Omaha veteran shares story of service in Vietnam War

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - We ran into Vietnam veteran Paul Kottke after he cast his ballot in the midterm election.

Kottke says he was all over the place during the Vietnam War.

“I was an instructor so-called instructor under President Kennedy and Johnson when we went in and things of this nature I ended up going to Minot Air Force Base,” Kottke said.

From the air force base here in the states Kottke was sent overseas to support the South Vietnamese.

“We were supposed to be instructors to the South Vietnamese ok to show them but you know and I’m just saying this under the present administration at that time ok we just didn’t stick to being an instructor we were sent over to do active duty over there,” Kottke said.

Kottke was up in the air over there, serving aboard a medic rescue helicopter.

“We would go down after wounded right in the middle of the jungles, we always served as far as picking up wounded. You don’t think about that if you’ve got Jesus Christ on your side you just don’t think about those things and that’s the way I look at it,” Kottke said.

Kottke looks at our current group of men and women who serve our country hoping they find the same respect he and other Vietnam-era veterans found only years after their return.

“I’ve given away a lot of things to a lot of returning veterans and I pray that a lot of them when they come home that they get the same credit that we are now getting that we never got when we got done serving in Nam,” Kottke said.

After his service in Vietnam Paul Kottke continued to serve in the reserves.

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