Paul Crites: Combat Interrogator

By Mark Splitstone, Honor Flight Chicago Veteran Interview Volunteer

When Paul Crites finished Basic Training in 1970 and was anticipating where he’d be assigned, his Major told him something that he hadn’t been aware of. The Army’s testing had shown that he had a special aptitude for languages. This skill would have a big impact not just on his time in the service, but also on his future career. 

Paul was born in 1946 in Chicago, the youngest of four children. He graduated from Luther South High School in 1964 and earned a degree in zoology from Southern Illinois University in June, 1968. In addition to his aptitude for languages, he’s also a talented artist. Following his graduation, he got a job doing drawings for a scientist at the Field Museum. While at SIU, he had met Barbara and they were married in November, 1968. Upon returning home following their short honeymoon, a letter from the U.S. government awaited him. Paul  had received four years of deferments while in college, but he had finally been drafted.

His Basic Training was at a very cold Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. He was chosen to be a squad leader by his drill sergeant, who Paul says was tough but very nice. Paul was a big fan of the M14 rifle and was considered an expert marksman. After his fateful meeting with his major, he was given the opportunity to attend language school to become a translator. He asked for some time to think about it, but when he mentioned it to a fellow soldier, the soldier said he’d be crazy not to take it. It would allow him to spend one year of his two years of service at school rather than in the jungles of Vietnam. A light went on for Paul, and he immediately went to see the Major to accept the opportunity; as it turned out he got the last available spot. 

Paul attended language school at Fort Bliss in Texas. Classes were eight hours a day, five days a week, and were taught by a tough Vietnamese woman. There were twenty-four men in his class and they became close during their year together. They invented a Vietnamese class motto which in English translates to “One more time; Who am I?” which was something the teacher often said. Eventually one of the men had this motto imprinted on hats that he gave to his classmates. 

After nearly a year at Fort Bliss, he had additional training to become a combat interrogator. He learned the types of military intelligence he should try to obtain from prisoners, as well as how to get it. As the class finished and he prepared to go to Vietnam, he learned something which confused him. He wouldn’t be personally doing the interrogations, but instead would be attached to a Vietnamese translator who would ask the questions. The role for Paul and the other combat interrogators was to monitor the conversation between the prisoner and the translator to make sure everything was done correctly and accurately. This just added to his confusion about the role. He already thought it was “incredibly strange” that the Army would train draftees to speak Vietnamese, since it would take up half their service time, and now he learned he wouldn’t be directly using his language skills Regardless, Paul was sent to Vietnam in February, 1970 as a combat interrogator.

Paul was stationed at Nha Trang, which was in the northern part of South Vietnam. He was assigned to the 55th Military Intelligence Detachment of the First Field Force. In addition to Nha Trang, he also spent time at a base in Qui Nhon. The Army didn’t have many combat interrogators, and in fact at Qui Nhon he was the only one, which made it difficult for him to know what to do. Interrogations were relatively infrequent. In his spare time, his other role was to register weapons. Whenever enemy weapons were seized in their area, they were brought in to Paul, and he would record the serial numbers and itemize what they were. He’s not sure what happened to this information or what happened to the weapons after he was finished with the registration. 

Paul wasn’t directly involved in combat, but the places where he was stationed came with a fair amount of danger. Qui Nhon was only five minutes from the DMZ, and Nha Trang was hit by artillery and rocket fire on a monthly basis. One soldier from his language class was in Nha Trang during an artillery barrage and was hit in the head by a fragment. He survived, but with severe brain damage. As far as Paul knows, he was the only man from his language class to be seriously injured. 

Paul’s first interrogation took place in a hospital; he conducted it with another interrogator and an interpreter. By this point in the war, the Army was sensitive about tough interrogation techniques and were strict about what the interrogators were allowed to do. In hospitals, a doctor would examine the prisoner before and after the interrogation to make sure he hadn’t been hurt. In this interrogation, Paul’s fellow interrogator had broken the rules by bringing a pistol into the hospital. He showed it to the prisoner but didn’t do anything with it, and in this case, like most of his other interrogations, no valuable information came from it.

Paul recalls a time when alarms went off in a camp he was in. A sapper (a soldier who performs military duties such as breaching fortifications, demolitions, laying minefields) had infiltrated and was throwing satchel charges into barracks. Paul could hear weapons firing outside his building, but he had come to the base without a rifle because the soldier he was with said he wouldn’t need one. He learned his lesson and always brought his rifle after that. Another time, he was helicoptered to a base to interrogate a prisoner, but shortly after he arrived, the commander of the base said he needed to commandeer his helicopter for an emergency. Paul was left alone on the base and had to walk to a nearby highway and hope that a friendly convoy would appear. For a while he stood alone on the highway, not knowing what was going to happen. Luckily for him, an American convoy arrived and he was able to hitch a ride back to Nha Trang. 

While stationed in Vietnam, Paul heard about an early out program for soldiers who wanted to return to the U.S. to attend graduate school. A kindly Colonel helped him fill out the paperwork for the program to ensure it would be approved. Because of this program, Paul was able to leave Vietnam early, and after six months and twenty-three days, he flew home. He arrived in September, 1970 and immediately enrolled at SIU. In order to fill out his schedule, Paul took a class in Fortran programming, and this is where his aptitude for languages once again came into play. In this case, though, it wasn’t a spoken language, but instead was a programming language. He enjoyed the class and he had finally found his calling. He left SIU after a year and got a job doing programming. Computers and systems have been his career ever since. He eventually left the corporate world, and in 1994, he started his own computer consulting firm. Along the way he also earned two master’s degrees and now after twenty-seven years, he plans on finally retiring. 

While in Vietnam, Paul usually communicated with his wife by the exchange of cassette tapes, but he recalls one very important phone call he received from her, telling him she was pregnant. He says this was the happiest moment of his time in Vietnam. Shortly thereafter, he was able to go on leave and meet her in Hawaii to celebrate. His first son was born shortly after he returned home from Vietnam, and another one was born four years later. 

Paul enjoys gardening and in fact his original “One more time” hat is his gardening hat. Now that he’s near retirement, he looks forward to starting his pencil and pastel drawing again, and he also hopes to travel more. He’s very excited about his Honor Flight, in part because when he returned in 1970, he didn’t have much of a reception, other than a banner that his parents had prepared. 

Thank you for your service, Paul! Honor Flight Chicago is proud to welcome you home as a hero!