116th Combat Engineer Battalion remembering Vietnam with 50 year reunion

IDAHO FALLS – “There were 700 of us from the (Snake River Valley) who went to Vietnam and most of us came back,” Idaho Falls native Jake Cordova tells EastIdahoNews.com of his war experience.

“It was not a good experience, but we made it and there was a bunch of us. I think that’s a helluva deal.”

“I’m proud as hell of what we accomplished over there,” Ron Skinner, who served with Cordova, said in response.

Cordova, like many other Vietnam veterans, recalls his war experiences with a sense of jovial concealment. Laughter, it seems, is his way of covering up the gruesomeness of what happened. Locations and climate conditions are recalled with skilled acuity but details of combat are vague.

It’s clear there is more to the story than what Cordova shared.

Cordova and Skinner were just two of the men from eastern Idaho who were part of the 116th Combat Engineer Battalion, the largest National Guard unit sent to Vietnam.

They were given active duty status in May of 1968 during the height of U.S. involvement in the war.

There were five companies for the battalion, including 200 men in Headquarters company from Idaho Falls, 150 men in ‘A’ company from Rigby, 150 men in ‘B’ company from Rexburg, 150 men in ‘C’ company from St. Anthony, and another 150 men in ‘D’ company from the Grangeville/Orofino area.

Cordova was the medic sergeant for the battalion’s Headquarters company. He was stationed on a mountaintop in the central highlands of northern Vietnam inside a small village of Lam Dong province called Boa Loc. Base camp was in the middle of a 15 foot berm surrounded by bunkers and numerous 50 gallon drums of diesel oil on the other side.

“If someone tried to break in, we could detonate that oil and it would catch on fire and spray whoever was there,” Cordova says.

Even as well fortified as they were, Cordova says there were two North Vietnamese regulars who tried to sneak in to their camp one night.

“We probably spent $100,000 worth of ammunition to stop them,” Cordova recalls with laughter.

The next morning, Cordova and those in his company learned that only one of the men who snuck into their camp that night died during the encounter. Intelligence officials confirmed the men were enemy vietnamese whose job was to diagram the company’s base camp.

“Nobody (ever) tried to rush us through the ground because they couldn’t make it through our fortifications, but we did have mortar rounds lobbed into our base camp periodically,” Cordova says.

One particularly traumatic event

One particularly traumatic experience for Cordova happened during one of these enemy fire mortar rounds.

“Our first casualty was a guy named Gary Smith from Pingree. He got killed in a mortar attack and we named our base camp after him,” Cordova says.

Cordova explains Smith was in the back of a five ton truck during the attack.

“I ran out there with a (stretcher) and laid it right next to him. He was in pretty bad shape. I looked at the two guys (standing by Smith) and said ‘Load him up on this (stretcher) and follow me.’ I took off running and looked back and they were still there staring (at Smith),” says Cordova.

Cordova went back and again told the men to load up Smith and follow him.

“I took off again and they didn’t do it. So I went over and had to piece (Smith) together before I put him in the (stretcher). Once I did that, I told those guys ‘Pick him up and follow me.’ They finally did, but they were really in shock.”

Cordova and his unit returned home from the war a year later in September 1969.

‘All men are created equal and then a few become brothers’

“I think the most important thing that happened over there was the camaraderie of the battalion,” says Skinner. “In my company, I bet there were no less than 30 kids I went to high school with. In (‘A’ company) alone, we had six sets of brothers.”

The word “brothers” describes for Skinner and Cordova their attitude towards the men they served with in the 116th Combat Engineer Battalion.

“We never had the turmoil in our companies like the regular army outfits did,” Skinner says. “We were good friends. We had each other’s back and we were a close-knit group.”

But even as tight-knit as they were at that time, Skinner says they’ve lost track of their comrades over the years.

“We’ve lost a lot of them. I don’t know how many. But if I was guessing, I would say we’ve lost 200 or more since we’ve been home.”

A reunion 50 years in the making

Now fifty years after the unit’s deployment to Vietnam they want to reconnect with their comrades during a reunion September 14 and 15.

“When we got home, we were released from active duty and also from the guard,” Skinner says. “All the records of these guys (from the battalion) are gone. ‘A’ company is a different story because we’ve been holding reunions for 15-18 years now. But we can’t find these other guys.”

The battalion’s 50 year reunion will be held at the Elks Lodge at 640 E. Elva St. in Idaho Falls. The unit will be meeting Sept. 14 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. for an ice breaker and hors d’oeuvres.

On Sept. 15, they will gather at the Vietnam Memorial in Freeman Park at 10 a.m., followed by a dinner at the Elks Lodge that evening at 6:00. There will then be a program from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.

The cost is $20 for veterans who do not want to attend dinner on Sept. 15. Otherwise, it is $25 or $50 for a couple. Skinner and Cordova are asking battalion members who are planning on attending to RSVP by August 31. You can RSVP by calling Ron Skinner at (208) 313-5911 or Jake Cordova at (208) 520-6407.

“We grew up here and everybody had relatives here. We want people to help us spread the word so we can get a large turnout,” Cordova says.