Buddy Ballinger was born and raised in Fayette County Alabama. Growing up, Buddy was very close with his family, including his eight brothers and two sisters. Early life for Buddy consisted of hard work and farming. Stating “well for us growing up on a farm we weren\u2019t that rich so a lot of hard work. By the time you got to that age, we raised animals for all of our meats, and everything was canned eating. Stuff was canned and put up. We didn\u2019t have a freezer which meant things were dried out. So, we put up all the stuff for winter, raised our own meat like pork, hogs and cows and stuff like that. So, we raised everything we ate”. This life was all that Buddy knew. It became apparent throughout our interview how important his family was to him throughout the following years of his life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Military Time <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Prior to Vietnam, Buddy had no intentions of enlisting. Out of his eight brothers, he had three who had already been in the service. His oldest brother as World War II started went to Pearl Harbor. His role was to help with the cleanup of the naval base to help get it up and running. His second oldest brother was in the Air Force, while his next brother being in the Army. It was safe to say his brothers told him what he was in for. Out of high school, Buddy was a part time student at The University of Alabama Huntsville. Unfortunately, he only had eight credit hours at the time, and to be a full-time student needed nine. Buddy recalled the day he was drafted saying “1965 I was graduating from my high school. So that spring in 66 I actually got the draft notice before actually right on my 19th<\/sup> birthday”. As a fair warning, Buddies older brothers told him to avoid Vietnam and the infantry if possible. He decided to switch his MOS and got into the Hawk Missile School. He completed his training at Fort Benning in Georgia after eight weeks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n After His initial basic training at Fort Bennings Georgia, Buddy then went for his advanced individual training. He completed the missile school at Fort Bliss in Texas. Once he graduated from his missile school training, it was time to go overseas for the first time in Buddies life. From Fort Dix in Texas, Buddy flew to Bernberg Germany. Buddy recalled his time in Germany as a lot of hard work. He told me “In Germany, it was primarily just duty, we had a missile sight outside of the record post, we would have to ride out there every day for duty and you would be cleaning equipment or riding guard. You know you had stuff to do all day long”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eventually, it became time for Buddy to leave Germany to go over to Vietnam. When asked about this time in his life, he told me “. Well, we stopped in the Philippians at a B-52 base that night, and the reason being the Tet Offensive in 1968 had just started. There were probably about 30 airliners on the ground at the B-52 base at that time. And That\u2019s what it was, they either did not allow them or refused them…Our airlines decided we were going to go in. We got into the airport that morning, this is the morning of Tet and it looked like everything was on Fire. So, we went in and did a double-time off the plane into the bunker and the guys at the base said they had a rocket mortar attack about 20 minutes ago before the plane had touched down, we had a rocket mortar attack. So that was my introduction to Vietnam, big welcome”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Buddy had a hard awaking to Vietnam. Going over as the Tet Offensive began seemingly sounds troubling for any young person. On the contrary, Buddy continued to stress the fact that because he was so young, he was not able to fully process the danger of the situation he found himself in. Because Buddy was a missile specialist, he was stationed along the perimeter near Saigon at Tahn Son Nhut Air Base. His job consisted of being ready at minutes moments. He recalled repeatedly doing drills setting up the Hawk Missiles as fast as possible in his daily routine. In the unfortunate event of a mortar strike or incoming planes, Buddy needed to be ready as soon as possible for a counterattack. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Post War<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Eventually, Buddies time overseas was slowly coming to an end. He remembers counting down the last one hundred days on a calendar marked off. As he knew eventually, he had to go back to civilian life back in the states, he recalled him and the men he was with became self-conscious, wrestling with the actions they did overseas. The transition back to civilian life became much easier for Buddy once he was back with his family and hometown. When asked if it was a hard adjustment coming home, he answered “Well\u2026I think because of the closeness of our family, I think that helped quite a bit. Truthfully at that time, you were raised to go on and prepare yourself for work and life and stuff. So as soon as I got back, my mind shifted to how I was going to get into school to have a career. I\u2019d Like to have my own family, that sort of thing. All the other stuff\u2026 I look back now and thank God to help put that in the background and not think about it. You didn\u2019t linger on thoughts of what you saw and witnessed over there. You were ready to come back and start a regular life”. Luckily for Buddy, as soon as he came back home, he was focused on a career and his future. Thanks to the G.I. bill, Buddy was able to go back to school. He returned to The University of Alabama Huntsville while staying with his older brother who was in town after his service in the Navy. Buddy eventually graduated from UAH with a degree in Mathematics with a minor in industrial engineering. Thanks to his time at UAH, he was able to get a job as an industrial engineer in his hometown where his wife was also from. He worked as an industrial engineer for 20-25 years until his retirement. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Interview conducted by: Chris Bratt Early Life Buddy Ballinger was born and raised in Fayette County Alabama. Growing up, Buddy was very close with his family, including his eight brothers and two sisters. Early life for Buddy consisted of hard work and farming. Stating “well for us growing up on a farm we weren\u2019t that … <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/vietnamwar\/wp-content\/uploads\/Fayette-County-Image-2.webp\")
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