Last modified: Wednesday, November 11, 2009 11:23 AM PST Fruitland resident and Navy veteran Dan Greig displays a couple of commendations he and others received for their work during the Vietnam War. Greig was primarily situated in the Tonkin Gulf. Greig remembers Vietnam service By JESSICA KELLER ARGUS OBSERVER FRUITLAND While Fruitland resident Dan Greig continues to serve his country through his work helping veterans in the American Legion, Greig’s own service to his country began when he was just a teenager. Greig, 58, who was a teenager growing up in Nyssa when the Vietnam War began, knew with the war raging and young men being called up to serve every day once their draft number was called, it was likely he was going to have to serve in the military. He wasn’t opposed to that idea and by not waiting for his lottery number to be called, he got his choice of the Navy. As it turned out, Greig's lottery number was a long way from being called, and he likely would not have seen action in Vietnam. Regardless, he said he is glad he joined the Navy. “It really helped me grow up,” he said. “It was one of the best things I did, going into the service,” he said. Greig joined the Navy Reserves when he was still in high school in Nyssa. At the age of 19, he went on active duty for two years as part of a security group detachment on several ships, including the USS Sterett, USS Fox, USS Bainbridge and USS Midway, and was primarily situated in the Tonkin Gulf off the coast of Vietnam. The ships provided forward air traffic control for the carriers in the Tonkin Gulf, as well as sunk gun boats and intercepted missiles. At times, the sailors had to wear flak jackets and helmets. “It wasn’t like being in-country, but you knew that it was war,” Greig said. Greig was on the guided missile frigate USS Sterett in the Battle of Dong Hoi, April 19, 1972, when a MiG-17 hit a neighboring ship with a bomb, which blew up a 5-inch gun mount but did not kill anyone. The Sterett shot down the Vietnamese plane with a Terrier surface-to-air missile, which was notable in that it was the first time an enemy aircraft had been shot down using the missile. They went on to shoot two more MiGs at three miles, six miles and 40 miles away, and Greig said each one of the Terrier missiles cost $40,000. “And every time we fired one it would burn all the paint off the front of the ship,” Greig said, adding before the ship would go to port, the front of the ship had to be repainted. Greig, who was at the time a Communications Technician (Radio) third class, said his job as a Morse code intercept operator was considered top secret. “My job was to intercept Morse code signals that the Vietnamese were sending, telling about their operations,” he said. During the Battle of Dong Hoi, the people interpreting the Morse code signals were aware of what was happening as it was going on, but since the airplane was flying under the radar, the radar operators couldn’t confirm the same information. After the attack, however, Greig said the radar operators began listening to the intercept operators more closely, especially as other Vietnamese airplanes flew in under the radar as well. After his two years in Vietnam, Greig, who considered making a career in the military, decided to go back and serve in the reserves for another six years. He ruled out a military career because he had already decided he wanted a family and saw how difficult it was to have a successful marriage in the military. He also thought about putting in his 20 years in the Reserves, but when he was in the Reserves, it was before employers vowed to support the Reserves, and it became too much of a hassle for him to fulfill both his part-time soldier and work duties. “Looking back, I wish I would have found a way to stay in,” Greig said. He said, after returning from the war, there was enough negativity generated overall — though not directly at him — that he decided to do as many Vietnam vets did, disposing of his military gear and a lot of memorabilia. “It wasn’t a terrible thing, but there wasn’t the support that there is now for the military,” he said. Looking back on the war, Greig has mixed feelings. On one hand, being in the Navy was a great life experience, on the other hand, he questions whether it was worth sending American troops over there to fight. “At the time, all you thought about was doing your job,” he said, adding it became such an unpopular war and had such devastating effects on Americans and Vietnamese, he wonders what the value was. “And at the time it seemed like we were making a difference, but looking back, I don’t know if we did.”