Allan Bierlein USMC 1966-69 (3rd Force Recon Co., 3rd Marine Division)
Allan Bierlein USMC 1966-69 (3rd Force Recon Co., 3rd Marine Division)
Allan Bierlein was only 17 years old when he joined the Marine Corps and was surprised to learn that not every Marine was in the infantry. Because of his age he was assigned to the motor pool, sent to school to get his driver’s license and then sent to mechanic school. “One day I had the good fortune of running into a Second Lieutenant who was looking for volunteers. I just raised my hand, and we did a beach reconnaissance. I told him afterward I really enjoy this, and he told me about Force Recon.”
Allen would eventually be assigned to 3rd Force Reconnaissance Company, 3rd Marine Division in I-Corps, Vietnam. “All of our missions primarily were along the DMZ and the Laotian border; Que Son, Camp Carroll, Quảng Trị, all those areas. Force Reconnaissance’s job is long-range reconnaissance patrol or missions. So, we had four men generally in a reconnaissance team and we would be going into the enemy territory looking for the enemy.”
During our interview Allan recounted being on one patrol when approximately 20 North Vietnamese (NVA) soldiers decided to stop and have lunch just feet away from his unit’s position. “I was crouching down and I was looking through a hole in the bush, and I was watching the leader giving commands, telling people what to do, where to go, where to sit. And when he turned his head, he happened to be looking through that hole that I was looking at him through. We all opened up”
Like many Vietnam Veterans Allan, he never spoke of his experiences and had trouble adjusting to civilian life. “It was 27 years before I said anything to anybody about, you know, what I did. And of course, I had PTSD, which I would never admit.” Eventual Allan would be invited to a Force Recon reunion were he finally was able to talk about his time in Vietnam.
During our interview Allan honored the memory of First Lieutenant Ronald Walsh Mc Lean who was killed in action June 8th, 1969. To learn more about 1st Lt. Mc Lean please visit his memorial on the Virtual Vietnam Wall https://www.virtualwall.org
