Richard Detwiler oral history interview

The Scope and Contents note of this oral history was originally generated by feeding the electronic transcript into OpenAI’s ChatGPT 4o on 2024 July 9. It was then reviewed and edited by a human.

Oral history interview with Richard M. Detwiler '69 about his experiences during the Vietnam War era. Detwiler recounts his early life of frequent moves, his time at Dartmouth College with ROTC, and his decision to join the Navy (which was influenced by his father's World War II service). He details his Navy service aboard a destroyer and his advisory role in Vietnam, coordinating a civic action program to support Vietnamese naval bases, which he found constructive compared to typical combat roles. He also describes his experience as a race relations specialist in the Navy, conducting seminars to improve race relations among personnel. Detwiler discusses his subsequent career in education, pursuing a master’s degree in Education, joining the Peace Corps with his wife in Botswana, and later holding leadership roles in international schools. He ends by reflecting on how his Vietnam experiences shaped his global perspective and critiquing U.S. military interventions.