The Texas General Land Office has released the latest installment of the Veterans Land Board’s Voices of Veterans oral history program, featuring Danny Garrett, who served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. Land Commissioner and Veterans Land Board Chairwoman Dawn Buckingham introduced the interview in an Aug. 14 release from the agency.
Garrett was born in Dodge City, Kansas, in February 1945 while his father was temporarily stationed there during World War II, and grew up in Freeport, Texas, according to the land office. He graduated from Stephen F. Austin State University in January 1968 with a bachelor’s degree in history and was drafted that June.
“The Vietnam War was at its height then. They were still mopping up from Tet, so I was a little concerned about my future,” Garrett said of receiving his draft notice. His mother shared the concern, he said, but accepted it: “But both my father and my grandfather had served in World War II and World War I, and on both sides of the family, there was a history of military service. So she pretty much accepted the fact that I too was going to serve.”
Garrett went through boot camp at Fort Bliss in El Paso and was ordered to Vietnam in May 1969, serving as a forward observer with the 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry, 11th Light Infantry Brigade from 1969 to 1970. He recalled recognizing how far from home he was on arrival at Cam Ranh Bay. “We were getting off the plane and being loaded on buses, and I noticed that the buses had grill work on the windows,” he said. “The reason for the grillwork on the windows was so that nobody could throw a grenade into the bus.”
He described watching a firefight break out at a bombed-out church where his unit had delivered supplies. “In the midst of it, an American got up and actually charged, I say charged, but he deliberately walked while firing; he wasn’t running, and he caused the enemy positions to disengage and retreat,” Garrett said. “That was probably the bravest thing I saw.”
Garrett was injured by shrapnel to his left eye and finished his service in March 1970. He later moved to Austin and built a career in art, making posters for Armadillo World Headquarters, Castle Creek, Antone’s and other music venues, and was featured in the 2020 documentary “The Poster Boys.”
The land office said Voices of Veterans is the first veteran oral history program run by a state agency and has archived more than 500 interviews, which are kept in the Office of Veterans Records alongside documents from figures including Sam Houston and William Barret Travis. Texas veterans can email the program to share their own stories.