Written by Doug Goodnough
Duane “Dutch” Van Fleet, ’73, is not able to attend his upcoming 50- and 60-year class reunion at Hillsdale College from April 12-14.
But make no mistake, the retired U.S. Marine Corps officer and decorated Vietnam War veteran is grateful for what Hillsdale College did for him when he returned from combat. After being wounded twice in battle and surviving some of the bloodiest and brutal fighting of the war, Van Fleet came home to his native Reading, Michigan, and thought he wanted to go to college.
“But deciding you were going to college and going to college are two different things,” he said. “I was just raising a lot of hell and didn’t have a plan for the future.”
Enter another veteran, this one from World War I, who was a local family friend. He recognized that Van Fleet was struggling with civilian life and knew what the solution was.
“He saw in me what I didn’t see in myself,” Van Fleet said. “He came and grabbed me by the nape of the neck and the seat of the pants and dragged me over to Hillsdale College. Tony Fowler was the comptroller then. I didn’t have my G.I. Bill in place, but he went in there and told Tony that he wanted me in school now, and the G.I. Bill would follow. And that’s what happened.”
However, being a Vietnam War veteran in college during the 1960s and 1970s was sometimes a very difficult experience. Not so for Van Fleet at Hillsdale.
“When I got to Hillsdale, I was very apprehensive, because I had been in the Marine Corps and been in combat for almost my entire first four years (after high school),” he said. “The students there were kind and warm and were curious about me in a very kind way. They welcomed me home. My professors and staff were the same way. If there was ever a reason why I transitioned back from Vietnam into being a productive citizen and a productive Marine officer and leader, it was because of Hillsdale College. They actually saved me from me.”
Taking advantage of a newfound love of reading, Van Fleet embraced the academics and was involved in the history honorary society at Hillsdale. He was employed by the Maintenance Department full time while taking classes, and he also participated in the informal veterans’ gatherings in the student union.
He said conversations with faculty like Dr. Charles Brown, who was a prisoner-of-war in World War II, were very therapeutic.
“It was just like recharging your batteries,” Van Fleet said. “I owe Hillsdale College so much. They showed me I still could be a part of something positive. I could still be a part of civilian life and be accepted by everybody around me. That was my Hillsdale experience.”
After graduating from Hillsdale in December 1973, Van Fleet returned to active duty in the Marines and deployed to Okinawa, Japan. He also attended several command-level Marine schools, and served a total of 32 years of active duty in the Corps. During his time as an officer, he participated in Operation: Sharp Edge in Liberia, as well as Operation: Desert Shield and Operation: Desert Storm in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, respectively, before retiring in 1998.
As an officer who achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel, he often served as a mentor to other Marines who were entering combat. Van Fleet said he did a lot of that during Operation: Desert Storm.
“Before we went into Kuwait, I was the only combat veteran, older than most guys in my grade,” he said of Desert Storm. “I used to go from company to company and talk to the young Marines about what they can expect in battle, what they can expect the first time they are under fire.”
And Van Fleet was under fire many, many times.
After enlisting in the Marines in 1966, he was assigned to the First Battalion, Seventh Marine Regiment, First Marine Division, Fleet Marine Forces. The division was conducting combat operations in and around Quang Nam Province in the Republic of South Vietnam. From March 1967 through May 1968, he participated in numerous combat patrols and operations. He was wounded for the first time on February 5, 1968, near La Cau (pronounced CHOW), where 88 Marines held and defeated more than 1,500 North Vietnamese regulars during a 48-hour battle.
“They blew up our tank,” Van Fleet said of the North Vietnamese. “They killed all the Marines who were out there. They hit us with rockets. They hit us with mortars and with 50 caliber machine guns and light machine guns. They basically just had us.”
With all of his officers killed during the battle, he still continued to lead despite being wounded. He and the radio operator led a small group of soldiers to safety until air support arrived in the nick of time.
“The air (support) is what saved us,” Van Fleet said. “If it wouldn’t have been for the air, they would have killed every one of us.”
Van Fleet has received several honors, including the Bronze Star (with Valor), Purple Heart (one Gold Star), Navy Commendation (with Valor), Navy Achievement Medal, and the Combat Action Ribbon (two Gold Stars).
After retirement, he and his wife of 35 years, Gail, raised two daughters, Judith and Susan. They currently reside in Columbia, Mississippi, in a rural area known as the “Pine Belt.”
Van Fleet, who is near a VA Hospital and “good doctors,” said athletics has always been good therapy for him. In his younger years, he was an avid runner, completing more than 40 marathons, including the Boston Marathon. He has competed in numerous triathlons, and is currently training for one in a couple of months at age 75.
“Athletics has always been good for me. I tend to be a little more high-strung than most. It’s mental therapy for me to go into the pool and swim,” Van Fleet said.
In the coming months, he plans on publishing two anthologies: one on his and others’ Vietnam War experiences, and the other on his life experiences in rural Mississippi. He said it’s important for history to remember the Vietnam War from the people who actually did the fighting.
“Ninety-nine percent of what you read now and what was published about Vietnam is [baloney],” he said, “because the guys writing about it weren’t out there like we were. Somebody ought to see a guy who doesn’t talk about combat but was in combat. You can say a lot about me, good things and bad things, but you can’t take away my level of experience. … I’m not an author of any degree, but I have something to say. And I think those things are valuable.”
Doug Goodnough, ’90, is Hillsdale’s director of Alumni Marketing. He enjoys connecting with fellow alumni in new and wonderful ways.
Published in March 2023
