The U.S. Army opened doors for this Vietnam veteran

By Tara Fatzinger, BucksLocalNews.com

When he looks back on his life, retired 1st Lt. Tom Yaegel remembers, with a chuckle, a childhood desire to attend West Point and join the United States Army.

Eventually a bachelor’s degree in accounting, the guarantee of a secure post-college job and visions of a future with his long-time sweetheart pushed his inner soldier aside.

Then in August 1969 – just three months after Yaegel graduated from St. Joseph’s College – the draft notice came. With that one little piece of paper, everything changed and Yaegel knew his life would never be as he originally planned.

“At first it was like I was dealt a lousy hand but in hindsight it was one of the best things that happened,” he said. “It all worked out just great.”

He ultimately decided there were only two choices; he could either accept the inevitable, serve in Vietnam and be done after two-years or he could turn the draft into an opportunity to apply his college education while serving in the Army.

“It was not an easy choice to make,” he said. “I talked to a recruiter and after much soul searching I said, ‘well, OK, if I’m going to do this I’m going to do it the best way I know how’ and that was to try and get a commission.”

So it was off to Officer Candidate School for Tom Yaegel. After a grueling 10-month process at Ft. Belvoir, Va., in July 1970, he was pinned as a 2nd Lieutenant for the United States Army.
He married his sweetheart, Ann, a week later and together the young couple embarked on an adventure neither would soon forget, one that would eventually shape the rest of their lives.
“We packed up a little 4 by 6 U-Haul trailer and moved off to Ft. Benning,” Yaegel said with a laugh. “We really enjoyed that first year.”

But in May 1971 the young couple’s newlywed bliss living among the structured, neatly manicured grounds of Ft. Benning came to an end when Yaegel received his deployment orders to Vietnam.

He was set to depart that August.

Ann, Yaegel said, was obviously concerned but she refused to allow his absence to consume her. She returned to work full-time as a nurse in order to keep herself busy and help her husband build a healthy savings account.

“She was really great,” Yaegel said. “We used it (the deployment) as an opportunity to save some money.”

When he arrived in Vietnam, Yaegel, who was trained as an Army engineer, chose to work as the camp engineer and finance manager for the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam-Studies and Operations Group, better known as MACV-SOG.

The men of MACV-SOG are among the most highly decorated soldiers of the Vietnam era, having collectively earned nine Congressional Medals of Honor and 23 Distinguished Service Crosses. Yaegel was eventually awarded a Bronze Star for meritorious service as a member of MACV-SOG.

The unit was established on Jan. 24, 1964, as a highly classified multi-service Army special operations unit, the function of which was to conduct covert, unconventional warfare missions before and during United States involvement in Vietnam.

MACV-SOG spent much of its time in Vietnam embarking on strategic reconnaissance missions in North and South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, captured enemy prisoners, conducted rescue missions for downed American pilots and to retrieve allied prisoners from war camps throughout Southeast Asia. The men were also ordered to complete covert activities and psychological operations.

“This unit had to bear the brunt of the war,” Yaegel said.

To complete these missions MACV-SOG employed and trained Montangard tribesmen of Vietnam’s Central Highlands as soldiers, he said, and were divided into three different operating units; Command and Control South, which was based near Ban Me Thout; Command and Control Central near Kontum and Command and Control North just outside Pleiku.

“They placed me with Command and Control South,” Yaegel said.

During Vietnam, Congress had forbidden American soldiers from operating in neighboring countries Cambodia and Laos but the Hochiminh Trail led through both countries and one of MACV-SOG’s many functions was to run reconnaissance missions into the two nations in order to identify targets that could be attacked from the air, Yaegel said.

Since Cambodia and Laos were technically forbidden lands, MACV-SOG was ordered to change the official coordinates to make it appear as though their operations were completed within Vietnam’s borders.

“We would train the mercenaries for cross border operations,” Yaegel said. “We would send them across the border to keep the enemy at bay. They (the Montangard tribesmen) were under our command. These operations actually saved a lot of American lives.”

The final offensive that caused the fall of Saigon, ultimately ending the Vietnam War, came through Ban Me Thout in March 1975, three years after Yaegel completed his tour and MACV-SOG was disbanded.

“We were just sitting there staving it off for as long as we could. We had everything under control. All we had to do was leave some troops behind to maintain air control” and give the people a chance to find a strong, just leader to send them on their way to political and economic freedom, he said.

“We just didn’t allow enough time and I feel bad and guilty about it to this day,” Yaegel continued. “I became close to many of the tribesmen and when it was all over they were the ones executed by those in control because of who they sided with (MACV-SOG.)”

After Yaegel returned he was “basically laid off,” as he likes to say, by the Army because of massive military cutbacks. “I had grown to like the Army,” he said. “I was comfortable with my job and got a nice paycheck so it wasn’t an easy transition back.”

But, as with everything else in his life, Yaegel made the most of it. He earned his master’s degree in Business Administration from Temple University and went on to work for Arthur Anderson and Co. as an audit manager and eventually became the senior vice president.

“That was where I really got to use my military experience and take charge in certain situations,” he said.

In 1982 Yaegel purchased the Richboro Swim Club and, in the meantime, continued to work as a banking consultant all over the U.S.

Today, Yaegel still runs the swim club, an advertising agency, a small travel agency specializing in Virgin Island vacations and – after the swimming season is over – the wildly popular Valley of Fear haunted hayrides.

And when it comes to his military experience as a whole Yaegel has no regrets. In fact, he credits the Army for giving him the strength, skills and courage to turn his life into the successful venture it has been.

“I’ve had the blessing of doing a lot of interesting things and I thank the Army for that. It all started with the Army,” he said. “I got to see a lot more of what went on at a higher level than the average 1st Lieutenant. It was a great educational experience for me. I had the chance to work with a lot of Special Forces troops and I feel fortunate for that experience.”