SPC. 4th Class Roy Tschudy
US Army – Infantry
271st Aviation Assault Helicopter Unit
Can Tho, Mekong Delta, Vietnam. ’66-‘69
US Army – Infantry
271st Aviation Assault Helicopter Unit
Can Tho, Mekong Delta, Vietnam. ’66-‘69
Roy Tschudy was born in March of 1949 in “Da Bronx”, NY. Later he moved to the projects located in the Wakefield section of the Bronx where he grew up the middle child of three siblings. His father fought in World War II in North Africa under the command of General Patton. After the war, his father returned and worked for the New York City Transit Authority as a mechanic and sadly passed away at the age of 41 from a massive heart attack. His mother “was a saint” raising three kids by herself. “It was great growing up in the Bronx”. Most of Roy’s friends had fathers who fought in WWII and held blue collar jobs. “I wouldn’t change growing up in the Bronx for nuthin’.”
Of course, Roy grew up rooting for the Yankees, the Knicks and the football Giants. Roy loved baseball and the kids called him “White Willie” because he emulated Willie Mays. Roy would tell his friends he was going to be a professional baseball player. “Instead, I became a New York City Police Officer and was catching other things besides fly balls.”
Roy attended Our Savior Lutheran High School with a student body of 100 boys and 100 girls. In the classroom Roy was a so-so student but excelled at athletics. He patrolled centerfield and left his mark on the hardwood during his high school days.
It was 1966 and Roy knew he would be drafted as soon as he graduated because there was no money to send him to college. He asked his mother to sign his paperwork so he could enlist and have some say in his assignment. Initially she refused but ultimately signed. He was inducted at Whitehall Street in lower Manhattan and was placed on a train to Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Roy had never left the Bronx and when he arrived in “the South” he felt he needed subtitles to understand the drill sergeant’s commands. He remembers the drill sergeants asked the men from New York if they had guns and knives on them.
Roy was exceptional in the physical training phase and scored 498 out of 500 and came in second in the class. After Basic Training he was sent to Fort Benning in Georgia. When he got off the bus he saw a beautiful baseball stadium. He learned the Army had its own baseball team and he asked how to get on the team. He was quickly told, “they have thousands of guys who want to be on this team. Do you know how good you have to be?” Roy, not lacking in self-confidence, said, “well, I’m pretty good.” In March a notice went out advising that they were holding tryouts and Roy asked for permission to tryout. Permission was granted and they told him he would be back in a day. One day turned into another day and into another day and next thing he knew he was issued a uniform, given the number 9 and was the starting center fielder. “We were treated as rock stars.” The team had their own barracks and traveled to play a competitive schedule including local colleges. Roy had a good season and hit .292 for the year.
October arrived, the season ended, and Roy was sent back to his company. His Sergeant, Willie B. Williams, was waiting for him and none too happy about Roy’s absence to be a baseball player. Sgt. Williams like to ride Roy and called him a jock. Roy found out there was a basketball team and decided to tryout. He made the team as a forward and was able to put some space between himself and Sgt. Williams, who by this time, was really fed up with Roy’s athletic exploits.
His season came to an abrupt end when his company received orders to Vietnam. Roy was given his MOS and it was in the supply function. Just prior to leaving for Vietnam Roy recalled Lt. Col. J.Y. Hammock addressing the men. Hammock was not only the commanding officer but also the manager of the baseball team Roy had played on. He said “Look to your left and look to your right. One of you is not coming back.” Roy recalled Hammock as a very forceful figure. “He gave speeches like General Patton.”
His company spent 30 days on a ship enroute to Vietnam and he recalled “that trip made the Poseidon Adventure (a hit movie from the 70’s) look like a Disney Cruise. Everybody on the boat was named Ralph.” They disembarked in Vung Tau Vietnam and flew up to their base in Can Tho, 70 miles south of Saigon. It was January 31, 1968 and their first day in-country was the first day of the Tet Offensive. Roy recalls complete chaos with endless rocket and mortar attacks that lasted for quite a while.
Every Friday Sergeant Williams had Roy fly to Tan Son Knut to buy soda and beer for the base. Roy flew by Chinook helicopter and was the door gunner. He was strapped into the helicopter by a shoulder strap and manned a 60mm machine gun that shot 600 round per minute. Fortunately, they only took enemy fire sporadically.
Roy also volunteered for permanent night guard duty. The base had a runway and revetments of helicopters. The flight line was protected by a command bunker which was flanked by two-man bunkers. The last line of defense was concertina wire. Inexplicably, the defensive fortifications were constructed less than 50 feet from jungle tree line. This was far too close and left the American GI’s without ample time to react if the enemy was to attack.
It was January 13th, 1969. Roy remembers the date because he was not on guard duty and was instead listening to his transistor radio as Joe Namath and the NY Jets played the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. Suddenly there were explosions and gun fire and the base alarm was sounded. The Viet Cong were executing a well-planned attack. They broke through the wire and killed all six GI’s in the command bunker. The base was being overrun. Sappers made their way to the flight line to blow up the helicopters. With adrenaline pounding through his body, Roy grabbed his M16 and ran down to the flight line where “it was complete chaos.” There was shooting coming from behind you, in front of you, from sideways.” Roy jumped into a small ditch and began firing his rifle. He was sure he wasn’t going to make through the attack alive. Eventually the fighting stopped, “the sun rose over the tree line and by the grace of God, I made it.” The ground was littered with dozens of enemy bodies and body parts. Roy remembers walking into the command bunker and “walking through so much blood that it made a sucking sound with every step.” Roy’s buddy found part of a skull imbedded into a wooden post. He pulled it out and he and Roy gave it a proper burial. In total eight Americans were killed and 15 wounded. One of the GI’s killed was spending the last night of his tour in the command bunker before heading home the next morning. The next day, General Abrams came to inspect the site and declared it a disgrace. He immediately gave instruction to cut the tree line of the jungle back 50 yards to give the US troops a chance to defend themselves.
With only one month remaining on Roy’s tour, a new Sergeant was assigned to his company. One evening intelligence was obtained that Can Tho was going to be attacked. The Sergeant assigned the GI’s to various bunkers and he instructed Roy and another GI to follow him to the far end of the camp and then about 100 yards deep into the jungle. The Sergeant said, “You guys stay here. Intelligence says this is where they are coming, and they are coming tonight.” Roy strung together a series of New York adverbs and adjectives that, in no uncertain terms, conveyed his concerns with the lack of a bunker or a machine gun or any other protection. The other GI, from West Virginia, soon began speaking like a native New Yorker and let loose a barrage of F-Bombs to emphasize his concern. Seeing he was not going to be able to pull a fast one on Roy and his buddy, the Sergeant called into the command center and said, ‘they ain’t goin’ for it. The solution was to bring loads of sandbags and build a bunker for the men. The two GI’s sat there all night with their adrenaline running and planning for the worst. They talked and planned how they would defend their position and that included hand-to-hand combat if necessary. The Viet Cong never came.
I asked Roy if he hated the North Vietnamese while he was in-country. He said, “On January 13th, I hated them.” Otherwise, he just viewed them as the enemy.
Roy received his orders to return to the States and he landed in Fort Lewis, Washington in February 1969 where the temperature was 12 degrees. Just hours earlier it had been 104 degrees in the jungles of Vietnam. Roy and a few GI’s stopped in a restaurant to have dinner. The restaurant wouldn’t serve Roy beer. It was three weeks before his 20th birthday.
When Roy returned to his home his mother was waiting for him with a ‘Welcome Home’ banner and he spent the first 24 hours sleeping. Unsure what path his life would take, he went out and got a job at EJ Korvets to earn some money while he figured out his next step in life. It was early 1970 and the anti-war movement was growing. Roy was far younger than the average employee at Korvets. He remembers being at work and talking to a female co-worker who asked him why he was working at Korvets. He said he was trying to decide his next step and that he had just been discharged from the military. She said, “Oh, you’re one of those baby killers.” Roy’s supervisor heard the comment and told Roy he didn’t have to listen to that and moved him to another department. Many of Roy’s friends were still in Vietnam. He remembers being obsessed with watching the news and trying to keep track of their whereabouts and the major points of engagement until they came home.
Roy landed a job as a telephone installer with the New York Telephone company in 1970. He was there for only three months when the company went on strike for five months. Roy found work as a field inspector with US Testing. He was trained to conduct various testing on construction sites throughout New York City. While at US Testing, Roy began taking the exams for the New York City Police Department, Fire Department and Sanitation Department. The Police Department called first. He entered the Police Academy in May 1974, graduated in November and began patrolling the Bronx. Roy thought being a New York City native helped him easily relate to the different people and cultures on his beat. “What might work in one neighborhood might not work in another. It depends on the culture. A basic tenant in life is people are people. If you’re respectful to people, no matter who they are, you’ll get that back. It served me well; I was a good cop.”
Back in his old neighborhood, he ran into Lois, the sister of his friend from high school. When Roy left to join the Army, Lois was a 13 year old little girl, but now, she was a beautiful woman. Roy and Lois were married in 1980. “There’s no better person than my wife. If I get into heaven its only because I am riding on her coattails.” They have a son and a daughter and three grandchildren.
Over the course of his 20+ year career as a cop, Roy made over 800 arrests and received numerous awards.
He recalled arresting a guy for sneaking on a subway train. During his interview his answers to Roy’s questions were inconsistent. Roy had a bad feeling about this guy, so he fingerprinted him and sent the prints to the Feds. He got a hit, and it turned out he was a wanted FALN Bomber.
He recalled working undercover and chasing a guy, who just attempted to shoot someone, five blocks into a Kinney Garage near Yankee Stadium. Roy thought, if the guy ran in through point A he was very likely to exit at point B. Roy ran around the block and waited for him where he thought he would exit. Soon he heard footsteps and then the shooter emerged to find Roy standing there with his gun drawn.
I asked Roy what he enjoyed most about being a cop. He enjoyed locking up bad guys and helping people. I asked Roy about the worst part of being a cop. He said it was being investigated by Internal Affairs for a charge for which he was completely exonerated. Throughout his time on the police force Roy estimated he drew his weapon 15 times. “I’m grateful that I never had to take a life.” He also believes he was blessed with verbal judo skills which helped him deescalate most situations.
As a police officer Roy often saw the worst in people and at times had to deal with horrific and unimaginable situations. This can sometimes lead to a bad day on the job. Roy was always careful not to bring the job home. He had a 35 minute ride home which gave him time to decompress and sometimes he would drive around the block a few times before walking through the front door to see his family.
In 1997 Roy retired. He left the New York City Police Department with numerous honors including two Meritorious Medals, the Distinguished Duty Medal, Cop of the Month Award, and multiple New York City Public Service Awards for Valor. In the following years he worked security for the NY Yankees and then got a job in Suffern High School teaching a security guard training program.
On September 11th, 2001 Roy was fully retired. When an APB came out requesting assistance, Roy went to the attic found his gun belt and jacket and headed to Yankee Stadium. There they took a van and went to Jacoby Hospital and shuttled doctors to ground zero. Like so many other veterans, police officers, firemen and first responders Roy is hardwired to run toward the trouble. “It’s in my DNA to help people.”
“I had a great career. I loved being a police officer. I’m still a police officer. I may not be getting paid for it but I’m still a policeman.”
In 2013 Roy, in conjunction with the Vietnam Veterans of America, Rockland County Chapter 333, started The Hand Cycle Program. The organization raises funds and purchases hand cycles for veterans who have lost their legs or have suffered spinal cord injuries. These hand cycles allow injured veterans to take part in rigorous physical activity which prevents weight gain and diabetes. It also gives these veterans the mobility, freedom and independence which is important for their mental healing. They have purchased 13 hand cycles, two trike bikes, two mountain bikes, a canoe and a kayak.
In 2018 Roy wrote a book called Endless. It is the story of an American soldier who is a serial killer in Vietnam. This is a novel based on the true story his time in Vietnam. Roy has also authored Up Close and Personal and Are you Sh*ttin me? Can I get a Break?
In 2020 Roy was voted Veteran of the Year in Rockland County and in 2022 was elected to the Veterans Hall of Fame.
Roy is living with a brain tumor and lymphoma which he believes is from Agent Orange. Meeting Roy, you would never know that. He is engaging, humble, funny, witty, rolls from story to story, is full of gratitude and is quintessentially New York. He clearly loves being a grandfather. “I am blessed more than I deserve.”
Roy, the people of the United States and New York City have been blessed by your service. In the words of the Resolution used to confer your Veteran of the Year award, “……having served with unparalleled patriotism at home and abroad….and demonstrated his love for this country and merits forever, the highest respect of his State and Nation.”
Let that sink in.
Of course, Roy grew up rooting for the Yankees, the Knicks and the football Giants. Roy loved baseball and the kids called him “White Willie” because he emulated Willie Mays. Roy would tell his friends he was going to be a professional baseball player. “Instead, I became a New York City Police Officer and was catching other things besides fly balls.”
Roy attended Our Savior Lutheran High School with a student body of 100 boys and 100 girls. In the classroom Roy was a so-so student but excelled at athletics. He patrolled centerfield and left his mark on the hardwood during his high school days.
It was 1966 and Roy knew he would be drafted as soon as he graduated because there was no money to send him to college. He asked his mother to sign his paperwork so he could enlist and have some say in his assignment. Initially she refused but ultimately signed. He was inducted at Whitehall Street in lower Manhattan and was placed on a train to Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Roy had never left the Bronx and when he arrived in “the South” he felt he needed subtitles to understand the drill sergeant’s commands. He remembers the drill sergeants asked the men from New York if they had guns and knives on them.
Roy was exceptional in the physical training phase and scored 498 out of 500 and came in second in the class. After Basic Training he was sent to Fort Benning in Georgia. When he got off the bus he saw a beautiful baseball stadium. He learned the Army had its own baseball team and he asked how to get on the team. He was quickly told, “they have thousands of guys who want to be on this team. Do you know how good you have to be?” Roy, not lacking in self-confidence, said, “well, I’m pretty good.” In March a notice went out advising that they were holding tryouts and Roy asked for permission to tryout. Permission was granted and they told him he would be back in a day. One day turned into another day and into another day and next thing he knew he was issued a uniform, given the number 9 and was the starting center fielder. “We were treated as rock stars.” The team had their own barracks and traveled to play a competitive schedule including local colleges. Roy had a good season and hit .292 for the year.
October arrived, the season ended, and Roy was sent back to his company. His Sergeant, Willie B. Williams, was waiting for him and none too happy about Roy’s absence to be a baseball player. Sgt. Williams like to ride Roy and called him a jock. Roy found out there was a basketball team and decided to tryout. He made the team as a forward and was able to put some space between himself and Sgt. Williams, who by this time, was really fed up with Roy’s athletic exploits.
His season came to an abrupt end when his company received orders to Vietnam. Roy was given his MOS and it was in the supply function. Just prior to leaving for Vietnam Roy recalled Lt. Col. J.Y. Hammock addressing the men. Hammock was not only the commanding officer but also the manager of the baseball team Roy had played on. He said “Look to your left and look to your right. One of you is not coming back.” Roy recalled Hammock as a very forceful figure. “He gave speeches like General Patton.”
His company spent 30 days on a ship enroute to Vietnam and he recalled “that trip made the Poseidon Adventure (a hit movie from the 70’s) look like a Disney Cruise. Everybody on the boat was named Ralph.” They disembarked in Vung Tau Vietnam and flew up to their base in Can Tho, 70 miles south of Saigon. It was January 31, 1968 and their first day in-country was the first day of the Tet Offensive. Roy recalls complete chaos with endless rocket and mortar attacks that lasted for quite a while.
Every Friday Sergeant Williams had Roy fly to Tan Son Knut to buy soda and beer for the base. Roy flew by Chinook helicopter and was the door gunner. He was strapped into the helicopter by a shoulder strap and manned a 60mm machine gun that shot 600 round per minute. Fortunately, they only took enemy fire sporadically.
Roy also volunteered for permanent night guard duty. The base had a runway and revetments of helicopters. The flight line was protected by a command bunker which was flanked by two-man bunkers. The last line of defense was concertina wire. Inexplicably, the defensive fortifications were constructed less than 50 feet from jungle tree line. This was far too close and left the American GI’s without ample time to react if the enemy was to attack.
It was January 13th, 1969. Roy remembers the date because he was not on guard duty and was instead listening to his transistor radio as Joe Namath and the NY Jets played the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. Suddenly there were explosions and gun fire and the base alarm was sounded. The Viet Cong were executing a well-planned attack. They broke through the wire and killed all six GI’s in the command bunker. The base was being overrun. Sappers made their way to the flight line to blow up the helicopters. With adrenaline pounding through his body, Roy grabbed his M16 and ran down to the flight line where “it was complete chaos.” There was shooting coming from behind you, in front of you, from sideways.” Roy jumped into a small ditch and began firing his rifle. He was sure he wasn’t going to make through the attack alive. Eventually the fighting stopped, “the sun rose over the tree line and by the grace of God, I made it.” The ground was littered with dozens of enemy bodies and body parts. Roy remembers walking into the command bunker and “walking through so much blood that it made a sucking sound with every step.” Roy’s buddy found part of a skull imbedded into a wooden post. He pulled it out and he and Roy gave it a proper burial. In total eight Americans were killed and 15 wounded. One of the GI’s killed was spending the last night of his tour in the command bunker before heading home the next morning. The next day, General Abrams came to inspect the site and declared it a disgrace. He immediately gave instruction to cut the tree line of the jungle back 50 yards to give the US troops a chance to defend themselves.
With only one month remaining on Roy’s tour, a new Sergeant was assigned to his company. One evening intelligence was obtained that Can Tho was going to be attacked. The Sergeant assigned the GI’s to various bunkers and he instructed Roy and another GI to follow him to the far end of the camp and then about 100 yards deep into the jungle. The Sergeant said, “You guys stay here. Intelligence says this is where they are coming, and they are coming tonight.” Roy strung together a series of New York adverbs and adjectives that, in no uncertain terms, conveyed his concerns with the lack of a bunker or a machine gun or any other protection. The other GI, from West Virginia, soon began speaking like a native New Yorker and let loose a barrage of F-Bombs to emphasize his concern. Seeing he was not going to be able to pull a fast one on Roy and his buddy, the Sergeant called into the command center and said, ‘they ain’t goin’ for it. The solution was to bring loads of sandbags and build a bunker for the men. The two GI’s sat there all night with their adrenaline running and planning for the worst. They talked and planned how they would defend their position and that included hand-to-hand combat if necessary. The Viet Cong never came.
I asked Roy if he hated the North Vietnamese while he was in-country. He said, “On January 13th, I hated them.” Otherwise, he just viewed them as the enemy.
Roy received his orders to return to the States and he landed in Fort Lewis, Washington in February 1969 where the temperature was 12 degrees. Just hours earlier it had been 104 degrees in the jungles of Vietnam. Roy and a few GI’s stopped in a restaurant to have dinner. The restaurant wouldn’t serve Roy beer. It was three weeks before his 20th birthday.
When Roy returned to his home his mother was waiting for him with a ‘Welcome Home’ banner and he spent the first 24 hours sleeping. Unsure what path his life would take, he went out and got a job at EJ Korvets to earn some money while he figured out his next step in life. It was early 1970 and the anti-war movement was growing. Roy was far younger than the average employee at Korvets. He remembers being at work and talking to a female co-worker who asked him why he was working at Korvets. He said he was trying to decide his next step and that he had just been discharged from the military. She said, “Oh, you’re one of those baby killers.” Roy’s supervisor heard the comment and told Roy he didn’t have to listen to that and moved him to another department. Many of Roy’s friends were still in Vietnam. He remembers being obsessed with watching the news and trying to keep track of their whereabouts and the major points of engagement until they came home.
Roy landed a job as a telephone installer with the New York Telephone company in 1970. He was there for only three months when the company went on strike for five months. Roy found work as a field inspector with US Testing. He was trained to conduct various testing on construction sites throughout New York City. While at US Testing, Roy began taking the exams for the New York City Police Department, Fire Department and Sanitation Department. The Police Department called first. He entered the Police Academy in May 1974, graduated in November and began patrolling the Bronx. Roy thought being a New York City native helped him easily relate to the different people and cultures on his beat. “What might work in one neighborhood might not work in another. It depends on the culture. A basic tenant in life is people are people. If you’re respectful to people, no matter who they are, you’ll get that back. It served me well; I was a good cop.”
Back in his old neighborhood, he ran into Lois, the sister of his friend from high school. When Roy left to join the Army, Lois was a 13 year old little girl, but now, she was a beautiful woman. Roy and Lois were married in 1980. “There’s no better person than my wife. If I get into heaven its only because I am riding on her coattails.” They have a son and a daughter and three grandchildren.
Over the course of his 20+ year career as a cop, Roy made over 800 arrests and received numerous awards.
He recalled arresting a guy for sneaking on a subway train. During his interview his answers to Roy’s questions were inconsistent. Roy had a bad feeling about this guy, so he fingerprinted him and sent the prints to the Feds. He got a hit, and it turned out he was a wanted FALN Bomber.
He recalled working undercover and chasing a guy, who just attempted to shoot someone, five blocks into a Kinney Garage near Yankee Stadium. Roy thought, if the guy ran in through point A he was very likely to exit at point B. Roy ran around the block and waited for him where he thought he would exit. Soon he heard footsteps and then the shooter emerged to find Roy standing there with his gun drawn.
I asked Roy what he enjoyed most about being a cop. He enjoyed locking up bad guys and helping people. I asked Roy about the worst part of being a cop. He said it was being investigated by Internal Affairs for a charge for which he was completely exonerated. Throughout his time on the police force Roy estimated he drew his weapon 15 times. “I’m grateful that I never had to take a life.” He also believes he was blessed with verbal judo skills which helped him deescalate most situations.
As a police officer Roy often saw the worst in people and at times had to deal with horrific and unimaginable situations. This can sometimes lead to a bad day on the job. Roy was always careful not to bring the job home. He had a 35 minute ride home which gave him time to decompress and sometimes he would drive around the block a few times before walking through the front door to see his family.
In 1997 Roy retired. He left the New York City Police Department with numerous honors including two Meritorious Medals, the Distinguished Duty Medal, Cop of the Month Award, and multiple New York City Public Service Awards for Valor. In the following years he worked security for the NY Yankees and then got a job in Suffern High School teaching a security guard training program.
On September 11th, 2001 Roy was fully retired. When an APB came out requesting assistance, Roy went to the attic found his gun belt and jacket and headed to Yankee Stadium. There they took a van and went to Jacoby Hospital and shuttled doctors to ground zero. Like so many other veterans, police officers, firemen and first responders Roy is hardwired to run toward the trouble. “It’s in my DNA to help people.”
“I had a great career. I loved being a police officer. I’m still a police officer. I may not be getting paid for it but I’m still a policeman.”
In 2013 Roy, in conjunction with the Vietnam Veterans of America, Rockland County Chapter 333, started The Hand Cycle Program. The organization raises funds and purchases hand cycles for veterans who have lost their legs or have suffered spinal cord injuries. These hand cycles allow injured veterans to take part in rigorous physical activity which prevents weight gain and diabetes. It also gives these veterans the mobility, freedom and independence which is important for their mental healing. They have purchased 13 hand cycles, two trike bikes, two mountain bikes, a canoe and a kayak.
In 2018 Roy wrote a book called Endless. It is the story of an American soldier who is a serial killer in Vietnam. This is a novel based on the true story his time in Vietnam. Roy has also authored Up Close and Personal and Are you Sh*ttin me? Can I get a Break?
In 2020 Roy was voted Veteran of the Year in Rockland County and in 2022 was elected to the Veterans Hall of Fame.
Roy is living with a brain tumor and lymphoma which he believes is from Agent Orange. Meeting Roy, you would never know that. He is engaging, humble, funny, witty, rolls from story to story, is full of gratitude and is quintessentially New York. He clearly loves being a grandfather. “I am blessed more than I deserve.”
Roy, the people of the United States and New York City have been blessed by your service. In the words of the Resolution used to confer your Veteran of the Year award, “……having served with unparalleled patriotism at home and abroad….and demonstrated his love for this country and merits forever, the highest respect of his State and Nation.”
Let that sink in.