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Author calls Austintown's John Bullock role model of Vietnam vet generation
AUSTINTOWN
John W. Bullock left Youngstown State University, where he played football under legendary coach Dwight “Dike” Beede, in his senior year when he was drafted into the Army to serve his country during the height of the Vietnam War.
“I had a patriotic mind,” explained Bullock, of Austintown, who said his grades were good enough to have enabled him to defer the draft.
Bullock’s patriotism is one of the reasons the 72-year-old is featured by author Mack W. Payne, himself a Vietnam War veteran, in his new book, “Conversations With Vietnam Heroes: Volume 1,” based on his “Vietnam Veteran” podcast.
Bullock and Payne were interviewed during a book-signing Thursday at Fit Family Fitness, which Bullock co-owns and operates with his wife, Doris, on Mahoning Avenue here.
In the book, Payne describes Bullock as not only a “beacon to young African Americans, since he is of that race, but ... a tremendous inspiration to a person of any race, creed, sex or age ... a beacon of inspiration to everyone. He is a role model of the greatness of the Vietnam veteran generation.”
A native of West Mifflin, Pa., Bullock is one of nine Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force Vietnam veterans, whom Payne calls the Vietnam Generation of Greatness, who recount their war experiences in his book.
Payne, a graduate of the University of Florida, where he was a member of the Reserve Officer Training Corps, is also inspired by Bullock’s drive for education.
While in the Army, Bullock was first trained as an Army medical specialist (combat medic), and through his own initiative, became a physical therapy technician and also a psychiatric social worker. As a result, after a short time as a medic, he spent the rest of his eight months in Nam in several hospitals, primarily at the 29th Evacuation Hospital at Can Tho, IV Corps. He turned down a chance to extend his stay and go to officers training school.
Instead, he returned home to complete his education at YSU, earning degrees in sociology, psychology and business administration .
He went on to work 30 years at Delphi Packard Electric, where he was an “equal partner coordinator,” traveling the country to find minority women and businesses to become suppliers for General Motors, retiring as a senior buyer,
Bullock, who said he hasn’t talked about Vietnam “until recently,” admitted he came home messed up.
“When I first came back, for some of the things I did I should have been put in jail. The only thing that saved me was God. If it wasn’t for Him, I wouldn’t have survived Vietnam or when I came back,” he said.
Memories still haunt him, he said.
“I think it is important to fight to defend our country when necessary, but the military was exploited in Vietnam,” he said.
For instance, he noted, Agent Orange (a defoliant) was used, and the troops weren’t told it was harmful.
Bullock has prostate cancer, currently in remission, derived from of Agent Orange, he believes, and a disease, lichen planus, which soldiers call “jungle rot.”
He had some bad experiences in Nam – “Some I can talk about, and some I can’t.” He recalled a medivac pilot who had only one or two days left there, who still went out and came back , but not alive. “Things like that really hurt then,” he said, “they still hurt now.”