Veteran Rhoades drove trucks filled with ammo

Posted 12/20/20

Although he was born in Pennsylvania in 1949, veteran Ronnie Rhoades and his family moved to Delray Beach when he was about 7 years old.

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Veteran Rhoades drove trucks filled with ammo

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OKEECHOBEE — Although he was born in Pennsylvania in 1949, veteran Ronnie Rhoades and his family moved to Delray Beach when he was about 7 years old. He quit high school when he was 17, joined the Army and got his GED later. “I just wanted to get out of here,” he said. “I was a kid, thinking I was a grown man. I didn’t grow up until I got there, though.” He went to basic training at Fort Benning, Ga., followed by AIT at Fort Huachuca, Ariz. His MOS was truck driving. He was assigned to the 515 Transportation Unit and stationed at Fort McClellan, Ala., until he was sent to Vietnam. He volunteered for Vietnam, but since he was only 17, he had to wait until he turned 18 to go. “On my 18th birthday, they gave me my orders to go to Vietnam. They remembered.”

When they were sent to Vietnam, they stopped in Alaska and Japan on the way. They arrived in Da Nang at a place called Red Beach, right on the ocean, and that was their base camp.

Later, they were moved up by Phu Bai, and were there for the ’68 Tet Offensive, one of the worst attacks they ever had in Vietnam, he explained. Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese People’s Army of Vietnam launched an attack beginning on Jan. 30, 1968. It consisted of many surprise attacks against both military and civilian control centers in South Vietnam.

“We were also the first transportation unit in the A Shau Valley. That’s where the Ho Chi Minh Trail comes out.”

They couldn’t travel at night, so they spent the night wherever they happened to be when it got dark. “We were just a small unit, and that’s what we did. We hauled ammunition, all the small ammunition, all the big ammunition, all the big gun artillery. We hauled it. We picked up the ammunition at Da Nang Air Base and hauled it to wherever it was needed or as far as we could go, and then the Chinook helicopters would take it the rest of the way.” They had huge bunkers in which to store the ammo, he explained. The ammo dump was huge, he said, and during ’68 Tet, it was blown up by the North Vietnamese.

“We saw a lot of things that if you told people, they wouldn’t believe you. It’s kind of hard riding around with 25 tons of explosives right behind you. That’s a big target. We were really lucky, though. We only lost one truck in that whole time.” They had 10 trucks and an armored jeep with an M-60 machine gun and a gun truck in the middle of the convoy. Most of the time, they had a helicopter escort.

At one point, they helped with the building of an airfield in the A Shau Valley. They picked up supplies and brought them back and then helped put the runway together so planes could land. When they were in the valley, they stayed in caves made by front-end loaders at the base of the mountain. About a year after he got home, he saw on television one of the United States’ aircrafts going over and bombing the airfield it had taken years to put together.

When they went in the A Shau Valley, the combat engineers went in with bulldozers to make a road to get out there, and Rhoades’ unit followed the tanks in. “It was a challenge. You never knew when small arms fire was coming in or mortars or rockets. We’d return fire, watch the perimeter or whatever.”

One pleasure was stopping in the villages to give C-rations and candy bars to the local children. He even tried to adopt a little girl from an orphanage over there, but it didn’t work out. The paperwork did not go through in time. It was discouraged by the U.S. government, he said.

He spent 13 months in Vietnam. Rhoades was discharged in 1969, but just did not feel like he belonged anywhere. He decided to go back in the service and spent nine more years in the Army.

He was in the Panama Canal Zone for three years hauling produce to other military bases. Then, when Nicaragua had the earthquake and Managua fell, he was sent there. He drove a water tanker, filling it up at the lake and taking it around to all the refugee camps. In addition, he hauled groceries to the camps. After this, he was sent to Yuma, Ariz., to the proving grounds, where he served as a test driver. “We tested everything the military drives, anything on wheels — tanks, trucks, whatever. It was a 24-hour testing zone. I did that for three years.” He finished up his time in the military in Germany, because he was injured there. He hauled M-60 machine guns, and one of the loads shifted on him. It was a sea container off a ship, full of M-60 machine guns in big wooden crates. “It’s a heavy weapon anyway,” he said. When he came across the border from Germany into Brussels, there was the international borderline and customs. “They had to pop the seal. I wasn’t allowed to do it, and when I opened the door, that whole load probably shifted on the ship. I don’t even know how many crates blew out the door. The door hit me in the face and knocked me on my back. All these crates kept falling on me. Finally, I passed out ... The next thing I know, they were air-vaccing me in a helicopter from Brussels to an Army hospital. I was in traction for about a month.” He ended up taking a discharge.

When he left the service, he went to work for Johnson and Davis Underground Utilities as a truck driver and worked for them for 33 years. He loved the job and said they were a great company to work for.

Rhoades retired earlier this year after his injuries finally got the better of him.And not only does he have problems stemming from the injury he sustained, but he was also exposed to Agent Orange and has heart problems related to that exposure, he said. He recently got his 100% disability designation from the Army and is waiting to see if the doctors will be able to help with some of the problems he is having. “I’ve been blessed, though. I’m still driving my car. I can still do things.”

He and his wife, Betty, have been married for 30 years and have six children and 12 grandchildren. They moved to Okeechobee about 16 years ago and love it here. He said it is like God’s country.

veterans, veteran

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