Bruce Whitver

Bruce Whitver was born in June 1950 and grew up in Spokane, Washington. He spoke about his experience in the Vietnam War to the interviewer. Joining the army was always a dream of Whitver’s. In 1967, he dropped out of high school, and then enlisted for a three-year period when he was seventeen years old. As with many in his generation, Whitver came from a military family; his father had been drafted in 1948 and served for two years.

After joining the army, Whitver went for Basic Training at Fort Lewis, Washington and then on to Fort Rucker, Alabama for flight crew training. He was then sent to Germany, where he worked in an aircraft supply position. While in Germany, Whitver was the best man at his friend’s wedding. He met this friend again thirty years later.

Whitver was sent to Vietnam in December 1968 and assigned to the 101st Airborne Division’s Camp Eagle as a helicopter crew chief. He described the camp as a luxury base with bars and theaters; but, on the day of his arrival, it was hit by rockets. There were no bunkers, just tents. Whitver recalled that his crew had the first African-American helicopter gunner in the division, but did not recall any Black soldiers as crew chiefs.

As airmen, Whitver and his fellow soldiers were always getting shot at. During an attack on ‘Hamburger Hill’, his helicopter, one of the first in the assault, was shot down; yet, he escaped without injury. Whitver recalled that “we didn’t know what we were getting into”.

On May 15, 1969, Whitver’s helicopter landed troops in a rocky gap between hills on a late afternoon. The Landing Zone was very small, and they had to go in slowly and maneuver; the helicopter hovered rather than landed. His pilot asked if he could take off; the crew said “no” because there were wounded men coming in for evacuation. A mortar shell then landed nearby, and Whitver was hit by shrapnel in his arm and chest.

Whitver recalled being on a stretcher tied to a “Huey” and brought to a hospital where he had good healthcare. The doctors anesthetized him and operated, removing the shrapnel. He was then evacuated to Japan. Whitver was examined there by people who knew a lot about shrapnel wounds; they were able to discern what he was hit by. He said “if the shot had landed a foot over, I probably wouldn’t have lived”. Whitver also had a bee tattoo on his arm, and the shrapnel scarred it. The doctors offered to remove the tattoo, but he declined.

Whitver returned to Spokane and was sent to rehab in Fort Lewis, the nearest army hospital to his home. He was in a wheelchair and had to use crutches to get to the bathroom, but soon graduated to use a cane. Whitver had not seen his family in six months. Then he was visited by his brother’s godparents and his parents.

After being released from the hospital, Whitver served another year in the army on limited duty. He got his GED, was discharged and awarded a scholarship to the San Francisco Arts Institute. Whitver moved to California and, with a bunch of his buddies, joined a VFW post. He remembered that the “old-timers” there were very willing to take them. Whitver also protested the war. He said, “we militarily were winning; politically, as always, we were losing”. Whitver never attended any reunions with the men he fought with. He was awarded an Air Medal, as well as the Purple Heart Medal, the award for soldiers who have been wounded or killed in action.

Throughout Whitver’s service, he always had a camera with him. He took photos of bases, artillery, scenery and anything he could capture. Whitver had the photos printed and showed them to the interviewer.

Additional Resource:

• University of Washington Digital Collections