The United States Navy Memorial Stories of Service Program is honored to announce the August 2017 story of the month has been selected to recognize the service of United States Marine Corps Colonel, Michael L. Cluff. The United States Navy Memorial Stories of Service Program was privileged to interview Colonel Michael L. Cluff at the 50th Commemoration of the Vietnam War Conference held at Vinson Hall Retirement Community in the Spring of 2015. Colonel Cluff shared his service memories which spanned 30 years in the United States Marine Corps, beginning in 1962 and continuing through 1992.

One Colonel Cluff’s first assignments after joining the Marine Corps was at Marine Corps Air Station, El Toro. It was there, he witnessed a horrific crash of a United States Air Force transport plane and the loss of life of over 100 Marines and Airmen. He remarked, “it was a traumatic experience for me before I got to Vietnam. It gave me an introduction, you can say, it made me think more about Vietnam, and the value of life. Cluff was then ordered to Camp Lejeune where he would serve with a Reconnaissance Battalion which was preparing Marines for Vietnam and maintaining the records of those lost overseas. Soon after his orders arrived for Vietnam, he would depart the States for South East Asia.

He arrived in Vietnam in the summer of 1967 and was assigned to the 3rd Amphibious Tractor Battalion. Their responsibilities focused on moving troops in the field. He shared, “We lost a lot of people in our AMTRAC battalion to mines, we also had an area we were responsible for to defend Da Nang. I was a Company Commander at the time…while there we had several attacks at our camp.” Colonel Cluff shared detailed stories of not only survival but of humanity. In addition to fighting the enemy, he spoke about the humanitarian operations underway, patrolling the local villages and providing aid to the South Vietnamese people. He remarked, “I think the most important part that we often miss about Vietnam was the fact that we went out and spent a lot of time in the villages, helping the people who lived there.” He remembered his first mission proudly by sharing, “The first mission that I ever ran was to take a small unit of people with a doctor, a dentist, and a bunch of corpsmen out into the village and give them medical services…we had those kind of civil action things going on all the time.” In addition to humanitarian missions he also participated in operations focused on clearing minefields, protecting much needed supply lines from enemy attacks, and defeating the enemy. His memories illustrate the reality of war and the value of service.     

The United States Navy Memorial honors United States Marine Corps Colonel, Michael L. Cluff, featured within this series titled, Stories of Service, Story of the Month. Each month, this series honors a Veteran’s story recorded by the Stories of Service Program at the Navy Memorial. To learn more about this story and to explore the Navy Memorial archive, visit the Navy Memorial Stories of Service site at https://www.navymemorial.org/stories-of-service.