All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode, a couple of nukes. As always, I'm your host, Mr. Whiskey, and today we are here with Vietnam War veteran Raul Herrera. Mr. Herrera, go ahead and introduce yourself for us
and good morning, Mr. Whiskey. My name is Raul Herrera, Swiss Boat veteran from the Vietnam War.
Right. And we're here today to discuss your newest book, capturing Skunk Alpha. Just came out recently and we're all excited to hear about it. So we wanna start by getting to know you a little more. I'm gonna start by asking why did you join the Navy? Obviously during the time of Vietnam, a lot of people were getting drafted, but I know people, like my grandfather for example, he actually chose to enlist because that allowed him to choose his job.
So did Vietnam have any impact on why you joined the Navy or was that something you were committed to prior? Um,
oh, the good question. No, I joined the Navy because I was looking to continue my education in the drafting field. I wanted to be an architect, and, uh, the Navy offered the best schooling, uh, to continue my, my drafting efforts, my drafting schooling.
They offered me a class, a school. They promised me drafting school. But as it turned out, uh, once I was in bootcamp and I volunteered for four years for that purpose, they told me that the drafting school was no longer available. And so that was very disappointing. And, uh, but I, while I was still in, in bootcamp, my parents, uh, sent me an award-winning, first place, award-winning drawing that I made of a lakeside resort in high school.
Uh, and so with that in mind and with the in hand rather, and with. Three letters of recommendation. Uh, they allowed me to go to reclassification and suddenly, uh, the door to drafting school was open again. But, uh, there was a, a small twist to this that the fact that when they saw what I was able to do drafting wise, they offered me two years of on the job training in sunny California in San Diego.
And, uh, lesson learned and never passed up an education. Uh, I chose, uh, sunshine and, and the beach life, uh, for two years in the Navy that they offered, as opposed to accepting the drafting school. And as it turned out, my two years turned into just one, and I wound up receiving orders to PCF Crew Training.
PCF stood for patrol Craft Fast, a combat boat. And I knew I was heading for Vietnam. I I, at that time, I didn't even know where Vietnam was or I, you know, at, at, uh, 20 years old. My mindset was still just having fun and enjoying the beach and, uh, going to parties and whatnot, aside from my Navy career, my navy job at the time.
But, uh, uh, it, it was a startling, uh, news to me that I was going to Vietnam.
Well, I can understand that because myself and many others in the military I know have had this kind of situation. For example, when I, I was originally going Air Force and I was trying to go for mc, mass Communications and do photojournalism and stuff like that.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And the day before I signed all the paperwork, they said, oh, that job's not available. We want you to be a crypto linguist. And I said, well, I'm not available now. Uh, that's how it works. And, but,
but you hadn't signed the on the dotted line yet, right?
Yep. Uh, and so I, I was lucky because I know a lot of people who were told, Hey, just be a boat since mate, and then you can cross right into any job you want after, you know, a year or two.
And then here they are a boat mate and still not, uh, a corps man or a, you know, a fighter pilot, whatever they wanted to do. So it happens. Now it does. San Diego is a nice area. I've heard a lot about that, but obviously your time got cut short there, so Exactly. What rate were you. When you were, well,
I went in at a bootcamp.
I came out as a, a seamen, an E three rating. Uh, and from there you move up to the petty officer level, uh, petty officer, third class, second class, and petty officer first class, you know, you, you go up the chain, uh, right, the step letter and, and so no, I, uh, I stayed a, a, a semen all this time because I was a stubborn guy.
I, I, I came in, I wanted a drafting career, and I wanted to be a draftsman in the Navy, and so I stayed as a draftsman. However, when I went to boat training, uh, the crew that I joined, uh, they needed a radio radar man. So, because I was, I was not designated, um, I, I became the cruise radio radar man in training in Coronado, California where we trained.
Wow. So what was, that must have been an adjustment for you because that was something you weren't familiar with. So how was adapting to that and learning all of that?
It was interesting. I, I found it interesting. Uh, but, uh, it, it, it, I certainly, you know, I had, I had to leave a drafting table to a combat chart.
It was a small little table in, in the pilot house of our swift boat that we would, uh, take a look and maneuver ourselves surrounding the area that we were patrolling. And we had to lay it on a, on a, on a, on a combat chart. We called it a table to do that work. But then I also oper operated the radar and the radio communications on the swift boat.
Right now, your book is all about probably your biggest combat experience in Vietnam, which was essentially, uh, boat on boat combat. Correct.
And that is correct.
Now, how long were you in Vietnam? Was that ba did it that end up being your entire Navy career? Uh.
No, sir. No, I was there just for one year from April of 67 to April of 68.
That's good. And what happened after your whole incident with Skunk Alpha and that whole time in Vietnam? Where did you go from there?
Well, from there, after my tour was over in, in, on Swift boats in, in Vietnam, and I was stationed in Groton, Connecticut at the submarine base. And there I did some drafting.
I did, I, I was, uh, uh, sent to the public works department where I work on drawings on submarines and, and for just about a year, uh, and until I, uh, checked out of the Navy.
Well, no, I actually know a few sailors in Groton and we all call it, uh, rotten Groton. We call it Rotten Groton because a lot of sailors don't want to go there because they wanna, you know, party and drink and go, wow, they'd rather go to Hawaii or Japan or San Diego.
And from what I've heard, Groton is a quiet area. But all my sailors very, that I know, they, um, they either lived there or somewhere else in Connecticut, so they all requested to go there, just to be close to home. But I know all the single sailors aren't happy. How did you like it when you were there?
It was great.
I, I had a good time. I, uh, I knew that I was getting out soon. I was short, as they call it, in the service. You know, you're short. That means that you're about to get out of the service soon. So I, I, I knew that the end was coming for me in terms of my service, and I was ready to, to move on with my life. I, while there in Groton, uh, I, I haven't had the talent of, uh, the experience rather of, uh, being a, a lady shoe salesman.
When I was in high school back in San Antonio, Texas, I picked up a small part-time job on weekends, uh, learned how to sell shoes. So I worked, uh, after my eight hours there on the base in, in Groton, Connecticut at the submarine base, I had picked up a job and, and I worked part-time. And then somebody said, well, listen, you certainly must love Mexican food.
Have you heard about Don Pablos in New London across the Tames River? I said, no, I haven't. So, uh, in fact, uh, they told me where it was and, and one day after I finished my work, uh, selling shoes, I went over to the restaurant and, uh, turns out I wound up, uh, becoming the head weighter there at that restaurant eventually, uh, while still in the Navy.
Uh, and also wound up, uh, living with a family that owned a restaurant, uh, there in Connecticut. So it was, it was a good time. I had a good time there. Wow. Learning Wow. That it was a, it was an authentic Mexican restaurant. I was surprised. 'cause I was expecting to see, you know, they tried to pass rice err around as Mexican rice and some places in Connecticut, so.
Right. I was a little bit leery about it, but, uh, it turns out the family was from, uh, Alice, Texas, and the food was just a hundred percent back home food. So I was in my own world there at that restaurant.
Uh, all right. That explains because. The band Bowling for Soup wrote a song, uh, come back to Texas and in it they said the Mexican food north of Texas sucks.
And so, but luckily you were able to find people from Texas. 'cause I'd have to say I, you know, I haven't found authentic Mexican food outside of meeting Mexican families that, that make the food for me. Uh, it's so different compared to when you go to the restaurant. And I've had the experience when I was in South Carolina of trying mole and cow tongue Oh wow.
And cow stomach and stuff like, oh, have you really
had that? I have
not, not not, not the biggest fan of the, of the cow's stomach, the texture just. It just, it seems wrong. It just seems wrong to me. Oh, come on
now. It's, it's better than filet mignon.
Uh, maybe, um, I'll see. I've got one of my,
my friends, I got one of my swift boat friends that he was an engine man.
Uh, uh, he wasn't part of our original crew, but he was an engine man. Uh, that, uh, was substituting for our Inman that had gone on r and r to the Philippines while we were there in, in Vietnam. And it so happened that he was the Inman that, um, I. Was on our vote when our, uh, lead petty officer got killed on December the sixth, 1967.
Uh, but we've been good friends and we consider him part of our crew. Um, and, uh, he was part of the board directors of the Swift Boat Sailors Association back, back, a while back. And he'd come down. We had a, a board meeting here in Houston one year, and he came to stay with us for a while, and his name was, uh, Jim Schneider.
And so, uh, I said, listen, uh, you want to go get some barbacoa? And he says, what, what, what's barbacoa? I said, come on, I'll show you. So we, we went to a, a place called Rosenberg, uh, not too far from Houston, uh, you know, driving distance at half an hour. And, and they had Barbara coa is. If you're familiar with, uh, tongue, cow Tongue, you may have heard about koa, right?
It's Have you heard about koa?
I've heard of it, but I I couldn't define it for you and for anyone not familiar with it, I'd like you to go ahead and tell everyone what it is, what it
is, what it is. It is cow. My, my, uh, friend Jim Snyder, he, he called it cow face or, or cheek meat, basically. Okay. And what it's is, this is the calf.
Um, and the old, the old old, um, cattle ranch, way of making barbacoa, they would wrap, uh, calf head, cow head in, in, in, um, I guess. Some type of material, uh, and then soak it and then put it over coals in the pit. And it would just steam, it would steam itself, uh, cook it that way. And, and here in Rosenberg they had huge vats where they had, you know, the, the faces cleaned up and, but you do see the raw meat and, uh, with tongue in, in place as well.
And, and so they, they steam it in, in the big vats. And, uh, he loved it. He co he, but he couldn't pronounce barbacoa. And so he, he coined the term, he coined the term, uh, cow face or, or, or cheek meat, you know. It's very tasty. Very tasty.
Wow. Yeah. So I had, so I had been dating, um, a Mexican woman and her family owned a food truck and they made all, they made everything by hand.
And I. So I would actually, I worked in the food truck a few times when I was in the Navy. Not for money, but just to spend time with her. And we made, you know, they made crepes, they all these different types of crepes, but they had, you know, primarily tacos but you know, not like American tacos. Now, uh, my old co-host The Sandman and I coined the term tamer cos that's what we would call the tacos on, on the ship at the galley because it's like, you know, the tacos you buy at the store, when you get the starter kit, you get the yellow hard shells, some ground beef Yeah.
And some nacho cheese sauce. And so we call them Tamer cos but, but when I was on, on this food truck, she had taught me how to make flour tortillas and corn tortillas. And No
kidding.
I, I burnt them and they had holes in them. And I remember the mom was like. She had me prepare dinner for the family with her.
And the, and the mom and dad were like, who made these? And I, I said, she did. Those ones were hers. They were all, they were all black and had holes in them. But, you know, it's something interesting.
Let me ask you a question. Where, where did all this take place?
This is all in, in South Carolina, I would say about
in South Carolina.
Wow. A year or two
ago. Oh, she had, um, I don't know if she had been there her whole life or where they had moved. I know her mom was from Mexico. She had grown up in a village where she said there was, I, I, I remember, uh, my, my ex-girlfriend was scared of the village because they had giant scorpions in centipedes and, and, you know, all, all over the place and, and stuff like that.
And she, so we did that. I remember. Tortillas were nice. The cow's stomach it, it just felt wrong. It felt like cannibalism in a sense of a stomach eating a stomach. And some people don't understand that. They're like, it's a cow's stomach though. I was like, but it's a stomach, you know? Yeah. That's maneuver.
You're, you're talking about Manu?
Yes, yes. I could never pronounce it right. And, and I think we had it in a soup.
M-M-E-N-U-D-O. Menudo.
Yeah. So I know there's a taco version of it, but we had it in soup. I remember it was like, I don't remember the type of broth, but it, it was very good.
Not, it was red, I'm
sure.
I mean, I had, I had to eat it, you know, everyone was watching. So I remember now a different, uh, ex of mine. She was the one who made me mole. Her mom was also from Mexico. She had, her father was in the Navy and he went mm-hmm. He volunteered on a mission to go to Mexico, like a religious mission and helped build an orphanage.
And that's where he had met my ex's mom. Uh, and he spent most of his contract. Building this orphanage. I don't know how that happened. They never offered me to go on a trip and just help build an orphanage and eat Mexican food. You know, during my Navy time they said, you gotta go on the ship and, and go underway.
But she made me more, well, I'll tell you what, that and, um, she made it with, you know, it was rice chicken, and then she made this chocolate sauce that had, uh, a kick a spice to it. But
yeah, the, that's the mole.
Yep. But the Mexican grocery store, uh, in Charleston at the time, the one she went to. Didn't have the type of chocolate she liked to use.
So instead of super sweet, it was super bitter and I cannot do bitter or spicy. So I was like, they were all recording me. They're like, white boy tries mole. You know they, I'm with you,
I'm with you on that. I, I would, you know, I favor the sweet version.
Oh yeah, I do. So I still gotta try that. I remember actually, you got
so much in common here, Mr.
Whiskey. Yeah.
Yeah. I've, I've dabbled in the, in the Mexican culture. I only been to Texas once recently. I just went and, um, best barbecue I've ever had. I, I don't know if you would agree, I would assume you would. Uh, I don't know if you're a big fan of barbecue, but I had ribs. I just, just melt off the bone.
And where, where in Texas go?
I went to the Tyler slash Kilgore area and I had stopped by Dallas, but, uh, shout out to my, my best friend from bootcamp, my yeoman, he said, go to Interstellar Barbecue in Austin. He said, that's the best barbecue he's ever had. Anywhere else in Texas, we went the whole time. He would just sit there and say, this is nothing compared to Interstellar.
He had a, he bought a hat from there and he would just compare. And it actually went pretty bad because we were visiting one of his best friends from Massachusetts who moved to Texas and became a cop. And he wanted to show us his, his town's local barbecue joint. And the whole time my best friend just spent bashing on it, talking about how much better Austin it was.
And then my friend, his friend didn't wanna talk to the rest of the night. He's like, I don't know what I did wrong. And I was like, well you insulted this guy's hometown's barbecue, I think in Texas. That's basically, that's like, that's something you don't do, you know? But yeah, so, well
if you want some, yeah.
You ever make some Houston, you got some
recommendations, you got some good areas to try. Yeah. In Houston.
Oh yeah, you bet. There's, uh, Pinkerton's, uh, barbecue and, uh, Killians. And then there's, um, a good company, uh, barbecue as well. Um, and there's Rudy's, uh, across Texas as well. And, but if you want good Mexican food, I, I, I'm, I'm prejudiced, um, San Antonio, Texas is my hometown, and, uh, there's not, that's, that's my Tex-Mex food right there.
You know, I grew up with it and just like your friend there says, you know, there's no other place for barbecue, but this one. Right. Well, uh, you know, not San Antonio when you have some other Mexican, but somewhere else. Uh, so I'm always like your friend going to Mexican restaurants, and I, uh, I, I gauge, uh, the quality of the Mexican food based on their refried beans.
That, that's my go-to choice, you know, if the refried beans are just, uh, and you know, I'll let let you out on secret. Whenever I, uh, go to a restaurant and somebody says, Hey, this is great. Oh, this tastes so good. And, uh, well the secret is in, in, in what they use for the, the, um, in Greece. And um, it is lard in Spanish.
It's man. Okay. Armor all, not armor all. It says the armor brand, I think, uh, still produces it, but it's lard. And of course that's, you know, you don't really want, uh, promote the, the use of lard. But if you want good tasting Mexican food, man, you gotta use grease, you gotta use manteca.
It's funny that, so I, I've heard that word a lot, so that makes me laugh.
But also, it's funny that you mentioned refried beans because the first time I ever experienced that was at bootcamp, so I, uh, really, I don't know if Right. I had never even heard of refried beans. And we went to bootcamp and I was like, what is this? And I was like, it's just some beans with cheese on top.
And the first few times I had it, it was really good. But, you know, it depends where you're at. Because I've had it, I've only had it in the navy, in the galley, so I'm sure it doesn't compare to any restaurant. I'm sure it's a much lower quality than, than what you're used to.
Well, there again, they're, again, the, uh, flavor.
When I do my refried beans, I, of course I get 'em in the can. Uh, and, uh, then I prepare 'em. But I, my mother taught me, she always laced it with a little bit of chili powder. Okay. Okay. And, uh, coming from San Antonio, uh, if, if, if the bottle doesn't say GI Heart's chili, it, it isn't chili powder. Okay. Uh, and again, you go to unique flavors and, and GI heart's.
Chili powder is, is very, very good. You ought to try it. It may, I don't know if they said it on Amazon, you can get it through Amazon, but, uh, if you own good flavor for chili powder, try that.
All right. Yeah. I remember in the galley. You know, only the top layer of the refried beans would have cheese. So we were always like, we got, we gotta get in line, we gotta get in line, because otherwise you get just the bottom of the pan and it's just a, this mushy pile of beans.
I'm like, no, I, I need the cheese. But, um, actually, so, so what were you eating over there in Vietnam? Did you have res or what? Did you have a galley set up? So what was that like?
No, uh, when we went on 24 hour patrols, uh, I, aside from being the radio radar man on the swift boat, I was designated to cook of source.
Okay. Wow. You know, and that doesn't necessarily mean we cooked, uh, on patrol every time. Right. Most of the time I wound up going to the galley and picking up, uh, fresh sliced, uh, bread and, and then, uh, bologna and uh, cheese and things like that, tomato, lettuce, and I'd make sandwiches out on patrol. Hmm, of course we had, uh, unique names for Bologna in the Navy.
You know, of course you're familiar with all sorts of different names for like, for example, the Kool-Aid. We, we called it bug juice. I don't know what, what your timeframe, uh, did, uh, call it, but baloney had very unique names that fall on the order of, uh, salty Navy language that I don't know that I want to go ahead and share right now.
But I have it in the, I have it in the book if you wanna know what baloney, uh, what, what term we use for baloney. Read the book. It'll be, oh yeah,
that, that, that was good. That was a good, uh, little, a little incitement to read the book, because I definitely wanna know, I know on, on our ship, what we had is, have you ever heard of Hamsters?
Hamsters? No. No. Uhuh had never have.
So the real name for, I mean, I know what a
hamster is, but I mean, you didn't put those little creatures in, in between two slices of bread, did you?
No. No. So when I went to nuke school, these petty officers were talking about how they snuck a hamster into a watch inside their uniform, and they ate it on watch and never heard hearing the term before.
I said, what? Holy God, you just ate a live hand. You snuck it inside. And they never explained it. So it's called chicken cordon blue, and it's like ham, uh, all this melted cheese. So you get a piece of ham and you cover it in melted cheese, and then you like fry it in, in, in this dough. And it's this like, it's like this, it's so delicious.
One of the best things I've ever had in the Navy. And something I, it
sounds like a corn dog of storage, right? Kinda like a corn dog. No, it's more like,
I don't know how to describe the breading on the outside. Well, you dip it in
batter, you said, right? You dip it in batter.
Uh, essentially, but it's more like.
It's softer than that and it's, but it's delicious. But they would call them hamsters 'cause they looked like they were just this little, it looked like a hamster almost, essentially. And so they were, they were delicious. And there was always people on, on the ship who just didn't know what that stood for.
So you'd be like, man, they got hamsters in the galleys today. And people are like, ah, but actually you said, did we eat the little critters? No, but, um, my one friend, she is, uh, Mexican and when she went to Mexico, she ate rat. I don't know if you've ever eaten rat. She said that, well, she ate that in Mexico.
And I couldn't tell you. Not the,
not the tiny ones. I haven't eaten tiny ones, but I've eaten the bigger ones. Uh, my wife is from Columbia, south America. Okay. And when I went one time on a trip, we, we stayed over at a place, uh, one of the relatives, uh, in Bogota, Columbia. And this young man and, uh, a nephew of my wife, um, took us to this, you know, I guess you'd consider it a Colombian barbecue place.
And they had a, a, a, I guess a cold fried, uh, grill. They have what they call Chito. Okay. Chito. Alright. And it's a rodent, a, a big, big rodent, almost like a beaver size creature. Oh,
wow.
You know? Wow. And, and it is very docile, you know, just walks around eating whatever it can find. And it's not, uh, vicious or anything.
It doesn't look like a rat, but, you know, it's a rodent of sorts. But boy, that was so good. So that's one of my favorite, uh, yeah, Chito. It's called.
Did it, did it, what did it taste like? I.
Well, I don't wanna say chicken, but it isn't, no, it's meat. It's just meat. But it's very tasty. Very, very, it wasn't gamey at all, you know, but it had a very good flavor.
I, I guess just the regular seasoning. I, I didn't find any seasoning that stuck out in my taste buds. Uh, just, uh, I guess salt pepper, and they just, uh, put it on the, on the open flame, you know. Wow. Barbecued. Yeah, it was really, really tasting very good.
Wow. I mean, the only thing I have that compares is I caught fishing one time.
Um, so I had qualified, uh, only seven people in my state qualified to go on this trip to live on an island and do scientific research. And it cost about six or seven grand to participate. But I was, my parents paid for me. Uh, this was back in, right before high school. I was one of only seven people, so they took the smartest people in, in my state.
Put them on this island to train them to be scientific researchers and there was no electricity. Wow. And no, you know, food. We actually, I gotta try this plant called salad cornea, which is also nicknamed Pickleweed. And it grows leaves that look like little pickles. And because it's a salt water marsh plant, when you eat it, it tastes like a pickle.
Um, so it's pretty interesting. But when we were there, well, little side note, we didn't have a bathroom. We had what was called a cls, where it is like a, a portajohn or a outhouse. And, and they had signs saying, cls are superior to a now house. You go to the bathroom over a pit of bacteria that decomposes your waist.
Isn't that wild? It's kind of scary. 'cause in my mind I'm picturing all these creatures below me and I'm like, oh man, they're just gonna eat whatever comes outta. Yeah. You
went all in on, you went all in experience,
you know. Hey, it sounds like you were ahead of the curve with the, the TV program that we have today alone.
Right. And have you ever
seen that program?
No.
No. Is it like, yeah, there's a TV program called Alone and they put, uh, 10 contestants out there and usually in the Alaska or in the freezing, uh, sections of, of, uh, north America. Okay. And they leave 'em out there in the wilderness alone. Right. They drop 'em off in different locations, uh, in this region, and they gotta fend for themselves.
I would die if they drop me off anywhere cold. I would die. They have to put me somewhere hot. I, I can't, I can't do the cold. Like, put me in Texas, put me in Guam. Just don't put me in Alaska. What, what I will say is when we were there, we went on a little fishing trip and I call, it's called a cow nose ray.
So it's this, uh, type of, of stingray found off the coast of New Jersey, and it's brown. And it's about three, four feet across maybe. And its face looks like the, the nose of a bowl, like a wild bowl. Cow, Uhhuh, uhhuh, its face, looks like that. And, um, I caught a 90 pound one. And granted, at the time I only weighed, uh, 120 pounds.
So it was quite the fight, you know, I thought I had caught the ocean floor, but the stingrays are so smooth and so the water flows over them so nicely that when they swim away from you, it, it's a fight. Uhhuh, it's one of the strongest sea creatures I've ever fought. Uh, but we caught it and we ate it and you can either filet it or you can get like a cookie cutter and punch out, um, you know, clumps of meat from its wings and Oh, interesting.
That's the most exotic thing I've eaten. It was really good. Is,
is it consistent of the meat? Is it like a, what they call, have you had monk fish and they call it poor man's lobster monk fish, and it's like, it's like a lobster tail. Is that the consistency that the
It had kind of, it's like, it didn't really taste like anything.
It was, well, I like that. 'cause I don't like fish that tastes too fishy. Uh, you know, as ironic as that is, I'm, I don't, I just can't stand the, the sea flavor. But my, my best friend on that trip, he caught a stargazer fish. Fish, which is New jersey's only electric fish. It has this ugly, ugly face and it hides in the ocean floor.
And when stuff goes over it, it electrocutes them. Oh, wow. It's not enough to, to kill a human, but they said it would've, it was ugly. It kind of looked like a, an angler fish almost.
Mm-hmm. And, and we
also ate that, uh, with barbecue sauce and, and that was good. So those are the only exotic things I've eaten, eaten, I've never had, um.
Giant rodent before, which is that, that's wild to think that you said they're the size of, of beavers almost. I mean, that's, that's scary to
think. I'll have to send you pictures of it.
Yeah. Um, the only other place you might be able to find that is, uh, if you go hunting in the streets of New York City, you might find rodents.
Thank you. Yeah. No, those are rats.
Those, those ares. I
don't care how big there are other rats.
Yep. And, um, oh my, I've had, I don't know if you've ever tried alligator. I've had some of that in, um, down south here in, in, I had it in, yeah.
Louisiana. In, in, we're so close to Louisiana that a lot of the, uh, occasion food comes across over here to Houston.
And then they have what they call alligator balls. And, uh, they're good, they're delicious. They, they're little croquettes. They're little, little like meatball size. Uh, deep fried, uh, okay. Chunks of, uh, of alligator meat, I guess. And with everything is with rice and like boudan. Have you ever had boudan?
No, never heard of it actually.
Yeah. Louisiana Sausage, basically, uh, Cajun sausage called Boudan. It good.
Well, I have to try it. My, when I was on my road trip from Texas to Georgia, we passed to Louisiana and we, we were actually gonna stop at New Orleans, and then it was, it was so busy and it was late and, and we had been driving for hours that we said well come back some other time.
But I did try some, it was like a whole softshell crab that was fried and I didn't know what I was allowed or not allowed to eat of it, so I just ate the whole thing in a Whew. It did not sit right. Oh, yeah. So you were in charge of making food on, on, on your boat. So for. How many hours at a time sometimes you were on this boat for, for days at a time?
No, sir. We had a land base in, in, uh, we were part of Operation Market Time. Swift Boats we're part of Operation Market Time Task Force 1, 1 5. And the purpose of our involvement, swift boat involvement was, was to stop the infiltration of steel hall vessels coming south from North Vietnam, resupply vessels.
Okay. And, uh, there had been, since early on in the war in the 65, 19 65, there had been suspicious or speculation that the enemy North Vietnam was sending resupplies to the forces operating in South Vietnam and the Vietcong as well, uh, to the sea. Through sea uh, roots and they had, even the navy had doubts.
They thought that most of it was coming through inland along the, what they call the ho Chi min trail.
Right.
And up until, uh, I, it was February the 16th, 1965. I'm, if I'm not mistaken, uh, uh, Lieutenant Jim Bowers, a helicopter pilot, uh, not association, not associated with, um, medevac or dustoff or anything, uh, rescue helicopters.
Um, they called him to go out in the field and pick up this, uh, officer who had, uh, been wounded but not mortally. And it wasn't an urgent, uh, but he needed medical attention. So he went out there, picked him up, and then he was going south. Uh, he went straight towards the coast. He was, he was relatively close to the coast, so he went straight to the coast and then rode the coastline south to where he, the intended location was where he was gonna take him to the, a medical hospital.
Military hospital. And he crossed over this peninsula. Oddly enough, peninsulas are usually perpendicular to a coastline, right? Right. Well, this peninsula, um, was created, it was basically parallel to the coast and, and it created a bay behind it and the actual shoreline, and it's called Vro Bay, V-U-N-G-R-O, VRO Bay.
And, uh, as they went over the, the peninsula, they were heading inland a little bit more. Now, uh, they having a spot what they thought was like a moving island. You know, small speck of, you know, growth moving on the, on the, uh, inside the bay. And so they went down to check it out, and when they got close to it, uh, they received enemy fire from behind, uh, the stashed palm trees and bushes that were decked out all on this enemy ship.
It turned out to be a trawler, uh, filled with over a hundred tons of ammunition and supplies, and that's called Vro Incident. That, uh, right there was the catalyst, uh, for the creation, uh, of operation market time, the coastal surveillance. And, uh, not, not too long after that was detected. Uh, there was an urgent general Westmoreland, uh, and his, uh, people, uh, the Navy and, and the, the people, the counterparts, south Vietnamese navy, uh, they decided to start a, a joint sea patrol.
And not long after that. Um, things started moving very, very fast. Uh, they decided they needed to have some more naval rep, US naval representation inland, uh, to manage the operation. And, and again, immediately two destroyers were, were, uh, set up, uh, to patrol the coastline of Vietnam looking for these steel hall vessels.
Mm-hmm. Uh, and that was the only line of defense at that time. Then after that, the Navy brought in aerial surveillance air, uh, craft, uh, P two aircraft to patrol the, the coastline of Vietnam. And then followed quickly after that, the Navy, um, not, well, actually not the Navy, the Coast Guard was brought in.
Okay. 'cause they needed to the, um, the destroyers, um, they couldn't patrol close to shore, right. So they needed another vessel. So they brought in the Coast Guard cutters. They're called wpbs. Um, 82 foot, uh, vessels. They were a little sturdier and shower draft, and so they patrol closer to shore, but yet there needed to be another line of defense close to shore.
And the wpbs, they were still larger than, you know, what could support inshore patrolling. And that's where the swift boats came in. And, uh, fortunately enough, they found in Louisiana what was already in use, uh, these boats that we used to transport equipment in men, uh, from shore to the oil rigs off the Louisiana coastline and the Navy made a contract with 'em for 104 mark one.
Swift boats and the boat already, uh, was in use. They were being built by this company, and all they did was modify it by adding to the back of the pilot house. And they added a cabin. They added the sleeping bunks. Uh, they added what's called a gun tub above the pilot house, which hold, uh, uh, held the, the two, uh, twin 50 caliber machine guns up above the pilot house in that gun tub and the fantail, we had an 81 millimeter mortar and the machine gun, uh, mounted on top so that, that became, uh, the last line of defense against these enemy vessels.
And we had, um, different locations along the coast, uh, from north to south. Uh, in De Nang, we had coastal division, uh, 12. In Chile, further south from there, um, that's where I was stationed. Uh, we had coastal Division 16 followed, uh, further south. Uh, queen Y was coastal Division 15. And, and, uh, between going south of, of a place called Queen Y was this v Monroe Bay area that I've talked about earlier.
Uh, and continuing south, uh, further south from midway along the coast of Vietnam was Camon Bay. It was a huge, huge port. And that was coastal Division 14 and closer to Saigon area, uh, in a place called Vanta. There was another small location called Catlow, and that was Coastal Division 13. And then finally around the tip of South Vietnam, which is a Kamau Peninsula.
There's an island off of, uh, the mainland. And really it straddles, uh, the border between Cambodian and Vietnam. Uh, was a place, an island called, uh, an, uh, it was an, an island called Fuku Island, uh, P-H-U-Q-U-O-C, Fuku Island. And on the southern tip of that island was Anto, and that was Coastal Division 11.
So, uh, the entire 1200 miles of coastline of Vietnam was patrolled by units of operation market time. And, and that's how eventually, uh, if you want to, I can go into briefly how the trawler that the book is about, uh, came to play. Is that something you want to go into?
Right. So bef before we get into that, so my understanding is the navy, you know, it had all these big boats, but they could only do so much.
They were a bit limited because of their size and their responsibilities. So. It made a contract with this company in Louisiana that had these smaller boats that could go on fast patrols and go closer to the shoreline. That's correct.
Affirmative, now. That's correct. That's exactly why they were chosen.
So how large are the swift boats? Because I saw in your bio and information and book that it was about a six person crew.
Yes. We had a junior grade. A naval officer. And then we had a ate who was the second in command, uh, unless there was a higher ranking, uh, enlisted man, uh, above the ate, right. But Bosman usually was in charge of, of the operations of the boat, uh, keeping it ship shaped, ready for patrol.
And then we had the engine. We had twin diesel V 12 engines, uh, that he took care of along with an Onan, uh, generator that handled the radar and radio communications as well as, uh, a small reefer, uh, refrigerator, uh, that we had inside the swift boat as well. Um, then we had the gunner, um, in our case, he was a torpedoman.
Okay. Then the radiomen myself, and then we had the, the fifth crewman was, uh, the deckhand. Right. So that, that was what our crew mounted to.
Right. So when you went out on these patrols, all, all these swift boats, how long were you on patrol for? So you would go out for a few hours, you had specific routes you were following, correct?
No, we, we went out for 24 hour patrols.
Okay.
We staggered the patrol areas, uh, depending on the area that you patrolled out of, uh, the coastal division that you were at. Um, they may have had, uh, three or four patrol areas, uh, uh, along their designated limits, north and south, along the coast from their, uh, home base.
And as I mentioned, Chile, uh, was, uh, our home base. Uh, the Chile was located just south southeast of Ang, the largest city in the northern portion of South Vietnam. But yeah, we go out for 24 hours. Leave in the morning, staggered patrol areas, and, and then we'd, uh, stay out there, uh, 24 hours and be relieved on, on station and, and come back to port and rest for the day and go out and patrol the next day.
Right. So when you, so obviously your, your ship is the one that chased after the trawler code names Skunk Alpha. So before that happened, how many patrols had you gone on? You were out there for, this was a few weeks, a few months. How long were you out there before you saw this action?
Well, we arrived April the eighth of 67, and we captured this enemy ship July the 15th of 67.
Oh, wow. So
three months or so.
All right. So tell us, tell us about that. So, uh, a trawler was, was spotted, that was suspicious, and it was given a code name and y'all were sent after it. So, so why is the ship called Skunk Alpha? You know, what's the meaning of that? And tell us all about that.
Okay. Um, the, as I mentioned earlier, the, the P two aircraft spotted this individual craft steel hall heading perpendicular to the coast.
And its, uh, trajectory was headed to an area where there was no port. It was headed to an area south of Chile, uh, in the Quani province. Of Vietnam and there existed a, a peninsula called Cape Batang Mui Batang the Batang Peninsula. Okay. In the middle of that, uh, peninsula, there's a river called the Saki River in Vietnamese is sang Saki.
And they figured that's where it was headed, trying to sneak into that river. And so the order was given to, uh, go down and, and, uh. Naval aircraft lingo, they call it, uh, the rigging stations like, you know, general quarters. And, uh, they head down and, and took pictures of it and circled it and went back up into the clouds and made believe they were, you know, heading out.
And just, they figured that, you know, it is nothing big, you know, given the enemy the impression they were leaving and they had no interest. Well, the, the plane continued to have contact on it from way above and from far away. Right. That's the capability that they had the trauma after it went into water, when it was inspected, they circled back out to sea.
That's when Saigon, based on the information the aircraft gave, determined that it was a high potential for an enemy resupply vessel attempting to, you know, come inland. So they gave order to the USS will hoy to go intercept it as it was leaving the, the coast of Vietnam. And it reached radar contact. And this happened on July the 11th when the plane spotted it late in the afternoon.
So when the destroyer, the Will Hoyt caught up to it, uh, and gained radar contact, they, it was after midnight. And I don't know if you recall in the Navy, um, uh, an unidentified, uh, surface contact is called a skunk,
right?
And the first one after midnight is Alpha. Makes sense. And this particular, and the next one is, you know, skunk Bravo, you know, skunk Charlie, et cetera.
So this one was the first after midnight on the 12th. July end. So it was, uh, labeled Skunk Alpha, and that's where the code name comes from. Skunk Alpha.
Right. So And so Go ahead. So Skunk Alpha, essentially, you know, a ship was spotted trying to head, uh, to the coastline to get into this river. The, the Navy passed by and it essentially turned around, is what you're saying, it turned around.
Mm-hmm. Yes. Because if it felt it was going, if it went to the river, it was gonna be attacked. So they turned around and the Navy said, don't let it get away, is essentially what happened.
Correct, correct. Well, the thing, yes, it did. But the fact is, is that, uh, the trauma, uh, headed all the way out to the Parisel Islands.
More than 200 miles away from the coast. And the, the destroyer, the wilhoit hit Wilhoit, continued radar surveillance from beyond the horizon. And it stayed out there for a couple of days. And then on the 14th of July, it started to make its way back to the coastline of South Vietnam. So then, uh, the, uh, a, an intercept task force was created by the, uh, controlling officer of Icorp, the northern combat region of, uh, south Vietnam called Icorp.
Um, and, uh, it, it included the will wilhoit. It included the gunboat, the USS Gallup. It included the Coast Guard cutter, the Point Orient, and then the, the swift boat was gonna be determined by what actual location the trawler was going to land and what, uh, patrol zone and what Swift Boat Patrol zone, it was anticipated to come in.
Then they would designate the Swift boat, and that's where we came in and it, it, it finally was determined. It was heading to that Penins Peninsula, the Batang Peninsula, and that was our area patrol for that day and night. And so we were chosen to be the fourth, uh, vessel, uh, in the intercept, uh, task force.
So, Mr. Herrera, how did you and your crew feel when you got that call that you were gonna go after this enemy vessel and, you know, what was going through your mind?
Well, I don't know how that, how anybody else felt, but I know I, I was scared. I. I was scared. Right. Because I knew that was gonna, we, I mean, I knew what we had and I knew what they had.
Uh, and there was, I knew there was gonna be a battle and, and an open sea. And so you just, you know, it's, you start thinking about, you know, gosh, I've got more life to live. I, I don't want to die. I don't want to get wounded. And they're certainly not gonna be, you know, throwing potatoes at you. It's, it is gonna be live ammunition.
Right. And sure enough, yeah, I'm
scared. And you said you lost your first class petty officer?
No, sir. Nothing. He's the one that, um, long story short here, the Coast Guard Cutter pulled up alongside the, the trawler, and this was in the darkness of the moon, right? So the, the trawler didn't know we were there to intercept it.
Mm. And the Coast Guard Cutter had a psychological warfare team with speakers, loud speakers mounted on the porch side of the Coast Guard Cutter. And at a certain point, once it crossed the 12 mile territorial line into the waters of South Vietnam, it was, you know, it was, uh, su suspect and capable of getting a, a attacked the Coast Guard cutter.
They blasted to give up your arms message a prerecorded message in Vietnamese, right? And they ignored it. They ignored it closer to shore, five miles out. Uh, we were ordered to fire warning shots across the, the vessel, uh, the Coast Guard Cutter in our swift boat, PCF 79. It was our swift boat. Uh, we fired warning shots and ignored it.
And finally, as it was getting, you know, three miles out from the point, um, we asked our boat officer, you know, had it on radar contact and asked permission to go in and get it. And we, we received permission and we started, uh, attacking the trawler. And that's how the gun battle began,
right? Because the trawler was fully armed.
Oh, yes, yes. They had anti, they had anti-aircraft positions, uh, on either side of midships and they also had a, a anti-aircraft, uh, gun mount, uh, on the fan tail behind the pilot house. And then all the small arms fire that, that they had as well. We came within 75 yards. Of that vessel and the boats made that you mentioned a minute ago.
His name was Bob Dun Carver. Uh, he's the one that was manning the 81 millimeter mortar with the machine gun, the 50 caliber machine gun mounted on top of it. While we were so close to the trawler, we couldn't lob the mortar round into the tube to discharge it right. Um, these, these mortars, uh, were specially designed that to have a, a trigger fire mode, uh, uh, aspect to it.
So he, he set it to trigger fire mode. Um, the engine, Ronald Reinhardt, he loaded the 81 millimeter mortar round, uh, a high explosive, and he fired the first round. And, and, and he missed, he was a little bit low. Uh, then Mr. Bergen, Lieutenant JJ Edward j Bergen, he was our officer, uh, he ordered to put a, a white phosphorus round, a mortar round, 81 millimeter white phosphorus route in the, and far away.
And that shot, you know, he had to, they hand loaded it. He leveled the mortar, took aim and trigger, fired that round right into the trawler's pilot house on the porch side. Uh, and it forced it to, to lose control and run around in the sandbar at the mouth of the river. So he was responsible for actually bringing that trawler down.
Uh,
Mr. Herrera, this all happened so long ago. Why write a book about it now? What, what inspired you to write this book and, and why did you wait so long? Tell me all about that.
Well, it's the, uh, the boats mate, the one who brought that, uh, trawler down, keeping 90 tons of ammunition, supplies away from the enemy and saving so many life in the process.
Um, he, the, the Vietcong, they had a bounty out. On our swift boat, PC 79, 'cause the number of 79 is on the bow of our, of our, of our, uh, patrol boat. Right? And they knew there was an award ceremony where Premier Key and, uh, chief of State decorated us in, in a c ceremony in, in Ang. So the enemy knew who it was, who had that, captured that trawler, and they put a bounty out on us.
And on December the sixth, uh, 67, we were patrolling the shoreline along a place called Meli and some history bus may recall Meli associated with a Meli massacre. Uh, and that's the area we were patrolling. It was a known hotspot for Vietcong activity. And we were broadcasting a psychological warfare for a mission.
And the story is long, but you know, we got ambushed by three positions on the beach. And Bobby Don car was killed. His spirit. Haunted me when I came back from Vietnam,
right?
Uh, I didn't realize, uh, I brought that baggage with me little by little. It just, uh, uh, I had some very haunting experiences for a good number of years, and it wasn't until finally I had decided that, uh, I had an epiphany when I was in the beach in, in, in Greece one year that maybe he's doing all this to get my attention.
He wants me to share, you know, our story, our, our intimate, uh, crew story, PCF 79 cruise story, uh, what our accomplishments were and what we did and what he did heroically that night when he brought that trawler down. So that his children will know, will, would know that his life wasn't lost in vain. You know, he died a hero.
Uh, and so when I decided that maybe that's what he wanted me to do spiritually, he was haunting me that way to get my attention. Um, I mean, I, I, I wasn't a writer. I, I didn't. No beings about writing a book, but I, all I knew is I had to share the story the best way I could. And I crudely started, uh, researching information and a lot of interesting things that, that I point out in my author's note in the back of the book that tell the details of how this story came about.
But long story short here, um, after I finished doing the chronology and doing an outline the best I thought I could, um, and I started writing the first chapter, they actually, and of course this was before computers, so it's all on tablet and I still have those old tablets from 40 years, 40 plus years ago.
Wow. Uh, I, when I started writing the story in longhand, all those hunting episodes stopped. So I, I know that, you know, from above or wherever he's at, uh, he is the one that, uh, the mem the book is written in his memory and in the memory of the 50 Swift boat sailors that lost their lives, uh, while on service to swift boats, uh, during the Vietnam War.
Well, I have to say, you, you definitely touched all of us deeply there, Mr. Herrera. You know, we'd like to thank your friend, your shipmate for, for what he did to, to help our country and, and, and for the war. And I'd like to thank you for going outta your way to make sure this story is known. So, capturing skunk alpha's out now, does that tell just up until the catcher skunk alpha or does it follow the events of all your lives a little bit afterward and, and what else you did on that swift boat?
Good. Good question. No, it, it doesn't end with that. Uh, that's, uh, certainly the highlight of the book. Um, but I go into, uh, a little bit, I mean, geez, when, when I started writing this book, this is how, how far away from being an author or a writer, uh, I was at that time, uh, I wound up with 150,000 words. When I was finished with the manuscript, and you know, no one had ever guided me and told me that, listen, you know, memoirs, you know, you need to maybe have a maximum of maybe 95,000 words.
So it was a lot of sea stories that were cut out, you know, and so, of course being in the Navy, there was a lot of, uh, uh, romantic adventures that, let's say, wound up on the cutting room floor. But just the same. You know, I, I, I, I put in a few seed stories. There were some other tragedies along the way that, uh, the book contains the history of the involvement of swift boats, uh, major actions, um, major problems that, uh, we encountered.
Uh, um, the first, uh, as a matter of fact, just to give you a quick, uh, peek at it, um, PC four, one of the first two boats to arrive in country in, in the place called Anto that I mentioned earlier. Uh, it, it, it fell victim to a, a, a booby trap. Uh, it spotted a Vietcong flag floating on a float, some, um, offshore.
And they went to retrieve and cut down that flag, you know, uh, thinking that the enemy was just harassing us. And when they were cutting the flag, a major, huge bomb exploded from beneath them, and, uh, killed four of the crew instantly. Uh, and then two of 'em, uh, were severely injured, but survived. I've interviewed them.
So there's stories like that and it tells a Swiftboat story basically. And that's what I want to do is not many people know that even the Navy was involved in Vietnam and uh, so I, and in particular, even veterans today, they don't know what swift boats were. So my mission, my goal is to tell the Swift boat story and reach as far as it can so that it can go down in history that, you know, the Navy participated in SWIFT boats were very much a part of it.
I really respect that. Mr. Herrera. So speaking of all this, you know, the SWIFT boats, they said that you were the board director and the president for the Swift Boat Sailors Association. So what is that? It was created after Vietnam or that was something that. Came about. What, what is the Swift Boat Sailors Association?
Yes. That, that came about, uh, you know, of course hand in hand with the involvement of, uh, computers and, and back in 1995, um, through the efforts of, uh, a couple of officers and people in, in, in, uh, in the government, uh, they were able to secure, uh, two swift boats from Pan, uh, if I'm not mistaken, Panama, uh, or somewhere in South America, um, or in the Americas, somewhere that they, they discovered two swift that the, the government had donated to those countries and they brought 'em back.
And it happened to be PC one and PC 1 0 4. Wow. By coincidence, the first and the last Mark one swift boats, uh, created by Burwick, uh, uh, sea Craft, uh, in Burwick, Louisiana. A Stewart, I believe it was Stewart Stewart Sea Craft in Burwick, Louisiana. Um. And so PC one is a, is a static display, uh, in the Navy yard in Washington dc and PC 1 0 4 is a static display part of a three boat, uh, um, Brownwater navy, uh, display memorial in, uh, naval amphibious base in Coronado, California.
So that, that's unique. And so, uh, yeah, we, we had a reunion in 1995 when we had the dedication of PC one. Um, and, uh, so, uh, as a matter of fact, PC two was also dedicated, but it was, it was donated to a, a college in Norfolk, Virginia for ocean and graphic studies. But PC one was there. So we, we just, um, people had already started, uh, trying to reach out to find each other back then.
And there was no Facebook. It was just a matter of having, uh. Text messages on the internet, uh, chat groups of fam, family chat groups that they had. I forget what they were called back then, but that's how we started getting together. And then the word spread out that, hey, there's gonna be a big gathering, uh, in, in, uh, swift boat veterans and come to Washington.
So we all did, and it was a, a huge, huge event. Uh, my YouTube channel. Uh, skunk Alpha YouTube channel, uh, has a lot of those videos, including the ceremony that took place there in that dedication. And, uh, so that's how it all started the association. Um, I, I, I brought, I came in as a, uh, just a board, uh, director, and eventually wound up being asked to be secretary and, and then became vice president.
And, uh, sadly our, our president at that time, Tom Forresty, passed away. Uh, so I moved into the position of president, uh, later on in years. That's how the associate became, it's the brotherhood, the Swiftboat Brotherhood.
Right. So you just want to connect everyone who had been a part of what y'all did together.
Yes. And like you said, uh, nowadays it's a lot easier because I'm actually part of, I found there's this. Uh, thing online called together. We served TWS Uhhuh and, uh,
yes, I belong to it.
Okay. So, uh, I was gonna say a plug for anyone you know in the military transitioning out. What it does is you put in, when you served, how long you served, you put in all your information and actually can connect you.
I haven't used it yet really, other than to make a little plaque for myself that you can use for identification purposes, but it will connect you with people who were at the same ship with you, the same base, or who went to bootcamp with you. And so, like you said, nowadays it's really easy to stay in touch and yeah.
What, what we'd like to know Mr. Herrera, is is there anyone, uh, from your, from your boat, your swift boat that, uh, is still alive and, and that you're still friends with to this day?
Oh, absolutely. Um, we stayed in touch, uh, aside from the boat mate that we lost when we had the reunion. In, in Washington, dc Um, the boat officer, Mr.
Bergen, uh, the engine man, Ronald Reinhardt, uh, the gunner Robert Middleton from Connecticut, and, uh, Jim Schneider, uh, and myself, we went to a reunion in, in, uh, that 1995 reunion. And so we're, we're, today, we, we've lost already, uh, uh, the, uh, Inman Reinhardt and the other, the semen that we had, uh, uh, Timothy McNamara, we lost him recently.
So the remaining ones as myself and, and, and the gunner, uh, Bob Middleton, along with our crewman, uh, Jim Schneider, who again replaced, uh, Reinhardt when, uh, Carver got killed and, uh, Carver and, and, uh, Reinhardt and, and Car Carver Reinhardt and, and Schneider were, were the closest of three friends. And so they, uh.
They, they just are missed. Right. Car, car and Porky are, and McNamara are missed severely. But, uh, we still remember 'em. We remember,
of course all all our things to to, to all those brave men. And actually looking at the dates here, obviously this episode is gonna come out a week after we're recording right now, Mr.
Herrera, but this week is actually the anniversary, uh, of when Skunk Alpha was captured. That's correct. Yes, sir. July, July,
1967. Wow. So not good at mental math two years ago. Wow. That's 50, 55, 56 years ago. Wow. So
that's, that's amazing. And, and hopefully y'all will. Once it hits the 60 year celebration, y'all can have a, a little get together.
But that's amazing. So through this book, you've really captured the emotions and the, and the events that happened, and it's all from your point of view. So this is a first person, uh, memoir, correct?
Yes, sir. Uh, it's interesting because it's a good question because, you know, as I was developing this, uh, I read different books on, on, on, uh, the different genres and I thought, well, maybe this is, this qualifies as a narrative non-fiction.
Uh, and then another book says, no, it's creative nonfiction. And, and so, uh, it, it, it's has then the publisher, Texas Tech, university Press, they said no. The genre we're determining it to be is Memoir slash Vietnam. Okay. So, you know, you just gotta go with different things. But I, I've taken literary, uh, license as they call it, and given life to the characters in the book as much as it is a memoir slash nonfiction.
You know, nonfiction is typically dry like a newspaper. Right, right. Um, I use a dialogue. I use dialogue between my characters and it's all based on personal interviews. I, I, I've had with them. Uh, because I mean, tell you what, our, our crew was very colorful. And so there's a lot of, of characterization development there and the individuals emotions, uh, and, uh, shenanigans and, uh, one-liners.
And so I use dialogue between the, the characters as I, as I'm telling the story. And the only interesting other thing is that I'm fortunate to have an actual recording of the combat, uh, the, the, the chat, the radio chat, um, between vessels, the night of the trawler. The man who blasted that, uh, give up, give up message to the enemy.
While, while the TRO was coming in, he rewound the tape and started recording the communications in the Pilot House of the Coast Guard Cutter. So I've got the actual dialogue and gives me chills. It gives me chills because you can hear the machine guns blasting, the mortars blasting, then the excitement and the voices of Mr.
Bergen, you know, I got a fast moving contact moving up the river request from, oh, I just get chills, you know? Right. And I'm very fortunate.
So you would say this, this book is, is very honest, and, and you know what? That's the truth. I mean, realistically, y'all, you know, I don't wanna say y'all were a bunch of kids, but y'all were essentially a bunch of.
Young men thrown onto a ship and told to go out there. So, yeah, let's hear that. And, and you got some sea stories in there. Are you thinking of writing another book to capture all your other sea stories, or you think you're writing days are done? Well, I
think at my age, I think it's promise made, promise kept, you know?
Right. I, I've got a, I've got a kayak, uh, sitting in my garage that, you know, anxious to get back into the salt water flats. Right. So, uh, I, I've put in, you know, more than 40 years on this project and, and it is time to take a break, but, uh, right. My goal was to, you know, share the swift boat story in memory of all our swift boat veterans and, and those we lost and mission accomplished.
I think it's time for me to move on.
Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast and, and, and sharing that with us. And, and Mr. Herrera, I wanna thank you for taking, you know, your time to share this story with us. And I wanna thank you for your service for, for what you did out there. 'cause you were right there on the front line, so.
Thank you for everything you did. Thank for sharing this with us.
Proud to have served and thank you for inviting me. Thank you for sharing my.
