1st LT. Leland Goldberg
U.S. Army – Battalion Staff Logistics Officer
459th and 63rd Signal Battalions
Nha Trang and Phu Bai Vietnam
June ’67 – June ‘68
U.S. Army – Battalion Staff Logistics Officer
459th and 63rd Signal Battalions
Nha Trang and Phu Bai Vietnam
June ’67 – June ‘68
Leland Goldberg was born December 18, 1941 in Roxbury, Massachusetts eleven days after Pearl Harbor. Lee, his younger and older brothers and younger sister and parents lived in a two-bedroom apartment on the second floor of a three family house. Lee’s father was a public accountant working in Boston. “We didn’t have much.” When Lee came home from school his job was to shovel coal into the furnace. Lee remembers having an icebox rather than a refrigerator, having a kerosene stove, and every night at dusk someone would come around and light the gas street lamps. He also remembers having a phone, but it required an operator to place your call because there was no dial. When you picked up the phone to call the operator you might hear another conversation. That was called a party line. If you wanted to make a call you had to ask the other party to hang up so you could place your call. When Lee was four years old, he had tonsilitis and had his tonsils removed……on his kitchen table.
Lee’s family didn’t own a car and there was no television. His entertainment was listening to Jack Benny, The Lone Ranger, Amos ‘n Andy and the Green Hornet on the Radio. When Lee did get a television, he remembers that broadcasting was not 24 hours because there wasn’t enough programing to fill a 24 hour period 365 days each year. Broadcasting ended each evening at midnight and concluded with the playing of the National Anthem. Broadcasting resumed the next morning around 6am with a test pattern and a constant beep until the programming began. As a child Lee enjoyed Milton Berle, Howdie Doodie, Ed Sullivan, and Sid Caesar.
His parents owned a summer cottage at Nantasket Beach in Hull, MA. They didn’t have a car and each June the movers would come and pick up their furniture in Roxbury and drive it to Hull. After Labor Day, the process was repeated in reverse. Lee would ride along in the back of the moving van with his brothers.
Lee’s family was Jewish, and his grandfather followed the theological tenants of Orthodox Judaism and so did Lee. His grandfather wanted him to become a rabbi and paid for him to attend an all-day Jewish parochial school called Maimonides, which Lee attended through 6th grade. At the start of 7th grade the family moved to Hull where they rented a house on K Street, as their summer cottage was not heated. Lee attended Hull public school there. In the 8th grade, Lee and his family moved to Brookline, MA where he attended Driscoll School and then Brookline High School. One of his classmates was Bob Kraft, future owner of the Patriots. “Life was good growing up as a kid.”
The family had little extra cash to help Lee through college so he went to Northeastern University where he could help pay for college tuition through the co-op program. He majored in accounting and minored in economics. He joined ROTC because he needed extra money for college. Vietnam was just starting during this time and Lee thought there would be a draft so he decided if he was going into the military to serve his country, he wanted to go in as an officer and going through the ROTC program would accomplish that. He lived off campus for his first three years and lived in his fraternity house for his last two years.
Fraternity had a lasting impact on Lee’s life. In the spring of 1962, the fraternity was having a dinner dance where they provided a scholarship to honor the outstanding fraternity brother. One of his fraternity brothers asked Lee if he was going to the dinner dance. Lee said no because he didn’t have a date. His fraternity brother was dating a girl from Boston University, and he suggested asking his girlfriend to find Lee a date. Sure, enough she found a date for Lee. He recalls saying he had to meet her first. So, Lee arranged to meet for a bowling date and told her he would pick her up at her dorm, Shelton Hall. Evy Birnbach had a friend who worked at the reception desk of her dorm, and she said she would screen Lee when he arrived. If her friend didn’t think Evy should come down, she would signal by phone not to bother and tell Lee that Evy was sick. Lee arrived and Evy’s friend wasn’t keen on Lee, but Evy thought she should see for herself. She came down, walked past him, thought he was cute, and introduced herself. They went bowling at Holiday Lanes. Lee was impressed when Evy beat him in bowling. At the dinner dance, Lee won the scholarship as the outstanding brother, they dated after that and were married in his senior year of college in 1964. 58 years later they are still going strong.
After graduation, Lee was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant, but was able to defer his entry to the Army until he completed his MBA at Boston College. Lee worked full time as an auditor at a Boston CPA firm and went to school full time in the evening. They rented a fourth-floor walkup apartment in Brighton for $95 per month. Lee thought his career path would be in accounting.
Upon graduation from Boston College, they then drove to Fort Gordon in Georgia for four months of Basic Training. Although tough, Lee enjoyed Basic Training, and he forged tight bonds with the guys in his Basic Training unit. From there, they drove to Ft Monmouth in Eatontown, New Jersey for advanced communications training.
In January 1967, Lee received orders to Fort Sill in Lawton, Oklahoma where he taught communications to OCS candidates. They bought a house, thinking they would be stationed there for a while. Lee enjoyed teaching and, although the Vietnam War was heating up, he hoped that they would be able stay and tour the southwest USA. Three months later he received orders for Vietnam.
Evy wasn’t happy about Lee going off to war, but they both understood what he had signed up for. Lee had a pretty good idea of what he was in for since he had spent considerable time studying the history of Vietnam. Lee and Evy then drove back to Boston so Evy could be near her family. She took a job teaching in the Boston public schools. In June 1967, Lee flew to San Francisco and then, after stopping at Clark Air Base in the Philippines, finally landed in Bien Hoa Air Field 35 miles northeast of Saigon, Vietnam.
When Lee stepped off the plane in Vietnam, he was overwhelmed by the very pungent smell. “It’s hard to explain the smell but it’s unforgettable.” He’s never smelled anything like it since. Lee was assigned to the 459th Signal Battalion, jumped into a jeep convoy and headed up to Nha Trang, a coastal city in central South Vietnam. While driving to Nha Trang, a shot rang out. Although it was only one shot, it was unsettling, and Lee now realized he was in a war zone.
From Nha Trang Lee drove north to Tuy Hoa, also a coastal city about one hour north of Nha Trang, where he was assigned as the cable operations officer, responsible for installing and maintaining military communications for the Tuy Hoa area, which included an Air Force Base.
I asked Lee if he was near the front line. “There was no front line in Vietnam. You don’t know who the Viet Cong is, who is your friend, who is your enemy. You are always on guard. The Vietnamese who worked with you might be your friend during the day and they might shoot you in the evening. You get used to it, but you develop a heightened sense of urgency and you are always watching and on alert.”
In October, Lee was sent back to Nha Trang to take over as the Assistant Logistics Officer for the Signal Battalion. One of his first assignments was to audit the books and records of an officer’s club on an island off the coast of Nha Trang. He was also responsible for taking convoys to Cam Ranh Bay, a major Army Depot, to obtain re-supplies. On another occasion, an enlisted man was charged with an unauthorized taking of a vehicle from the motor pool, and he was entitled to have an officer represent him at his court martial hearing. He asked Lee to represent him, despite Lee having no legal training. Lee won the case. Over the course of the next few weeks, Lee was asked to represent several other soldiers in their court martial hearings and won all the cases. He was developing quite a reputation. Although the JAG officer hearing the cases complemented Lee on his legal acumen, the prosecutor, wasn’t very happy, as the intent in bringing charges was to set an example for anyone thinking about breaking military rules. One day, Lee was called to meet with the Brigade Adjutant, and Lee was read a Letter of Reprimand for providing too vigorous a defense, which letter would have been placed in his military files. After giving Lee a brief chewing out, the letter was then torn up and Lee was dismissed. Message received. Lee’s military legal career was over and, although his reputation had spread and his defense counsel services were still being requested, he would no longer be taking on this role.
In November, Lee was able to take some leave and meet Evy in Honolulu, Hawaii for five days of R&R. Lee said it was a surreal feeling being one day in filthy conditions in a combat zone and the next day enjoying the beaches, clean hotels, touring pineapple plantations and going to see a Don Ho show. It was an emotional departure when he left Evy and Lee remembers thinking that he might never see her again.
Lee returned to Nha Trang during monsoon season. It was very humid and rained every day. He was promoted to 1st Lieutenant and became the Acting S-4 or Battalion Logistics Officer. A month later Christmas came, and the Army supplied a turkey dinner for the troops.
One day Lee’s Battalion Commander, Lt. Colonel Elmer Graham, called Lee to report to him at once. When Lee arrived, he asked, “Goldberg, when is the last time you wrote your mother a letter?” Lee replied “What? I don’t remember, Sir. But I have been writing my wife almost daily and assume she is talking with my mother.” Graham responded “Well, we just got an inquiry from Senator (Ted) Kennedy’s office through the Department of the Army in Washington, DC, advising that your mother is complaining that you haven’t written to her and she is worried for your well-being.” “I need to respond immediately, so you need to write her a letter right now so we can get it in the post and I can respond to Senator Kennedy’s inquiry.”
On January 30th, 1968, Lt. Colonel Graham, the Battalion Commander, called Lee to his office and said, “Goldberg, get your shit together”. “You and I and the Sgt. Major are leaving in an hour. ” Lee asked “where are we going” and Lt. Colonel Graham told him “I can’t tell you”. Not knowing where they were headed or why it was so urgent, Lee packed his things for a few days trip, and then boarded the plane.
When Lee landed at the US air base in Phu Bai, which was 6 miles south of the City of Hue, he learned that 10,000 North Vietnamese Regular Army had attacked Hue and the Citadel, the former provincial capital, and there were only 400 Marines sent to Hue by General Westmoreland to push back the North Vietnamese. Though no one knew it at the time, the Tet Offensive had begun. Tet was a series of coordinated attacks covering over 100 cities. The North Vietnamese hoped that such a wide scale surprise attack would lead to political instability in South Vietnam and turn the populace against the government of South Vietnam. The Battle of Hue was one of the fiercest urban battles in US combat history. The battle lasted 26 days before the US Marines, supported by the 101st Airborne, First Air Cavalry and other Army units, along with the ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam), successfully repelled the North Vietnamese and retook the city. Many believe the US Marines never saw fighting like that again until the Battle in Fallujah in Iraq 40 years later.
Lee became the Logistics Officer for the 63rd Signal Battalion, which had been selected to support MACV Forward, now responsible for all military operations from DaNang to the DMZ. MACV Forward, (Military Assistance Command Vietnam), was a joint command base (US and ARVN) established at the Phu Bai Combat Base under the command of General Creighton Abrams. General Abrams, as a Captain, had served as the tank commander under George S. Patton during the WWII Battle of Bastogne. Lee’s Battalion was to provide all the communications and logistics support for MACV Forward.
That same evening, the Nha Trang airport was hit and was broadcast back in the States on the CBS evening news by Walter Cronkite. Evy saw the news on TV and knew that Lee was based at Nha Trang. She had no idea that he was now n Phu Bai. After writing and sending her letters almost daily, Lee now had no way to contact her for 45 days or until mid-March 1968. After seeing the news and not hearing from Lee during this time, she assumed the worst.
The Army was sending in combat units to support the Marines and Lee’s first assignment was to stay at the Phu Bai airport, which was the closest airport to Hue, and direct the Army units where they needed to go. He did that for 24 hours a day for 3 consecutive days until he was relieved.
His next assignment was to create a communications phone line for General Abrams. Lee found that when the Marines departed for Hue, they took all the communications equipment including the wire. Lee had to scramble to find the needed supplies. As he drove around the area in his jeep, he noticed a Navy Seabee base and drove over to see if he could scavenge any supplies. He drove up to the gate, which was guarded, gave a quick officers salute to the lower ranking sentry and kept driving. Once inside, he saw a large, enclosed area, which, among other things, contained the phone wire he desperately needed. He drove in, loaded the wire into the back of the jeep and hopped back in. As he started driving out, he saw a Naval officer approaching him who appeared to be furious that Lee was taking supplies from their Seabee supply depot without permission. Lee jumped out of the jeep, walked directly up to the Naval Officer, saluted, and said, “Lieutenant Goldberg sir. I am taking this wire to set up phone service for General Creighton Abrams sir.” He saluted the officer, jumped back in the jeep and headed back to base before the officer could react. In short order, General Abrams had the wire he needed for his phone.
Since Phu Bai was only 6 miles from the City of Hue, and was home to MacV Forward, the North Vietnamese would often shoot rockets and mortars into the base area in Phu Bai at night. Lee’s cantonment area was across the street from the MacV Forward headquarters. When this happened, usually in the middle of the night, the soldiers, including Lee, would grab their helmets and flak jackets and jump into the bunkers they had constructed to protect against incoming mortars.
The rest of Lee’s Battalion was supposed to arrive in Phu Bai within 7-10 days, with supplies including Lee’s footlocker containing clean fatigues and underwear. Since it became impossible during the Tet Offensive to travel to Phu Bai by road or ship, It took 30 days before they could drive safely over the mountain road from DaNang to Phu Bai, which left Lee with one change of fatigues and one extra set of underwear during this entire time.
Shortly after the Marines re-took Hue, Lee was ordered to drive to the battalion’s communications center in Hue and investigate what happened to some missing Top-Secret documents. Lee had heard there were 100,000 homeless South Vietnamese living outside the city near a Church and were living in abject squalor with little food. Lee decided he would drive over to the Seabee bakery for 20 loaves of French bread and hand them out to the displaced Vietnamese as he and his driver were driving north to Hue. Once 5,000 were fed with five loaves and two fishes but on this day, 20 loaves would not satisfy 100,000 starving refugees. As his 3/4-ton truck slowed down to hand out the loaves of bread, the starving crowd rushed the truck and started rocking it. Fearing for their lives, Lee threw the bread out the window to the people and instructed his driver to push through the crowd. No good deed goes unpunished.
Khe Sanh was a remote Marine outpost surrounded by mountains at the end of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The North Vietnamese Army artillery pounded Khe Sanh for 77 days during the Tet Offensive. After sustaining heavy losses and casualties, and after a meeting of the top US and ARVN commanders at MacV Forward headquarters, it was decided that the Marines should abandon the base. The Khe Sanh Marines were then brought to Lee’s cantonment area. Lee recalls seeing dirty, stench filled Marine uniforms piled high on the wooden walkway outside the shower hooch, with Marines joyfully taking their first shower in months.
Shortly after, Lee was asked to take a marine who had a nervous breakdown, to DaNang via marine convoy and onto a Red Cross Hospital ship in DaNang Harbor. Lee took the convoy over the mountains to DaNang and, after inquiring, learned that the American Hospital ship was outside of DaNang harbor. He was able to get a ride on a small boat to take them out to the ship, where he delivered the Marine. He then learned that the ship was headed out to sea to refuel and wouldn’t return for 24 hours.
Being on the hospital ship for that period of time was surreal for Lee, as he had just come from a combat situation, driven over a mountain in his dirty fatigues and now found himself on a clean ship with American female nurses and doctors dressed in clean, white uniforms. He also saw the reality of the war when he witnessed helicopters landing on the ship with many bloody, wounded and near-dead US servicemen who had been wounded during battle and were now fighting for their lives. Witnessing this reality of war and life and death had a deep and lasting effect on Lee.
During his time in Phu Bai, driving in marine convoys over the mountain to DaNang for re-supplies, Lee always drove shotgun or on watch with his M-16 rifle knowing that the Viet Cong would often set claymore mines on the side of the mountain to blow up the US trucks. Lee also flew in many Huey helicopters throughout the northern I-Corps sector of South Vietnam to checkout supplies and signal units under his responsibility, including flights to Quang Tri and Dong Ha at the DMZ between North and South Vietnam. Lee was very fortunate to have only received minor injuries during this 6-month stay in Phu Bai.
On June 30th, 1968, Lee’s 12-month tour ended, and he flew from Phu Bai to Camh Rhan Bay, then left Vietnam for Fort Lewis in Washington. He kissed the ground when he landed in the USA. Lee and his wife discussed Lee making a career of the military. She was against it because Vietnam was still ongoing, and he could be called back at any time. Lee had a 6 year commitment to the Army, but he was able to be discharged to inactive duty, because he served two years of active duty, including one year in Vietnam.
Lee flew across the country to Logan Airport in Boston, then drove with his wife to Norwood Mass. where Evy had found an apartment. The couple took a weeks’ vacation at Wells Beach Maine and eight months and two weeks later the couple had their first child. Now Lee needed to find a job.
Lee came back a different person than when he left. After living in a third world country for 12 months and going through his Vietnam experience, He had a much greater appreciation for living in a democracy and what the United States has to offer, he was thankful for his life, and approached life with a heightened sense of urgency and appreciation for coming home alive and in one piece.
Lee didn’t know what his path would be, but he knew he was changed and could not see himself returning to public accounting. So, he went to the library, and he looked up names of companies where he might want to apply. He typed his resume on a Smith Corona typewriter and made multiple copies on a Xerox mimeograph machine. He mailed his resumes and cover letters and a short time later, he received a letter from John Quincey Adams, IV (JQ), Senior Vice President in the Bond & Stock Department of the John Hancock Life Insurance Company. Lee made an appointment for an interview, and after 30 minutes of talking about his military background and experiences, and without asking for references, JQ Adams offered Lee a job managing a portfolio of loans to a diversified group of US companies. Lee accepted. The starting salary was $12,000 per year.
Lee learned a lot while working at John Hancock, but what he liked the most about his work was dealing with companies that were under-performing or in trouble. He thought working with these companies was exciting and required creativity, and the closest thing to his experiences in Vietnam. Lee said this opportunity changed his life.
Lee was doing well at John Hancock but, after 6 years, he was looking for a bigger role in helping companies. So, he then took a job as the Financial Officer at The Stop & Shop Companies, a $1 billion supermarket chain. From there he held various positions as CFO and CEO and spent time at Bank of Boston as Senior Credit Officer of their New England Lending Division and in their Loan Review Department, working on troubled loans. He eventually transitioned into managing troubled companies at several consulting and turnaround management firms. During his professional career, he became President or CEO of fourteen companies and a consultant to several hundred businesses. He was also a Partner in the Business Restructuring Group at Coopers & Lybrand and was a Founder and President of the Northeast Chapter of the Turnaround Management Association.
In 2013, Lee had lunch with an old friend who was also a Vietnam veteran and had worked with Lee and John Quincey Adams IV at John Hancock. Lee’s friend stayed and made John Hancock a career. During lunch, he told Lee the reason why JQ hired him. JQ had dropped out of Harvard College to fly bombers in WWII. His plane was shot down and his best buddy in his crew was killed. Later, JQ returned to the US and paid his respects to his friend’s father, who was Tim Clark, Chairman of John Hancock. Mr. Clark told him that he greatly appreciated his friendship with his son and his paying his respects and, if he so chose, there would always be a job for JQ at John Hancock. JQ finished college at Harvard and then took a job with John Hancock in 1948. Twenty years later, JQ interviewed Lee and hired Lee because he was a combat veteran.
When Lee heard that story, he knew he had to do something to give back to the veteran community and as a thank you to John Quincy Adams IV because of the opportunity that JQ gave him, which changed his life. This motivated Lee to form VETRN, a not for profit, that helps veterans and family members, free of charge, learn how to run and grow their small businesses, raise capital and work through problems.
VETRN is now in its 9th year, is a national online program, has received SBA grant funding to grow its programming further, and has many success stories and accolades from among its more than 90 graduates to date.
Lee has an expression, “life is what happens to you while you are trying to figure out what you are going to do with your life.” Lee thank you for serving your country in some of the most dangerous spots in Vietnam during one of the most dangerous periods of the war. The next time you decide to handout loaves of bread to thousands of starving people, make sure you run the numbers!
Lee’s family didn’t own a car and there was no television. His entertainment was listening to Jack Benny, The Lone Ranger, Amos ‘n Andy and the Green Hornet on the Radio. When Lee did get a television, he remembers that broadcasting was not 24 hours because there wasn’t enough programing to fill a 24 hour period 365 days each year. Broadcasting ended each evening at midnight and concluded with the playing of the National Anthem. Broadcasting resumed the next morning around 6am with a test pattern and a constant beep until the programming began. As a child Lee enjoyed Milton Berle, Howdie Doodie, Ed Sullivan, and Sid Caesar.
His parents owned a summer cottage at Nantasket Beach in Hull, MA. They didn’t have a car and each June the movers would come and pick up their furniture in Roxbury and drive it to Hull. After Labor Day, the process was repeated in reverse. Lee would ride along in the back of the moving van with his brothers.
Lee’s family was Jewish, and his grandfather followed the theological tenants of Orthodox Judaism and so did Lee. His grandfather wanted him to become a rabbi and paid for him to attend an all-day Jewish parochial school called Maimonides, which Lee attended through 6th grade. At the start of 7th grade the family moved to Hull where they rented a house on K Street, as their summer cottage was not heated. Lee attended Hull public school there. In the 8th grade, Lee and his family moved to Brookline, MA where he attended Driscoll School and then Brookline High School. One of his classmates was Bob Kraft, future owner of the Patriots. “Life was good growing up as a kid.”
The family had little extra cash to help Lee through college so he went to Northeastern University where he could help pay for college tuition through the co-op program. He majored in accounting and minored in economics. He joined ROTC because he needed extra money for college. Vietnam was just starting during this time and Lee thought there would be a draft so he decided if he was going into the military to serve his country, he wanted to go in as an officer and going through the ROTC program would accomplish that. He lived off campus for his first three years and lived in his fraternity house for his last two years.
Fraternity had a lasting impact on Lee’s life. In the spring of 1962, the fraternity was having a dinner dance where they provided a scholarship to honor the outstanding fraternity brother. One of his fraternity brothers asked Lee if he was going to the dinner dance. Lee said no because he didn’t have a date. His fraternity brother was dating a girl from Boston University, and he suggested asking his girlfriend to find Lee a date. Sure, enough she found a date for Lee. He recalls saying he had to meet her first. So, Lee arranged to meet for a bowling date and told her he would pick her up at her dorm, Shelton Hall. Evy Birnbach had a friend who worked at the reception desk of her dorm, and she said she would screen Lee when he arrived. If her friend didn’t think Evy should come down, she would signal by phone not to bother and tell Lee that Evy was sick. Lee arrived and Evy’s friend wasn’t keen on Lee, but Evy thought she should see for herself. She came down, walked past him, thought he was cute, and introduced herself. They went bowling at Holiday Lanes. Lee was impressed when Evy beat him in bowling. At the dinner dance, Lee won the scholarship as the outstanding brother, they dated after that and were married in his senior year of college in 1964. 58 years later they are still going strong.
After graduation, Lee was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant, but was able to defer his entry to the Army until he completed his MBA at Boston College. Lee worked full time as an auditor at a Boston CPA firm and went to school full time in the evening. They rented a fourth-floor walkup apartment in Brighton for $95 per month. Lee thought his career path would be in accounting.
Upon graduation from Boston College, they then drove to Fort Gordon in Georgia for four months of Basic Training. Although tough, Lee enjoyed Basic Training, and he forged tight bonds with the guys in his Basic Training unit. From there, they drove to Ft Monmouth in Eatontown, New Jersey for advanced communications training.
In January 1967, Lee received orders to Fort Sill in Lawton, Oklahoma where he taught communications to OCS candidates. They bought a house, thinking they would be stationed there for a while. Lee enjoyed teaching and, although the Vietnam War was heating up, he hoped that they would be able stay and tour the southwest USA. Three months later he received orders for Vietnam.
Evy wasn’t happy about Lee going off to war, but they both understood what he had signed up for. Lee had a pretty good idea of what he was in for since he had spent considerable time studying the history of Vietnam. Lee and Evy then drove back to Boston so Evy could be near her family. She took a job teaching in the Boston public schools. In June 1967, Lee flew to San Francisco and then, after stopping at Clark Air Base in the Philippines, finally landed in Bien Hoa Air Field 35 miles northeast of Saigon, Vietnam.
When Lee stepped off the plane in Vietnam, he was overwhelmed by the very pungent smell. “It’s hard to explain the smell but it’s unforgettable.” He’s never smelled anything like it since. Lee was assigned to the 459th Signal Battalion, jumped into a jeep convoy and headed up to Nha Trang, a coastal city in central South Vietnam. While driving to Nha Trang, a shot rang out. Although it was only one shot, it was unsettling, and Lee now realized he was in a war zone.
From Nha Trang Lee drove north to Tuy Hoa, also a coastal city about one hour north of Nha Trang, where he was assigned as the cable operations officer, responsible for installing and maintaining military communications for the Tuy Hoa area, which included an Air Force Base.
I asked Lee if he was near the front line. “There was no front line in Vietnam. You don’t know who the Viet Cong is, who is your friend, who is your enemy. You are always on guard. The Vietnamese who worked with you might be your friend during the day and they might shoot you in the evening. You get used to it, but you develop a heightened sense of urgency and you are always watching and on alert.”
In October, Lee was sent back to Nha Trang to take over as the Assistant Logistics Officer for the Signal Battalion. One of his first assignments was to audit the books and records of an officer’s club on an island off the coast of Nha Trang. He was also responsible for taking convoys to Cam Ranh Bay, a major Army Depot, to obtain re-supplies. On another occasion, an enlisted man was charged with an unauthorized taking of a vehicle from the motor pool, and he was entitled to have an officer represent him at his court martial hearing. He asked Lee to represent him, despite Lee having no legal training. Lee won the case. Over the course of the next few weeks, Lee was asked to represent several other soldiers in their court martial hearings and won all the cases. He was developing quite a reputation. Although the JAG officer hearing the cases complemented Lee on his legal acumen, the prosecutor, wasn’t very happy, as the intent in bringing charges was to set an example for anyone thinking about breaking military rules. One day, Lee was called to meet with the Brigade Adjutant, and Lee was read a Letter of Reprimand for providing too vigorous a defense, which letter would have been placed in his military files. After giving Lee a brief chewing out, the letter was then torn up and Lee was dismissed. Message received. Lee’s military legal career was over and, although his reputation had spread and his defense counsel services were still being requested, he would no longer be taking on this role.
In November, Lee was able to take some leave and meet Evy in Honolulu, Hawaii for five days of R&R. Lee said it was a surreal feeling being one day in filthy conditions in a combat zone and the next day enjoying the beaches, clean hotels, touring pineapple plantations and going to see a Don Ho show. It was an emotional departure when he left Evy and Lee remembers thinking that he might never see her again.
Lee returned to Nha Trang during monsoon season. It was very humid and rained every day. He was promoted to 1st Lieutenant and became the Acting S-4 or Battalion Logistics Officer. A month later Christmas came, and the Army supplied a turkey dinner for the troops.
One day Lee’s Battalion Commander, Lt. Colonel Elmer Graham, called Lee to report to him at once. When Lee arrived, he asked, “Goldberg, when is the last time you wrote your mother a letter?” Lee replied “What? I don’t remember, Sir. But I have been writing my wife almost daily and assume she is talking with my mother.” Graham responded “Well, we just got an inquiry from Senator (Ted) Kennedy’s office through the Department of the Army in Washington, DC, advising that your mother is complaining that you haven’t written to her and she is worried for your well-being.” “I need to respond immediately, so you need to write her a letter right now so we can get it in the post and I can respond to Senator Kennedy’s inquiry.”
On January 30th, 1968, Lt. Colonel Graham, the Battalion Commander, called Lee to his office and said, “Goldberg, get your shit together”. “You and I and the Sgt. Major are leaving in an hour. ” Lee asked “where are we going” and Lt. Colonel Graham told him “I can’t tell you”. Not knowing where they were headed or why it was so urgent, Lee packed his things for a few days trip, and then boarded the plane.
When Lee landed at the US air base in Phu Bai, which was 6 miles south of the City of Hue, he learned that 10,000 North Vietnamese Regular Army had attacked Hue and the Citadel, the former provincial capital, and there were only 400 Marines sent to Hue by General Westmoreland to push back the North Vietnamese. Though no one knew it at the time, the Tet Offensive had begun. Tet was a series of coordinated attacks covering over 100 cities. The North Vietnamese hoped that such a wide scale surprise attack would lead to political instability in South Vietnam and turn the populace against the government of South Vietnam. The Battle of Hue was one of the fiercest urban battles in US combat history. The battle lasted 26 days before the US Marines, supported by the 101st Airborne, First Air Cavalry and other Army units, along with the ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam), successfully repelled the North Vietnamese and retook the city. Many believe the US Marines never saw fighting like that again until the Battle in Fallujah in Iraq 40 years later.
Lee became the Logistics Officer for the 63rd Signal Battalion, which had been selected to support MACV Forward, now responsible for all military operations from DaNang to the DMZ. MACV Forward, (Military Assistance Command Vietnam), was a joint command base (US and ARVN) established at the Phu Bai Combat Base under the command of General Creighton Abrams. General Abrams, as a Captain, had served as the tank commander under George S. Patton during the WWII Battle of Bastogne. Lee’s Battalion was to provide all the communications and logistics support for MACV Forward.
That same evening, the Nha Trang airport was hit and was broadcast back in the States on the CBS evening news by Walter Cronkite. Evy saw the news on TV and knew that Lee was based at Nha Trang. She had no idea that he was now n Phu Bai. After writing and sending her letters almost daily, Lee now had no way to contact her for 45 days or until mid-March 1968. After seeing the news and not hearing from Lee during this time, she assumed the worst.
The Army was sending in combat units to support the Marines and Lee’s first assignment was to stay at the Phu Bai airport, which was the closest airport to Hue, and direct the Army units where they needed to go. He did that for 24 hours a day for 3 consecutive days until he was relieved.
His next assignment was to create a communications phone line for General Abrams. Lee found that when the Marines departed for Hue, they took all the communications equipment including the wire. Lee had to scramble to find the needed supplies. As he drove around the area in his jeep, he noticed a Navy Seabee base and drove over to see if he could scavenge any supplies. He drove up to the gate, which was guarded, gave a quick officers salute to the lower ranking sentry and kept driving. Once inside, he saw a large, enclosed area, which, among other things, contained the phone wire he desperately needed. He drove in, loaded the wire into the back of the jeep and hopped back in. As he started driving out, he saw a Naval officer approaching him who appeared to be furious that Lee was taking supplies from their Seabee supply depot without permission. Lee jumped out of the jeep, walked directly up to the Naval Officer, saluted, and said, “Lieutenant Goldberg sir. I am taking this wire to set up phone service for General Creighton Abrams sir.” He saluted the officer, jumped back in the jeep and headed back to base before the officer could react. In short order, General Abrams had the wire he needed for his phone.
Since Phu Bai was only 6 miles from the City of Hue, and was home to MacV Forward, the North Vietnamese would often shoot rockets and mortars into the base area in Phu Bai at night. Lee’s cantonment area was across the street from the MacV Forward headquarters. When this happened, usually in the middle of the night, the soldiers, including Lee, would grab their helmets and flak jackets and jump into the bunkers they had constructed to protect against incoming mortars.
The rest of Lee’s Battalion was supposed to arrive in Phu Bai within 7-10 days, with supplies including Lee’s footlocker containing clean fatigues and underwear. Since it became impossible during the Tet Offensive to travel to Phu Bai by road or ship, It took 30 days before they could drive safely over the mountain road from DaNang to Phu Bai, which left Lee with one change of fatigues and one extra set of underwear during this entire time.
Shortly after the Marines re-took Hue, Lee was ordered to drive to the battalion’s communications center in Hue and investigate what happened to some missing Top-Secret documents. Lee had heard there were 100,000 homeless South Vietnamese living outside the city near a Church and were living in abject squalor with little food. Lee decided he would drive over to the Seabee bakery for 20 loaves of French bread and hand them out to the displaced Vietnamese as he and his driver were driving north to Hue. Once 5,000 were fed with five loaves and two fishes but on this day, 20 loaves would not satisfy 100,000 starving refugees. As his 3/4-ton truck slowed down to hand out the loaves of bread, the starving crowd rushed the truck and started rocking it. Fearing for their lives, Lee threw the bread out the window to the people and instructed his driver to push through the crowd. No good deed goes unpunished.
Khe Sanh was a remote Marine outpost surrounded by mountains at the end of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The North Vietnamese Army artillery pounded Khe Sanh for 77 days during the Tet Offensive. After sustaining heavy losses and casualties, and after a meeting of the top US and ARVN commanders at MacV Forward headquarters, it was decided that the Marines should abandon the base. The Khe Sanh Marines were then brought to Lee’s cantonment area. Lee recalls seeing dirty, stench filled Marine uniforms piled high on the wooden walkway outside the shower hooch, with Marines joyfully taking their first shower in months.
Shortly after, Lee was asked to take a marine who had a nervous breakdown, to DaNang via marine convoy and onto a Red Cross Hospital ship in DaNang Harbor. Lee took the convoy over the mountains to DaNang and, after inquiring, learned that the American Hospital ship was outside of DaNang harbor. He was able to get a ride on a small boat to take them out to the ship, where he delivered the Marine. He then learned that the ship was headed out to sea to refuel and wouldn’t return for 24 hours.
Being on the hospital ship for that period of time was surreal for Lee, as he had just come from a combat situation, driven over a mountain in his dirty fatigues and now found himself on a clean ship with American female nurses and doctors dressed in clean, white uniforms. He also saw the reality of the war when he witnessed helicopters landing on the ship with many bloody, wounded and near-dead US servicemen who had been wounded during battle and were now fighting for their lives. Witnessing this reality of war and life and death had a deep and lasting effect on Lee.
During his time in Phu Bai, driving in marine convoys over the mountain to DaNang for re-supplies, Lee always drove shotgun or on watch with his M-16 rifle knowing that the Viet Cong would often set claymore mines on the side of the mountain to blow up the US trucks. Lee also flew in many Huey helicopters throughout the northern I-Corps sector of South Vietnam to checkout supplies and signal units under his responsibility, including flights to Quang Tri and Dong Ha at the DMZ between North and South Vietnam. Lee was very fortunate to have only received minor injuries during this 6-month stay in Phu Bai.
On June 30th, 1968, Lee’s 12-month tour ended, and he flew from Phu Bai to Camh Rhan Bay, then left Vietnam for Fort Lewis in Washington. He kissed the ground when he landed in the USA. Lee and his wife discussed Lee making a career of the military. She was against it because Vietnam was still ongoing, and he could be called back at any time. Lee had a 6 year commitment to the Army, but he was able to be discharged to inactive duty, because he served two years of active duty, including one year in Vietnam.
Lee flew across the country to Logan Airport in Boston, then drove with his wife to Norwood Mass. where Evy had found an apartment. The couple took a weeks’ vacation at Wells Beach Maine and eight months and two weeks later the couple had their first child. Now Lee needed to find a job.
Lee came back a different person than when he left. After living in a third world country for 12 months and going through his Vietnam experience, He had a much greater appreciation for living in a democracy and what the United States has to offer, he was thankful for his life, and approached life with a heightened sense of urgency and appreciation for coming home alive and in one piece.
Lee didn’t know what his path would be, but he knew he was changed and could not see himself returning to public accounting. So, he went to the library, and he looked up names of companies where he might want to apply. He typed his resume on a Smith Corona typewriter and made multiple copies on a Xerox mimeograph machine. He mailed his resumes and cover letters and a short time later, he received a letter from John Quincey Adams, IV (JQ), Senior Vice President in the Bond & Stock Department of the John Hancock Life Insurance Company. Lee made an appointment for an interview, and after 30 minutes of talking about his military background and experiences, and without asking for references, JQ Adams offered Lee a job managing a portfolio of loans to a diversified group of US companies. Lee accepted. The starting salary was $12,000 per year.
Lee learned a lot while working at John Hancock, but what he liked the most about his work was dealing with companies that were under-performing or in trouble. He thought working with these companies was exciting and required creativity, and the closest thing to his experiences in Vietnam. Lee said this opportunity changed his life.
Lee was doing well at John Hancock but, after 6 years, he was looking for a bigger role in helping companies. So, he then took a job as the Financial Officer at The Stop & Shop Companies, a $1 billion supermarket chain. From there he held various positions as CFO and CEO and spent time at Bank of Boston as Senior Credit Officer of their New England Lending Division and in their Loan Review Department, working on troubled loans. He eventually transitioned into managing troubled companies at several consulting and turnaround management firms. During his professional career, he became President or CEO of fourteen companies and a consultant to several hundred businesses. He was also a Partner in the Business Restructuring Group at Coopers & Lybrand and was a Founder and President of the Northeast Chapter of the Turnaround Management Association.
In 2013, Lee had lunch with an old friend who was also a Vietnam veteran and had worked with Lee and John Quincey Adams IV at John Hancock. Lee’s friend stayed and made John Hancock a career. During lunch, he told Lee the reason why JQ hired him. JQ had dropped out of Harvard College to fly bombers in WWII. His plane was shot down and his best buddy in his crew was killed. Later, JQ returned to the US and paid his respects to his friend’s father, who was Tim Clark, Chairman of John Hancock. Mr. Clark told him that he greatly appreciated his friendship with his son and his paying his respects and, if he so chose, there would always be a job for JQ at John Hancock. JQ finished college at Harvard and then took a job with John Hancock in 1948. Twenty years later, JQ interviewed Lee and hired Lee because he was a combat veteran.
When Lee heard that story, he knew he had to do something to give back to the veteran community and as a thank you to John Quincy Adams IV because of the opportunity that JQ gave him, which changed his life. This motivated Lee to form VETRN, a not for profit, that helps veterans and family members, free of charge, learn how to run and grow their small businesses, raise capital and work through problems.
VETRN is now in its 9th year, is a national online program, has received SBA grant funding to grow its programming further, and has many success stories and accolades from among its more than 90 graduates to date.
Lee has an expression, “life is what happens to you while you are trying to figure out what you are going to do with your life.” Lee thank you for serving your country in some of the most dangerous spots in Vietnam during one of the most dangerous periods of the war. The next time you decide to handout loaves of bread to thousands of starving people, make sure you run the numbers!