Cpt Edward Lutterberg served in Vietnam 67-68 then again 70-71. Now he is the Communications Director of The NATIONAL Vietnam War Museum in Weatherford Texas. The museum is already open for visitors but some BIG new exhibits are coming soon. Edward will tell us about all of the updates coming to the NATIONAL Vietnam War Museum tonight on Veterans Live Show
TRANSCRIPT – Transcript and Subtitles are generated automatically by YouTube and may contain errors.
okay good evening vietnam live from lz
bunker this is the veterans live show
i’m your host ronnie embrace i served
with 101st airborne division
from the 7th december 1967 to december
1968
and i want to welcome you all tonight
here tonight we have another
special guest it’s captain edward
luteberg it served in vietnam in 67-68
and then again
in 1771 now he’s a communications
director of the national
vietnam war museum in weatherford texas
the museum is already open for visitors
but some big new exhibits are coming
soon
edward tell us about all the updates
coming to the national vietnam war
museum tonight
on veterans live show we will speak to
ed in a few moments but first i’d like
to let you all know
that this program is brought to you by
fallen ever forgotten
vietnam memorials in the usa it’s fall
never forgotten is a vietnam veterans
memorial book
a tribute to those who never made it
home one memorial from each state
and then we list all the troops that
never came home alphabetically
vietnam uh visit vault follow
neverforgotten.com for more information
or to purchase your copy
now let’s go to headlines okay
memorial day is just around the corner
we will be in washington
broadcasting the veterans live show from
dc
frequently throughout the memorial day
weekend we will also be doing live
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so stay tuned to our facebook pages and
subscribe to our veterans live show
youtube channel so you know exactly
where we are
and you can stop by and say hello and
possibly do an interview
not a problem okay let’s go to the
vietnam
timeline segment
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okay this date in the vietnam war may 7
1965
thousand marines of the fourth marine
division are sent to chulai
a sandy pine baron along the coast 55
miles south of da nang to build a second
jet
air base the number one song on may 7th
1965 was
mrs brown you’ve got a lovely daughter
by herman’s hermits
and this date in the vietnam war may 7th
again 1975
president ford issues a proclamation
designating this is the last day of the
vietnam era
for military personnel to qualify for
wartime benefits
the number one song on may 7th in 1975
was he don’t love you like i love you by
tony and dawn
one other thing on may 20th oh sorry may
7th
was uh my son josh was born in
2001. there you go okay let’s go to the
photo segment
[Music]
now i’d like to welcome it to welcome ed
ludaberger into the bunker
oh wait we’re gonna do some photos
through the photo section there you go
mcdaniel bryan a marine in the third
marine division during operation
lancaster
southwest of continent november 6 1967.
nice kind of flush helmet next picture
bill single single a few pictures of
firebase tomahawk
eight that’s august 70.
second of three two seven hundred first
airborne division okay there you go bill
thank you for that picture next picture
okay mcdaniel byron kids were sometimes
high hired to drop grenades with rubber
bands holding the pin in place into
fuel tanks a week later as the fuel
corroded the rubber bands
the unfortunate driver would be dead wow
what a very crafty uh
technique huh you never know
thank you mcdaniel for that picture
next picture herman
woodrow hughes a new friend said he had
a photo of the same
helo crash i saw him kua via
he sent me this picture he told me about
rescuing
three passengers from the fiery wreck
unfortunately he couldn’t get to the
pilot and co-pilot
wow that’s crazy thank you for that
picture
and from norman fagan keep them clean if
you want to live
amen uh yeah a couple of m16s there
cleaning them up
smiles on their faces back at the bed at
the at the base camp
go get em guys thank you for that
picture
and there’s our card of the day
briefing the president is uh henry
kissinger briefing president nixon
okay after becoming president richard
nixon now assumes the american
leadership role in vietnam
from 1968 to 1973
president nixon and harry kitchener were
very principled negotiators
in the vietnam peace talks peace
negotiations with the communist north
vietnam were very difficult
they kept secret many times these
negotiations ended
with the paris peace talks agreement of
january 27
1973.
interesting they have cards trading
cards of vietnam right
and here’s our guest tonight special
guest ed luteberger
he from the headquarters macv 67-68
and he’s the director of the national
vietnam war museum
in weatherford texas welcome ed ronnie
glenn
glad to be here and just one correction
it’s luke 10
burger oh i’m sorry
lou tenberg okay yeah it’s it’s been
it’s been misspelled all my life so i’m
using this okay let me just get a little
pen here and make that
adjustment right over there and all
right now it’s an end
okay okay there you go
well tell us a little bit about yourself
ed
a little profile history of your service
well i i probably got one of the most
varied
service careers uh that you could think
of uh
about three weeks after i graduated from
high school in 1961
i hopped on a plane flew to new york and
reported to the united states military
academy at west point
as a member of the class of 1965.
unfortunately i didn’t graduate with the
class i failed history
my sophomore year and was separated
and transferred to the reserves as an e2
i went back home uh went to work for my
folks
and uh in january of 1965 i had enough
of that
i said i was enlisting went down
signed up uh and enlisted to be in 11
bravo
uh went through uh basic training of
fort knox
ait at fort polk and the army and its
infinite wisdom
decided to make me a supply clerk
uh after that then they sent me
i was still at fort polk they sent me to
the reception station there
and made me first a finance clerk and a
personnel specialist
all of this with no training in those
fields
repo depot right yes there you go
and i spent spent almost the next three
years there
uh got married had a child
and came down on orders for vietnam when
i re-enlisted
in october of 1967
and shipped out december 68 to
headquarters mac b
and i had a very odd job there i thought
i was going to be in the personnel
department
at tons newt headquarters macbee
and i was grabbed out in processing and
told i was going to replace
uh the
man who was managing the staff sergeant
who was managing the
transient hotel there uh in the in
processing center for macp
and i spent my next year there uh
made staff sergeant and
we made the move uh late in my tour
out to tonsino who shut down the
operation in downtown saigon
and while i was there a gentleman
a young captain processed in
and it turned out he was one of my west
point classmates
and i had a friend who was going to
flight school at the time
uh and he told me that the vision
requirements had been
lowered and i said well great this is
what i’ve always wanted to do all my
life
i’m going to go to flight school i told
my
my captain friend this and he said
no you don’t want to do that you want to
apply for a direct commission
and i said sure why not you know what
have i got to lose if i don’t get it
i can still go to flight school become a
warrant officer
well uh december 68 i got
sent back to the states and got assigned
to oakland army base
the overseas replacement station there
processing
uh congressional inquiries
and while i was there uh i got a call
from department of the army
said you still want to be a second
lieutenant
sure why not and they said go take a
physical
pass it and we’ll commission you as an
infantry second lieutenant
three months after i got back to there
after i was assigned there i was off to
fort benning
going through branch basic then off to
fort jackson as a training officer
and while i was there my orders for
flight school came down
uh went to flight school uh where was
that for record
for rucker alabama
uh-oh gotta freeze up
hey can you hear me
i don’t know what to say matt
just hold on we could edit this so
there you go good show the video
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okay
[Music]
that’s a great video ed uh what could
they find any people who
go online to find that same video yes
it’s on our website
uh and if you uh if you just click on
the website
you can you can find it there along with
several other videos we’ve got including
one that features roger staubach oh
great what is that
uh the old navy guy go army be navy
yeah well you always show up you know
okay so uh what is that website right
off the bat
uh it’s www.nationald
museum dot org that’s easy
national vietnam vn war museum
dot org national vnwarmuseum.org got it
okay so um when when
when you got to vietnam when you first
toured you were you were flying or not
uh i was flying on my second tour okay
the chinooks
the chinooks right and uh
i got there uh went to
kuchi where the unit was based for one
night
and found out that they were in the
process of moving to fuloy
uh about 20 miles to the east so
uh packed up headed there as part of the
advanced party
and got settled in there and spent the
rest of the tour there
that’s another expense that you don’t
have to do moving 20 miles somewhere
from coochie
i was thinking for about a month when we
first got in country in december 67
to mid december 68 then we moved up
north for the ted offensive
but uh okay so you were flying what kind
of uh
machine ch-47 chinook there you go big
flow targets true carrier troop carriers
uh well we flew all kinds of missions uh
we flew troop carrier
we flew resupply we flew mobil mobile px
we flew uh and one of the strangest and
and
if i had had any sense to think about it
most dangerous mission
that uh anybody could think up uh was a
napalm drop
we loaded 18 barrels of napalm internal
and pushed them off the uh the ramp
six at a time wow from
from 2000 feet and 70 knots
were they effective very very i mean
i mean normally yeah i mean the weapon
is effective but with your drop was that
effective
yes oh good okay because sometimes
napalm didn’t land where it was supposed
to
yeah yeah yeah well you know we weren’t
we weren’t fast movers we were like i
say
traveling at 70 knots that’s crazy
yeah that’s it yeah we’ve got a
different story you’re never here that’s
good
that’s the first time i ever heard that
nap coming out of a helicopter
yeah the original the original way that
those missions were flown
uh was they would sling load
18 barrels under the chinook
right and then they’d drop them and a
cobra would come in and light them off
well ours
were armed with fuses and uh
burst on impact
wow and i flew seven of those well okay
that’s interesting
and he did troop troop moves he did
resupply you did
any medevacs uh actually did one
uh it was it was an emergency we landed
a fire support base
uh on a resupply mission and somebody
had to be hauled out
yeah they usually are an emergency yep
and then and then i had one really
interesting back haul
uh we were staging out attain in
and flew up to a arvind firebase
with a couple of water trailers and
hauled back the empties
and about halfway back my flight
engineer who was watching the load
hanging out the hole said there’s
somebody in one of the water trailers
and it turned out it was one of the uh
one of the arvin’s trying to sneak out
get back to canaan wow
nice yeah he was picked up by the mps
when we sat down
i mean he had no he had no courage to
fight yet he had the courage to jump in
the net and
be sling loaded into you know
that’s funny all right so go ahead okay
now your second tour what happened you
went home you just stayed there and
re-upped
no no i i the unit stood down in
september of 71
and i went back back home uh got sent
to fort lewis and started out
in the 15th support brigade uh as the
assistant personnel
officer and then became the commander of
the
uh basic leadership school for the
brigade
and then the final my final assignment
uh they were building up a chinook unit
there
and it was actually i was in the 242nd
in vietnam
and the unit that was building at fort
lewis was the 243rd
so i went over there as the operations
officer
and uh spent about a year there and uh
while i was bringing two aircraft uh
back from new cumberland army depot
i had a call we called in every night
and i talked to the
the s1 and he said i should come and see
him when we got back
to lewis with the aircraft and i knew
right then uh
that i was getting ripped
so
reduction in force i was going to be
separated
uh as an officer or i could revert back
to my original enlisted rank of
staff sergeant uh i opted to
get out take the fifteen thousand
dollars and become a civilian
how many years i had almost nine years
active
uh but interestingly enough
because i didn’t finish at the academy
for pay my time started the day i
took the oath on the plane in 1961.
oh good for you man yeah so there i was
in 1973 as a captain
over 12. right
things work out sometimes amen well yeah
you did two tours you know
what are you gonna do so uh wow here we
go let’s have some pictures
okay this this is a model of what the
uh the building is going to look like or
was going to look like
uh we have the first phase done
and what what you don’t see the first
phase
is is this uh very section in the front
uh there’s been some changes made to it
right now
it doesn’t have the wraparound uh porch
there but it does have the portico
entrance and it does have the uh
museum logo there on the top uh
we’ve also uh eliminated that hole in
the floor
in uh phase one
with the helicopter yeah there was going
to be a helicopter hanging through there
but we decided to to change that
and uh move it to a different part of
the building when we go to the other
phases
so now we’ve got two ten thousand square
foot floors
uh the first floor is going to be all
exhibits the second floor is going to be
offices
library and uh
four thousand square foot art gallery
featuring uh
art by uh vietnam veterans and about
uh vietnam matt can you go back to that
first picture
the uh no the next one sorry
yeah now i see two helicopters i see one
in the first building
i guess that is that the entrance on the
right or the edge it’s on the left
uh the entrance is down here at the
bottom left bottom left okay a little
okay but i see a helicopter in that
little pit there
then there’s another helicopter in the
middle right
the helicopter that you see in the in
the first pit there
which no longer exists is going to be
the training helicopter that was used at
fort walters
okay uh when we get to phase two which
is that middle section
uh there will be uh there’ll be a uh one
in there we haven’t decided whether
we’re gonna have that
on the floor or suspended from the
ceiling yet yeah you gotta hang it up
bro
you gotta hang it up well
we’re thinking we’re thinking about
letting people get into it if it’s
hanging
they can’t yeah i hear you
oh well yeah you’re right yeah we’ll get
two
okay uh in the home front gallery the
center part
centerpiece is going to be the oval
office
and we’ll start with the lbj oval office
uh because that’s
that’s where we got into the war uh full
time
and it’ll have uh it’ll have his desk
and the three televisions set up there
uh with appropriate uh
video i guess you would say playing on
on the three
screens and what we’re going to give
visitors an opportunity to do
is actually sit behind the desk have
their picture taken there
while they sign an executive order wow
check that out nice yeah
and now is this uh who sanctioned this
music do you have to get government
sanctioned
or what absolutely not this this has
been a private measure
we started this uh in 1996
i took that back 1995. really
yes and uh it’s been all volunteer
it’s been all private donations and
we haven’t taken a single penny from the
government we haven’t had any support
from the government either
but what’s new but that’s that that’s
the way we want it because
that way we can tell the story the way
we want it we want we can tell the
the true story without any interference
amen to that you know
one of my true stories is that we didn’t
fight the war to win it
no and that you know i i was uh
pro-war the whole time there until i got
home and i realized
you know this is like these endless wars
in the
in in the uh middle east now in
sub-asia where it’s just
how do they call it the uh
military-industrial complex
make makes money at the expense of their
citizens
yes sir i don’t want to get too public
on this show no
all right i you can keep that in to keep
it in the record matt but
we won’t do too much of that oh is it
what’s that little thing called the
uh what’s that called the uh caribou no
no no no that’s
that’s the cheyenne
no i’m trying to not trying to remember
what we called it
well i just call it an oh 23. yeah
it’s a observation chopper right yeah
yeah
it was one of the one of the two
training helicopters that they used at
fort walters
right uh the other one was the th-55
uh and the the for like i told you i had
a friend of mine that was going to
flight school while i was in vietnam
and he told me that when i got to fort
walters i should stretch as tall as
possible
so that i could get the fly oh 23s
rather than th 55.
iowa kiowa that was the oh-58
oh and see i know they’re all indian
names i’ve tried i remember
yep and and i wanted to say it was the
sue but that’s not right
no h13 no no that’s it no
right yeah well interestingly enough
that oh 23 was the same helicopter
that uh hugh tom thompson was flying
when he stopped the milai massacre
okay yeah hey we have a guy
we have some very intelligent schooled
uh viewers who are actually our students
but then they could school us
on the question and answer session so
hopefully some one of you guys out there
could come up with that name
for uh that observation helicopter
it’s right on the tip of my tongue i
thought it was a kiowa but at least i
had that one
but that back in there all right who’s
this
first tonight that is joe galloway
oh yeah there you go and uh he was the
guest speaker
at the dedication of our half scale
replica of the vietnam veterans memorial
right and to the best of our knowledge
it is the only one
uh in existence that can be updated to
match the one in dc
so we’ve had i think seven updates for
the wall since we
uh opened it in 2009
how did they update it at the end of the
wall no
no
yeah to the same spot that they do it in
dc
and they expand up they they take the
panel out and they just
recarve the name belongs and all the
other names underneath
uh i’m not sure how they do it in dc but
ours uh ours are on
uh aluminum panels right and uh
they uh when they they pull them uh they
just recut them
wow that’s great really i mean i thought
i think i thought i didn’t know in dc
they did that during dc they put him at
the end
in other words that you know what i mean
it said 1970
what three or four when we got out the
last troops were there
april april 30th 1975 when the last
marines left
really i thought that was when the war
ended
yeah that was the fall of saigon and uh
and the marines happening with the
rooftop thing at the embassy
yep oh we still had troops then okay
yeah yeah
we were fighting forces then we were
like uh
what do you call it yeah the the combat
troops were pulled out in 73 after that
that’s the easy way to put it thank you
yeah okay
okay what do we got here that is our
uh-1
uh and it is a vietnam veteran
uh it is dedicated to a spec for ernie
palmieri
who is a crew chief who was killed in
that aircraft uh on a mission
in three core and there it is
uh up on the pole in the completed
garden that was our second garden
and behind it uh you can see a couple of
things uh
there’s a wall back there with plaques
on it and that
is a replica of one that was done
uh by the 52nd aviation battalion at
pleiku
uh to honor all of their uh their folks
at camp holloway
and because they couldn’t bring the wall
home from vietnam they asked if they
could build one
on our property and we said go to it
and to the right or to the left of that
you see a couple of
rotor blades there and those are from
fort walder’s
and when you when you soloed at fort
walters
uh at least when i went through they
took you to the holiday inn
and tossed you in the pool uh before
that
they threw guys in stock ponds or
anything else that they could find and
those rotor blades were what you walk
through
uh on your way to the pool and what it
says on that plaque is under these
blades past the finest pilots uh in the
world i believe
very nice very nice tribute that’s great
yeah those guys let me tell you what
we’ve had a few chopper pilots on the
show
and it’s amazing what they what they did
it’s it’s
i mean between fire support or attack
or medevac or resupply or
man they just hung in there amazingly so
long left
after that do and a lot of them made it
some of them didn’t and it was seriously
serious uh what
six thousand helicopters got shot down
yes
yeah yes and change well you have to
understand that
that most of them were young
crazy thought they were immortal
quiet when we got home we called they
called us crazy don’t call us 50 years
later crazy
[Laughter]
i’m already kidding you well i i was i
was a little older when i went over on
my second tour i was almost 27 years old
so
i had a little sense which is why i was
flying chinooks instead of
something else okay
this one this was one of our one of our
first exhibits
and this is kind of uh an exhibit of a
hooch
in vietnam and uh
i’m i’m proud to say that the the
background that you see there i built
nice i gotta say i can
you a couple questions matt go back to
that picture please
is this a teac
uh i’m not sure it probably is is that a
pioneer a pioneer
all right that’s like brought home for
vietnam a t-act reel-to-reel and a
pioneer
amp tuna rampant probably it’s crazy
oh my gosh that’s nuts guys you guys
hung on to that
yeah man that was good but
technology went and so did that what’s
this here the old uh
yeah okay this this h-34 uh we got from
a museum
in california uh it was
uh it actually served in the
presidential fleet the eisenhower
administration
and it’s still in those colors uh what
we’re trying to decide depending on who
we can get to support it
is whether it’s going to stay in those
colors whether it’s going to be painted
as a marine h34
or as a vnath h34
interesting all right get ready for the
question
q a session here we go first question
okay what do you got matt
okay any close calls when flying
one uh particularly and and it was
through my own stupidity
uh we were flying uh a mission to
relocate an artillery
uh battery uh in cambodia
and there was a two ship mission
and the first first four guns went just
fine
uh on the fifth one the other aircraft
was going to fly it up and we were going
to fly
cover for them and
on the way up we flew over
an area and i looked down and there was
a tank battle going on
down there
[Laughter]
two lines and and i assumed that it was
uh it was north vietnamese and
and uh south vietnamese going at it
and that okay you know when we come back
we’ll take a look at this and we figured
you know we’re safe we’re flying at 3
000
feet we flew up uh the other
the other ship dropped off the gun uh
and turned back
and my my co-pilot and i said
let’s go take a look and uh flying back
over it
and as we approached i looked out the
windscreen
and there were these giant green
basketballs flying up
in front of me i sucked the collective
up under my arm
pulled left cyclic and from three
thousand feet to seven thousand feet it
took about three and a half seconds i
swear
but what was that what do you mean these
green basketballs what were they
51 caliber machine gun bullets oh i got
you okay yeah
the green tracer is amazing yeah mba
used yes
yeah uh and when we got back
uh we inspected the ship found the only
thing we found
were two half-inch holes in the in the
ramp
wow i never thought we were in cambodia
we
really were in cambodia between you
say we were in cambodia
yeah yeah you know it was really good
taking part
in i was in the uh we went to atakuchi
up to the
michelin rubber plantation and uh
kind of back up there a little north a
little more northwest of that
uh let’s say we were in there because i
didn’t know we were in there but
that’s like one of the like worst kept
secrets
ever in the whole history of the earth
absolutely well uh when we when early on
before we were allowed to go in
uh we looked at at the map and it
it did say that the border was undefined
okay next question any club
next question matt
mash looking bubble helicopter hiller
no that is a bell uh oh 13
or uh the civilian
version is a 47 g
oh interesting okay i’m glad that’s a
got a lot of education
going on here unless that question was
about the one that we’ve got
and then uh yeah that is it that is a uh
killer
oh 23d
good for you okay next one
can you talk about flying capabilities
unique to the chinook because of the
rotor configuration
well for starters uh you don’t have a
tail rotor
so you don’t have to worry about
correcting for the torque of the tail
rotor
the counter rotating blades
take care of that
we had let’s face it we had more power
than any of the single engine
helicopters you’re talking
two turbine engines with 2300 shaft
horsepower
uh and uh what i flew were a models
uh we could haul eight thousand pounds
in vietnam
the uh charlie models could haul ten
thousand pounds
wow there you go okay kilo how about
that for some answers huh
next question matt
good great picture of the uh-1 yeah
thank you
thank you yeah
john says welcome home to you thank you
thank you john
really see where’s the museum located
okay where is the museum located our
mailing address
is weatherford texas but the actual
location of the museum
is much closer to mineral wells texas
west of weatherford we’re
on right on the border between parker
county
where weatherford is located and palo
pinto county where
uh mineral wells is located and we are
about
one mile east of the main gate of what
used to be fort walters
okay what’s the largest uh texas city
you you houston
austin uh the closest the closest major
city would be fort worth
really and then where where is this in
the
we’re we’re about an hour west of fort
worth
west so towards new mexico yes so
how do you have to get there you have to
take like a a train and a
plane and a bus
get there mostly on the interstate uh
interstate 20 goes most of the way there
and then you have to
take a cut off to the north but no most
of the way from where though
uh well from the airport
closest airport is dallas fort worth dfw
okay there you go
and then from there would take you what
two three hours ah no
from there uh i live about 15 minutes
north of dfw
so it takes about an hour and 20 minutes
to get there really oh that’s great
good i’m okay i’m going i’ll see you
there
how do we get a more info about the
museum what is the website again
okay the website is
www.nationalbnwarmuseum.org
you got that you got that guys well you
forget the w
there’s national vietnam vietnam
right national vmware museum dot org
right got it national vn
war museum dot org man maybe you could
put it up on the screen for the people
who can’t hear us
there you go how about see that i ask
and he provides
very good matthew thank you
that was the last comment well it’s ed
thank you very much for your service
thank you
extra service that you’re doing now and
any updates on this stuff just throw it
on our
uh vietnam veterans photo club page on
uh
facebook
do you realize we have that site there
it’s called vietnam veterans photo club
on facebook
okay you could put any information you
wanted anything about vietnam which the
museum is all about obviously
and uh it’ll get more information and
guys will share it
we have uh 85 000 members in that on
that page
and uh we’ve got a lot of other pages
after that so we share them from that
to uh a bunch of other pages so uh which
probably go up to about 300 000
with uh five or six of the other pages
that we have
so i want to thank you very much well
thank you
god bless you and welcome home brother
welcome okay thank you very much for
watching tonight
veterans live show we’ll be back again
next week with a very special guest
if you want to be on the show just
write us at vietnam veterans photo club
and this is brought to you by fall
never forgotten vietnam memorials in the
usa book
it gives you uh one memorial from each
state usually the state
memorial uh photos
and the lists all of troops
and marines sailors soldiers airmen
and coast guardsmen who never made it
home
thank you very much god bless you and
good night
