Jerome and Richard Corcoran: A Band of Brothers

By Al Konieczka, Honor Flight Chicago Veteran Interview Volunteer

The Corcoran brothers grew up on the far south side of Chicago in a family of 11 children. Jerome (Jerry) was number 9 and Richard (Rich) was number 10 of 11 children. There were seven boys and four girls in the family. Their father was an alcoholic and as a result, when the boys were about 10 and 12 years of age, their parents separated. Their mom worked as a secretary and tried to hold the family together as best she could, but it was a tough time for the family. Jerry saw how much of a financial struggle it was for his mom so he dropped out of high school and began working in a factory to help his mother support the family.

Shortly afterwards, draft notices came out. Jerry was 19 years old in January of 1966 when he got drafted into the Marine Corps. Rich was drafted at the age of 20 in 1968, the day after Mother’s Day. One of their older brothers Joe, who acted more like a father to the boys, joined the Army on December 6, 1957 and was discharged on September 10, 1958. Joe was also a priest and prayed for his brothers daily while they were in Vietnam. Joe then re-entered the Army to serve in Vietnam from 1970-71. Finally, their younger brother Kevin joined the Army in 1968 and also served for some time in Vietnam during his three years in the 82nd Airborne Division. So all together, the Corcoran family had four sons who served our country in Vietnam.

While their service dates were a few years apart, Rich and Jerry both performed their basic training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD) in San Diego, California and then moved on to Camp Pendleton, CA for ITR (the Marines version of AIT) before they headed to Vietnam. New Marine recruits received training in the Infantry Training Regiment (ITR) that helped prepare them for combat in the challenging jungle environments of Vietnam. 

At the conclusion of ITR, Rich was assigned to be a truck driver in Vietnam. As Rich recalled, “For me, the physical training in ITR was worse than what I had experienced in boot camp.” As for Jerry, he was originally assigned to be a 105 howitzer cannon cocker. Jerry joked, “I went all the way through school and we were getting ready to go to Vietnam and they said, we’ve got one too many cannons. We’re going to cut one of them. So they gave us a choice, we could either go into recon, start our basic training all over again, or get on a boat and be a forward observer. I took the third option. So all my training was wasted and I had to learn aboard the ship on the way over to Vietnam how to be a forward observer.”

Forward Observers (FOs) in Vietnam were soldiers who served as artillery spotters and fire support coordinators for infantry companies. FOs had one of the most dangerous jobs in the Army and Marine Corps. They would deploy near, and sometimes beyond, the front lines, and were tasked with analyzing the battlefield, locating allied and enemy positions, and coordinating artillery fire support via radio.

For the actual trip to Vietnam, Rich went by plane while Jerry went by ship. According to Jerry it was not a pleasant experience. “We ran into a hurricane outside of Hawaii. The hurricane hit the ship and damn near killed us all. The captain announced, ‘OK we’ve just lost our radar’, next he said, ‘we’ve lost all of our life boats. He said you guys should be prepared to abandon ship and the approximate life expectancy in the water is about 5 minutes’. It was really rough! I was so glad when we finally got to the Philippine Islands.”

Rich flew into Okinawa and spent a few weeks there getting acclimated to the climate before he headed to Da Nang to start his tour. While Rich took only a day to fly to Okinawa, Jerry’s trip by boat took about 30 days. Jerry transferred from the larger ship by climbing down a rope ladder to a landing vessel where they went ashore at Dong Ha.

The first week in Vietnam for both boys was pure chaos and confusion. Rich recalled, “I was just totally confused. Someone would say grab your gear and go over here. Then they threw a gun in your hand and put us on a helicopter and moved us to a fire base at An Hoa. Most of the rainy season was over so it was muddy. And when it wasn’t muddy it was dusty. I didn’t know which way was up.” During his time in country, Rich spent 95% of his time at one of three fire base camps at An Hoa, Liberty Bridge and Hill 81. Rarely did he go out on missions in the jungle. Rich remembered one day walking through the mud when another soldier told him, “Hey, they landed a guy on the moon today.“

When Jerry landed in Vietnam he recalled, “They handed us our weapons on the boat and said don’t shoot any cows. Those cows cost too much money. It was kind of scary that first week and I was kind of lost and didn’t know what was going on. We were supposed to be used for naval gun fire. As it turns out though, we fired everything that we could that needed to be fired. We fired 105s, 175s, we even called in air strikes. I never had a main base. We constantly moved from fire base to fire base. I participated in Chinook 1, Chinook 2, Operation Prairie III in the Khe Sanh area, Operation Shawnee, Operation Chahoo, Operation Freemont, Operation Cucumber, Operation Bear Bite, we were on operation after operation after operation – whoever needed cannon or fire support we were called in to help out.”

Jerry most certainly saw a lot of action while in Vietnam. He shared information on the worst place during his time in country. “The worst place I was at during my time in Vietnam was a place called Cát Tiên, also known as the Hill of Angels and the Meat Grinder. That was the scariest place I’ve ever been.”

While Rich was stationed at his fire base camp, they were still targets for the Viet Cong. “We were constantly under fire. We were hit daily with mortars, 122s and 144s especially at night. The enemy would even try to overrun our camp at night.” Rich considers his assignment at the fire base camp to be a lucky one which kept him relatively safe during his time in Vietnam. Although Rich told me, “I’ll tell you, one thing I’ll never forget is the smell of burning flesh. That stays with you forever. I had to load up dead bodies from time to time and I absolutely hated that job.”

Both Rich and Jerry remember the cold weather they experienced during the monsoon season. Jerry recalls trudging through the country in jungle utilities and freezing at night. They would wrap themselves in their poncho and poncho liner and curl up into a fetal position to try and stay warm.

Jerry said they never got to see any USO shows while in Vietnam but shared a story about the Playboy Bunnies. “One time we were up on a huge hill and they told us the Playboy Bunnies were going to fly right over us in a helicopter. So we took a bunch of stones and made this big bunny on the ground and took our grenades and used different colors and sure enough that helicopter did a spin around to look at us and it was great!”

Jerry left Vietnam in January of 1968 while Rich would leave Vietnam in May of 1970. Both men finished their remaining time at Camp Lejuene, South Carolina before being honorably discharged. Both brothers ended their military career with the rank of Lance Corporal.  

Rich had a bizarre experience on the plane trip home to Chicago. “They used to have machines at the airport where you could pop in a quarter and get $5,000 of flight insurance. The guy in front of me had a pocket full of those in his shirt. He had on flip flops, shorts and a tank top and he was flying into Chicago in March which was odd. Security grabbed this guy and pulled him off the flight. Once we got air born, a guy two seats behind me pulls out a gun and commits suicide. Here I thought I had left all the shooting and killing behind me in Vietnam and it happens right behind me on the plane ride home.” Jerry recalled flying home through San Francisco and running into a bunch of protesters carrying signs and calling them baby killers and other horrible things.

Jerry entered the computer industry after the service and worked with the same company for about 50 years. Rich struggled to find work when he returned home. He found work at first as a loan collector in some terrible neighborhoods and then a factory job before attending night school. He struggled with work after Vietnam for about five years. Ultimately he followed his girlfriend to Denver and ended up working in the oil and gas industry and did quite well for himself and his family.

Rich introduced Jerry to his girlfriend’s sister Barbara and the two started dating. Jerry proposed to Barbara at Wrigley Field. Today the two brothers, Rich and Jerry, have been happily married to two sisters Barbara and Denise for many years. Jerry and Barbara have been married for 53 years and have two children and five grandchildren. Rich and Denise have been married for 49 years and also have two children and five grandsons. They are still strong in their Catholic faith and hope to instill that into their children and grandchildren. 

While Rich lives in New Mexico, he will be flying from New Mexico to Chicago to make the Honor Flight trip to DC with his brother Jerry. 

Jerry & Rich, thanks for your years of dedicated service. Enjoy your well-deserved trip to Washington D.C.!