Joseph Testa Jr. - USMC 1965-65 (3/7 Marines, Vietnam)

Joesph Testa, Jr. volunteered for the draft in January of 1965. When he reported to the recruiting station 2 months later, he volunteered for the U.S. Marines Corps and was sent to Vietnam as part of Company M, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines. Joe arrived in Chu Lai in July of 1966. The first night, “We started getting shot at and mortars coming in. I think it was the next day or a couple days later I wrote my mom a letter and said, ‘If it's going to be like this the rest of my time here, I'll be home in a bag.’ It was a wake-up call.”

Joe was awarded 3 Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star with V for Valor. “I was sent back to the rear because after three Purple Hearts you're out of combat. I got back to the rear, and we had an officer, Corporal Aguilar, and he said, "You're not getting a third Purple Heart, you need to go back out front. I was scared. I didn't know how I was going to stay or what was going to happen. Then the captain saw me and said, ‘What are you doing here?’ And I said, ‘Corpo Aguilar said I'm not getting my third Purple Heart.’ And he says, ‘You are getting your third Purple Heart. Get your butt back. I'll take care of him.’"

Joe left the service in February of 1968. “I knew I had some problems, because when I'm walking down the street at home and a car backfired and I'm lying in a ditch. So, I knew I had something wrong, but I didn't know what it was.”

Joe eventually became a police officer in the New Castle, Delaware Police Force and now lives in Florida where he volunteers for the Disabled American Veterans.

Thank you to Brevard Veterans Memorial Center in Merritt Island, FL for inviting USA Warrior Stories to record this interview.