"I was the first of the First [Division] to set foot in Vietnam." (Video Interview, Part 1, 1:10)

Leonard L. Boswell

Leonard Boswell [2003] War: Vietnam War, 1961-1975 Branch: Army Unit: 250th Field Artillery Rocket Battalion; Headquarters, 3rd Army Missile Command; Headquarters Battery, 2nd Howitzer Battalion, 28th Field Artillery Service Location: Fort Sill, Oklahoma; Fort Chaffee, Arkansas; Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Fort Wolters and Fort Bliss, Texas; Fort Rucker, Alabama; Germany; Fort Riley, Kansas; Ban Me Thuot, Pleiku, Soc Trang, and Can Tho, Vietnam; Fort Polk, Louisiana; Lisbon, Portugal; Fort Leavenworth, Kansas Rank: Lieutenant Colonel Place of Birth: MO

Drafted on his 22nd birthday in 1956, Leonard Boswell determined to make the most of his service, applying to Officers Candidate School, eventually gravitating toward aviation. He trained on fixed-wing aircraft, then on helicopters. Eight years in, he decided to make a career out of the Army. By 1965, he was in command of a helicopter battalion assigned to Vietnam and claims to be the first man in the Army's storied First Division to set foot in that country. He did two one-year tours during that war and was frustrated with the lack of discernible progress on his second tour. Boswell retired from the Army in 1976 and was elected to the U.S. Congress from the Third District in Iowa in 1996. As of 2009, he was still serving.