Ed Gromek recalls the summer of 1969.
‘I remember the smell from the first step off the airplane’it was a rotting, sweet stench magnified by hot muggy air,? recalled Gromek, of his first hours in Vietnam as a soldier. ‘It was an extreme cultural shock coming from the United States. The smell was always there’it was the rice paddies. They were everywhere, farmers threw human waste in them for fertilizer. I never had a breath of fresh air until I visited Australia on leave months later.?
Gromek’s account of the Vietnam War, which had been raging for several years when he arrived reflects the North Vietnamese government and the Viet Cong fighting to reunify Vietnam under communist rule. According to the United State Defense Department, by 1969 more than 550,000 American troops were in southeast Asia. The U.S. foreign policy stated that a communist victory in one nation, like Vietnam, would quickly lead to a chain reaction or domino effect of communist takeovers in neighboring states. ment’they did not wear military uniforms. Actually the troops were happy at the time we just wanted to get it over with. But the public was unaware we had deployed troops into Cambodia before (the invasion) to take out the supply line. They sent troops into Cambodia and back out months before Nixon made the announcement. As part of the invasion my job was to assure the troops going in (to Cambodia) had a path through the jungle. That was accomplished with heavy artillery’we sent a lot of shells. The idea is they would not be ambushed going in or out so we cleared the way. It worked quite well’we used an incendiary round (munition) called ‘Willy Pete.??
Gromek often flew over the jungle areas for reconnaissance missions. Some of the area he covered the U.S. military had sprayed millions of gallons of Agent Orange and other herbicides on trees and vegetation during the Vietnam War. Decades later, concerns about the health effects from these chemicals continue.
‘I was in an area that was heavily sprayed with Agent Orange near the Cambodian border,? he said. ‘We’d see whole swaths through the jungle. To this day, I’ve never had any effects from Agent Orange although many have been impacted.?
Gromek returned to the United States in August 1970. He received several accomodations for his service including the Bronze Star and Air Medals.
‘We flew into Oakland (California) from Vietnam and we had to travel with our uniforms on to get a free ticket home,? he said. ‘They warned us about the unrest at home and people in the airport yelled at us. But we never confronted them’we just considered the source and moved on.?
Gromek married in 1972 and lived in Garden City. He worked for the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs where he served on the rating board to determine the level of compensation for returning soldiers. He moved to Brandon Township in 1978 and retired from VA in 2006.
‘There’s certainly an adjustment when you return from combat,? recalls Gromek. ‘While you’re glad to be home there’s also a feeling like your running out on your buddies who are still overseas,? he said. ‘The attitude in the United States when I came home was not favorable, you just kept your service to yourself. That’s the way it was until the1980s.?
‘Today I really feel sorry for the boys that went to Iraq’they took those villages and areas and then it was given right back,? he said. ‘I really know what they are going through’lives were given for those towns. It was the same for us.?

This month marks the 45th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Cambodia, a small country that bordered Vietnam, which had been supplying the Viet Cong and supporting their efforts. The invasion is significant because it sparked major unrest in the United States and prompted violent demonstrations.
Gromek, now a 69-year-old Brandon Township resident, was part of the invasion forces.
A Hamtrack native, Gromek was a 1963 graduate of Dearborn Divine Child High School. He later attended Wayne State University to study business.
‘I earned my business administration degree in 1968 and my student deferment ran out,? he said. ‘So I went into Officer’s Candidate School, but instead of staying there, I signed up for a two year enlistment, otherwise it would have been three years. You had to pick a combat arms, I picked artillery.
Gromek selected the Army artillery and went to basic training in Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., and further training at Fort Sill, Okla.
‘We shot (artillery) at five or six miles away and many times over the heads of our troops,? he said. ‘We calculated the angles, height, distance and would respond when the forward troops would call in fire power. I was assigned to the First Cavalry when I arrived in Vietnam and then to Phuoc Vinh, the 1st Cav base camp about 50 miles north of Saigon. We lived in Army hooches and took incoming rockets and mortars all the time. You had to be on guard every minute.?
Gromek was reassigned to Task Force Shoemaker, with the mission to provide sufficient artillery in the field to invading forces.
‘I was then stationed in Quan Loi near the Cambodia border,? he said. ‘President Nixon’s men came on base and stayed there until just before the invasion. They were from the defense depart-