Reflections of Service and Leadership: My Time in Vietnam

As we honor Veterans Day and take time to reflect on those who have served, I find myself thinking about the years that shaped me most. They were not spent in an office or a classroom, but on the waters off the coast in the rivers of South Vietnam.

Before my career in finance began, I served four years in the U.S. Navy. I was a 22-year-old Ensign when I first boarded the USS Savage (DER-386), a Destroyer Escort Radar Picket whose main assignment was patrolling the coast of South Vietnam to prevent troops and supplies from North Vietnam from being transported by sea to the Viet Cong.

Later, I volunteered to be a Swift Boat Skipper in Vietnam and was sent to Coastal Division 12 in Da Nang, where I served as skipper of PCF-24 (Patrol Craft Fast – 24), a  50-foot aluminum patrol craft that operated along the coast and in the river systems of South Vietnam.

There were six of us on each Swift Boat, young men from every corner of America, barely out of college, responsible for one another’s lives. Our mission was to patrol the rivers and coastal waters to stop the flow of enemy supplies, to take back control of the rivers from the VC,  and to provide support to ground forces. It was dangerous, exhausting, and often chaotic. We learned to trust each other completely because our survival depended on it.

Those experiences shaped me profoundly. They taught me how to lead, how to stay calm under pressure, and how to make decisions when the stakes could not be higher. They also taught me humility, the understanding that leadership is not about authority but about assuming responsibility and being accountable for your actions and those of your men.

When you are responsible for the lives of five other men on a small boat in a combat zone, you learn quickly that leadership is service. You look out for your crew, make sure they are safe, and keep morale strong even on the hardest days. And there were quite a few hard days when PCR-24 was ambushed in the Cua Dai River Basin south of Danang. Those lessons stayed with me long after I left the Navy.

When I returned home, like many Vietnam veterans, I did not talk much about my service. The war was unpopular, and those of us who fought it often felt the country wanted to move on. I focused on building my life, going to graduate school, and starting what became a long and fulfilling career in banking and investment management. But the memories of Vietnam stayed with me.

In 1979, while living in Germany, I went to see Apocalypse Now. I remember walking out of the theater shaken, not because of the film’s intensity, but because of how wrong it was. The men I served with were disciplined, courageous, and professional. The film’s depiction of the Swift Boat crew doing drugs and shooting innocent people bore no resemblance to the river war that I knew.

That moment planted the seed for what would become my book, Swift Boat Skipper: A Vietnam Memoir.

Writing the book was a deep personal process. I drew on hundreds of pages of letters I wrote home to my family and the diary I kept during my tours. Revisiting those years brought back faces, voices, and moments I had not thought about in decades.

I wrote the book not as a political statement, but as a tribute to the men who served beside me and to the shared experience of those who answered the call when our country needed us.

Earlier this year, the book received a Silver Medal from the Military Writers Society of America. That recognition was deeply meaningful, not just because it honored the writing, but because it acknowledged the story of those young sailors. It reminded me that even after all these years, their courage and sacrifice still matter and deserve to be remembered.

I feel immense gratitude for the men who stood with me then, and for the opportunities I have had since. Service leaves a lasting mark. It taught me to value teamwork, integrity, and perseverance, lessons that have guided me not just in my military life, but throughout my professional career and personal life as well.

It also taught me perspective. In business, as in life, there are moments of uncertainty, of stress, of challenge. But after navigating a narrow river at night with the enemy nearby, you learn to keep things in perspective. You learn to trust your instincts, rely on your team, and focus on what truly matters.

Each Veterans Day, I think of those I served with, the ones who came home and the ones who did not. I think of their families, who bore the quiet burden of worry and loss. And I think of all the veterans who have served since, in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world, carrying forward that same sense of duty and commitment.

It took many years for our generation of Vietnam veterans to hear the words “thank you for your service.” Today, I am grateful that those words are spoken more often and that they are meant.

Veterans Day is a time to remember, to give thanks, and to reflect on what service truly means. It is more than uniforms and medals. It is about integrity, courage, and the quiet pride of knowing you did your duty and did it well.

For those interested in learning more about my experience and the stories of the men I served alongside, I’ve shared our story in my memoir, Swift Boat Skipper: A Vietnam Memoir.

Read an interview with Robert Bradley in the Hartford Courant about his book and his military service.