Interview, Chuck Macaluso, USMC

Chuck Macaluso (b. 1947) was born in Rochester, New York, and graduated from high school in 1965. He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps after his freshmen year of college and entered into military service on August 31, 1966. He completed basic training at Parris Island, in South Carolina, and specialized as a rifleman. Macaluso was stationed at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, Camp Pendleton in California, and at the Phu Bai and Khe Sanh bases in Vietnam. He received three Purple Heart medals for injuries sustained in combat and was transferred to Subic Bay in the Phillippines, where he completed his tour of duty. Macaluso was in the service for two and a half years and was honorably discharged in April 1969. After he returned from the war, Macaluso married, earned a degree in electronics from the Rochester Institute of Technology, and went to work for Kodak. In 1983, he became a member of the Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter 20. Macaluso retired from Kodak in 2004, after 37 years there.

In this interview, Macaluso tells about being wounded three times in Vietnam and receiving a Purple Heart for each injury. He reports that he is proud of his medals and that he feels relatively fortunate because his injuries have not been debilitating. Macaluso discusses his combat experiences and notes that the worst of it was at Hill 861A, where 65% of the 250 people on his base were either killed or wounded, including him. He feels that the politics of the Vietnam War and the actual fighting of it were two very different things and that in his experience, American servicemen were fighting to protect their fellow soldiers, not the South Vietnamese. Macaluso discusses his involvement with various veterans groups, including the American Legion, the Marine Corps League, the Khe Sanh veterans, and the VVA Chapter 20. He is president of the Greater Rochester Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Highland Park, and serves with the Chapter 20 honor guard in parades and military funerals around Rochester.