Correspondent photo / John D. Bagnola Dominic Santangelo of McDonald displays a photo of himself while serving in Vietnam and his collection of medals from his time in the Army.

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McDONALD — After boot camp, Dominic Santangelo’s first military mission was point man for Charlie Company 2nd of the 5th, First Battalion Air Cavalry – Infantry Regiment while serving in Vietnam from 1966 to 1972.

Santangelo, who was 19 at the time, replaced the point man who was killed the day before. A point man is the single leader that walks ahead of the troops, safely leading the platoon, looking diligently for booby traps, trip wire or hidden enemy in the triple canopy jungle. It is usually a three-month stint.

Santangelo, now 73, arrived in Vietnam in February 1970.

“Tension was high and my stress level was through the roof because saving my platoon from sudden death was constantly on my mind,” Santangelo said.

He said he realized after the first day that he may never return home alive. And he knew he would never be the same.

“Several encounters changed my life forever during this time,” he said.

And despite its obvious dangers, Santangelo said there was neither basic training nor advanced infantry training for the position of point man.

“It was on-the-job training,” he said.

While cutting through the thick jungle with machetes looking for the enemy, several attacks occurred. The enemy would hunker down in foxholes and even hide in the trees and brush. But no men were lost at that time.

Santangelo’s platoon finally got a break after fighting for three to four weeks in the jungle. A chopper picked them up and headed to a fire base so the soldiers could bathe, get hot chow, more ammunition and even catch a little sleep before returning again by chopper into the jungle and starting all over again.

He said his favorite part of the fire base was receiving letters and maybe a care package from home. On occasion they also got to send letters and photographs back to their families. The troops also would rally around and support one another at that time and celebrate life and making it through another mission.

Santangelo became an excellent photographer as he chronicled his entire Vietnam experience with more than 200 photographs on a tiny Bell and Howell camera. He sent many 35 mm rolls of film home to be developed in case anything happened to him.

After their short break at the fire base, Santangelo found out where they were headed next. A transistor radio sent from home enabled him to listen to news bulletins. An announcement came from President Richard Nixon that the war was escalating and the troops would be needed in Cambodia.

So on April 30, 1970, the Charlie Company saddled up and was dropped into the jungle again by helicopter. This is where another life-changing experience occurred.

They were sent to Cambodia, where they built an X-ray fire base in about a week. Still the point man, Santangelo was ordered to take the troops and comb the area to make certain it was a safe haven. He led about a dozen members of Charlie Company for a while before they came across a house that seemed to be unoccupied. He went through to find no one was there.

But he went behind the house to find two ditches seemingly dug for civilians to hide in when shelling started, or when the North Vietnamese Communists came looking for recruits to fight against their own people.

“I wish I would have never looked in that ditch,” Santangelo said.

He said it is a memory that has stayed with him for almost 50 years. In the hole were two deceased adults and two children. In the other ditch he found an older woman who was still alive. She was the grandmother of the deceased family. They took her back to camp for medical care.

An interpreter spoke with her to find out that the North Vietnamese Communists would come looking for teenagers to fight on their side and if the parents refused to tell them where the teens were, they would execute them one by one.

“It is hard to believe that human beings could be so vicious. And so many of us have to live with that memory each and every day,” Santangelo said.

He also said it wasn’t just the enemy they had to worry about, but also the snakes, the 110-degree heat, drinking water from a contaminated stream and insects. Every one of the solders in Charlie Company had malaria at least once, and Santangelo had it twice.

And little did they know that the Agent Orange chemical that was being dropped to kill the foliage and help the cause also could become a health hazard for many years to come.

After serving in the Army, Santangelo was hired by General Electric and retired after 37 years. He also received his pilot’s license and became a flight instructor and has trained more than 150 pilots for the past 30 years at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport through his business, the Western Reserve Flight Club.

He said coaching and teaching is his hobby and his refuge from the memories of war. Santangelo is married to his wife Debbie, of 29 years, and has one adult son, Brian.

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