Pratt native served two tours to Vietnam, jumped in the war’s largest allied operation
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Mike Newton patrolled the jungles of South Vietnam, sometimes for just a couple of days and sometimes for over a month at a time. He was also a paratrooper who jumped into the single largest allied operation of the Vietnam War.
How did he get there? He and two buddies, Fred Razook and Jim Money, decided to join the U.S. Army after graduating from Pratt High School in 1965. They all reported on Aug. 2, 1965.
“I wanted to be a paratrooper. It was a good idea at the time,” said Newton.
After completing basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, Newton remained there for his AIT. He then completed eight more weeks of combat engineer training, during which he learned demolition training, bridge building, mine detecting procedures, and infantry tactics.
“Well, we do everything from build bridges to demolition work, a lot of construction work, things like that,” explained Newton. “We learned how to create obstacles to maybe halt the enemy.”
Then, he was sent to jump school at Fort Benning, Georgia. He made five jumps from 1,250 feet.
“As soon as we finished school and after we made our last jump, orders came down, and I think out of class of around 400 of us, I think about 300 went to Vietnam at that time,” he said.
Newton was assigned to the 173rd Engineer Company, 173rd Airborne Brigade at Bien Hoa in South Vietnam. He was attached to infantry companies as a demolition specialist.
“We went out on operations, and my job was to go out on what’s called a demo team, demolition team, and we’d go out and on search and destroy operations,” Newton said.
Infantry units conducted search and destroy operations for anywhere from a couple of days to up to 45 days in the jungles of War Zones C and D.
Demolition duties included destroying enemy basecamps with explosives, destroying tunnel systems, and capturing weapons caches, booby traps, dud rounds, and unexploded bombs. They would clear trees to create landing zones for helicopters for resupply and medical evacuations.
After his first one-year tour ended, Newton signed on for another six months. His company moved into the Central Highlands near Dak To.
“We made the combat jump on February 22nd, 1967. That was Operation Junction City,” Newton said.
Operation Junction City was the first U.S. combat airborne operation of the Vietnam War. It was the single largest allied op of the war.
“I think we had 11 and plane loads of guys. We came in at about 900 feet, 800 to 900 feet, and jumped from there so we could get to the ground quicker,” said Newton. “Our job was to find the central headquarters for the North Vietnamese Army. It was somewhere in that area. So, once we hit the ground, we started patrolling. Running what they called search and destroy operations.”
Newton began his second six-month tour in November 1967 assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade’s jungle school in An Khe. He was a combat instructor.
“I taught demolition class, ambush, counter ambush techniques, patrolling, and assisted with a weapons class, and first aid. The main purpose of the jungle school was to get the new guys that came in, to get them climatized. To get them used to combat procedures. Used to some noise. Chaos,” he said.
After completing two years of service in Vietnam, Newton was discharged. He was warned the war was unpopular back home. “Don’t expect a parade,” he was told.
“But when I came home, I came back to Pratt, and the people in Pratt, Kansas, were just really good. They were good to all the guys coming back. It’s a special, it’s really a special place,” said Newton.
Newton attended classes at Pratt and Cowley County Community Colleges, and he wrote for the “Pratt Tribune” newspaper. He moved to Salina in 1971 and got into advertising with the “Salina Journal.” It was around this same time he met his future wife, Diana. The couple were married in 1972. Newton continued to work in advertising and sales for 45 years.
The Newtons moved from Salina to Wichita in 2006. They have a daughter, Julie, and a grandson, Griffin. Griffin recently graduated from Wichita State University. Newton worked as a contract sales rep for several companies for a few more years until he retired in 2020.
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