Boozman recognizes area Vietnam veteran
Times Record Staff
Nov 8, 2019 at 12:01 AM Nov 8, 2019 at 8:37 PM
A Fort Smith veteran of Korea and Vietnam has been recognized by a U.S. senator in a series recognizing the military service of Arkansans.
Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Winston Fulmer has been recognized in U.S. Sen. John Boozman's "Salute to Veterans" series and will have his interview with Boozman submitted to the Library of Congress's Veterans History Project. Fulmer served as a second lieutenant in Korea and then as a firing battery commander in Vietnam, where he fought North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops in 1968 during the Tet Offensive.
Fulmer was first assigned to Korea in 1964 after graduating the Reserve Officers Training Corps program at Ouachita Baptist University. His assignment came as a surprise to him — he had just married his wife Linda.
Nonetheless, Fulmer said he grew as a military officer in Korea.
"You learn a lot of responsibility. You learn that as an officer you've got your people you've got to take care of," he said. "A lot of decisions that you make depends on whether people live or die."
Fulmer was restationed several times, including in Fort Hood, Texas for the birth of his first daughter, before he was deployed to Vietnam in the summer of 1967.
"I was ready. I wanted to go. I knew how to handle myself. I knew how to handle whatever job they gave me," he said.
Fulmer was assigned to an outpost near Duc Pho, where he calculated artillery fire in firefights. He said he and his comrades were "shooting artillery fire like you would not believe" when their outpost was attacked during the Tet Offensive on Jan. 31, 1968.
He was playing poker with his comrades around 1 a.m. when the offensive hit his outpost.
"I had the great hand, the winning hand, and there was about $400 or $500 in the pot," he said. "Before we could cash it in, all hell broke loose."
Fulmer after combat in Vietnam was reassigned to the ROTC department at St. Norbert College in DePere, Wisconsin and then Thailand and Hawaii. He called his time in Hawaii "outstanding" because he "had a battalion to play with and not get shot at."
Fulmer dealt with realities uncomfortable to him following the war, including students burning pages from a school yearbook dedicated to the ROTC department. He said it was "their way of protesting the war in Vietnam."
Fulmer also realized he shared quarters with Capt. Ernest Medina, who was accused of orchestrating the execution of more than 500 civilians in the village of My Lai. He found out about the massacre the same way many others did — watching the news when the story broke more than a year later.
"It was not in any way how we actually fought that type of war. What we wanted to do was find the bad guys — the guys that were carrying weapons, the guys that would shoot at us," he said. "When I found out what all had happened down there, I thought that was really sad."
After his time in the Army, Fulmer moved to Fort Smith, where his wife is from, and sold insurance.
Fulmer is past president of the William O. Darby Military Officers Association of America chapter, where he received the Distinguished Patriotic Achievement Award and the organization Leadership Award. Through the Officers Association, Fulmer has taken his passion for service into public school classrooms in Sebastian and Crawford counties.
Fulmer, in May 2018, said he believes everyone in the United States has a responsibility to serve his or her country "in one way or another."
"Lt. Col. Fulmer has dedicated his life to serving his country, demonstrating selfless sacrifice, courage and leadership in uniform in assignments in Korea and Vietnam," Boozman said in a news release. "His memories of his time in uniform are an important part of our history as much as his own story. I am pleased to be able to collect and preserve his stories."