Thomas Peacock was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on May 24, 1949 and grew up in Gloucester City where he graduated high school in 1967. After high school, Peacock went to work as a surveyor apprentice for an engineering company before enrolling in Camden County College in New Jersey to avoid the draft. However, going back to school did not suit him, so he quit school and went to work for another engineering firm before the draft caught him in early 1969. For Basic Training, Peacock was sent to Fort Dix, New Jersey, which he thought was an easy experience under the tutelage of instructors who had prior experience in Vietnam. After Basic, he attended Advanced Individual Training at Fort Dix which was a bit more difficult than Basic. Overall, he thought this advanced infantry training was only loosely geared toward the war in Vietnam. From there, Peacock was sent to Fort Lewis, Washington, where he was deployed to Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam. At first impression, he was taken aback by the heat and humidity of Vietnam and was soon sent to a 101st Airborne replacement company. He was then flown to Bien Hoa where he was assigned to the D Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division at Camp Evans in July of 1969. He also underwent a brief acclimation training course in Bien Hoa before joining his company at Camp Evans. Peacock’s company ran patrols along the ridges of the A Sầu Valley and had few encounters with the enemy. When his squad’s machine gunner left the service, he became the new gunner, which he thought was humorous since he was a skinny soldier wielding a large M60 machine gun. While on patrols, the soldiers used trails since they mostly encountered outfits of soldiers from the North Vietnamese Army and not Viet Cong guerrillas. When the Marines were being pulled from an operation in the Demilitarized Zone, Peacock’s company was sent over as a rearguard force, but never encountered fire from the enemy. In the spring of 1970, he was transferred to A Company, 2nd Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment at Phu Bai. Shortly after joining A Company, the base was attacked by Viet Cong before the company was relocated to Firebase Henderson where it was again attacked and suffered heavy casualties. At one point, Peacock accidentally received shrapnel from a friendly hand grenade and spent some time aboard the USS Sanctuary hospital ship before going on Rest and Relaxation in Bangkok, Thailand. In July of 1970, he was flown back to Fort Lewis and spent the last six months of his service at Fort Carson, Colorado, undergoing mechanized infantry training courses as an odd form of military ‘decompression.’ From Fort Carson, Peacock left the service and struggled to hold down a series of jobs due to an excessive drinking problem. Eventually, these habits forced him to quit drinking altogether and he soon acquired work from the Veterans’ Recruitment Appointment at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, the Army Corps of Engineers, and later the Coast Guard in Cape May, New Jersey. Overall, he worked 32 years for the Armed Forces and recalled how Vietnam veterans rarely ever talked about their experiences since few people would either respect or understand the trauma they underwent. Reflecting upon his time in the Army, Peacock was proud of his service, even if he never would have enlisted if the draft had not caught him.
Pre-Enlistment: (00:00:16:00)
Enlistment/Training: (00:02:28:00)
Service: (00:07:11:00)
Post-Service Life: (00:37:04:00)
Reflections: (00:39:58:00)