Editor's Note: Saturday marks the 30th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, when the last Americans were evacuated from the occupied Asian capital. Interviews with six Vietnam War-era veterans will be published this week to commemorate the end of the conflict.

By the time 1st Lt. Rex Reed arrived in Vietnam in 1965 to command a transportation company, the French had been routed a decade previously.

"We brought in supplies, equipment, artillery pieces and people," said the Circuit Court Judge from his office in the Kosciusko County Justice Building. "Troops for the 1st Infantry Division arrived at the Port of Saigon at night. Those folks were generally standing up in the semi-trailers, holding on, not particularly well accommodated. They were scared as hell, scared as heck. They were all terrified, out in the boonies in the dark."

The Hagerstown native, now 63, was assigned to the 670th Transportation Company, there to begin the U.S. military buildup that would last another 10 years, until the fall of Saigon, April 29 and 30, 1975.

For the next eight months, Reed and the transportation company, with its line of "monstrous trucks," negotiated the streets and byways of Saigon. The avenues were clogged with pedestrians, bicycles, motorcycles and pedicabs.

The 670th met ships at the Port of Saigon, situated on the Saigon River, offering support to the 1st Infantry Division.

Highway 1, out of Saigon, now known as Ho Chi Minh City, was an improved road surrounded by rice paddies and jungle. The going was generally easy until the convoy turned off the main thoroughfare.

"We were reasonably secure. Yet you never really felt safe. It's not like the route from here to Columbia City. There were unknown folks in the rice paddies. We didn't know if they were farmers or combatants," he said.

To help sort out the situation, Reed was blessed with a French-speaking Jeep driver, a Native American named Frank Jarre.

The specialist spoke Canadian French, which was a little different than the Vietnamese version of the language. Reed said Jarre's ability to communicate was a tremendous advantage.

"Generally speaking, the Vietnamese were very nice, gentle people, caught up in something they really had no part in. The people you contacted with were cordial, lovely, hard-working and honest. The country was beautiful," Reed said.

He said the French influence was apparent as the country worked through this transition stage. His perception was that the French did things differently than U.S. troops.

"We treated the Vietnamese more as equals. The Vietnamese tended to be servile toward Americans, saying, 'Yes, sir, yes, sir,' to us," he said.

Stationed in the Cholan District of Saigon, the transportation company initially bivouacked in tents. Eventually the company established its own area and motor pool.

Construction costs were supplemented through the accidental release of goods off the backs of the semi-trailers.

"Since we hauled so many basic supplies, things required just to live in Vietnam, these items very often fell off the back of our trucks. We did haul a lot of beer, many times it was damaged and fell off the back, too. And after a while, we had living quarters made of mahogany.

"We took over a textile plant, a huge building where some of our troops were housed. The cooking facility was there. Many of the drivers had their own separate buildings made of mahogany. It was not expensive wood, it was just available. Toward the end of my tour we had reasonably decent facilities."

On roads leading to the staging areas, pierced steel planking was laid down to keep trucks and equipment from sinking into the mud. If there was a dry season, Reed never experienced it during his stay.

"It rained every day after noon, at 1 o'clock or 1:30. It was amazing. The rest of the time it was steaming hot. I never had ingrown toenails until I got to Vietnam. And I've not had them, or boils, since. The humidity certainly must have had its effect.

"The ships showed up and when they got there, we were there to unload them. The port was always full. It needed to be kept fully functional."

He recalls there were a lot of Japanese carriers and ships at the docks along the river. Shipping companies from many countries were hired by the United States to haul goods.

Saigon's Cholon District was considered a combat zone, and being stationed there was good news for Reed.

"It meant an additional $65 per month, added to my regular monthly pay of $220.10."

Some of that pay was spent in the officers' club atop the Rex Hotel on Pasteur Street.

"We were in Saigon regularly. The Saigon River was several blocks from the hotel. On the other side of the river you could watch the night strafing and hear constant gunfire. You could eat steak and watch the war go on. It was kind of bizarre. It's much better to watch it than be in it.

"I've managed to forget about that.

"We brought a lot of caskets in. When I got there in 1965, headquarters was at Ton Son Nhut Air Base. I certainly I knew where the graves registration teams and mortuary was. We took them out (to the staging areas) and they were deployed. They came back dead, but we didn't haul dead bodies."

Before he left Vietnam, Reed wrote then-Indiana University Dean Leon Wallace.

"I told him I wanted to apply but couldn't take the law school admissions test at the time. He said, 'OK, just come to IU and take some classes.' That was an extremely kind thing for Leon Wallace to do."

Prior to his service, Reed attended Purdue University and was enrolled in the Reserve Officers Training Course there. When he received his orders, he proposed to and married Barbara, on June 5, 1964. She graduated from Ball State University two days later.

"Vietnam veterans weren't commonplace in 1966. I was extremely happy and proud to have served in the U.S. Army, in spite of things.

"The IU campus was not a pleasant place to be. It was frustrating, on one hand, to have done what you perceived to be your duty. It was my duty and something I did proudly. Then, to be in an atmosphere of pain at Indiana University in 1967, 1968 and 1969, was difficult to understand, given my perspective.

"I thought folks were rather personally opposed to people serving in Vietnam. It wasn't something you went around talking about. Fortunately, law school demanded my undivided attention. I pretty much focused on law school and not the side issues."

Reed wanted to practice law in a rural county seat, where he understood the language and was familiar with the ethics.

"Phil Harris was from my home town. I had worked in a factory with Phil's father. They came to Indiana University and I interviewed with the firm of Graham Rasor and Harris. I took the job here and never looked back."

Reed was elected to the Circuit Court judgeship in 1994, taking office in January 1995.

He's never attended a reunion of Vietnam veterans or made contact with anyone he served with in Vietnam.

"My perception is it's different for Vietnam vets. Nobody except my immediate family was happy I got home.

"It was a conflicted time. There was no common consensus of why we were there. No one seemed able to argue positions without engaging in violent protest. There were important differences we needed to address. They were addressed to soldiers rather than to politicians."

The Reeds are parents of two children, Lisa and Ray. Both live in Tennessee.

Reed began running at Indiana University and he's participated in close to 60 marathons since then.

"I try to run every day, twice a day. Now I'm captivated by triathlons," he said. [[In-content Ad]]