| Summary: | Mr. Nale discussed his life after Vietnam and the effects of Post-tramatic stress disorder and Agent Orange on those who served in Vietnam.Florence-Lauderdale Public Library Digital Archive
Interview with Mike Nale
Part I
September 13, 2011
Florence, Alabama
Conducted by Patti Hannah and Rhonda Haygood
Mike Nale: In 1969 I'd been out not quite a year and they were looking at my wounds and they were figuring up disabilities and all. I was in Dallas, Texas. And they said, "Why don't you let us help you?" Because I was, then I would hear a loud noise and I would jump over a table, under a table, curb, it didn't matter I would just- car backfire, firecracker go off. And when you're that age, again, you think you know it all. And I said, "I don't think you can do anything to help me." I said, "I think time will be okay." And so I got a letter. I was working at, at General Dynamics, Fort Worth Division, saying report to Waco, Texas for twenty-eight to thirty days special studies. I said to myself, "I knew it, that lead in my neck is probably moving closer to my juggler vein. They're going to have to take it out." And I had visions of being in the hospital, air conditioning, watching TV, taking life easy, getting paid for it. And as I got off at Waco, Texas, I looked up and saw bars on the window and said, "That must be where they keep the nuts at." And an hour later I was up there. And they took all your clothes. They took your razor away from you. They gave you a pair of baggy khaki pants and a loud pink dress shirt. And I was thinking then, "This is not going to work." And this guy walked up to me and he looked at me and got right in my face and he said, "I wonder what Sky Chief thinks about Texaco?" [Mr. Nale makes noise] and laughed. And I called the nurse over, I said, she said, "What is it?" I said, "I want out of this funny farm." I said, "That's what it is." She said, well it was Friday night. She said, "Well, I'll call the doctor." Said, "The doctor said he would see you Monday morning." Well I started raising a little cane and she said, "I want you to do something for me." I said, "What?" And she said, "I want you to look around and see where you're at." She winked at me and she said, "You could be here a long time." So I shut my mouth. I shut it up. I thought, "I don't, I don't need this." The only treatment they had was giving people Thorazine Compazine then. And, and they would walk around all night like zombies. And the only guy I thought was half way sane was in the room with me and he tried to kill five people I found out from his family. I said, "Oh, no." I don't think I slept any, you know, during, during that time. And it was 105 degrees, no air conditioning, bars on the windows. And so, so that Monday me and Doctor had a loud discussion. I told him I wanted out of that zoo. I said, "I've had all of this I want, I can stand." He said, "You're telling me you're okay?" I said, "There is no treatment option here other than Thorazine Compazine." I said, "I don't, I don't need this." And so they let me out and they didn't talk to me again until about 1991. And Dr. Brodsky, who was the leading authority on Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, was at Tuscaloosa, Alabama. And he said, "We notice you slipped the net for a number of years." He said, "We need to talk to people like you since you were in a lot of combat." He said, "Would you talk to me?" And I said, "Yes, Sir." He said, "I'm going to ask you some questions, is that all right?" I said, "Yes, Sir." And he started asking me questions. And as he got about five minutes in to it, I noticed he just froze with his pen and he was looking down. And I thought, "God, that doctor really concentrates a lot, he must be thinking of a medical term." And after about five minutes he just barely moved his eyes up, he said, "You don't have a damn gun on you do you?" And I said, "I've got one out in the car, Doctor." And this is hilarious. And he said, "I didn't ask you where you worked." I said, "United States Post Office, Doctor." And he threw the pen up in the air and said, "God Damn, don't go in there shooting that place up." He said, "How do they treat you?" I said, "Like –" And he said, "Don't don't go in there shooting, I'll get you out." And so probably about two years later I started taking medication. They said, "You know, it'll help you get through." When you've been in a lot of combat you have what they call Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. At night you don't feel comfortable unless you're sleeping with a weapon. You don't feel comfortable. You wake up at night with what they call night sweats. And it's just a, it's a different life from what other people live. And when you walk into a place you assess the threats right away or when you're at an intersection, you're looking to see- When I go into a place and sit down, I'm not comfortable unless my back is to the wall somewhere. And most of the time I've got something on me, too. It's just the idea if I'm going to get shot, I'm going to shoot somebody back. It's not like I'm going to be a little lamb waiting for the wolf to jump on me and take me out. I am classified 100% combat disabled now. It's like thirty percent each arm, bullet and shrapnel, ten percent on my neck, ah, post traumatic stress syndrome fifty percent, Agent Orange. Agent Orange has a number- so far they've figured out Agent Orange Ischemic Heart, Parkinson's disease, Type Two Diabetes, Hairy Cell Leukemia, Type B Leukemia, Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, Chloracne, on the skin. For twenty-three years the VA denied that I was ever exposed to Agent Orange. Two thousand and four, January, I was lifting a lot of weights then. And I went duck hunting in Arkansas November of 2003. And I noticed I walked out to get a duck, and of course rice fields are very muddy and all, and I had to stop and I was just [Mr. Nale makes sound] a little shortness of breath. And I thought, "God, I need to get in the aerobics room and lay off these weights a little bit." And it happened one more time walking up a hill carrying mail. And it happened one more time. I said something to my sister who was over the ER. And she said, "Well, you probably need to get that checked". And I went to Dr. Irons and he said, "What's wrong?" And I said, "I had a little shortness of breath." And he said," How much?" And I told him. He said, "I don't think it's anything." And so he listened to my heart and he did an EKG and he looked down at it and looked back at me and looked down. And I thought, "What is he looking at?" And he said, "Well, I guess I had better try to keep you alive 'til Monday." Well I looked at him and horse chuckled at him. I thought, I thought "You got to be kidding me." He said, "I going to keep you alive. I've got a bunch of pills." I just horse chuckled at him. I thought, "There's no way I could be lifting the weights I'm lifting and doing what I'm doing and something wrong with me, no way. And so that Monday they did a EKG and I had three blockages in the widow makers area and they said if I had have had one it would have been like that before I hit the ground. And that is Ischemic Heart due to Agent Orange. And when they finally admitted it about a year ago there was a female heart doctor at Birmingham had a attitude. She said, "Well we're going to pay you for Ischemic Heart due to Agent Orange but you probably brought it on yourself because you smoked back then. We noticed your dad died because he smoked. And I just went off on her. I said, "Well I'm glad you brought that up, Doctor." I said, "Because my dad did smoke but he had high blood pressure, didn't take anything for it." And I said, "Doctor, I haven't smoked in twenty-nine years." And I said, "And since you brought this up, Doctor, do you know who gave me the cigarettes?" She said, "Who?" I said, "Y'all did, Doctor." She said, "What do you mean, ‘Y'all did?’" I said, "When you dropped supplies in to us, there were C Rations and LRRP Rations, Long Range Recon Patrol Rations, in it, too". I said, "Doctor, they had cigarettes in there and matches to light them with it." And I said, "You know since you brought this up, Doctor, I went in at seventeen so you were giving cigarettes to a minor." I said, "That's against the law, isn't it? Maybe I need to file on that while I'm down here today." And she looked me up and then said, "Here, you're approved." And so I started drawing after that a hundred percent.
Rhonda Haygood: What about your treatment when you got home from people here, regular civilians? Did you have any problems?
MN: Ah, people, ah, I was kind of a violent type and so if anybody said anything to me antiwar, it was, it was, it was on. I mean it was just one word and I didn't, I didn't argue, I didn't-
Patti Hannah: Well we sure do appreciate you coming today and giving us this interview and talking to us and we, we do appreciate your service, thank you.
MN: Well thank you gang, well, thank you. Like I say, once you're a soldier, you're always a soldier, you're never- you never get it out of your system or your blood.
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