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"Then after a while you become one of them. That is when your body, your mind changes. You are out there all the time; you get separate from the Army. You don't belong to the real Army." (Video Interview, 28:22)

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   Philip Thomas Randazzo
Image of Philip Thomas Randazzo
Philip Randazzo in Vietnam, late 1967
War: Vietnam War, 1961-1975
Branch: Army
Unit: 3rd Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division
Service Location: Cu Chi, Cu Chi Tunnels, Iron Triangle, Black Virgin Mountain, Tay Ninh, Michelin Rubber Plantation, Tan Son Nhut, and Dau Tieng, Vietnam
Rank: Specialist
Place of Birth: MI
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In a war like Vietnam, without discernible front lines, engaging the enemy often meant going on patrols, looking for trouble. Philip Randazzo served with the mechanized cavalry, a self-contained unit that lived in the bush for weeks and months at a time, forming its own subculture. Randazzo's vivid descriptions of this elemental kind of wartime living are both eloquent and brutally honest. (His interview includes about 30 minutes of silent home movie footage shot in country.)

Interview (Video)
»Interview Highlights  (7 clips)
»Interview with Philip Thomas Randazzo [7/6/2004]  (173 min.)
»Transcript
Multimedia Recording
»Multimedia Recording  (35 min.)
  Photos
»Photo Album (2 photos)
 Memoirs
»View List (6 items)
More like this
»Forever a Soldier
 Video (Interview Excerpts) (7 items)
Becoming a reconnaissance scout (03:53) First impressions of base camp at Cu Chi; meeting the members of his unit. (09:09) Becoming part of the unit, but not part of the "real Army." (02:30)
Beginning of the Tet offensive; leaving the camp and driving into an ambush. (13:10) In Saigon at the U.S. Embassy for a special mission. (08:18) Another day, another ambush. (04:33)
Getting wounded and getting to leave country "early." (07:49)  
  
 Memoirs (6 items)
First Hand Account, Vietnam Duty [9/1967 - 9/1968] Account of the events of May 9, 1968 First Hand Account, Saigon, February 1968
First Hand Account, January 31st, 1968 First Hand Account, Hoc Mon, February 6-7, 1968 Explanation of cover photograph of book "A Hundred Miles of Bad Road"
  
 
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  October 26, 2011
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