Peter F. Flynn

Posted: November 27th, 2013

Name: Phillip Degrogorio

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Peter F. Flynn was the interviewee and the interview was mainly to enquire about his experiences during the Vietnam War and in his service as a soldier. He was born in June 4, 1938 in Boston Massachusetts. Flynn then got interested in joining the Marine Core while he was still underage in November 27, 1954. He was by then 14 years of age and was still living in his birthplace. The reason he joined the military was because he loved his country and he had desired greatly to join the military. He served in the military for a period of exactly twenty-three years since he later retired in the year 1977 on November 28. When asked on the reason he picked the service branch that he did, he said that he was inspired by Audie Murphy who was his hero in a movie that he had watched about him.

Flynn recalled his first days in service very well and gave the details as if it was the previous day. For instance, he gave an example of a time when he was in boot camp and he was given a punishment by his Sergeant to hold his rifle over his head and run up and down for a distance of five miles. He also said that the first days in Boot Camp were about being comforted and told about the service. The following days after the integration process, they were then taught on the process of handling, assembling and disassembling weapons. Flynn served in the Vietnam War and he was stationed there during the whole time. He gave an instance where while they were arriving in Vietnam for the first time, their plane was taking fire from the hostiles there. Flynn talked about Fubar in Vietnam as the place where they were stationed.

Flynn said that he was an Aviation Mechanic and his job was to repair broken down aircrafts. He talked about being in combat situations and actually seeing combat. Most of his missions were med flights and were mostly about retrieving wounded soldiers from the fields to the medical camps. His personal feelings about the war were that he believed strongly that if President Kennedy were not assassinated, the Vietnam War would not have occurred. His mission and drive when he first went to the Vietnam War was about defending America but afterwards, the feeling changed to indifference. His attitude changed because the people who they were sent to defend in Vietnam betrayed them. They were being friendly and helpless by day while they attacked the US soldiers by night.

He received major and full support from his family and friends and shared his feelings about the Vietnam War. He had negative feelings about Anti-war protests and they really hurt his feelings. This was because he had volunteered to serve his country and after the war, the soldiers came home and were welcomed by people hurling rotten eggs. As it is in a war, they did not compromise with the enemy. He had the opinion that Richard Nixon never supported the American troops. After some time in the war, Flynn believed that America quit the war. He did not believe that medical care changed due to the war and he talked of having many casualties in the unit that he served in. His most memorable mission was an instance when he was in the jungle and after shooting a couple of enemy soldiers in front of him a couple of American soldiers appeared behind him. He turned around ready to fire and he almost did.

During his service, he received several medals especially for going on combat flights. He talked about writing letters to his family to keep in touch with them. He describes the food that they ate as being pathetic. He recalls his service ending while he was in California and afterwards he got a job in aircraft design, especially the F18 aircraft. Flynn never went back to school after his service. He got married to his wife Haruko who was Japanese woman that he met when he was working there.