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LIBERTY – As a youth, Chuck Phillipson was a Boy Scout and the Boy Scout motto is “Be Ready.”

Little did the Liberty resident know that in a few years he would be joining another group designed to prepare him, but this time it wasn’t to earn proficiency badges but to serve in Vietnam.

“I was 19 and hadn’t even worked at GM for a year when I got the letter saying I had been drafted,” Phillipson said.

He was originally from western Pennsylvania, so his letter was sent there.

“My father called me and said I had received a letter. He asked me if he should open it. I said, ‘Go ahead.’ Back then, everyone expected a (draft) letter at some point,” he said.

Because he had to tell his employer that he was leaving, Phillipson had to get the draft notice from his father.

“We met halfway, about an hour and a half apart. I had to tell GM I was leaving in six days. They were very accommodating. They said I would keep my job if I came back,” Phillipson said.

He retired after 36 years in the automaker’s paint shop.

His basic training took place at Fort Jackson in South Carolina.

“I was there for eight weeks. They tell you when to go to sleep and when to get up. They yell in your face. They wear you out to build you back up so you can follow orders,” Phillipson said.

His next orders took him to Fort Knox, Kentucky for another eight weeks of advanced training, where he was trained as either a driver or crew member on an armored personnel carrier, a small tank.

“At the end of the training, my commander said, ‘I have two orders for you. One is to go directly to Vietnam. The other is to attend noncommissioned officer training for 12 weeks, also at Fort Knox.’ I chose noncommissioned officer training and when I got there, after seven months, I was already a sergeant,” he said.

From there he went to Fort Hood in Texas for three months, which Phillipson described as practical training to become a sergeant. He knew that from then on he would be sending his orders to Vietnam.

Although he had trained in the southern states of South Carolina, Kentucky and Texas, he was not prepared for the weather in Vietnam.

“I agree with a lot of people: ‘When you get off the plane, you think everything is on fire.’ The heat is so intense. It’s like being in a blast furnace. It was 38 degrees and the humidity was 99 percent,” he said.

Phillipson wondered how he would survive for a year, but he managed it.

“It’s not the people that will kill you. It will be the climate, the insects or the snakes,” he said.

When he arrived in Vietnam in March 1970, he was stationed at Chu Lai and traveled in small tanks.

“I was there for three weeks and at 19 I became a platoon commander in charge of four squads. I was part of Company F, 8th Cavalry,” he said. “The Army had other plans. They needed me somewhere else. They transferred me to an aviation unit and I spent the rest of my tour of duty there,” he said. Phillipson transferred to the 123rd Combat Aviation Unit and worked in helicopters.

“I was in the helicopter’s technical support and towards the end I was a gunner. I was the only one in my company with a driver’s license, so I would take a truck and take ammunition to fire bases or outposts,” he said.

While he was bringing the ammunition, he was shot at by the Viet Cong.

During his time in Vietnam, he came into contact with a superior who years later became known as the leader of Operation Desert Storm in 1991.

“I met (Norman) Schwarzkopf, then a lieutenant colonel. I was there about six months and I was told I had to qualify on an M14 rifle. I went to a base about 5 miles away and they had an M14 for me to shoot. I had to report to the commanding officer to let him know I was there. I went in and said, ‘This is Sergeant Phillipson reporting. I have to shoot an M14.’ He laughed. I didn’t know who he was. He was the commander of the entire battalion. It wasn’t until much later, when I heard his name, that I realized that was the guy I had met on that hill in Vietnam,” he said.

General Schwarzkopf later became known as “Stormin’ Norman” when he led the invasion of the Middle East. He died in 2012 at the age of 78.

In 1971, after a year in the Army, Phillipson returned to his job at General Motors.

“We landed at night to avoid the mass protests. We had 12 hours of debriefing and within five days I was heading home from the rice fields of Vietnam,” he said.

At his parents’ house in Pennsylvania, he learned that the local American Legion was giving away $300 to those who had served in Vietnam. He went there with his father.

“The guy in charge was my old Boy Scout leader. He told me, ‘I’ll give you the $300, but Vietnam wasn’t a real war.’ My dad freaked out: ‘Why is he saying that?’ A lot of things happened to people who came back from Vietnam,” he said.

Phillipson was sure that he wanted to continue working in some capacity after returning to Ohio.

“I volunteered for the Trumbull County Honor Guard. I did the gun salute. You could do six funerals a week and sometimes two on a Saturday,” Phillipson said.

He attended over 1,000 funerals, but after some time he decided he could no longer do so.

Phillipson is proud of the time he has served his country, but he is also very humble.

“I didn’t do anything different than anyone else. Everyone who was there should have gotten the Bronze Star, all the guys who were with me.”