Collection:LPB

Genre: Interview

Place Covered: Baton Rouge, East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, Vietnam

Copyright Holder: Louisiana Educational Television Authority

Date Issued: 2017-09-13

Duration: 00:11:15

Subjects: Military | Vietnam War, 1961-1975 | United States. Army | Veterans

Contributors:

• Dimattia, William Interviewee

An oral history interview conducted on September 13, 2017, with William Dimattia of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Dimattia served in the United States Army Medical Corps during the Vietnam War. He discusses: his assignment as the medical officer supporting a Special Forces unit in Moc Hoa; his first experience of a rocket attack; his memories of the Tet Offensive; caring for injured Vietnamese patients at the local hospital; operating on Vietnamese children with cleft lips; his R & R trip in Hawaii with his wife; living with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); and leaving Vietnam on special leave due to his wife’s pregnancy complications.