BROADWAY, Va. (WHSV) – On the outside, Steve Shifflett – or “Stevie” as he prefers to be called – is a die-hard University of Virginia fan, the best tailgate host and a classic car enthusiast. Inside, Stevie carries with him over a year of war stories that he often doesn’t share.

In 1969, Shifflett joined the United States Marine Corps. One Saturday, an argument with his father led him to a recruiting office on Monday. That Wednesday he was leaving for Parris Island to become a Marine.

Shifflett said it was the last fight he would ever have with his father. When he graduated from boot camp, Shifflett said, it was the proudest he had ever felt of himself. His father, a World War II veteran, told him he was proud, too, followed by a warning: “You don’t know what you’re getting into.” » Shifflett said he was right.

“I look back on my career in the Marine Corps and you know, there were a few times things happened to me where I thought, ‘Maybe that wasn’t a very good idea,’” Shifflett said . “It was 95% boredom and all of a sudden, 5% terror.”

After basic training, he was sent to San Diego with a military occupational specialty in communications (MOS) to become a radio operator. Shortly after, he would be deployed to Vietnam. He would then complete two missions with 30 days off in between. In total, Shifflett fought for 17 and a half months.

“The heat and humidity hits you in the face when you get off the plane,” he said. “You look all around and the airbases, all these barbed wire and lights. »

Shifflett said that at just 18 years old, he was still a naive teenager, but his naivety would quickly fade. On his first night abroad, young Stevie witnessed veteran American soldiers killing innocent civilians.

“They just started shooting at the rice cakes. I’m like, “What’s going on?” “, Shifflett recalls. “They were just shooting people.”

He said at the time that the rules of engagement associated running with guilt.

“If someone shoots you, what are you going to do? Run,” Shifflett said. “You could shoot the farmer who had the water buffalo, because if you said he had a gun, nothing would happen to you. But if you shot his water buffalo, it was a $500 fine.

Shifflett’s first combat experience came when the North Vietnamese attacked another platoon, killing 13 Marines. Shifflett and his unit responded, but eventually found himself with the infantry as “one of the grunts” with his radio in tow.

“(My sergeant) said, ‘The Bravo Company radio operator was killed last night. You go out and take his place. As I’m getting off the resupply helicopter, they’re carrying the body of the guy I’m replacing,” Shifflett said. “I look around and there are little fires burning and there are bloody bandages everywhere, and I’m like, ‘Oh shit, maybe that wasn’t a very good idea.'”

Shifflett continued to find himself in the middle of danger. One memory that stuck with him throughout that time was when another platoon was ambushed and Shifflett’s platoon moved in to help.

“They’re calling for an airstrike. You don’t want to be too close to that,” Shifflett said. “We had to run on the rice cakes. This guy in front of me was carrying a machine gun and got hit in the arm. The gun flew into the air and I remember running under the machine gun. We pulled him up and dove down to the edge of a stream so they couldn’t shoot at us again. I’m like, this is like a John Wayne movie here.

Shifflett was injured several times, but the first occurred during a mortar strike in the middle of a card game. He was not wearing his equipment and was thrown backwards, causing shrapnel in his back.

“You look up and you can see mortars coming, so I started running and the next thing I know, it’s this blinding flash behind me and I’m flying through the air and, you know, I I’m up,” Shifflett said. .

Shifflett’s time abroad was marked by life-threatening experiences, but he said there were also glimmers of joy.

“If you took a bath, you took your helmet and poured it over your head to rinse it. These kids were running back and forth to get you water and you were giving them cigarettes,” Shifflett said.

For those under 21 and above a certain rank, access to alcohol was a point of contention within the Marines. Once, Shifflett said, a fight ensued and then led to a full-blown riot. Shifflett and his dorm mate turned dear friend, a Minnesota man who preferred Merle Haggard to the Beatles, decided to get themselves into big trouble.

“We’re sitting here around these rocks, you know, opening beer and pointing at it and throwing it in the middle of the fighting, and here comes the colonel who commands the whole base. He walks in there, you know, and pulls out his .45, fires it in the air so everyone stops. Kaiser takes a beer, throws it and hits the colonel’s jeep,” Shifflett said with a laugh. “We got to know each other very well, something you shouldn’t have done, something you shouldn’t have done.”

His best friend was later killed when an RPG hit a tree and backfired. Shifflett was right behind him.

“I went to get him, you know, to get him out of there, and when I did, his arm came loose from my hand. I was pretty messed up,” Shifflett said. “After that, I didn’t have any friends there.”

When it was all over, Shifflett returned to the United States. At the Los Angeles airport, in the middle of the anti-war movement, he was spat on.

“I thought I was doing something for the country, but the country didn’t really care. You know, who are we fighting for? Each other. That’s it. You watch my back. I’ll watch your back,” Shifflett said.

Shifflett said settling back into civilian life was difficult for him. He said he still struggles sometimes, but tries to live his life day to day with his wife by his side. He umpires baseball, supports UVA and hits 100 mph on Route 42 in his classic car.

“People tell me: I couldn’t do that. Of course you can,” Shifflett said. “Humanity is everywhere on this planet. They adapt. You adapt. It wasn’t like I wasn’t afraid. I was scared to death the whole time, but I could function.

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