 to ’67.

I:          Uh huh.  What was your unit?
D:        I was with the 1^st Infantry Division.

I:          First Infantry?
D:        Yes.

I:          And regiment, battalion?
D:        Well, Headquarters Company 3^rd Brigade.

I:          Um hm.

 

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Third Brigade.

D:        Yes.

I:          Alright.  And what is your birthday by the way?
D:        Five 27 of ’45.

I:          And were you born here?
D:        Yes.
I:          Uh huh.

D:        Born and raised and lived in the same township all my life.  The only place I ever went was Viet Nam.

I:          Tell me about the Viet Nam War.  What is it to you?

 

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D:        It’s an emotional thing, you know.  I think anyone that’s served in the service in the military and goes off to, you know, they didn’t call Viet Nam or Korea a war.  They called it a conflict or whatever you want to call it.  But we’re still exposed to the trauma that you deal with

 

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in the military.

I:          But nobody called Viet Nam War a conflict, right?

D:        Well, you know, they called it a lot of things, you know.

I:          For example?

D:        They didn’t want to call it a war, you know, yeah.  We all called it the Viet Nam War.

I:          Yeah.

D:        But you know, a lot of the system doesn’t recognize it as a war.

I:          Um hm.

D:        So, I,

 

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As far as Viet Nam and what it, I guess it’s an emotional time, and it’s something that, you know, I live with every day.  And some of the things that you hear about people

 

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dealing in the military and their service and this type of thing, I’ll be truthful.  I never believed in those things, you know, flash backs.

I:          Um hm.

D:        PTSD and those types of things until you’ve experienced them.

I:          And you have been now.

D:        Yes.  And it’s, like I say, I didn’t believe in those things.  I thought it was just a joke, you know.

I:          I still think it is.  I cannot believe that you wake up in the middle of the night.

 

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D:        I ended up having, it’s been several years ago.  I had two weeks of just unable to cope with life in general.  And at that particular time, I’m talking about things now that we’re not supposed to be talking about, I don’t suppose, cause it’s not dealing with Korea.  But

 

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I was watching MacNeil Lehrer News Hour, and they were telling a story, and I kept watching it.  It was supper time, dinner to some people.  But it’s supper time to me.  And I was watching this program, and it ended up saying one word, the word lackay.

I:          What?
D:        Lackay.  That’s where I was stationed with the 1^st Infantry Division in the Iron Triangle.

 

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And the story that they were relating to I had experienced.

I:          In Viet Nam?

D:        In Viet Nam.   And the wife kept hollering it was supper time.  And all I could do was, I finally got up and you know, I cried for two weeks.  Could not cope.  I called Sioux Falls here to a Viet Nam veterans help line, and all they could do was tell me not to commit suicide.

I:          Um.

D:        Things are different today, thank God.

 

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The deal with things, and they work with you now, you know.  But that was, when I say, you talk about flashbacks and, you know, that’s just one.

I:          But still, the veterans from other recent wars, they still suffer from PTSD, and they commit suicide, right?
D:        Yeah, 22 a day.

I:          Yeah.  It’s a miserable thing that U.S. has to be involved in every war in the world, you know.

D:        Well.  And I look at the fact that the

 

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You know, the people committed suicide and then and the numbers today, a lot of those young people had been Guard members.  They’d joined the National Guard and never expected really to ever have to go to, you know, to war.

I:          Hm.

D:        And my heart goes out to those kids.  It really does because I know how naive and, you know, the fact that I didn’t know what was coming down or what’s happening.

 

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I never had any AIT.  They sent me from basic training to Viet Nam.  That’s where I got my AIT.  We’re not supposed to be talking about Viet Nam.

I:          No. I went to Washington, DC and met with the Viet Nam Veterans Memorial Education Foundation.

D:        Yeah.

I:          And they are building a big memorial there.

D:        Yes.

I:          In the arcade.
D:        Um hm.

I:          The basement.  And the Korean government has donated five million dollars.

D:        Really.

 

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I:          Yeah.  Korean soldiers were there.  Korean military were there with the U.S, right?
D:        Oh yeah.

I:          Do you remember that?
D:        I sure do, yeah.  They were there.

I:          Um hm.

D:        You betcha, yeah.

I:          See. That’s why it’s the legacy of the Korean War.  You helped us in 1950.

D:        Yeah.

I:          We were there with you when you were there in 1960, right?

D:        Oh yes, they were there, you know.  They came in numbers later on.  You know what I’m saying?

I:          Um hm.

D:        They were just a very few to start with.

 

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I:          Right.

D:        And then they came in numbers.

I:          Right.

D:        Yeah.

I:          Let’s go back to the person that you are going to introduce.  Who is he, and please explain it.

D:        Well, I didn’t expect that this was gonna happen, that I was supposed to deal with trying to, he told me I was gonna have to talk for him.  And I apologize.

I:          What’s his name?
D:        Noble Nelson.

I:          Could you spell it?

 

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NOVLE

D:        NOBLE Nelson, NELSON.

I:          Um hm.  And?  Who is he?

D:        Well, he’s a personal acquaintance friend of mine.  I’ve known him all my life.  But I really didn’t have a lot to do with him.  And I’m just gonna say this. I’ve known him all my life, and I didn’t know he was a POW.

I:          Hm.

D:        He has never spoke about it.

 

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This has all been done by his wife and niece.  And his niece went to Korea as a civilian, you know, in later years.  So, that’s why she got so interested in it.  And I have another acquaintance, we’re jumping around the horn here.  I have another acquaintance who has passed away who was a gunner in the Second World War

 

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was a POW.  And I had known him all my life.  And until the last 10 years of his life, I didn’t know he was a POW.

I:          So, tell me about him, Noble.

D:        Yeah.
I:          Is he a Korean War veteran?

D:        Yes.

I:          Do you know when?

D:        Well, I’d have to get my glasses on to see this type of stuff, you know.

I:          Tell me about what you know about him.

D:        What I know about him, very private,

 

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very reserved.  He had troubles dealing with his life when he came back home.  He was uncomfortable with the recognition that he received in his hometown.

I:          Show his picture to the camera.

D:        Well, let me find a better picture of him here, sir.

I:          It’s okay, the first

 

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page.  With his wife.

D:        Well, let me see here, yeah.  There’s a better picture of that here somewhere.  When they got married.

I:          When did he marry, do you know?

D:        Not without looking here.  February of ’52.

I:          He married in 1952?

D:        Yes.

 

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I:          And he became a Korean War prisoner of war?
D:        Yes.
I:          So, I don’t know how, it was in the middle of the Korean War, 1952.

D:        Yeah.  And he had a 3 ½ old child.

I:          Oh.  So, he went to Korea late.

D:        Well yeah.  Let’s see here.

 

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September of ’52, he must have got married in February of ’52 and was in Korea in September of ’52.

I:          Uh huh.

D:        And this article goes and shows when, you know, where he was sent.

I:          Um hm.

D:        I can’t pronounce

 

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The word, you know.  It’s kind of like me saying lackey, and you look at it, you don’t know what it is unless you know what this here is Inchon.

I:          Inchon.

D:        Inchon

I:          Yeah.

D:        Korea is where he went in that.

I:          He was captured and in the prison?

D:        Yes.

I:          North Korea.

D:        Yeah.

I:          Yeah.

D:        Front line, Warsaw Hill

 

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is where he was captured.

I:          Um hm.

D:        And you know, most of his, you know, there was only three of them left

 

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