Ben Bydalek – USMC 1966-67
Ben Bydalek – USMC 1966-67
Ben Bydalek trained as a truck driver but after arriving in Vietnam was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 11th Marines (D2-11) 105 mm artillery battery. “I didn’t know a thing about artillery. Hadn't been close to artillery. The second night I was in the battery. I got assigned to outpost duty. And I stayed on OP duty for 54 days straight, which mean maybe two or three hours when you were off trying to get some sleep. I was having my mother, and my wife send me No Doze, I got to the point where I was Hallucinating, I was seeing tree lines turning into dinosaurs.”
During our interview Ben recalled the 5th Marines being issued M16 machine guns. “Two weeks later, they dropped those Marines in a hot LZ, and every one of those weapons malfunctioned. 32 Marines died in that hot LZ. And there's controversy whether that stuff actually happened or not. It did. I went over, and I was looking at... those dead Marines.”
During our interview Ben honored the memory of his friend James David Borawski who was KIA May 3, 1967 (https://www.virtualwall.org/db/BorawskiJD01a.htm) “Ski pulled guard duty. He made a round. He came and he sat down. And right as he sat down, the first mortar of a 42 mortar round attack landed. It killed Ski and wounded me.” Soon after Ben was asked to travel to the Da Nang Naval Hospital to identify his friend’s body. “I heard this locker door open. I turned. It was a huge locker. The walls, racks, two racks down in the center, and the floor was all body bags. He found him. And I identified Ski. That's a picture that was seared in my mind.”
“I would do it again. Why? Because of the brotherhood. The brotherhood is the only good thing to come out of Vietnam. It was a privilege to serve with the young men I served with.”
Ben Bydalek is the founder of the Vietnam War Exhibit and Education Center in Melbourne, FL.
