Updated

Updated · Fox News · Sep 9

Rick Springfield Says 1 Mortar Killed a Man in Vietnam War, Haunting Him for Decades

Updated

Updated · Fox News · Sep 9

Rick Springfield Says 1 Mortar Killed a Man in Vietnam War, Haunting Him for Decades

Q: How did a singer's mission to entertain troops in 1968 lead to a decades-long psychological burden over a single mortar strike?

Rick Springfield’s mission to entertain troops became a lasting psychological burden because, in the middle of a real combat attack, he crossed from performer to participant and later learned that a single mortar round he fired killed someone. Springfield said he went to Vietnam in 1968 with his band on a USO-style tour meant to lift U.S. troop morale. He was young and, by his own account, did not fully grasp the reality of the war around him. During one attack, while in a radio shack, he was told there were no friendly forces in the target area and was asked to help fire a mortar. He did so. The next day, someone told him, “You got one,” meaning the round had hit and killed a man. That information transformed the moment from wartime confusion into a personal moral fact: he had helped take a life. Springfield has said that realization never left him. What appears to have deepened the burden is the gap between his mindset at the time and his later understanding. He described his younger self as seeing it like “John Wayne time” — a cinematic, unreal view of war. With age, he came to understand the human consequence of the act. That delayed reckoning helps explain why the memory stayed with him for decades. His account fits a broader pattern seen in Vietnam-era experiences: even brief exposure to combat and a single lethal act can leave enduring emotional and psychological scars long after the war ends.

1 articles · Updated · Fox News · Sep 9

Rick Springfield said on Joe Rogan's podcast that one mortar he fired during a Vietnam War attack killed a man, a moment he said still weighs on him decades later.
In his account, Springfield said he was staying overnight with U.S. troops in Vietnam in 1968 when an attack began and he was told there were no friendly forces nearby.
The Australian singer said he dropped the mortar in a split-second, "John Wayne" moment without fully grasping what he was doing, then learned the next day that it had hit someone.
Springfield said his band had spent about four months touring Vietnam to entertain American troops, a job he took for money before it turned into a combat experience he still struggles to process.

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Fox News1h ago

Rick Springfield Reveals Killing Man with Mortar in Vietnam War

How did a singer's mission to entertain troops in 1968 lead to a decades-long psychological burden over a single mortar strike?

Was the soldier who told Springfield he got a kill reporting reality, or just feeding a young entertainer's action movie fantasy?

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Fox News1h ago

Rick Springfield Reveals Killing Man with Mortar in Vietnam War

Rick Springfield Says 1 Mortar Killed a Man in Vietnam War, Haunting Him for Decades

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