HOLMDEL — Join Vietnam Veteran Tour Guides Bill “Doc” McClung and Matt Swajkowski for free tours at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Nov. 5 at the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial at 1 Memorial Lane.
Tours leave from the museum lobby and last about an hour. Reservations are not required.
McClung acts as both a tour guide and tour captain at the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial Foundation. He has volunteered at the Memorial since 2009. He was drafted into the U.S. Army from his hometown of Kearny, after graduating from college and teaching for a year in a New Jersey public school system.
He entered the service in June 1968. He received his basic training at Fort Jackson, Columbia, South Carolina, and advanced training at the Army’s medical training center, Fort Sam Houston, in San Antonio, Texas. He remained at Fort Sam for six months as an instructor at the center. He was then sent to the Republic of South Vietnam and served as a combat medic for a reconnaissance platoon with the 1st Cavalry Division in III Corps for seven months and then as a medic at a battalion aid station for five months.
Today, McClung is retired after 27 years with Johnson & Johnson as director of Management Education & Development. He lives in Little Silver with his wife, Lorraine. They have two grown sons who still live in the Monmouth County area. He enjoys volunteering at the Memorial and Education Center to ensure that today’s younger generation supplements their classroom learning by hearing from veterans who actually experienced the Vietnam War.
Swajkowski was an undergraduate at St. Peter’s College and enrolled in the ROTC program. He was commissioned a 2nd Lt. upon completion of his studies in 1969. In the Army, he was assigned to field artillery, taking a three-month course at Fort Sill in cannon gunnery.
In Vietnam, he was first assigned as a forward observer with DCo., 1/52 Infantry, 198th Infantry Brigade of the 23rd Infantry Division. Wounded after two months, he volunteered as an aerial observer and was transferred to HHB Divarty. After serving eight months in this capacity, he was reassigned to 1st Battalion, 82nd FA as a battery FDO completing a year overseas.
Upon leaving the service he returned to school to finish a teaching certification program and taught chemistry at Carteret and Belleville with a 16-year stint in business in between teaching assignments.
He enjoys talking to and working with young people. Since retiring, tutoring students in chemistry and volunteering as a guide at the Memorial gives him further opportunity to stay active and keep fulfilled. He is a life member of the DAV, Military Order of the Purple Heart and the Americal Division Veterans Association.
The New Jersey Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial Foundation offers a meaningful and engaging experience that recognizes the sacrifices, courage and valor of Vietnam veterans and encourages a thorough understanding of the Vietnam era and its political, historical, social, cultural and military aspects.
For more information, visit www.njvvmf.org or call 732-335-0033.
