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Wednesday, November 11, 2026Nov 11

Vietnam vet Bruce Kendrick: I went ‘so others wouldn’t have to’

Staff photo by Troy Stolt / Vietnam War veteran Bruce Kendrick served two tours of duty in the Southeast Asian country.
Staff photo by Troy Stolt / Vietnam War veteran Bruce Kendrick served two tours of duty in the Southeast Asian country. Staff photo by Troy Stolt / Vietnam War veteran Bruce Kendrick served two tours of duty in the Southeast Asian country.

Capt. Bruce Kendrick says he’s the way he is, and what he is, because of his service in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.

“I learned attention to detail,” said Kendrick, adding that “if it can go wrong, it will go wrong. Be prepared.”

Kendrick, 74, who lives in Chatsworth, Georgia, entered the military in 1966 as a private after having attended both Furman University and Reinhardt College with the aim of becoming a football coach.

But after enlisting in the Army, he said he went to officer training school and was commissioned to the rank of 2nd lieutenant in December 1966. He was stationed at Fort Benning near Columbus, Georgia, for six months and then at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii before going to Vietnam in December 1967.

That was the first of two tours of duty in Vietnam.