Originally published May 31, 2010
Louis Force is a master story teller.
Give him a minute, and he’ll spin a yarn about his youthful escapades, including times on the road with his younger sibling, John Force.
However, when it comes to talking about his time in service to his country, he chooses to carefully speak his words.
There are some stories he’ll never tell.
Louie is a dyed in the wool patriot, a proud American who served two tours of duty during the Vietnam War.
Louie served in the Army, assigned to second gun battalion, 32nd field artillery stationed in the small village of Tu Do Hoc located outside of Saigon. This group supported the 1st Infantry Division, the 25th Infantry Division, the 25th ARVN Division, the 10th ARVN Division, the 173rd Airborne Brigade and the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment.
He and only one other soldier in C-battery survived the tour. The one other survivor, a gunner, Louie helped carry out following a temporary restraint by NVA soldiers.
“Let me tell you something, there’s no such thing as a hero,” said Louie. “That is something television conjured up. I’ve spent many times over and over wondering what the term hero meant. I wondered why people do what they do in battle.
“When you first get to war, your chest is all pumped because of what you’ve seen in the movies and on television. You want to be Audie Murphy and then all of a sudden, fear sets in. You darn near go back to being an embryo. Then you watch people die. Then you watch your friends die. Then you want to kill everyone and then you just go numb.”
Louie was seventeen-and-a-half years old when he volunteered for military service in 1962. He took a three year hitch and by 1965 was on his way to Vietnam for his first tour. Louie was one of the highest graded soldiers of his group and the first to become qualified to operate a 175mm shell cannon. While his first tour of duty was challenging, not even the overwhelming emotion of war could stop him from extending his enlistment.
“I just couldn’t leave my guys,” Louie said. “I didn’t want them going into battle without me even though I was younger than most of them.”
Louie filled the role of Buc [three-stripe, E-5] Sargeant and worked with the large cannon and quite often served as a forward observer. Some of those weapons, Louie confirmed, could deliver a 175mm shell as far away as 32 miles.
He simply did what he had to do fighting for the freedom for others and serving his country. There were no thoughts of the social unrest back in his country, regarding the war in Vietnam.
The comraderie he felt among his soldiers only served to increase his patriotic pride. However, he was blindsided when he deplaned in San Francisco in 1966.
“I can tell you how we felt serving our country over there and I can also tell you how we were treated like lepers when we came home,” Louie lamented. “I even had some of those close to me who were anti-war and the stuff hurt.”
Louie was met by war protesters, one of whom struck him in the face with a piece of fruit. He retaliated and the end result wasn’t what a soldier who had bravely served his country desired.
“I saw about 10,000 people standing out there and thought it was a welcoming party, instead I got whacked in the mug by someone in the crowd,” reflected a disappointed Force.
“They had some pretty choice words for us that cut pretty deep.”
Louie has worked hard to put those memories behind him and sometimes just reaches out to fellow soldiers as a friend and someone to listen to. Without advance notice, he’ll often visit the VA Hospitals to check on his “brothers” and soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
It’s Louie’s way of showing his love for a country, he was and still is willing to die for.
“There’s a lot of people out there like me, they just don’t make a lot of noise about it and bring attention to themselves,” said Louie, admitting he’s run across people he served with in the military over the last few years. “Those are my brothers in there and I love each and every one of them.”
On Memorial Day and Veterans Day, you’ll see Louie slip into the hospitals for a visit but honestly, he believes the revered days are no different than any other.
“I have a Memorial Day every day,” admits Louie. “I read everything I can about what our brave soldiers are doing. This country is as big as God to me. This country was founded on God and without that foundation we’d be in trouble. Throughout our existence, we are the one country which never took over other countries just to rule them. We have been a country of people all too willing to sacrifice our lives to give everyone a chance for our kind of freedom.
“We paid the ultimate price for other countries which to this day never did pay us back and we’ve buried lots of brave men on foreign soil fighting for them to have freedom. My country isn’t perfect but I love it, and I was willing to give my life back then and nothing has changed today.”
