Surviving ‘Nixon’s secret war’
American Legion Tango Alpha Lima podcast welcomes Bruce Roberson, who discusses his deployment in “Nixon’s secret war,” his career path following military service and what he’s brewing up now.
Before his draft number could be called, Roberson joined the U.S. Air Force in 1967 and trained to be a military K-9 handler. But his deployment in the Vietnam War had nothing to do with dogs – he deployed to Northern Thailand and was stationed with the 56th Special Operations Squadron on the Mekong River across from Laos.
“We had a major computer base there … and we were monitoring traffic from North Vietnam through the Ho Chi Minh trail, which was running down through Laos into Cambodia and then arm them with what’s going on in Vietnam. We were actually dropping listening devices on the Ho Chi Minh trail,” Roberson said. “On a straight line from where I was living, I could be in North Vietnam in less than 200 miles short flight, so we had a lot of operations going on when we weren’t supposed to.”
Podcast host Jeff Daly welcomed Roberson home and asked what his experience returning home from war was like.
“We didn’t get much thank you for your service, if at all,” he said.
But his military service shaped the rest of his life.
“Now and throughout my life I’ve considered that experience that I had in a war zone like that is a cornerstone that shaped my determination to make something out of myself,” Roberson said. “It really could break you or it could make you. I said I’m not going to let it break me.”
Roberson went to college on the GI Bill and had a long career in healthcare technology and entrepreneurship. At 75 years young, he’s now brewing gourmet coffee from beans sourced from Columbia, where his wife is from. “It’s not like military coffee,” he said of Expressoul Coffee.
Also on the episode, hosts Daly and Ashley Gorbulja:
• Solicit entrepreneurs to make drones to help the U.S. build a drone fleet.
• Challenge everyone to put down their phones and connect with someone.
• Share how Los Angeles is helping homeless veterans obtain crucial documents to create a pathway out of their situation.
Check out this week’s episode, which is among more than 180 Tango Alpha Lima podcasts available in both audio and video formats here. You can also download episodes on iTunes, Google Play or other major podcast-hosting sites. The video version is available at the Legion’s YouTube channel.