By Carleen Wild
Moody County Enterprise

If you’re just meeting Charlie Ryan, you’ll likely encounter an older gentleman who appears fairly quiet, reserved, and calm as he buzzes around town in his old truck or side-by-side. By all accounts today, he is a quiet, calm, and reserved man.
Usually — but not always — his wife Alice, of 55 years, is with him.
The Trent native though, was a hellraiser in his early years. It’s a temperament that may very well have saved him during his time in Vietnam.
Ryan graduated from Trent High School in 1965 and volunteered for the Army. With the draft in effect, he figured he’d be going anyway. But at 18, he recalls, he couldn’t pass the physical. “I had fallen arches,” he said, noting that used to be an automatic disqualification.
As the conflict in Vietnam escalated, however, restrictions loosened, and at 19, Ryan enlisted and was initially sent to work in artillery. Reflecting on his service last week, he admitted he wasn’t sure he had a story worth sharing.
His contribution to the military quickly shifted, though, as he realized he needed something different and volunteered for a more dangerous role — one few others wanted, making the transfer nearly guaranteed.

“I was kind of a different person back then,” he said.
Ryan volunteered to be a door gunner, and he smirks as he recalls his first mission because his unit wasn’t far into its flight along the Laos border when they were shot down.
No one was injured, he said, adding that, at the time, “Army helicopter pilots were the best trained. We could auto rotate down.”
He also knew they likely had a way out. Traveling in pairs, a second chopper would come in for extraction if there was trouble. As a result, Ryan said he was among those lucky to return to base each night.
The soldiers they dropped off, he stated, were the real heroes, because they were on the ground and often unsure who the enemy really was.
For those unfamiliar with the war or the history, the war began in 1955 after Vietnam gained independence from France, but at that time, the country was divided into two regions. Communist North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while South Vietnam received backing primarily from the United States and its allies.
For more than 20 years, the conflict escalated under the banner of preventing the spread of communism. However, due to the nature of the warfare and the high civilian death toll, it became one of the most controversial wars in U.S. history.
The war concluded with the withdrawal of American forces and the reunification of Vietnam under a communist government. By that time, the United States had sent upwards of 536,000 troops to Vietnam.
While Ryan was not necessarily surprised that he returned alive, he mourns the loss of friends and still questions the purpose of it all.
“We accomplished nothing, basically. If we were going to be there, we should have done it full bore. It’s just like we went over to the Mideast... it’s pretty easy to defeat them out in the sand, but when you move into town it’s a different deal. And there, as it was in Nam, you didn’t know who the enemy was. They were out in the tie field during the day, and at night, you didn’t know who you were talking to. They were used to fighting in the jungle and on the islands, and we weren’t. We should have really gone full bore before we started if we were going to be there.”
After 19 months and 20 days, Ryan returned home, married a year later, and tried to settle back into civilian life. He’s returned once since to see Vietnam through fresh eyes and reflect on his time there.
“There is politics in everything. I felt we were over there to bail out the French. France had a lot of stuff over there, rubber plantations, and they had really gotten slaughtered... I feel we stepped in to help them. They do that some today... get us involved to keep things from the communists, yet Vietnam is communist today. The Vietnamese are pretty docile people; most of them didn’t care. All they cared about was feeding the family and being at peace. George McGovern was our senator then, and they about crucified him, but he kept saying we cannot make a democracy out of Vietnam. A democracy barely works here.”
Ryan still strives to be a better countryman, husband, friend, and citizen. Currently, he serves as the Commander of the Legion in Trent, where he works to let younger generations — many of whom have little to do with the Legion — know the support the organization offers.
There is value, he feels, in gathering with other service members and veterans, and quite honestly, with anyone.
“We need to stand together more than we do, everybody. We have to, if we want our country.”