Nathaniel ‘Nate’ Holmes: From Wire Reels to High Heels

By Al Konieczka, Honor Flight Chicago Veteran Interview Volunteer

Nate Holmes grew up in a rough neighborhood on the West side of Chicago with six sisters and one brother. Nate had a step-brother who was serving in the Army in Vietnam and saw news coverage of the war and wondered if he too could fight for his country like his step-brother. Nate’s father also served in the Army during WWII.

Nate attended Crane High School but at 17 decided to go right into the service and complete his GED after his time in the service. Nate spent eight weeks at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, to complete his basic training. After his Advanced Individual Training (AIT), he would enter the Vietnam War as a field wireman, charged with placing communications wire, putting up poles and switch boards to establish and maintain effective communications between different units. At that time, phone communications were still done through wired lines.

Nate flew to Vietnam on a commercial plane with a few other soldiers from Washington D.C. and he was expecting to see combat. “When I first got there, I landed in Cam Ranh Bay just about at the time of the Tet Offensive. I was immediately baptized with mortar fire and gun fire and I knew I had finally arrived”, Nate recalled. Nate served as a wireman from December 1968 to July 1969.

Nate actually received a Field Forces Certificate of Achievement from the Army for distinguished service while serving as a wireman while he was attached to the 6th Battalion of the 14th Field Artillery Unit. He made many long and arduous road marches to install and maintain critical communication lines. On one particular trip to the Battalion’s northern most firebase, Nate had to lay a vital telephone line for a distance of about five miles through an area with a very high rate of Viet Cong combatants.

In July of 1969, Nate was promoted to a Forward Observer (FO). An artillery observer is a soldier responsible for directing artillery fire and close air support (ground attack by aircraft) onto enemy positions. Nate explained the job this way, “We would go out and call in artillery strike locations for whoever needed it. It’s sort of like a listening post.”

Nate and his team worked a lot with special operation units and would be dropped by helicopter into an area to look for Viet Cong positions to call in artillery strikes. There were times his group would be out searching for a few days and others times they would be out for up to 30 days. It was very seldom that he would return to the base camp.

During those rare times when he would return to the base camp, he would get some much needed R&R. Those R&R sessions would last anywhere from a week to two weeks. Nate recalled, “Our base camp wasn’t very big, it was basically a carved out landing zone. At base camp we had cigarettes, beer, fresh steaks – they really took care of us. We received our mail while at camp, would clean our weapons, restock our ammunition, get new fatigues and then go back out. I wrote to my mom and my sisters a lot and I sent back a ton of pictures. Unfortunately all of those pictures were destroyed. It’s sad because it’s a part of my life that I just can’t see any more.”

Nate described a typical week for him in Vietnam as an FO, “We were mostly always in the field, we stayed in bunkers out in the middle of nowhere. We would wake up, wash up, perform drills, get our orders, walk around looking for enemy positions and then head back and give a report.”

Nate recalls all of the rain during his time in country. “I saw so much rain. And those were the really scary times because the Viet Cong would come at you in the rain because the noise from the rain would cover up their movements. You really had to pay attention.”

Nate encountered so many different types of bugs, snakes and animals he had never seen before in his life. Nate laughed as he told me, “Growing up in the city, I don’t think I’d ever even seen a pig and here I was in a strange place seeing all of God’s creatures, big and small. I was even chased by some!”

Nate displayed exceptional heroism, which earned him a Bronze Star Medal, during a fire fight on November 13, 1969. The fight was against a hostile force in the area near Ben Het while working in conjunction with the Fourth Mobile Strike Force. Nate, who was serving as a reconnaissance sergeant for an artillery unit at the time recalled the event, “In the early morning hours, we were waiting for the strike force to arrive – they were running late. We came under heavy enemy mortar fire but we had to defend our position, and there were only about 4-5 of us. I stood up to determine the enemy firing positions and I called in everything we had. I could see the enemy and I could hear them. I could see mortar tubes flying up in the air so I knew we were hitting them direct. I had initially been hit by shrapnel in the leg. I managed to pull several of my wounded soldiers to safe locations behind trees and then another blast hit and I received two more injuries before I finally collapsed and passed out.”

Nate was taken out of the area by a medivac chopper to a hospital in Nha Trang. While in the hospital he received a special visitor. “A Captain from the 5th Special Forces Group came in and presented me with two medals, one was a Bronze Star and the other a Purple Heart. He wasn’t from my group but we had been helping them out in the field.” Nate was then transported to a hospital in Japan where he went through extensive rehab and then was put on a medivac transport back to Chicago. Nate told me it was kind of a big deal when he got back to Chicago, “At the airport I met Mayor Daley who shook my hand and asked me a bunch of questions. The news media was there too. No one in my family knew I was home except for my aunt who recognized my voice on television.”

Once he was back in the US, Nate served out the rest of his term at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, Colorado, since his injuries prevented him from returning to active duty. Nate served a year in Colorado working with a group that entertained the troops before leaving the Army and returning home at the age of 21.

Nate told me about a very good friend he served with in Vietnam named Raymond Otes who was from New York. “I don’t know what ever happened to him. He was an older guy and really took me under his wing and showed me the ropes. Someone told me he got killed but I really don’t know what happened to him.”

Nate thinks about his time in the service and Vietnam every day. When it gets too overwhelming he will call his psych advisor at the VA or go to his support group and they hang out together. “When I returned from Vietnam, my mother and sisters noticed how different I was and called the VA. They treated me for Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which I’m still being treated for today. The VA takes really good care of me. I belong to several support groups and visit on a regular basis.”

After leaving the Army Nate worked in retail. His first job was working in a women’s shoe store. Little did he know that he would remain in the women’s shoe business his entire career. Nate worked in the women’s shoe business for several different companies for a total of 40 years! He finally retired in 2005 when Goldblatts Department Store went out of business.

Nate met his wife Carmen in 2001 who was an office manager for the Illinois Unemployment Office and when he saw her, he fell in love with her. They were married in 2016. Nate has two children and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren through his wife Carmen. He sees his grandchildren often and spends as much time as possible with them. 

Nate has a passion for gardening and rehabbing houses. He also used to raise and breed tropical fish, but had to give up that hobby when he moved to his current home. 

Thank you Nate for your dedicated service in Vietnam. Please enjoy your well-deserved trip to Washington D.C.!