Page 14 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2025 - Online Magazine

by Jane Bromley
ost of us are grateful if
we can leave an impact
Mon our relatively small
circle of family and friends. Only
a small percentage of us make a
contribution so large the influence
on the world is immeasurable.
A few of those individuals live
among us, and Dr. Ron Milam is a
notable example.
Raised in Dearborn, MI, he came
of age as the US was becoming
involved in Southeast Asia. He
hadn’t paid much attention but,
“In late ‘67, at the end of college,
I got my draft notice, and then I
started paying a lot of attention
to it.” He was able to complete an
MBA, but “I earned my master’s
degree on Friday night, and
on Saturday morning I flew to
Fort Dix, NJ for basic training
and then to Fort Polk, LA for
AIT.” A scheduling mix-up led
14 Lubbock Senior Link
(Editor’s note: This article drew upon an interview for the Texas Veterans
Project by Dr. James Sandy, UTA Dept. of History, July 24, 2024.)
to Airborne School before Officer
Candidate School (OCS) training
at Ft Benning, GA. “We graduated
in June ‘69—the only airborne-
qualified OCS class in history.
My first duty assignment was as
pathfinder platoon leader of the
82nd Airborne Division, First
Brigade.
“I got my orders for the Mobile
Assistance Training Advisor ,
(MATA) school at Fort Bragg for
eight weeks of Vietnam language
and culture training, and from
there to the Defense Language
Institute at Fort Bliss. “Memorial
Day 1970, my dad and my wife
Maxine took me to the airport.
Mom stayed home with our
three-month-old son. I got on an
airplane and flew to Vietnam.”
Ironically, after months of
language training, Milam was sent
to work among an ethnic minority
of the Central Highlands where
nobody spoke Vietnamese.
“By the middle of June, I was
on assignment at Pleiku Province,
and all the Americans had gone
home. We were on our very
first operation one week after
I got there, and we were in
combat. Boom. Guys died. Many
Vietnamese were killed. Both
sides.” Milam was the leader of
a small mobile advisory team
for the Jarai, the Rhade, and the
Bahnar tribes defending their
villages. “On March 15, 1971, 2330
(11:30pm), all hell broke loose.
Our compound was overrun by
NVA soldiers. I rolled out of bed,
strapped on my Smith and Wesson
pistol, grabbed my car-15, and
went up to my fighting bunker
with my buddy, Ed Roberge. I
don’t know how many hundred
were out there. I ordered Ed
to leave. He didn’t, and then
I got ordered to the artillery
compound.” Later, Milam saw
his buddy’s lifeless body being
loaded on a medevac helicopter.
“We fought for the next three
days, but we got the compound
back. The total death toll was
over 300. Most (of the casualties)
were women and children of the
Peoples’ Self-Defense forces who
were defending our compound.
Milam left Phu Nhon on May 2. “I
was in a lot of combat situations
where we’d had to rely on the
local soldiers to stay alive. The
thought of leaving them to fight
the Communist army without
American support still bothers
me.” After surviving another
ambush in Pleiku and a bombing
in Nha Trang, he made it back
to Saigon and Travis AFB in
California. “Nobody welcomed me
home. There were no parades. I got
into the oil and gas industry and
worked my way up. I went back