MARSHAL T. SHERMAN, THEN SPECIALIST 4

“IF YOU WERE FIRING AT ME YOU HAD TO BE AN ENEMY. But that’s usually my first recognition of Vietnamese soldier. I never saw that many. Many enemy soldiers during either tour in combat operations because they were so elusive they were on their own turf; THEY HAD A PLAN. Very seldom did we make contact with them except on their choosing and selection. So you just, like, didn’t see them running down the street or anything like that…Most of our contact was with platoon size units and when, in my second tour, the units got much larger. They were company and battalion sized units that we were making contact with. I think that to some degree THEY WERE STILL ELUSIVE. They would prefer to do an ambush with those armored columns along the road rather than to try to confront you because of your massive fire power both ground and air that they had to deal with BUT THEY COULD AMBUSH YOU...and so many of those engagements we participated in didn’t last over twenty minutes and the whole thing was over.”

This broadside featuring the words of Vietnam War veteran Marshal T. Sherman was printed for the Pritzker Military Museum & Library's 2016 exhibit Hunting Charlie: Finding the Enemy in the Vietnam War. Set in Arial and designed by Kenneth Clarke and Kat Latham.