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By Drew Lawson
The Times 

Swain recalls time in Vietnam War

Longtime Davenport ag sprayer lost leg in combat

 

Last updated 5/28/2021 at 1:21pm

Drew Lawson | The Times

DAVENPORT-Lee Swain hasn't been in Vietnam serving in the Army since 1968, but the 79-year-old longtime Davenport resident who recently moved to Spokane remembers his experiences well as Memorial Day weekend approaches.

Swain enlisted in the Army in 1966 just before his graduation from Northeast Missouri State University and went to Fort Jackson, South Carolina for basic training. Less than two years later, in 1968, he was a lieutenant and was heading to Vietnam where he was assigned to the 5th Special Forces Group before volunteering for the Mac Be Sog unit that did long-range recon in Laos, Cambodia and North Vietnam. He was stationed in Kontun, Vietnam.

His unit was heavily involved with the Montagnard troops, who lived in the central highlands of Vietnam. The Montagnard troops were hired to fight for the American side.

"They were going to be in somebody's army," Swain said. "If they weren't in ours, they would've been forced to be with the North Vietnamese."

The Montagnard locals outweighed American soldiers heavily, Swain said. Usually, a platoon had 35 Montagnard men and just three American men. They would travel to Dak To for helicopter missions with dry, transportable food and weapons from World War II that wouldn't be easily recognizable as American weapons.

"They got paid by the weapons they carried," Swain said. "If the weapon they carried was heavy, they got paid more."

The troops also carried out trail watching missions and set up ambushes.

"(Ambushes) were scarier than anything," Swain said. "If you have more than 30 people there, you probably wouldn't ambush more than maybe five, because you want to win every time. Then when you did that, you had to get out because you were compromised."

Beginning November 10, 1968, Swain was part of a platoon to help evacuate recon teams. As the days went on, one of Swain's American partners was injured and had to leave. Five days later, American airmen came through to recover the injured after a North Vietnamese attack November 14, but not everyone was saved, and five platoon members were killed. November 16, on Swain's 26th birthday, he once again woke up to rifle grenades and gunfire. Two days after that, his platoon ran into a Vietnamese battalion in a clearing.

Swain was wounded by a rifle grenade that went off between his two legs, wounding his left foot at the ankle and his right calf muscle.

"We carried morphine in a little toothpaste tube-like thing. It sort of helped," Swain said. "Just before dark, they came with another group to take out the wounded...the only thing holding my foot on was the Achilles tendon. The door gunner got down on his stomach and held my foot so it wouldn't flop around too much."

He was flown out of Vietnam and taken to a Japanese hospital for treatment before going back to Fort Riley, Kansas to be treated. While in Fort Riley, he met his future wife, Debbie, and the two were married in 1970.

After two years of treatment on his left leg, Swain finally elected to have it amputated in Denver in Jan. 1971. He was discharged from the Army that November with the rank of captain, which he was awarded following his return to America.

After his leg was amputated, he elected to take flight lessons and attend crop dusting school. In 1973, the Swains moved to Farmington, before settling in Davenport in Spring 1974.

Lee Swain spent the next 32 years as an ag sprayer in Davenport, Reardan and Edwall and raised his three children while getting involved with the local Lions Club. He flew until 2006 and owned Northwest Aviation from 1974 to 2001. He also did some occasional spraying further south.

"We'd do some night flying (in Othello)," Swain said.

The Swains remained in Davenport until Sept. 2020, when they sold their Main Street residence and downsized to a home in the Glenrose area of Spokane. They look back fondly on their years living in Davenport and raising children in a neighborhood with several child-filled families.

"The kids would come into the elementary school and the school aide would say 'oh, the airport gang has arrived,'" Debbie Swain remembered.

"It's a good town to raise a family," Lee Swain said.

Author Bio

Drew Lawson, Editor

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Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.

 

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