An Interview With Anthony Gagliardi, Vietnam War Veteran

By Michele Wing
Tony Gagliardi was born in Brooklyn on August 6, 1937, shortly after his parents
emigrated from Italy. I was started in Italy and finished in the U.S., he said with
a smile. As a young man, Gagliardi was working for the Sinclair Refining
Company in New Jersey. It was later bought out by an oil company and Gagliardi
was let go along with many other employees. A group of us decided to go on an
international month-long ski trip. We went all over Europe, Gagliardi said. When
he returned home to New York his draft notice was waiting for him. Gagliardi had
been exempted from the service during his employment and was now being
drafted at the age of 27, one year shy of the cutoff.
Gagliardi completed his basic training at Fort Dix in New Jersey, and was then
sent to Fort Benning in Georgia for jump training to be a paratrooper. While on
field maneuvers building trenches, this one guy threw a shovel full of dirt right
into the face of a full-bird general. I stopped the general from rubbing his eyes
and laid him down. I used the water from my canteen and I cleaned him up, said
Gagliardi. When the medics arrived to take over, they were impressed with
Gagliardis quick response to the general. Gagliardi said that when the time came
for their first assignments, most of the other guys in my outfit went into an
infantry combat unitI went to a medical unit in Texas. He was assigned to be a
medic at Fort Sam Huston in San Antonio Brook Army Hospital for six months. I
always had suspicions that it was at the request of that general back in Georgia,
but I could never be sure, said Gagliardi.
It was February 1964 and Gagliardis unit received its first overseas assignment
to the 807 Surgical Field Hospital, teaching personnel how to assemble and use
a field X-ray machine. They were to serve for one year at the field hospital. The
war in Vietnam was still relatively new; some guys never even heard of the
place. When asked what his job entailed, Gagliardi said, The Medical Corp
would receive patients. We didnt really do field maneuvers, plus you have to
remember, there were only about 20,000 U.S. soldiers in Vietnam at this time. It
wasnt until the controversial Gulf of Tonkin incident that the war escalated. It
was reported that North Vietnam attacked our fleets in the ocean. The next day,
President Johnson ordered 100,000 more U.S. troops to be sent in immediately,
Gagliardi said. Bombings began and the Vietnam War was in full swing.
Then on January 7, 1965, forty-two days away from being sent back home, the
unthinkable happened. Gagliardi was coming back from teaching a course when
a mortar fired across the compound. I ran back to my tent and got a rifle and
ammunition and we tried to repel them. Thank God the nurses were away that

day. There were 155 medics engaged in a battle with Viet Cong soldiers. At one
point they came at us with an old T33 Russian tank. We had no explosives, but
lots of pure alcohol. Gagliardi broke a bottle on the tank and set it on fire. He
said, Two guys [Viet Cong soldiers] tried to escape the tank and when they
opened the hatch, I threw in a second bottle of alcohol. They fell back in and the
hatch closed. The tank exploded. For this act of heroism, Gagliardi was awarded
the Bronze Star. We were being decimated. We were decimating them too, but
we were short on ammo, Gagliardi continued. We could have beaten them back
if we had enough weapons. All we had were the M-14 rifles, which were in the
process of being replaced. The ammunition deliveries were delayed.
During the battle, a dentist, Major Sconzo, was down on the ground. The Viet
Cong were firing at him. I ran to him, grabbed him by the collar and dragged him
to safety. I threw another guy over my shoulder and brought him to safety, said
Gagliardi. Adrenaline is a wonderful thing. It enables you to do things you might
not ordinarily be able to do. According to Gagliardi, during the attack, the
Commanding Officer, Colonel Crosnoff, turned to him and said, You are now a
Lieutenant. This type of rank advancement is called a battlefield commission
and it meant that Gagliardi was now leading the battle. Finally, out of ammunition,
the standing survivors of the army field hospital surrendered to the Viet Cong.
Their fellow medics who were wounded on the ground were executed one by one
in front of their unitthirty men in all.
The unit started with 155 medics and was now down to 21 survivors, who were
now prisoners of war and at the mercy of the Viet Cong. With hands tied behind
their backs, the medics were marched from their field hospital. When asked if he
was afraid, Gagliardi responded, Not really, because they were taking us to a
POW camp when they could have just shot us all right there and then. They
were loaded into trucks for a two-day journey, where they were given very little
food and water.
At the POW camp, Gagliardi, Colonel Crosnoff, and Sergeant Lomangino were
each sentenced to death by their captors for their leadership in the battle. We
were blindfolded and lined up in front of a ditch that our guys dug for us. I asked
the other guys not to tell my parents how it all happened. We heard the
Vietnamese words for ready, aim, fire and they fired over our heads. Gagliardi
turned to the Colonel and said, They just made their first (expletive) mistake.
After that, Gagliardi was taken to a tent, tied to a chair and beaten for three days.
The Viet Cong were demanding names of the new incoming 101st airborne. I
didnt know any of them, Gagliardi said. So I gave them the names of the
starting lineup for the Brooklyn Dodgers. They were satisfied with that.

I was returned to my tent and reported what happened to the Colonel. Later we
all met and the Colonel said that he was handing over command of the unit to
me. I was just as shocked as anyone. We were no longer in a medical unit, but a
combat unit. At that point he gave me another commission as Lieutenant Colonel.
Now I was the commander in chief of that unit. I was 28 years old. I said, Okay,
Ill try my best, and then told the men that we were going to get out of there
because we are smarter than them.
Gagliardi established a plan. The Viet Cong had ten guards on us at first. I told
the men to behave in a meek and timid manner and gradually the guard detail
decreased to 7 then 5 then 2 guards. The camp also had two AK-47 armed tower
guards on either side of the camp. We watched the tower rotation and noticed
that one guard left the town every hour or so and would go into the woods for a
few minutes. One of our guys, a urologist, determined that the guard had a
bladder problem so we kept an eye on him. During one of his visits to the woods,
our big Marine sergeant snuck up on him and used medical wire that wed
grabbed from the hospital before our capture. That tower guard was decapitated,
although I dont think the Marine meant to do that. Another smaller guy in our unit
put on the Viet Cong uniform and climbed into the tower position. Gagliardi
snuck up on the second tower guard and overtook him. We now had two of our
guys in the guard towers, armed with AK-47s. One guy said we should leave and
I responded that we need to wait and kill off the remaining guards. We were in no
condition to escape a chase when the guards discovered we were gone.
Gagliardi said the only solution was to dispose of all the guards, which he and
the marine did using the AK-47 assault rifles. We waited until they were settling
in at their table for dinner. They waved to the tower guardswhich of course
were our guysand we moved in. The final part of the plan was to leave the
camp cleaned up and move the bodies into the woods. I didnt want it to look like
an escape or they would come for us. I wanted it to look like an abandoned
camp, said Gagliardi. Afterwards, the 21 men started their hike into the jungle.
During the hike, the men came across two more Viet Cong units. The medic unit
was now well-armed thanks to the POW camp guards. They were able to
overcome the Viet Cong units and confiscate their supplies and weapons, as
well. After two more days of hiking, a Marine helicopter spotted Gagliardi and his
men. He said, It came over us. I remember telling one guy, with really blond hair,
to take off his hat so the pilot could see it. They took four men and shortly after
the rest of us were picked up.
All in all Gaglliardi and his unit spent six and a half months in captivity. He
underwent many forms of torture, from beatings to starvation to being held in an
underground cage. He said he lost 40 pounds. They spent their days performing

physical labor and occasionally the surgeons were forced to provide medical care
to wounded Viet Cong soldiers.
I asked Gagliardi how the war had changed him. He answered with a story. One
of our surgeons was forced to perform surgery on the arm of a Viet Cong. I was
assisting. At one point, I was handing an instrument to the surgeon, when I
purposely cut a nerve in the arm of the patient. The surgeon asked if I realized
what I did, and I said I just stopped him from ever shooting at an American
soldier again. Gagliardi feels he became cruel during his time in the POW camp,
but perhaps that was necessary to survive.
Gagliardi was 29 years old when he came home. He was reunited with his
parents whom had received a letter from the U.S. Army telling them their son was
missing in action and presumed dead. As a result of the war, Gagliardi suffers
from complete hearing loss in one ear, and he almost lost his hand during the
initial battle at the medical field hospital. In addition to the Bronze Star, he was
also awarded, a Purple Heart, Silver Star and Distinguished Service Cross. He
was also nominated for the Medal of Honor, a case that is still pending to this
day.
Gagliardi went on to earn his Masters Degree in Chemistry at MIT and his MBA
from NYU. He married later in life, had a daughter, Andrea, and moved to
Newburgh to be near his wife Susans medical practice. His mother, Florence, is
97 years old and resides in Newburgh, as well.
Nearly fifty years after his time in Vietnam, Gagliardi remembers it all vividly, as
though it happened yesterday. He said, I look back sometimes and I think, I did
that? I cant believe it happened myself.