The Legacy of the Twins Platoon: The True-Life Stories of Marines Who Went to War in Vietnam by Christy Sauro Jr
Your story begins with baseball and ends with war, but the deeper thread seems to be brotherhood. At what point did you realize the Twins Platoon was not just a military unit, but a lifelong bond?
While I was on active duty, I knew I could always count on my fellow Marines. After I was discharged in 1970, I, like all the others, did not want to talk about my military experiences; I did not join any military organizations; I did not want to watch movies about the Vietnam War or read about it. What I wanted was to put that war in the past and keep it there. Then in 1998, when one of our fellow Marines (Skip Schmidt) needed our help, my fellow Marines all stepped up and came forward to support him. I knew then our bond was lifelong.
You were a young man when you entered the Marine Corps and a different person when you returned. What parts of yourself did Vietnam change forever—and what parts did you fight to preserve?
Serving in Vietnam changed my outlook on life. What changed me forever was looking at all the body bags, filled with my fellow Marines, stacked up on the hangar deck of the USS Iwo Jima, who had been killed in combat during the battle of Dai Do. They were all young men who no longer had their whole lives ahead of them. That realization gave me real appreciation for life. After that, I rarely had a bad day, because whenever I was feeling down, I would think about them, and that would make things better. I felt I owed it to them to be thankful for and enjoy every day of life.
What was hard to preserve was my temper. The best way to describe this is to think about being repeatedly slapped in the face. After so many slaps, it is almost impossible not to get mad and angry and want to lash out and fight back. Each time I would hear someone say something negative about the Vietnam War or our military, it was like a slap in the face. There were so many slaps, and I kept my anger bottled up inside me. That caused me to become short-tempered, which is not a good thing. Fortunately, as the years passed, the slaps on my face lessened and finally stopped. And then my temper returned to normal.
The members of the Twins Platoon shared an extraordinary beginning: a baseball ceremony, television cameras, and a sense of being part of something special. Did that public celebration create expectations that stayed with the men as they entered combat?
I don’t think we consciously thought about it in a combat situation. But being sworn into the Marine Corps during a televised pregame ceremony and having the fans cheer for us after we took the oath to serve our country, I think heightened our desire to serve admirably.
When you interviewed or reconnected with members of the platoon for this book, was there a story or moment that surprised you after all these years? Yes. I was shocked to learn that so many of them had been wounded one or more times and were returned to their units, where they continued to serve, giving it their all.
War creates memories that are often impossible to explain to those who weren’t there. How did you decide which moments needed to be preserved in this book—and which moments were too personal to share? Deciding what moments to share was hard, because there were so many. I selected those that, when combined with the others, gave the reader a good overall view of what our Vietnam Veterans and their families experienced. Many of their experiences were too personal to share, but they shared them anyhow, knowing they could benefit other people. That took a lot of courage and self-sacrifice, for which we should all be grateful.
Many people understand the experience of going to war. Fewer people understand what happens when a soldier comes home. What do you wish civilians better understood about the decades that follow military service?
The sacrifices made by those who serve in the military do not end when they return home. Many veterans deal with physical and mental injuries for the remainder of their lives. It is very comforting for a veteran to know that their service to our country is appreciated. When people say to a veteran, “Thank you for your service.”, you are rewarding them for having served. That may be more helpful than you will ever know.
The Vietnam War era was a complicated time in America, and many veterans returned to a divided country. How did that reception shape the way you and your fellow Marines viewed home, service, and sacrifice?
The reception many Vietnam veterans got when they returned home was devastating. They felt people did not appreciate their service to our country. Many were condemned for having fought in the war. Some were verbally and physically assaulted. That caused many to question their own morality, which often resulted in feelings of guilt and shame.
You spent 47 years as an insurance agent before becoming a full-time writer. Did your professional life influence the way you approached documenting the stories of your fellow Marines?
The job of an insurance agent is to help people. To do that effectively, you need to listen to what people are telling you and see things from their perspective. When I wrote about the Twins Platoon, I did the same. I listened to what they told me. What made things a little easier was that I was one of them. I think they knew I could understood what they were telling me and that I could feel their pain.
If you could sit down with the young Marine you were in 1967, before you boarded that plane to San Diego, what would you tell him?
I would tell him to add the names of those he served with to his list of contacts. I developed friendships with many of those I served with. Sadly, I could not locate them years later because I did not have the information needed.
What can the younger generation learn from the experiences of the Twins Platoon—not just about war, but also about resilience, responsibility, and community?
People of all ages can learn a lot from reading about the experiences of the Twins Platoon. The story of the Twins Platoon extends from the time they were teenagers to when they were elderly. One can read how life continually requires them to make choices. Sometimes good choices were made and sometimes bad ones. The reader can learn from how our choices played out in real life and, hopefully, put them to good use in their daily lives.