[Interview Begins]
BLUMENBERG: Good morning. It is February 2nd, 2023, and it is my pleasure to be here with the gentleman who I have known for a while, but not really known. His official name is Jimmie Michael Lorch. And from now on I will call him Jim. He served in the United States Marine Corps from September 25th, 1968 until August 20th of 1970. There is nobody else present in the room, and I am not associated or affiliated with any organization. I am a volunteer with the Library of Congress, the American Folklife Center there, and the Wisconsin Veterans Museum in Madison, Wisconsin. So, Jim, let us get started with the basics. Tell us where you were born.
LORCH: I was born in [XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX].
BLUMENBERG: Okay. And tell me a little bit about. About your parents.
LORCH: My parents. My mother was a great person. My parents married very, very young. My dad was a merchant marine. So I just thought I always wanted to do things like my dad or be like my dad. He played clarinet. I played clarinet. Okay. He was in the Marine Corps, but he was in the Merchant Marines. I went in the Marine Corps. Never said anything about him being rich or Marine because he was a little bigger than me.
BLUMENBERG: Oh, yeah.
LORCH: Okay. But I always wanted to be a marine. Born and raised in Milwaukee, went through the Milwaukee school system, lived in the housing projects in Milwaukee.
BLUMENBERG: In one area of Milwaukee.
LORCH: Was north side of Milwaukee.
BLUMENBERG: Okay, North.
LORCH: Side, 22nd. And Villard.
BLUMENBERG: Oh, wow. Yeah. And so you went to the public schools there in that area? Yes. And what about high school?
LORCH: I went to high school. Was Custer High School. Okay. Which now is Obama High? They changed the name, you know, quite a few years ago. But I went there, graduated from high school. That's where I met my future wife.
BLUMENBERG: Okay, well, let me back you up a step.
LORCH: Okay.
BLUMENBERG: Yup. You're jumping way ahead. So don't forget, I'm going to make this last 30 minutes. So here. Here we go. So. And I want to find out about your family. Your father was a merchant Marine. And where do you sail?
LORCH: I don't know. We never talked about that. He just. He had a picture that he and showed that he was. And, you know, nothing was ever really said about his time in the service.
BLUMENBERG: Okay. And what was he doing while you were growing up?
LORCH: He worked for a plumbing company installing water softwares. Okay.
BLUMENBERG: So that was his job. And you're he it sounds like you had a very nice, wonderful mother. And what was she doing while you were growing up?
LORCH: She was a homemaker, taking care of myself. Two brothers and three sisters.
BLUMENBERG: Okay, That was one of my questions. You had some siblings, so you were where were you in the pecking order?
LORCH: Number one.
BLUMENBERG: Number one. Okay.
LORCH: Top of the list.
BLUMENBERG: Yeah, sure. Why not? And and just out of curiosity, did any of your siblings serve?
LORCH: Yes, they did. Two of my brothers and a sister. They weren't as smart as I was. They went in the Air Force. I was the only smart Marine.
BLUMENBERG: Okay, I get that. All right, Well, thanks for that. No. Custer. Hi. You graduated in.
LORCH: 19 June, 1968.
BLUMENBERG: 68. Okay. And then what happened to you after your graduation?
LORCH: Well, what I did before I got the graduation at the time. At the time when we were able to, I went to the enlistment center and I went in to the Marine Corps on what they call a 120 day delay after 120 days, which went right to my graduation. I graduated there. Well, right in the Corps.
BLUMENBERG: Just like that.
LORCH: Just like that.
BLUMENBERG: Well, you were you were set on getting in.
LORCH: Yes, I. I didn't like school. Okay. I mean, I graduated and did what I had to do, but school. School and I didn't get along. I think it was because I couldn't utilize my mind in my hands together, sitting in a classroom situation. That's where all the music classes and band and stuff helped.
BLUMENBERG: Well, that's what I was thinking. You're using right? Right brain left brain things and. Yeah, but with your clarinet.
LORCH: Our whole family, all my brothers and sisters, we all played instruments. My mother was self-taught, was a self-taught musician. And, of course, the court organ, she was so proud of her kids, you know, she said, Oh, Butch, you are so great. Butch is my nickname because my dad's name is Jimmy. So when my mom was hollering at one of us, we knew who it was, you know, not so we we all played well.
BLUMENBERG: So when when I know this is going to be a big part of your story. But when. When did you start with the clarinet?
LORCH: I started playing clarinet at seven years old by ear, by listening to a record of Edgar Wilks Strange Around the Shore without music. I would play a bit Stop, listen, play a bit. And I ended up memorizing the tune that came out of that. At that point, my parents says it's probably time you learn how to read and sing.
BLUMENBERG: Yes.
LORCH: And that's how my music career started. And it went along really well. Right into junior high school. Back in the day, they had biennial music festivals. I'd try it out on my clarinet one year, I think it was 1963, and I made it to this all city band, all musicians from Milwaukee all over, and I played there the next time. When it rolled around in 1965, the director always gave the auditions and he says to me, Jim, can you play an E-flat clarinet? I said, Is it a clarinet? He said, Yes, but it's it's a small clarinet. I said, Sure, I'll play it. Lo and behold, they get into the I made it in Tall City, probably because I was playing the E-flat clarinet, because I was the only E-flat clarinet that year in this humongous band in 1967. Then.
BLUMENBERG: So you're a junior in high school?
LORCH: I was a junior in 1967. I was right. And I made it to Old City, and I played E-flat again. I had two young ladies playing below me because I was first. I was first chair. Yeah, But music was a very intricate part.
BLUMENBERG: Of my life. Absolutely. And were you satisfied with the instruction you got and the opportunities you had while you were while you were growing up?
LORCH: Yes, my my parents. I got to a certain point and within the school system of learning going to their lessons, and I actually was a little more a little more advanced for whatever reason. My my mother finally said, we're going to get you private lessons so you can learn even more. And I ended up taking private lessons from a from Mr.. My key of making music. My my, my key music. And he was he was a professional. He played in the band in some type of polka band stuff. I got to a point with Mr. Mikey and he told my parents, I can't teach you anymore.
BLUMENBERG: He's you graduated.
LORCH: He's got he's got beyond me now. Yeah, well, beyond him was the Marine Corps. He didn't realize, sir.
BLUMENBERG: Well, that's an interesting story. So you you told me about your your dad being in the Merchant Marines, and then you did a what did you call it, the 120 day.
LORCH: Delay.
BLUMENBERG: Delay.
LORCH: Delay, plan.
BLUMENBERG: And your parents are good with that. They knew what was going on.
LORCH: And yes, they were it. They knew I didn't like school. I was there because I you know, you had to graduate to get a diploma. But they were. Yes, they were proud of me.
BLUMENBERG: Well, but so there was they were ready for that. And they knew what was coming and where you went.
LORCH: Yes.
BLUMENBERG: Okay. So you said you got out of high school and you were you were inducted.
LORCH: And we're a matter of days. I was on my way to San Diego.
BLUMENBERG: Okay. And what where, where where was your induction point?
LORCH: Milwaukee. Down somewhere. Down.
BLUMENBERG: You know.
LORCH: Someplace. Who knows when you're when you're 17 or 18 years old, you don't remember all that stuff.
BLUMENBERG: Okay, So.
LORCH: In significant data.
BLUMENBERG: Yeah, that's right. I'm just curious. So then you got in and away you went to.
LORCH: If I might say something. Yeah, go ahead. First I wanted to be a marine.
BLUMENBERG: Right.
LORCH: So I am listed. When I was back in 1968. They still had the draft. You could have been drawn in by the government and ended up in any branch, right? I wanted to be a marine.
BLUMENBERG: You chose it.
LORCH: So I. It was my choice.
BLUMENBERG: I enlisted. Yeah. Yeah.
LORCH: I get a lot of us. A lot of the men back then didn't have a choice. You know, Some of them decided to go up to Canada. Yeah.
BLUMENBERG: I know that.
LORCH: And I don't hold that against them. I did what I wanted to do. Yeah, they did what they wanted to do.
BLUMENBERG: Yeah. Okay. So you got, you were in and you said you went to San Diego. How did, how did that come about?
LORCH: Well, depending on where you live in the country, that tells you what Marine Corps base you're going to go to. So I went to M.S., R.D. Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego. Okay. And were you were known as California Marines. Sunglasses and suntan lotion.
BLUMENBERG: Nice. Easy, easy stuff, right?
LORCH: Yeah, it would. It's not so easy when you're out on the parade deck when it's 102 degrees out in the parade. That is all asphalt.
BLUMENBERG: Yeah. Black asphalt. Yeah. Well, I'm going to just go have to step back. You're in Milwaukee. But how did you end up traveling to San Diego?
LORCH: I I'm going to say I'm trying to recollect. I think I was dropped off at a certain point, maybe downtown, and they had a bus for us.
BLUMENBERG: Okay.
LORCH: All the branches or whoever. I don't know if it was just Marines or whatever, but then we took a bus from there to General Mitchell Field. We were put on a plane. We landed in San Diego. We got off a plane. Got on another bus. Yeah, this was at night. They drove us over to the Marine Corps base to a Jewish circus, got on a bus and just started hollering at the top, the get off the bus, get out those yellow feet that you see right there. And don't say a word. Just stand there soon at attention and don't move. So we ran off the bus, got on the yellow feet and stood there and didn't say a word. Then we were moved down to our billets and our drill instructors were talking to us. We were all around each other in one building, and I use the word when I went to see something, did you and I got slapped in the face. I mean, I got slapped hard and I said, Don't you ever call me you again. Do you know what he used to? I look like a female go to you. And I didn't. I want my mind was still ajar. And I said, Did you? And I got slapped together and I was like, I'm going to hate the Marine Corps. I did not in the moment. That's what you think. The Marine Corps turned a loud mouth, 18 year old punk in 12. Oh, for me.
BLUMENBERG: Wow. What an introduction, though.
LORCH: Yeah, definitely. Yeah. You see that part of the obvious? As good as my mother could slap me.
BLUMENBERG: Well, I mean, that was part of my my chain of questions as well. What about your your boot camp where you already told us some about that. But what else can you.
LORCH: Boot camp. Oh, my Lord. One of the one of the first things that one of our general instructors said, and this was during the time and we were already a few years into Vietnam. And our idea said to us, If you listen and do everything I tell you, there's a 99.99% chance you're going to come home to your loved ones again. So everything that happened, the guys that really took a beating were the guys that were overweight. If they were too overweight, they ended up in the the Fab Four, too, because they just. Back in the day, the drill instructors could beat they could beat the dickens out of you with their reason. I'm not saying we're going to have blood and guts all over the place, but they abused you verbally, mentally, physically. I came home.
BLUMENBERG: You know.
LORCH: I listened to. Yeah, it was tough. One thing you learn when you go in the service, I'm going to move a little bit ahead. We go through a week. We're going through all this stuff in one day. The day says to me. Anybody here play a musical instrument? My uncle, who was in the Coast Guard, says, Never volunteer for anything in the service. That's what it's known as. I said, Yeah, raise my hand. So they sent me down to the Bay Area and I tried out for the bass band, tried out, did what I had to do, and went right back to parade, get back to the village and right back into training, going going to Camp Pendleton for shooting. I was a competitive shooter before I went in the Corps, so I pretty much had to step up on the rest of the boots. You know, I was able to serve. There's two ways of sitting the sitting position and shooting. One, you cross your legs and the other one your feet are out in front of you. I was able to cross scrambled eggs because that's what I did. It was more comfortable for me. Fortunately, when we qualified that weekend at Camp Pendleton, I'd play green haddock. I should have showed it to 17 out of a 12 to 20 5 to 20 would have given me expert. I was a sharpshooter.
BLUMENBERG: I saw that in year 214.
LORCH: With with a migraine headache. When I was done qualified, I said as drill the starter drill, the center serve. I've got the most extreme headache, He says. Go back to the billet and lay down. And and I did. Everybody that was able to become an expert was able to call home the following weekend. I couldn't call home because I missed it by three points. Yeah, but that's fine, because when you look at the expert medal versus the sharpshooter medal, the sharp sharpshooter medal looks times better. And when you put it in your uniform, it looks great. Yeah. So?
BLUMENBERG: So here you are, a sharpshooter. And this is our boot camp, right? Yes. So you said that they'd put you down with the band group for a while, but then you were right back doing PD and. Right.
LORCH: Because we're not in a permanent situation. We're still all boots. We're not Marines. We would be. We were girls, ladies, and that's what they would refer says, Okay, ladies, get down and give me 20 command girls. You could write a little faster than that. We we finished boot camp one on the parade deck. We graduated, and that's when they put the Eagle Globe and anchor in our hand and we pin it up. You are now Marine Proud Day. And while you know at the end what we were doing was graduation. I found out that I had qualified to be in the band in San Diego. It's it's a marine Corps base pier. So when people people ask me what I did, well, I was a clarinet, the Marine Corps band. All you were really. No, no, no, no. Not that band. When you hear the words United States Marine Corps band, that's the president speak. And yes, that is that's the band. John Philip Sousa was a marine. And that's what it's everybody's dream to do, that I wasn't quite good enough or just maybe not polished enough, but I still played in the bin. I was stationed in San Diego. I came home for a month, went back to my permanent duty station, which was San Diego. We would play. We played all the graduations. We played. It's California there, a parade every week. And we would play in schools. We would we would do all kinds of things like that.
BLUMENBERG: And so you you were in a band, but you did everything that every Marine, Marine did in order.
LORCH: In all branches of the service. You are a rifleman first. You're OS, which means military or military occupational status is secondary. I was a rifleman first, a clarinet player second. Okay. We did the same thing. Any combat fitted Marine would do. Yeah.
BLUMENBERG: Okay. I just have to say something here. We got some noises going on in this room, and I don't like it, but I can't control it. I hear some emergency buzzer or something, and I hope that's not showing up on here. But if it is, I apologize. I think we're talking loud enough to over write it, but it's it's kind of irritating to me. So apologies for that. So let's keep going then, Jim. All right. So you're permanent. Duty. Duty station was in San Diego.
LORCH: Yes.
BLUMENBERG: And. And you were doing parades and all the things that you graduations.
LORCH: When I first got to the band. Usually when you're the boot, you end up being on mess duty, which is eating, not eating the food, cleaning up and doing everything. Yeah. And I won't person that eats with my eyes. I did that boot camp one time. I looked at something, says There's no way in hell I'm going to eat this stuff. And the drill instructor got in my face and said, You're going to eat what's in front of your brain and you're going to like it. Fortunately, I did eat. It was pretty good. It was chili concurrently.
BLUMENBERG: And you like.
LORCH: It, but it looked like crap, let me tell you. Yeah. But after my mess, to go back to my ass to. To get up in the morning, domestic duty, come back to the band practice, go back to the mess hall, back and forth until my period of time was up because.
BLUMENBERG: So your boot camp. I just. I just want to get this done here. Boot camp was 12 weeks.
LORCH: We had, if I recall, six weeks of boot camp and 12 weeks of advanced infantry training.
BLUMENBERG: Okay. Yeah, that's one of my questions there. Did you have some extra training? Well, yes, you did. Yes. You had advanced infantry and boot camp.
LORCH: Six weeks of boot camp? Yeah.
BLUMENBERG: Okay. And then you're still in San Diego?
LORCH: Yep.
BLUMENBERG: What happened next?
LORCH: And what happened next? So I got my papers.
BLUMENBERG: Your papers?
LORCH: Yeah.
BLUMENBERG: And they said.
LORCH: You've been asked by the commander in chief to serve in Vietnam. Mm hmm. I'm a clarinet player. What are they going to do? You know? Okay. No. Commander in chief says I have to do it. You do it, no questions asked. You know, I went home on leave for 30 days. Talk to my girlfriend. Talk to my family. 30 days time. Time passes so fast. So you don't even remember everything that happened. And then I got in a plane. I don't know where we were. We flew out. I might have flew back to San Diego and then flew to Vietnam. Or flew from Vietnam. Flew from the States to Okinawa. We were in Okinawa for a few days, then got another flight and flew into Vietnam.
BLUMENBERG: Then you landed in Vietnam and you were.
LORCH: In the airport?
BLUMENBERG: In the airport.
LORCH: I it it when you you have to understand, when you're 19 years old, you're still. Your mind still is all formed. At 72, I think it's my mind's still not formed either. But you're just in awe. You're scared. You're you're trying it. You try to take everything and you see these you see guys walking around with weapons and stuff. I got on a bus. I ended up at third, third, MAF, third Marine amphibious forces, right under the name Grouper. There was a B span there. I don't recall how long I was there. I wasn't there alone. I could see across the water that there was a hospital boat there. That was a big boat. But I don't know what why it was there. What I found out later is these these band members, some of them three days, three days before I got to where I was supposed to be in Vietnam. Wherever these guys were, their area was overrun by B, C, Viet Cong Vietnamese Band. And just so you know, it doesn't matter if you're a doctor, if you're a captain, if you're a clarinet player, a piccolo player, a flute player, trumpet player. Three bands have been got killed. I did. I always said, when you're in a service to talk to other servicemembers, you see, What's your name, OS? I said I was 55, 34 and I look at you, what's a 5534? A clarinet player? They would start laughing. Most. Most will start laughing. You're a clarinet player. And then I would have to tell them that story. You know that the place that I was supposed to be at was overrun by A, B, C, so they had to move the band around to different places to so these guys could get. Get back. You know. Process. What just happened? So I was their third marina baby. As soon as amphibious forces pulled out. There were three of us that they were sending us to. The first Marine Division. Didn't know where First Marine Division was. And we were supposed to we're supposed to go on a convoy, the three of us, as armed protectors of this convoy, because it was it was military ammo and guns and stuff. Fortunately, we were supposed to go drinking a coin tree with that, and we didn't have to. So they just sent us up to the mountains. That's what we found out. We were in a mountainside was where first Marine Division Ben's area was. I could see the ocean. Yeah, from where I was.
BLUMENBERG: Let me let me just ask you the timeline of that. So you were in San Diego. You went back and forth Okinawa when you ended up in Vietnam. What month would that have been?
LORCH: Oh, wow. I'm. I'm good. I'm going to say August.
BLUMENBERG: Okay. So that would have been August of 1969. 69. Okay.
LORCH: I'm going to say August. And if you think California is hot, you know, if you can think of anywhere in the country, in the United States, I'm going to use a word that we use in the United States. We would call the world. We're going I'm a short timer. I have I have 15 days before I go back to the world. The short timer is a person that keeps saying, I only have ten days before I go back to the world. We're all saying that because we want to get back.
BLUMENBERG: Right.
LORCH: But that was that was August. I went from August to probably September or August to August in Vietnam. It was all an 11 month period that I was in Vietnam.
BLUMENBERG: Okay. All right. So you're with the first Marines and then what was happening to you there?
LORCH: Let me let me explain what was told to me when I first got to Vietnam, what the duties of a man is in combat. I was told that we're supposed to go out and retrieve dead bodies. I don't know how to say it gently or you can't sugarcoat death and guard the general. We guarded the general ones. Never had to retrieve bodies. But what we do during the day is we had starched jungle utilities. Spit shined combat boots. And we would take our M-16 and our flak gear and our instruments. Get out a chopper that was call it 47 or a 53. I might have the numbers wrong, but you guys out there that do all this stuff, you'll know what I'm talking about. We'd go down we'd be transported down to the Hilo pad, which was surrounded by rice. Paddy, get our chopper off all our equipment. We would fly out into the bush or to a base and play a change of command, which means one colonel is leaving and another colonel is coming in. Or we would play concerts. Ask yourself, how do I feel when I listen to music that I love? And that's why we go out there and do this. My father told me once that Glenn Miller, back in World War Two, was a musician. He'd gathered up members of the military just for that specific reason to play concerts, to help give people something to grasp on, to think about instead of thinking about everything around. Maybe you play a song. It's your song. You and your wife's song. I was 19. I had a girlfriend back home. Yeah. Back in that war, we were. We were kids. We were just out of high school.
BLUMENBERG: You were directly on life. And I have to plead ignorance. I had no idea that. But you just told me what was actually happening there. I don't. But I bet most people don't have any idea that we don't.
LORCH: I didn't have it that rough, but any of my brothers in any branch of the service that were in Vietnam, they're my brothers. Well, I don't want to jump ahead, but I'm going to jump ahead anyway. When I came home and saw what was happening to my brothers being spit in the face called baby killers, you know, that that retched enemy, because we did the commander in chief said, you will serve your country in hostile territory. We did what we had to do.
BLUMENBERG: And you helped the morale of this to the Marines. This I don't know if you played for other soldiers also, but.
LORCH: It didn't matter, would you? It wasn't just Marine. You just plain.
BLUMENBERG: And whoever was there. Right.
LORCH: We we don't see we don't just see the uniform. We we see the faces. I generally most of the time we had the army flying us in and out to our positions, to our concerts and stuff.
BLUMENBERG: Wow. Well, I learned a lot, but, you know, we're not done with your story. So what else happened? You there?
LORCH: Well, after a day full of playing out in the field at night, we had what we called. It was a line. It was a mountain. I don't think of a full mountain range, but when I say a line, there was a portion of the mountain range that we would have to go up to. We'd be transported up to this hill and we would be there from 6:00 at night till 6:00 in the morning. One night I just happened to be in a tower with Sergeant Ogden. We had night observation devices called a nod or a starlight where you needed some type of light like movement. Or so you could see people, and we would look at it. We would look at the ranges and make sure that they weren't getting past the battalion layer and the company. This was Constantino Wire. If you fall on it, you get stuck. Let me tell you, you rip up your clothes. Trust me. I fell one time.
BLUMENBERG: And you were in it.
LORCH: I was in it. You don't panic. You just do what you can to get out. But we were up in the tower, and all sudden we had incoming. You. We had incoming. Which means we were getting shot. I took three steps out of the tower and says this is taking too long. So I jumped to the ground with my M-16. Now, remembering that I didn't have my flak jacket or my helmet, and sergeant argued and it was his turn to sleep. I had a holler of Sergeant Oscar. It says, Incoming there, by the way, through all my flak jacket and my helmet. So we were at the ready positions at the bottom. Someone was coming up behind my position. I swung my M-16 around and in very foul language said, Who the hell goes there? And he said, Colonel so-and-so. I says, Colonel. I said, Who the hell goes there, sir? Advance and be recognized. The training that I got at home for home firearms safety. Be aware of your target and beyond. Make sure you know what you're shooting at. This could have been to say this could have been what they call friendly fire. I don't believe in friendly fire. If you killed some, someone got killed. I'm sorry you did something wrong. Something that you didn't follow. Another time I took a patrol out. I was an NCO, so me and three of my buddies were. Get ready to go down in between the company wire and the battalion wire. And as we were mounting out, getting ready to leave, we noticed an Army mortar team was setting up in our on our line. You don't think nothing of it. So we go out. I place all my place, all my men. And we said, Ed, where we sit for 12 hours, it's a listening patrol. It's called an LP. You don't say nothing at all. You hear all the talking I'm doing now. 12 hours was very difficult for me not to talk. Yeah, but we're sitting there just admiring the stars and stuff and whatever, because you got to be quiet. You're hiding. Also, only your solo show. That was the mortar team. Another one there. They're walking in on my position. I went on my trip 79 to call to call up. Had a line. It was broke. God gave me a big, big, loud voice. I hollered up, Cease fire. You're about to fire. In my position. You fire in wide position. Well, we're in on the people. You're not supposed to make any noise. We had to get out of there and move to a different position. Otherwise, the Vietnamese probably knew where we were.
BLUMENBERG: So there's going to be people that might view and listen to this. And I just want you to explain. The company line versus the battalion line or wire.
LORCH: As you write, it's Constantino wire, the battalion wire. If you get to be on the battalion wire, you're in no man's land. So between the company and battalion, it's relatively safe because you can get you can get back to your position fast. One night that happened, I got I admit it, we got turned around somehow and I got lost. We got beyond a battalion wire. There was a break in the wire that we didn't know about. And all of a sudden, my. My buddies and I, we heard someone walking above us, and I knew who was going out on the next patrol. There's walking patrols where you just go and walk the line. Swap can be 12 lines checking everything out. I hollered up, but I didn't. Aha. I said, Bo, is that you? He said, No, it's me. It's a goal throwing grenades down here. We got misplaced. This is where. Because I made the mistake. The only way to get past the wire. One guy lays up and the other three guys walk over to top you. So that's what I did. I laid down. We got back in the right area, and we were on.
BLUMENBERG: Our way back to safety.
LORCH: Closer to safe.
BLUMENBERG: Closer to see.
LORCH: Closer to safety. Yes, sir. Another time. One time we had to go up on the line. It was a rarity when we went up to the line during the day.
BLUMENBERG: Okay. And you told me a little bit earlier that you called it Hill A or.
LORCH: Hill Hill A.
BLUMENBERG: And that's we don't know where it is.
LORCH: Maybe if I saw the map, you'd see where Hill is. I don't know if they're just places in a time that you visit your. You might. I bet a lot of guys remember a lot of names and stuff. I just don't. I have pictures and stuff that I wrote stuff on because I probably knew that I would probably forget. But this this point of reference to all the Vietnam veterans, a lot of them don't know what we were up until we had to go up and had guard duty because Bob Hope was in town at Freedom Hill. Freedom Hill. There was a big what did they call it, Big store. There was a piece. Freedom Hill was a big piece, but Bob Hill was doing something there. And I think we were miles away from where he was. We had that's how far away there we were, guarding the lane. We saw any movement. They weren't going to make it down to Freedom Hill.
BLUMENBERG: Peck's is a post exchange where people could come in and get maybe some resupply, whatever they.
LORCH: Need. I bought I bought of luggage there for when I came home. That puts. You know.
BLUMENBERG: And so Bob.
LORCH: Hope Bob Hope was.
BLUMENBERG: Giving.
LORCH: He was shirt or he was for Bob Hope. Yeah. He was performing there and he did that during the war. We had a lot of people coming over and that's how close I was. I had to go to I went to a funeral of my brother in law and his his brother was in Vietnam. At the same time, I was he was they were having a talent contest at Freedom Hill, and I was at first Marine Division. We were this close. Sure. And he lives in Onalaska, Wisconsin. And I lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There you go. We were there at the exact same time. What are the chances? I mean, there's probably a million chances, man, but to actually physically talk to him and. He still has. A lot of our men that came back are still there. And this is 53 years later, you know.
BLUMENBERG: Yeah. There's nothing easy about it. So you had a lot of experiences there? Yes. Is there anything else other than those few that you had mentioned that particularly stand out in your mind?
LORCH: A very beautiful country. Do I want to go see it again? No. The federal government let me go free. I say that jokingly, but I know a lot of people that have gone back. I know veterans that have gone back. Why? My opinion? That's just my opinion. I'm too much. Too much happened over there. Too much happened here when we came back. And I'm going to jump again. I finally did the honor flight and I went to the Vietnam War and found out from one of the people that help you there about there's, I believe, eight women on the Vietnam War. Now, think a lot of people back in our day, women weren't allowed to be in combat for for whatever reason. I have reasons to my own. I don't think why, but I'm not about to tell you. But these were combat nurses. They generally didn't carry weapons. I didn't know that. And I visited. I made sure that I went and saw the memorial. I would not have known about it unless that gentleman said when you're done visiting here. Right across there. Go see it. Yeah.
BLUMENBERG: Yeah. Big impact.
LORCH: Yes.
BLUMENBERG: And there were a lot of people like that. And that impact.
LORCH: Going all the way back to Vietnam, all the way back to World War Two. I mean, women were so involved in all our wars. You would have to be quite ignorant if you if you thought men were doing everything right. Yeah.
BLUMENBERG: Yeah, Especially in the Medical Corps. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So you did that. I mean, you mentioned our flight. We'll get back to that. But you're still in Vietnam. And how did things wind down for you?
LORCH: Well, finally, I. I became a short time. My friends were leaving around me. And what away? One of my best friends ended up becoming. He was a guard transport guard. The agents, he transported some bodies back to the United States. You always had a guard. And that's. That was my closest thing to having a friend that actually did guard duty for our our veterans, you know? But it it really was a beautiful country. The people the people that I came in contact were nice, but obviously there was a language barrier and stuff. I picked up some words. We all we all pick up words, you know, wherever you're at. And the best word I can say is don't lie. And I believe that. Stop. There's other words. But what will stick with you?
BLUMENBERG: Lie will stay with nothing. Why stop? Just stop now.
LORCH: Just stop. I'm like.
BLUMENBERG: Okay, so beautiful country. And you had some harrowing experience and how did you get out? You were a short time or waiting to go back to the world. Right? Right.
LORCH: And to come back to the world came back to the world. That was a blur. I, I don't I, I remember all I really remember is getting to Milwaukee General Mitchell Field. It was at night. It was really nobody was in the airport at 1030 at night. When I got off the plane coming down the steps, I saw two people I knew my future wife and my future father in law, God rest his soul, who was in the Navy in World War Two. I would never call him a swamp jockey. I would call all other naval personnel that. But I loved my father in law. They were there to pick me up.
BLUMENBERG: You know.
LORCH: They brought me home.
BLUMENBERG: So. What was your uniform when you were coming back?
LORCH: I pretty sure that I had a junkie utility. Okay, I. I do remember. I do remember this, though. I'm glad you said that. I was sitting. I was sitting in in a general class on the airplane. You know, you had first class and then everybody else. And I was sitting next to a beautiful young lady and all sudden someone's coming down the aisle and he starts, Grandnieces are young men. And I noticed it was a colonel, young man. Would you go sit up in first class so I can sit with my wife? I would. Yes, sir. Well, what was I going to say?
BLUMENBERG: Say no, sir.
LORCH: No, sir. I got up and gave up my seat so you can sit next to his wife. And I got. That's the first and only time that I've ever been in first class.
BLUMENBERG: Well, that's quite a story. I just remember that he was in uniform.
LORCH: He was in uniform? Yes, because he had his insignia. So it scholar.
BLUMENBERG: Oh, yeah.
LORCH: And my wife. My future wife. They brought me home to North Lawn, the housing project. My parents weren't at home. They were in New York. It in a way, it bothered me for a long time. They were in New York. It was for a good reason. They were with a youth group from their church. I think my. My little sister was home. All I remember is coming home to a a dark house. Yeah.
BLUMENBERG: And then what a transition.
LORCH: Yes. Months later, from that August night in September? No. Yes, November 4th. November 14th. I could never remember the day I got married that year. We've we've been married for 53 years now.
BLUMENBERG: And your wife's name.
LORCH: Is Mary Kay. Mary. But I. I call it. I call her Ronnie. So. Ronnie. Yeah.
BLUMENBERG: Well, I will call her Mary if I meet her.
LORCH: But I'm trying not to. There's so many things in my mind about.
BLUMENBERG: Yeah.
LORCH: But you're going to get to the outer flight, and I'll wait for that when I. I bring this up, but. Yeah.
BLUMENBERG: So you were at home?
LORCH: Yes.
BLUMENBERG: How. How do you. Just being a civilian once you get out of that situation.
LORCH: After a few after a couple of months of doing probably nothing, maybe looking for a job before we got married, I made glasses and then I went to a paper factory. I don't know. I worked at a paper factory and you just you work and then you watch TV and watch what's going on throughout the world and what's happening to our veterans at that point, you know? We weren't looking for a pat on the back. We did our jobs right, people. We did our jobs.
BLUMENBERG: But you were still a young man when you got out?
LORCH: Yeah, I was still a kid.
BLUMENBERG: Yeah. I mean, really?
LORCH: Yeah, I was 20 years. 20 years old at that point. Ah. On what? Yeah, I was just. I just turned 20, so. Yeah, I just work. You work, you find jobs, you get better jobs. You try to do this, you try to do that. You have a family, you get a much better job so you can buy a home. You know, it's everybody goes through. Goes through the same thing. Yeah. My clarinet got put away for. I shouldn't say that because I did. My brothers were in something. My brother, one brother played trombone. My other brother play trumpet. James piano. I don't remember. There was a piano place in Milwaukee that was doing something with youth musically. And my brothers both insist, Well, why don't you just grab your clarinet and come and play with us, you know, and show us, you know. So I did it with this group, and we played a concert and we played a concert someplace. And I played House of the Rising Sun on my clarinet and really took it apart and played it. I mean, it wasn't just House on the Rising Sun. You you put all kinds of stuff in there. I had a gentleman come up to me and say, I have never heard a clarinet played that way before. I'm a professor at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. I'm starting a jazz band. I would love to have you join us. And I said, I just got married. I just I did. I just got married months ago. I have a kid. I have to decline. But I will always remember that opportunity.
BLUMENBERG: Yeah. Tough thing to turn down.
LORCH: I was 20 years, you know, 20, 21 years old. You know, you have to set your priorities at that point. You're having a young family not knowing. Well, at that time, we didn't have a car and stuff, so everything was done on the bus. Yeah. And who would have who would have known? I would have been working for that company that the bus company that used to take me all over the walkie and the bus driver intensities the mechanic.
BLUMENBERG: You did that? Yes. Oh, so you started there. And what ended up there?
LORCH: What happened there was I finally decided to join the VFW in Milwaukee was called Growth Josh. To me, it was just Vietnam veteran to sort of mess with anybody. We really didn't. We had to be careful because some post wouldn't even allow Vietnam veterans to become members. It's a VFW post. In order to belong to the W post, you would have had to be on ground or over the air or whatever to become a veteran of four or more American Legion. You only had to be in during that time of combat. But let me explain something. It doesn't matter. You're a veteran. We all did what we were asked to do. Do not think that you're. It's not because you didn't you didn't serve in combat that you're any less than a combat veteran. It's because you're not.
BLUMENBERG: We all had our.
LORCH: You had we had our jobs.
BLUMENBERG: We had jobs to do. And people did them.
LORCH: If if you did if the people on the other side didn't do the job, well, then we're not getting what we need. Then what did we do? Right. But because of that, because of joining the VFW, I met up with the guy that was the guy he was in charge of hiring people at the Berkeley County Transit system. And I says, you said, come up tomorrow and we'll talk. I wish I wouldn't have had a hangover, but I did go up and see him. And I it they hired me on the spot. I drove a bus for four years. Society and everything was changing. So I did up 24 jobs and became a helper mechanic. And I worked my way all the way up to the top slab of a mechanic.
BLUMENBERG: So you think your military service helped open a door for you?
LORCH: It sure didn't hurt. Know. And being a mechanic. Let me tell you something. When I said I need to have my head in my hands working together, you know, being a mechanic, you need both of those. Playing a clarinet or a musical instrument, You need both of you separate. It doesn't work. That doesn't work.
BLUMENBERG: Yeah. So how long did you work for the bus company? 25 years. What was it called? Milwaukee Transit Authority.
LORCH: In the beginning, it was it EMTs in the first. Then they changed it to the Milwaukee County Transit system.
BLUMENBERG: Okay.
LORCH: They're not we. The county owns us, but we're not county employees. There's a group that runs us. We have our own. Yeah, we have our own retirement plan. Has nothing to do. I would love to have that county plan.
BLUMENBERG: But you don't.
LORCH: But I don't. County employees are not hurting when they retire.
BLUMENBERG: Well. You worked for them for how long?
LORCH: 25 years.
BLUMENBERG: And so I don't want to make any jokes because people can't see my face. They can only see years. But how? How long ago did you. Did you retire?
LORCH: I retired. I'm 72. I retired when I was 50. The reason I could retire was because we still had excellent health insurance in my pension plan would not go up much more than it already had gone. So I figured, why not retire, move on and do other stuff? I didn't just totally stop working. I got jobs that I wanted. I was hired. Some jobs I got. I told the guy that's hiring me, don't pay me for what I do because you'll get the work out of me. Pay me for what I know. And that's how most of my part time jobs would end up in, you know? And then probably 15 years ago, I stopped working.
BLUMENBERG: Okay. And here we are in West Bend, Wisconsin. And when did you move in up here?
LORCH: Oh, we've been was West Bend for.
BLUMENBERG: The.
LORCH: Lord Howe. Florida, 19 1990. I think we moved to West Bend. I was I was going up to Canada for the transport company, and my wife was looking for houses in the West Bend area with our daughter, and they found a house. We looked at it and so 1996 we moved from Milwaukee to us, but we were both born and raised in Milwaukee. Yeah.
BLUMENBERG: Wow. Well, let me get back to something that we touched on. You went to the VFW post in Milwaukee, which set you out on a career. But what about connections with other people that you served with or people that you met through the VFW?
LORCH: To people I kept a small grasp on. One of them was up in I think he lived in Young America, Minnesota, which I think is the coupon capital of the world. I went up to visit him when the when the movie Platoon came out, and that was the closest designation to a movie that what Vietnam was like. We went into the movie together and we watched it. And there was it was an afternoon that needed to wear suits in there. And what I mean by suits you might know is guys with guys said to have ties and suits up and they were sitting in front of us and they were constantly gabbing and that's fine. Do your gabbing. Then they're going, What are they doing? What are you doing? I said, They're cutting their ears off and use the report Trophies. Don't shut your pie hole and watch the movie because we were able to see and know what was going to happen in the movie before it happened in certain scenes. Yeah. So it's like. And then another ball. Remember the name Bold. And I said, Bo is that, you know, Steve was Bo Freeman, great guy, a black friend of mine and he was in town in West Bend one time and he was getting this this was real funny. He blew my mind. They were having a baseball tournament in West Bend. I went to visit over here. He had a stand up and he was selling stuff. They had missed the stands during this tournament. Needless to say that I found out that it was Annette, how do you say LGBT tournament? And I said so. So, Bo, Art, is this your way of telling me that you're gay? They said, No, no, no, I'm just selling this stuff for my food, for my art. And they had them had him come over to the house in West Bend and we had supper. We brought them together, had supper as a prayer.
BLUMENBERG: And they threw in a yes.
LORCH: We got to meet my my oldest grandson. And I think I found out actually just maybe a year ago that he died because I tried calling his phone number and somebody answered, nice as I'd like to speak to Bull. And he says, Was that here? Well, I don't know. Do they give phone numbers out to re give them out to other people so I can only sue because I, I know that you went to is it Parris Island where there where they had that water problem, where the water is and people were getting sick from it. Right. That's where he went to boot camp. So that's possible. He got cancer or something, Who knows? But that's the only connection I had. And I was a member of a VFW post and Sullinger, I was actually up for 12 years in a row there, Commander. Okay, I will. And I was a state commander, all state post commander. I was a national aide, took care of the same year. And that was more important to me because that was it was just a title.
BLUMENBERG: Well, say it again.
LORCH: National national aide de camp. Okay. To the national commander.
BLUMENBERG: Okay.
LORCH: You don't never get to see him, but you get a nice head that says that in your heart and everything. And that was even better than being a all state post commander for me. Yeah. Personal opinion.
BLUMENBERG: So you had a lot of, you know, a lot of activity that way. Yes. Now, you mentioned that you went on the honor flight, so can you please explain how that came about?
LORCH: Well, someone told me to sign up for it, so I did. And I waited a couple of years probably. Then I got the call just happened that I got the call right when COVID started. And. Talk to my son. My son is going to be my guardian. That sort of person that goes with you. Everybody has a guardian. Go with you. And he says, Well, I'm not going to get that. Not going to get the shot. So I. I decided I'll cancel. Another year later, same thing happens. I canceled again because it was still called it, well, September 10th of last year. We couple of weeks before that. They says we have another flight going. Do you want to go? We lifted the restrictions. So I called my son. I says, this is it. Either you go or I can get someone else to be my guardian. And he said, because they know I'll go. So I was very happy that I was able to go with my son, you know?
BLUMENBERG: Very nice.
LORCH: So I had a friend. We get everything. All the people, everything gets done. September 10th, Saturday, September 10th was the day that we were leaving. A friend of my name, that's Summerfield, who is also a veteran. He asked me if he could ride me, drive me down to the airport because he's been down there and someone drove him down. So you don't have to park and you don't have to worry about it. You can just. So this guy and he's a slab jockey, and I let him know that.
BLUMENBERG: Do you know Max was the last guy that I interviewed? So here you are. And that's part of the reason you're here. Because he told me about you.
LORCH: Yeah. A lot of people talk about me.
BLUMENBERG: Here we go.
LORCH: But Max picked me up with his significant other at 4:00 in the morning. September 10th. Drove me down to the airport where my son met me. The first person that I meet is a marine. He's got a logo on his chest this big. The Marine Corps emblem. And I have this little thing on my head and he starts messing with me. And I said, Back off, Paziente. This is original equipment. That's that. So at 430, quarter to five, we're down at General Mitchell Field. Going through the process of getting to the plane stuff. There were only three. Three of the people on our flight were Korean veterans. The rest of us were Vietnam veterans, which was nice to see. There were 13 Marines, four Marines that took that flight, another eight or guardians, and some of them were still active duty. Obviously, I don't know how many swab jockeys or army or anything else. Just I know the Marine Corps, but.
BLUMENBERG: Yet a plane full.
LORCH: But this is a plane full of everybody, the Guardians. I mean, this plane was jam packed. So when we're flying out of Milwaukee, you know, they're telling us what's happening. There was some type of fly over with two old planes. Couldn't see it because I had an aisle seat. We were being sprayed with water. We'd be doing that. I get sprayed with water every morning when I take a shower. When we get into the airport in Washington, D.C., and get off the plane. And walking into the airport in the morning and seeing not a lot, but there was a lot of kids and their parents honoring us and thanking us what we did for our country.
BLUMENBERG: How nice.
LORCH: And a lot of walking. A lot of walking. We get outside the airport because we were going to light up in a few busses and I'm seeing all these flags up and draped out in the distance and stuff. I walked up to a cop and I says, Hey, what's the deal with all these flags? So I don't know. That ain't my job. Well, I think I found out sometime it was September 11th that the towers got hit, correct? Correct. That's what that was. They were preparing. And that really took me off that the cop didn't know what was going on. Yeah. I mean, this is in a hundred people and you don't know it, and that's why you get over it. Okay, we're we're done. We start visiting. Washington, D.C.. Well, we're pulling out of the airport. You see my motorcycle cops leading us since stopping the arm ramps and stuff until we got to where we needed to get and started moving around with stuff and going here. And we're going there. And I'm not going to go into it because I'm going to make a statement at the end anyway that it'll bring this solved together. The reason I know about the Marines and how many. We all had our pictures taken in front of the Marine Corps monument. First it was just the veterans. Then it was anybody that was a marine and they were Marines. You know, the same people it once a marine, I was a marine. It never changes. And to see the salutes and snaps and stuff. So we have it a full day. One of the last things that we saw was Arlington Cemetery. I got to see Audie Murphy's Stone, and then we went to see the silent guard. And they tell you, when you're watching this, please, silent everything. Even though this is the hearing, we're all respectful of the silent humor. We're respectful of our brothers and our sisters and. Some door here up above us. A phone was ringing. It was just enough that two of us Marines could hear it. We wanted so much to go up there and part had fallen where the sun didn't shine. But you're between a rock and a hard place. We need to focus in on what was happening. And one thing that really came to my mind when I was watching the changing of the Guard, Lord and I old. I'm not old in a bit, but when you looked at some of these these guards that were existing and then I remembered that's how young I was when I was protecting our country, That's.
BLUMENBERG: What your picture looks like that you showed me. Yes, it's. You were 19 years old.
LORCH: I was the same guy, right? Yeah, but then we all get back on the busses. Weather was perfect. Our every need was taken care of. We needed water. It was there. We needed this. It was there. So let me tell you, people, any veteran out there that hears this, you need to order yourself and you need to honor those who came before us. No matter what branch of the service, no matter whether you were in combat or not in combat, we get to the airport. And there's even more people in the airport watching us go home and and thanking us. I had a little girl come up to me and I said she couldn't have been more than two or three years old. She came up and handed me. Thank you for your service. It's like. We get out of the plane. We're coming home. I would say a good 45 minutes out of Milwaukee. We have mail. Call anybody in the services. When you hear the word mail call, we have an area that you come to and they call out your name and you give you your mail. I'm going to. I have read a little bit.
BLUMENBERG: Go ahead. We allow you to breathe here.
LORCH: They're handing out all these letters of pocket envelopes full. And I start reading my letters. And one of the very first they read is from my 27 year old grandson. And then you read the next letter. And you read the next letter.
BLUMENBERG: And while profound.
LORCH: Profound. I have a better word. Humbling. It was so humbling to see. I had people I live in a and I always forget what they're called is around here. I live in a not an old folks home or senior community. Yeah. Of the workers that work here that you never know the influence that you have on your your grandkids and people that you just met with in the last few years. And and to see them thanking you and honoring you and the trip, the flight home was a little bit strange because I had this old, old Marine. I had two other Marines sit next to me. It just happened to be that way. But this old guy sitting next to me and he was he was clumped over and I. I know. So I said, You okay? Yeah, I'm okay. I'm okay. And I just kept watch him. And it happened again. And I woke him again. I said, Are you okay? This is when I realized this is how tiring our day was.
BLUMENBERG: Well, you started at four in the morning.
LORCH: Started at four. But I can tell you this, there are a lot of nurses and doctors on that flight. If something were to happen to here before you, before anybody would have known, I would have had this guy back who would have helped there. It doesn't matter what branch of the service here. And it was just serene. If it would have been you asked or someone are in the Navy, it doesn't matter. We're all brothers and sisters. It's sad, but I was glad it. But it just died on me. Yeah, I'm tired too. I just couldn't. I am too keyed up right now. Yeah. Now, the ending.
BLUMENBERG: The ending.
LORCH: Not the ending. But you get off the plane into Milwaukee, and it's even. Even worse. Not worse than a good way. There's people saluting you. I didn't know if I was supposed to salute. Thank you. I had a difficult time in my life when people would thank me for my service, and I didn't know what to say. What do you say? Thank you. Until I had a young lady from church. Tell me. She walked out. It just happens to be a marine. I'm not making this up. She walks up to this Marine and says, Thank you for your service. And the Marine without thought says it was an honor and my privilege. Since she told me that in church. This is what I see, ladies and gentlemen. Any of you veterans out there to know don't know what to say. It was an honor and my privilege to do that. So we're walking through this big reception. The very first person I see is someone I know that works at the command that's in charge of maintenance at our community. I said, What the hell are you doing here? His motorcycle club does this for every honor flight. He's there with his troop and holding flags and stuff, and it's like. And then I see my wife, and then I see people from my church. And then I go. And then I go. Where was this 53 years ago? For all of us Vietnam veterans when we came home. Where was it? Why were we split up? Why were we called baby killers? We did our jobs. We did what we were supposed to do. We all did what we were supposed to. But humbling. I can't use that word. End up and then start the whole thing off. Well, my grandson was there with with his future wife I married. I ended up being his officiate at his wedding a couple of weeks after that. But coming home, he had used my car. We couldn't figure out why. We couldn't. Someone told us we don't have the lights up on a car. So somehow we figured out how to get the lights on. And we're driving from General Litchfield in Milwaukee to West Bend. We get more than three quarters of the way home. And I tell my wife we don't have any headlights. Those are the fog lamps. So for a couple days I'm trying to figure out why I can't get my lights on. I took it in and some young men helped me where I take my vehicle and he. Well, this one's burned out, and so is this one. Both of my headlights were burned up. We drove from General Mitchell Field to West Bend, Wisconsin, and never got pulled over by a cop. Well.
BLUMENBERG: Sure. Good fortune.
LORCH: But.
BLUMENBERG: But you would have been. You would have been a go anyhow, because that would explain your situation.
LORCH: How do you know how much of a better or a different day could that have been? But you can see it's the miracle was really it was too much for all of us. It really was. There was not a dry eye in the plane. And by the way, we had one female Vietnam veteran on our flight. I don't know what she did. I don't know if she will. We never were able to connect and talk. But she was also a Vietnam veteran.
BLUMENBERG: Well, that's quite a that's quite an interesting story. And it's an eye opener, too. So let me get on to the end of this thing. You have really shared a lot of experience and insight, but I want to ask you kind of a general global question about your service and if you have any words of wisdom for the next generation coming up, if anybody is watching this, what your feelings are about war or service in the military in general?
LORCH: What's your question?
BLUMENBERG: My question is, what would you tell somebody in the next generation coming up if they should serve their country in uniform like you do?
LORCH: We all have certain things in our lives that we need to do. What I could say is, if you're compelled, know what I would say. It was an honor and it is an honor to serve your country. If you feel that school isn't your thing or something and you want something good and learn something and have something that you can utilize by going in this service, there is I can't say I won't. There are tons of jobs is another word I could use, but I always mispronounce and there are tons of jobs in the services that can set you up to move right into the same job in life.
BLUMENBERG: You know, civilian status.
LORCH: As a civil union. Yeah, my. But my brother was in military police. He retired for the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Department. So that's just one one example. One example of. We still need doctors and scientists. We need everything for this world to survive. We need. We need you, brainiacs. We need computer geeks. Yeah, but we understand this. We need to protect our own country. That's the bottom line. Yeah. And I know a lot of servicemen. When September 11th hit at our ages, in our golden years, we wouldn't have thought it if the president would have said, We need you back. We wouldn't have thought for a second. Why? Because it's an honor to serve our country and protect. That's. That's why you had your job. It just didn't include being a combat veteran. Right. But that does not make you any less of a veteran. And anybody. Any veteran that feels that way. I'm sorry that you feel that way, but. But we all had our jobs and we did them to the best of our ability. And if you don't go to service when you go to school, you need to do that to the best of your ability. It doesn't change, you know. And there's always the military academies.
BLUMENBERG: Right? Yeah.
LORCH: Become an officer and skip all and then come stuff.
BLUMENBERG: So I want you to summarize one thing because I didn't ask you as we went along because your story was so interesting and I didn't want to interrupt you too much. But you went in and you were one stripper or no stripper.
LORCH: I was the no striker. I was a private. Yeah. Okay. When I came out, I was an e. I was a corporal. It's an NCO. And that commissioned officer. I did that in less than two years.
BLUMENBERG: And you got those promotions while you were in Vietnam?
LORCH: I got my corporal straight in Vietnam. I got my PFC, PFC and Lance Corporal in the States. Okay. I'm pretty sure I know I got corporal in now because I had the strips pinned on me. And that's where they hit. They hit you near the Panama, and they.
BLUMENBERG: Finished right into.
LORCH: You. But they had to be careful because I had no loss of son.
BLUMENBERG: So in 1970, you were Corporal Jimmy Michael, Lauch, E-4. Yes. Okay. Well with that, unless you have something else you would like to add. Well, we'll wind it down. That's fine. Okay. So I'm going to use. I'm going to use your word and I'm going to tell people that it's February 2nd, 2023. We are in West Bend, Wisconsin, and it is an honor and a privilege. For me and for you, Jim. And I really appreciate it. Thank you.
LORCH: And thank you and God bless America.
[Interview Ends]