Joe Featherston — Full Interview, Vietnam Veterans Oral History Project

Joe Featherston completed two tours in Vietnam with the Marines, serving in country in 1965 as part of the first Marine infantry battalion to operate in the northern part of South Vietnam, and again from 1968 to 1969 as a squadron material officer. For Joe's full biography and summaries of the interview sections, visit his VVOHP page at https://vvohp.org/joe-featherston/. This interview was conducted on March 19, 2025, at the University of South Carolina Aiken, supervised by Dr. Sarah King and Dr. David L. Morris II. ____________________________________ 00:00 – Introduction 00:33 – Section 1: Early Life 03:56 – Section 2: Basic and Advanced Training 09:30 – Section 3: Arrival in Vietnam, Role, and Fellow Servicemembers 21:24 – Section 4: Adjusting to Vietnam and Interacting with Vietnamese People 28:45 – Section 5: Recollections of Agent Orange 30:18 – Section 6: Responses to the War 36:35 – Section 7: Staying Connected to “the World” and Additional Stories 39:40 – Section 8: Coming Home 46:43 – Section 9: The Wall in DC 48:46 – Section 10: Remembering the War ____________________________________