CINCINNATI — A group of soldiers deployed during the Vietnam War didn't focus on the American GIs wounded in battle, but instead the very enemy thousands were sent to kill or capture.
“That's when you really realize the tragedy of war, when you have two sides trying to kill one another,” Joe Siebenburgen said.
He worked as a medical technician inside the 311th Field Hospital.
“I never treated one American GI there, every patient was a North Vietnamese,” he said.
The 311th Field Hospital was responsible for treating the prisoners of war.
“What went on in that operating room was phenomenal. It's a story in itself, the amputations, these people would be flown in, limbs partially attached. Probably had three, four amputations a day, one arm, one leg, two legs, two arms. Severe burn cases, some napalm," Siebenburgen said.
There’s no hiding behind filters, that was the reality of war.
Those stories and many like them are shared among members of the 311th who meet every couple of months at the Indian Mound Café in Norwood.
“I was proud to have served. I chose to. I was an officer through ROTC. I had an obligation, got called up, didn't want to go, but we went because that was the duty,” said Jack Cover, for captain and detachment commander with the 311th.
He says the bond was created as they deployed, and it was forever cemented by what they all experienced together.
“Through all the stuff that we went through, they held together. They held together,” he said. “I think that's the bonding that's there.”
Their experiences were split between two different hospital locations at Phu Tai and Quy Nhon, Vietnam.
Dick Dumont joined the unit as a cook, and you can see his face light up when he’s speaking with some of the guys from his old unit.
“Really continues the friendships that we started, some of them during Vietnam, some of them after,” he said. “It's neat because we get in here, it revives us to that age. This was a long time ago, but mostly it's just fun seeing old friends, and I'm glad we still see each other after all these years. “
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