A. Author: Lauren Kocsis, Interviewee: William Urbanski, Date of Interview: March 21, 2019.

B. This interview was conducted over a phone call. I did not have to edit the recording or pause the recording at any time. This interview went very smoothly, with no interruptions. With setting up the interview with my grandfather, it was hard to make a time where we both were not busy, but we ended up finding a time that worked for both of us to complete this process. I used voice memo on my iPhone but used my roommate’s phone to complete the call. My grandfather called my roommate’s phone from his house phone. I went in the quite room of my dorm, and nicely asked my grandfather to go into a room of his house where there would be no distractions or noises. I did not run into any obstacles with this interview process, I was honestly surprised with how smooth and easy it was to complete.

C. My grandfather, William Urbanski, was born May 22, 1931 and raised in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. He is married to Anne Urbanski and had four children, Billy, Cynthia, Linda, and Patty. William was in the Vietnam War. He was in the war from 1957-1960. Prior to being drafted into the war, he was an MLB player for the Pirates. He played second base. With being unexpectedly drafted into the war, he had to stop playing his dream sport.

D. The Vietnamese war started in the 1950s and ended in the 1975 when North and South Vietnam came to agreeance to be one country again. The war began being between North and South Vietnam. North Vietnam (and allies of South Vietnam) was communist and South Vietnam was known as Viet Cong, with allies of the US. The US declared the Viet Minh as a communist threat. Eisenhower was nervous there would be a domino effect with Indochina being communist. The United States entered the war in the hopes to stop the spread of communism. Being that the US was losing the Cold War at the time, they needed to stop this evil spread of communism before it spread even more. When the US drew them selves from the war, it was because of the immense amount of casualties.

a. Brigham, Professor Robert K. “Battlefield of Vietnam: A Brief History.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 1999, www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/history/.
b. Editors, History.com. “Vietnam War Timeline.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 13 Sept. 2017, www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-timeline.
c. Library, CNN. “Vietnam War Fast Facts.” CNN, Cable News Network, 27 Mar. 2018, www.cnn.com/2013/07/01/world/vietnam-war-fast-facts/index.html.
d. Spector, Ronald H. “Vietnam War.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 15 Feb. 2019, www.britannica.com/event/Vietnam-War.

E. Transcript

Me: Were you upset when you had to leave the MLB to go into the war?

WU: Yes, uh I was very upset um I had dreamed of playing baseball professionally, you know, from when I was a child, I ate, drank and slept baseball, played all the time and thought about it all the time, read as much as I could, watched games as much as I could, and it was a life long dream and it was starting to really uh come to pass until the day I got my draft card and it was uh quite a you know just a staggering revelation that I had to you know give that up now and go enlist into the army.

Me: Were your dreams [of playing MLB baseball] put on hold or did they just end?

WU: Well, that an interesting question I thought they were on hold, but it was actually the end due to the fact that I injured my back while in the army and that really was the end of my career in baseball.

Me: Can you describe your thoughts about the war and feelings about being drafted?

WU: Well, it was, boy, a very… mixed emotions you know your shocked, and surprised, you know as a child, I never dreamed of being a soldier and you know this is, one day as time goes on as you’re older and more aware of thing you know there is a war going escalating, and things are happening you never think it’s going to affect you ,um, so it was quite a shocking experience. You know I had a personal life and a family, I had my career in baseball, and knowing that I had to do the right thing which was to serve my country, you know I gave into it and you know showed up as per my draft card and entered the army. But it was tough, it was a very tough thing to leave everything and go into the army.

Me: Right, um, what branch of the military were you in?

WU: I was in the army.

Me: How long were you in the war for?

WU: Well I was actually in the army for close to three years… in total.

Me: Okay, how hard was training when you had to leave baseball?

WU: You know, I thought I’d be prepared for military training from all the different training you do as an athlete but I was very wrong, it was a different kind of physical training, but with that, was very emotionally and psychologically tasking as well, there was the drill sergeants, you know, they’re not there to be your buddies, they’re there to toughen you up to go to war, you know um and, it was extreme physical um taxing through the training and they were always in your face pushing you, yelling at you, tearing you down, ripping you apart but what would help me make it through was being there with you know the guys in my unit, you know, we at times everybody needed help so we really helped each other to get through those demanding times.

Me: I could only imagine. Um, was it hard leaving your family behind? Like did you have any thoughts that you might not come back?
WU: Well yeah again um, you know, as the war was really starting to escalate, and you know on the news they kept, at the time they were giving these um statistics on how many soldiers were missing, how many were wounded, and how many were killed, and every night you would get to see that and it as in our faces, it was reality so yeah it was a daunting, you know kind of a daunting experience going in and knowing I could you know end up losing my life.

Me: Wow. Um, are there any experiences that you went through that you would like to share?

WU: Ah, you know, with going there preparing you know it was very, very taxing and you know one experience was uh, one of our, one of the guys in our unit, he was a little softer than others and uh the drill sergeants would pick on him all the time, and uh really pushed him beyond his limits, and there was really nothing we could do um we tried to help him but I think the more they pushed him you know, he could get over the hump and please them and eventually he ended up having like a mental break down, um and he just lost it one time, a couple of times, but one time really bad and ultimately that caused him to be discharged um thereafter, siting that he was referred to as a section eight list, the way he just could not handle um that physical, mental abuse in training, so he was deemed as a section eight mentally and unable to you know preform so he was ultimately, but to see the person break down like that under that stress and pressure really kind of always stuck with me.

Me: Right, um, why did you leave the war?

WU: Well it was you know I was um you know shipped out and preparing to um you know actually enter into the battlefield you now you never know but it was pretty imminent that I was going to be on the front line and as we were training and getting ready, I was in an artillery unit and we were practicing drilling one day and as I picked up very heavy boxes of rounds I picked it up and turned too quick and my stepped and threw my back out really bad but it was ore than just uh you know an injury you now like pulling a muscle, it was uh when I stepped I kinda fell and slipped a disk in my lower back, and it was immense pain. I was there in like a sick bay area for a week or two and it was pretty obvious they couldn’t really help with an injury like that so I got shipped back to the states, thereafter and um tried to rehab but again at the time you know the back surgeries weren’t as progressed and they are today and I served about another month or so trying to rehab and ultimately I was discharged as not being physically able to preform and it was an honorable discharge but you know again it was due to my injury.

Me: Right, um so after that, when you eventually came home from the war, did you experience any troubles?

WU: Yeah, you know anybody who served in that, as the war progressed it was a very chaotic time the world essentially was on fire, you know you have one group who was worried about the spread of communism and those who were on the more patriotic side were thinking that being in the war was the right thing and trying to liberate the South Vietnam people and then you had all the these other groups you know back here in the states who weren’t there, weren’t you know couldn’t really you know, they see what they see on TV and read what they read in the news paper and um you really can’t uh you really don’t know what its like until you’re there so a lot of people, thought we were indiscriminately killing you know women and children, massacring civilians and so back here I, when I was coming through the airport, I had a couple of people spit on me, and call me a baby killer, and um you know that was, I wasn’t even on the front line and but I was apart of it since I had the uniform on, and that was quite you know, an amazing experience to think that you could be so hated by you know you people of your own country.

Me: Right, well that’s amazing, um thank you so much for your time and thank you for participating through this interview with me.

WU: Okay, you’re welcome, glad to be apart of it.

Conclusion:
I thought this interview went really well. If I could have done something differently, I would have done the interview in person. It was really hard making a time to meet being that I was only in New Jersey for one week for spring break. I also could have asked more questions but, my grandfather has developed early on set dementia so even asking him these questions was hard for him to remember.