Good morning.

Welcome to Sawcast, number 42.

This production of Sawcast is brought to you courtesy of Jockow-willing productions and

his technical staff with Cary Health and joining us today. My name is John Stryker Meyer.

I'll be your host today and is a part of our ongoing series of interviews for

Sogast about the Secret War in Vietnam. Today I have the honor of introducing

not only a good friend but just one fine recon man, Tony Bandiera Jr.

Tony welcome to the show. Thank you for inviting me. It's a pleasure, my honor indeed, sir. And as with our stories about Sogg, there's always a beginning. What was your beginning? Where did you grow up first and how did you get to that point where someday I want to join the Army?

Well, truth is, I grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, basically, and a little bit in the panhandle of Texas before that.

But I didn't want to go in Army.

My father and I, when I was a senior in high school, he was always showing showing me newspaper about what was going on in Vietnam.

Right. And that was the last place I wanted to be.

Naturally. Of course. Yeah. I have two cousins and a good friend and they hounded me.

They said, let's go in the army and be paratroopers.

And I said, there's no way to hell I'm going to jump out on an airplane.

It's just not going to happen. So they had back then the Buddy,

listed as the Buddy program, you go in and stay with it. So we immediately went in and the first person

didn't be part of the buddy system was me. And so I went off and then I went to jump school and from jump school to the 82nd.

From the 82nd I was assigned to, I think, January, the beginning of January 66 I was assigned to the 101st Airborne

Division and it to me it was kind of an honor to say I get to be a screaming eagle one day I get to wear the patch.

Absolutely because by that time we just the movie the longest day had come out.

Exactly.

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