Black Vietnam veteran from Fayetteville reflects on different times 50 years after pullout

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (WTVD) -- It was April of 1975 when Troy Williams was a 19-year-old airman. He arrived at Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai navy base, a front-line installation during the Vietnam War.

"When I got there, we were told the war is over," said Williams. "Admittedly I was somewhat heroic in my mind, but by the time I left, I thought it might be a good idea to just get home alive. Everything was winding down. When I was on my way there, I saw the Vietnamese people trying to come back. As we flew in you could see some in the water. Helicopters were being pushed off into the ocean."

The Vietnam War was the first conflict in which White and Black service members were fully integrated, but African Americans were disproportionately placed on the frontlines. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. referred to it as a White man's war and a Black man's fight.

"I sent you a photo of me having a M60 machine gun. That was my job," Williams said. "Places they were likely to attack, I saw a great number of African Americans. We were the ones manning those spots."

Williams' unit patrolled the jungle, but war wasn't the only thing on their minds.

"When I got off the plane, there was a big sign that said land of the king cobra. After spending weeks there I understood why. Lot of different things you could die from. Even malaria," he said.

Williams is 67 years old, and now the Fayetteville resident is facing a personal battle. He's working with the government about whether the lesions on his chest and back developed as a result of Agent Orange.

"I'm not envious of the young men and women who went to southwest Asia, Iraq and Afghanistan and all those places. They came back heroes. We did not," he said.