I'm Ken Harbaugh, host of Warriors in Their Own Words. In partnership with the

Honor Project, we've brought this podcast back at a time when our nation needs

these stories more than ever. Warriors, in their own words, is our attempt to present an

unvarnished, unsanitized truth of what we have asked of those who defend this nation.

Thank you for listening, and by doing so honoring those who have served.

Today, we'll be hearing from specialist Jan Scruggs.

Scruggs served as a rifleman in Vietnam and received the Purple Heart,

the Combat Infantry Badge, and an award for gallantry.

He went on to found the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

First name Jan, J-N, J-A-N, last name is Scruggs, S-C-R-U-G-G-S, widely known as the founder of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which receives 5.5 million visitors per year.

I was with the 199th Light Infantry Brigade, a company D412, and I primarily shot mortars,

but I was also a rifleman, and I was on the list to become E5 sergeant, but I had to leave

Vietnam. So, but I got out of Vietnam and got out of the Army the same day and spent a total

of 19 months on active duty and spent two months and recovering from wounds received on May 28, 1969.

So it was a year that was mostly boredom, but when there was excitement, there was a lot of it.

Well, you know, I was 18 years old, and my father had gotten a second wife and I didn't really get along with her.

The only skill I had was pumping gas and doing oil changes and what are you going to do at age 18?

For me, the smartest thing seemed to be just to get out of the environment I was in

and go into the military for two years, which I did.

I actually volunteered for the draft and was trained at Fort Bragg infantry training at Fort Benning, and I was also enrolled for a while in the NCO course in leadership at Fort Polk.

No, actually that was Benning.

Yeah, I wanted to be, you know, airborne paratrooper for two years and probably a rifleman.

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