http://www.oralhistory.ws/tpl/norton_audio.php?file=ade1917fd79fcf80154c80d5bf282b76195b67f3.mp3

Mr. Cobb entered the U.S. Army on December 20, 1967 and took basic training at Fort Polk, just a short ride south from his native Shreveport. He was trained in aviation maintenance, attached to 1st Cavalry Division, and sent to Vietnam. On his first night at his base of Landing Zone Evans, an outpost atop a high, red-dirt hill, the enemy attacked with mortars. He had already seen, however, some of the results of the war as soon as he landed in Da Nang for his first day in country on June 6, 1968. During his year in Vietnam Joe helped rescue 21 children from a village where Viet Cong had murdered all the adults. His unit took the youngsters to their outpost, fed them and cared for their medical needs. He flew as security for Bob Hope, and saw President Lyndon Johnson when he visited the war zone. Mr. Cobb was wounded twice, and nearly lost his life on his last night in his company when enemy fire zipped through the helicopter he was on to help pick up wounded. When he returned to the states, he flew into San Francisco, only to step off the plane to the shouts of Baby Killers! from assembled anti-war protestors. Mr. Cobb returned to Shreveport where he worked as a barber.