HURON – In the spring of 1967, a few days after Craig Tschetter graduated from Huron High School, he walked into a military recruiter’s office at the post office and posed a question to a man sitting at a desk wearing a crisp white uniform.
“What’s the quickest way to get to Vietnam?” he asked the stunned soldier.
A minute later, Tschetter was handed the receiver by the Navy recruiter and was talking to someone at the United States Marine Corps in Sioux Falls.
Not only did he have his diploma, but Tschetter had also recently turned 18 and had decided it was time he made his own choices in life. His loving parents, Henry and Bobbie, were not the reason he wanted to leave home, at least not directly, he says.
Instead, it was his disagreement with the religious mandates he felt were forced on him as he was growing up.
But joining the military – a decision that led him to two tours in Vietnam at the height of a war that wouldn’t end for years – led to a nightmare experience that he continues to struggle with today.
“I had no clue what I was doing and later said it was the dumbest decision I ever made,” Tschetter said in an interview.
Five years after he began writing about what he saw, did and ultimately survived in Vietnam, Tschetter has published “Fifteen Minutes Ago, A Vietnam War Memoir.”
Has he found peace, something he thought possible when he finished writing the book?
The short answer is no.
But he has been told that it has given many veterans and their families a clearer understanding of the anguish suffered by those who served in Vietnam.
It was nine years after his 1971 discharge that Tschetter first began having problems with what would be diagnosed as post traumatic stress disorder.
At no time during his training did anyone mention or warn the young soldiers about the devastating psychological effects combat would play in their lives, he said.
PTSD, he said, hit him with a vengeance.
“I fell into a deep, dark hole of depression, panic and fear,” Tschetter said. “I could see no way out. I suffered from nightmares, severe panic attacks, anxiety and continual thoughts of suicide.

“I couldn’t function as a father, husband or professional,” he said. “It was in total control of my life and it scared me to the point of knowing if I didn’t get help, I would stop it on my own.”
All through the 1980s and 1990s the attacks continued, even though he sought treatment from his doctor and private psychiatrists.
It wasn’t until he received the Veteran Administration Hospital’s advanced PTSD counseling did he feel free of ever having another attack.
Tschetter was assigned duty as a combat radio operator in Vietnam.
In his book, he writes about his experiences in the bush, describing in detail the firefights, the loss of buddies and even his witnessing his squad leader murdering a mother and two children.
In one remarkable chapter, Tschetter recounts how he called in a mail helicopter to land so his severely wounded squad leader could be evacuated.
But it would be a landing in a minefield.
He thinks of the term “divine intervention” when he thinks of that day.
“It makes no sense for a mail bird to be flying overhead at that exact time, for me to be able to contact him by flipping through radio frequencies, for me to convince the pilots to land, for five marines to load him in that chopper while moving through a minefield and for Lt. Tom Saal to survive his horrible wounds,” Tschetter said.
As he learned to live one day at a time, he would write home to his parents in Huron.
“I felt my parents didn’t need to worry about me anymore than they already were, so most of what I said was uneventful,” he said.
After his discharge, Tschetter enrolled at South Dakota State University. It was 1972, and the war, though winding down, would not end for a few more years.
“I listened to students speak negatively about Vietnam in class, but at no time did I acknowledge I had served, was wounded, decorated or trained recruits to go to war,” Tschetter said.
“It was very clear to me it was best to keep my distance, avoid confrontation and go on with gaining my education,” he said. “Did I like what they were saying? Absolutely not, but it wasn’t worth trying to change their opinion because to them, they were right and I was wrong.”
After his discharge and college education, Tschetter’s career in funeral service spanned more than 30 years.
He retired in 2005 and he and his wife, Della, live in Brookings. He spends his time writing and speaking to high school classes.
When people ask him when he served in Vietnam, he answers that it was from Nov. 23, 1967 to July 27, 1969.
“However, what I really want to tell them is fifteen minutes ago,” he said.
He was a naïve 18-year-old that day he stood in the recruiter’s office and asked that question so long ago now.
“Now I would tell you the United States Marine Corps made me who I am today; it clearly identifies me,” Tschetter said.
“What they did for my life in four years is more than any college or university could ever hope to offer.
“Granted, it was a different type of education, but when I did go to college and acquired my degree I was far more mature, disciplined and dedicated to the cause than most,” Tschetter said.
His website is fifteenminutesago.com.
Email him at craigt@swiftel.net to purchase an autographed copy of the book.

Courtesy photo
Author Craig Tschetter signing a copy of his Vietnam War memoir “15 Minutes Ago,” at an autograph session at a bookstore.