War Stories with Preston and Sayre
Society & Culture
185: Norman Bendiksen - Special Forces Medic In The Vietnam War
Today Sayre and Preston are joined by Norm Bendiksen. Norm describes growing up as a young man in Texas in the 1950s, later to drop out of college in the early 60s to join “the paratroopers.” While in airborne school, Norm learned of the newly-created Army Special Forces—the esteemed “Green Berets”—and promptly signed up to join. We discuss what is was like to go through Army training in the early 60s, and what his Special Forces medic training entailed.
Norm was on one of the earliest Special Forces A-Teams to conduct advisory and combat missions in Vietnam—he was already in-country for several months when the Gulf of Tonkin incident occurred in 1964.
Norm has lived a fascinating life and is a great story teller. He is @GrandpaNorm on TikTok and can be found at: https://www.tiktok.com/@grandpanorm?
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