Local News
Cleburne man’s Vietnam tour began on Thanksgiving
Editor’s note: Nov. 11 was Veterans Day, and the Times-Review published stories of military veterans each Monday during the month.
Lonnie Gallop, born and raised in Cleburne, was drafted by the U.S. Army after dropping out of college.
“I had been going to North Texas and thought I was smart enough so I quit,” he said with a laugh. “I quit, got married, and got drafted all in one month.”
Gallop went to Fort Lewis, Wash., where he went through basic training.
Three other Johnson County men served with him.
“Four of us took the bus ride to Dallas,” he said.
Those four included Gallop, Jeff Turner of Burleson, Gary Cooper of Blum and Bobby Fuchs of Forth Worth, who used to live in Johnson County.
“We all made that trip to training, and they accepted all four of us,” he said. “We were all together up until we got over there. They split us up, but going home we all came back together again.”
Then he shipped out with the 35th Combat Engineers battalion to Vietnam.
“We went on a ship to Vietnam and got off at a little place called Quadam,” he said. “We got off the ship on Thanksgiving Day.”
His battalion’s duty there was to build roads and bridges.
“Our base camp was LZ Uplift,” he said. “We widened Highway 1, which was the main drag for them. We built bridges during the day, and they blew them up at night. We thought it was just job security.”
For the last six or seven months of his deployment, Gallop was responsible for driving his lieutenant around.
“I would drive him to job sites or wherever he wanted to go,” he said. “He wanted to get shot at. I don’t know why, but he did, and we were. Snipers would shoot at us while we were on the road.
“But I got lucky and didn’t get hurt over there.”
Gallop’s crew only lost one man while serving overseas.
“We didn’t go looking for any of them like the infantry did,” he said. “We did get mortared. We lost one sergeant.
“We were blowing up a mine in the road, and everything went one way, but one rock came the other way and hit him the head. It was a freak accident.”
Gallop returned to the states in November 1967 and retired from the service.
“I wish I’d stayed in, but I didn’t,” he said.
After processing out in Washington, he came home to Cleburne and began working for General Dynamics.
“I had to do something,” he said. “I had a wife and a kid.”
He now works as a prison guard at Mineral Wells for Corrections Corporation of America.
“I don’t know if prison guard is the right term,” he said. “I really think it’s day care. Those guys get younger and younger.”
He meets with his battalion once a year for a reunion.
“I’m glad that I got the experience to go over there and would do it again if my country called for me,” he said.
“But I don’t think that will happen,” he said with a chuckle.
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