Local Vietnam vet shares story

Vietnam veteran Steve Jeffreys shares his story to members of the Fairbury Rotary on Tuesday afternoon.

A local Vietnam veteran injured in combat can still recall the feeling of being in that country.

“The smell, the humidity and the smell of diesel fuel and rotten garbage just about knocked me down,” said Steve Jeffreys, an El Paso High School alum who currently lives in Normal.

Jeffreys shared his powerful story with members of the Fairbury Rotary Club on Tuesday – a day after Memorial Day.

“Vietnam was raging, so were the protests.”

Before his family came to Illinois, Jeffreys was born in Nebraska where he spent time on his uncle’s farm. He was really into nature and Indian lore.

“I’ve always kind of been an adventurer,” said Jeffreys.

He moved to Illinois when he was 14 and attended college at University of Wyoming. He dropped out in 1968 and volunteered for the draft. Jeffreys entered the Army in December of 1968 and went through basic training in Louisiana with advanced infantry training.

Jeffreys didn’t consider Vietnam a pleasant place after arriving. His fire base was in a jungle mountainous area.

“It was a very beautiful country but a very hostile country.”

Everything seemed to be out to get you in Vietnam such as spiders, snakes, ants, leaches and mosquitos.

Jeffreys had guard duty the first night when he was just 19 years old. He was later flown into the middle of a firefight via helicopter, jumping out sinking to his knees in mud.

“There were bullets zinging all around,” explained Jeffreys who headed for tree cover.

He recalls eating out of cans, normally consuming sea rations, and drinking water from streams when he could.

“We weren’t in battle every day,” explained Jeffreys. “Sometimes, it got to be really, really boring.”

Jeffreys became a regular point man as they were on patrol every day in a very remote area.

“Your whole body is just tingling about every second because you never know when you are going to meet somebody going down a trail.”

Everybody in the company had a machine gun with ammunition, meaning they carried plenty of ammo. They had more firepower and air support at their disposal compared to the Vietnamese.

When he became a squad leader, Jeffreys was training two guys to walk point. He tripped a wire connected to a hand grenade, resulting in an explosion.

“I was pretty stunned,” said Jeffreys. “The blast knocked me back but didn’t knock me down.”

This resulted in broken bones, shrapnel wounds from head to toe and losing sight in one eye.

The long road to recovery then began.

“I was messed up pretty bad. I was bleeding everywhere,” added Jeffreys.

Jeffreys said he is a born again Christian, acknowledging that the Lord saved him. After several months, he got out of the hospital, later married and had a daughter.

The two guys he was training were wounded, but not as severely.