Veterans Spotlight - Bill Blaisdell

Bill Blaisdell served his country in the Vietnam War in the United States Army from 1969 – 1970. He went to a recruiting station as a young 20 year-old in Natick MA, enlisted and was sent to Fort Lewis in Washington State. Mr. Blaisdell was then sent to Vietnam and assigned to the 1st Infantry Division as a Combat Medic at a small base camp in Dau-Tieng. His first 6 months was spent in the field, under heavy, continuous combat. “Most medics didn’t make it through the first 6 months. I was scared and confused….I was sent to a platoon where I was going to be taking over” he remembered.

Mr. Blaisdell’s first day on the job was not a typical one. “We got into a firefight….my medic/trainer was coaching me…..was right next to me telling me to keep my damn head down when he caught one in the helmet……dead…..just like that…..I had to assume the leadership right then and there…..who got treated, who got helicoptered out” he recalled. When asked about sleep deprivation for his job Mr. Blaisdell said this; “Sleep was done because of exhaustion….I never really felt safe…..was afraid to go to sleep because I never thought I’d wake up ……..anybody that wasn’t afraid was either a psycho or a liar.”

I asked him about two important factors – entertainment and being away for the holidays. He was very blunt and to the point in regards to my first question. “We had absolutely zero entertainment….we’d go out on patrols in the morning and again at night, then back to base camp.” Mr. Blaisdell had one word to describe being away during the holidays – Brutal. “Everyone always looked forward to mail call….it gave you a glimmer of hope and would somehow tie you back to the real world…..was very sad when you were the last guy to receive a letter during mail call and you have 3-4 guys behind you….some poor guys never got anything” he sadly remembered.

His 2nd assignment was at a base camp in Lai-Khe. The unit was nicknamed Dr. Delta. The aid station had (4) tables in a tent and helicopters on a landing pad outside to evacuate the wounded. Here the seriously injured soldiers were treated and stabilized.

Mr. Blaisdell shared something that “still burns in my memory……a very bad memory.” “We had a makeshift morgue in a tent….it filled up quickly….I brought the body of a soldier I had just treated and lost….everything was still and I saw his body move….I rushed into my commanding officer and told him that we had a soldier still alive….I was horrified thinking that I had put a live body in the morgue….he said, at times, a dead body will move involuntarily…. bothered me terribly after losing a soldier…..always wracked my brain….is there anything else I could have done to save that boy’s life?”

Mr. Blaisdell was awarded The Bronze Star. He was wounded twice but never put in for a Purple Heart. “I never talked with anyone I served with about Vietnam, after I got home” he said quietly. Mr. Bill Blaisdell, thank you for your service to our great country.