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00:00:00 - Overview of family history and life path

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Partial Transcript: Today is April 21st, 2015, and I’m in Ticknor Room

Segment Synopsis: Kruger provides brief details of his family members, education, marriage, and career path. He retired at the age of fifty-three after serving in the military and working as a international commercial banker.

Keywords: Exeter, NH; New England; Phillips Exeter Academy; ROTC; Reserve Officers’ Training Corps; Dartmouth College

00:05:04 - Childhood in Exeter, NH

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Partial Transcript: Yeah, uhm, so I guess just trace back a little bit to talk a little bit more about your childhood in Exeter.

Segment Synopsis: Kruger reflects on his childhood in Exeter, NH, which was filled with regular childhood activities and highlighted by the educational experience at Phillips Exeter Academy. He also discusses Exeter's history, demographics, and industrial activities.

Keywords: New England; Phillips Exeter Academy; Exeter, NH

00:12:20 - High school years and college decision

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Partial Transcript: Uhm, so I guess to talk a little bit more about your high school years

Segment Synopsis: Kruger discusses his time at Phillips Exeter Academy, whose academic rigor and physical activities requirement left him with little downtime. Despite his father's wishes, he chose to attend Dartmouth College over Harvard University for its rural setting and generous financial aid package.

Keywords: Dartmouth College; Harvard University; Phillips Exeter Academy

00:21:20 - Dartmouth years — Life as a student

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Partial Transcript: Great. So once you arrived in Hanover to start your first year at Dartmouth, was it pretty much like what you had expected?

Segment Synopsis: Kruger reflects on his years at Dartmouth College, where he majored in Spanish Language and Literature, studied abroad in Spain, and participated in the ROTC. He remarks that there was very little diversity and almost no discussion of the civil rights movement or Vietnam War at Dartmouth back then.

Keywords: Civil Rights Movement; Dartmouth College; ROTC; Reserve Officers' Training Corps; Spain; Spanish; Vietnam War

00:35:30 - Dartmouth years — Studying abroad in Spain

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Partial Transcript: Yeah, before we kind of get more into I guess your kind of post-Dartmouth and ROTC experience

Segment Synopsis: Kruger describes his semester abroad in Spain through Dartmouth College's Foreign Study Program. During his time there, he lived with a local family in Salamanca, traveled across the country, and witnessed some political events under Francisco Franco's dictatorship regime. He remarks that the experience evolved his worldview.

Keywords: Foreign Study Program; Francisco Franco; Salamanca, Spain; Spain; Spanish; Dartmouth College

00:48:33 - Dartmouth years — Experience in ROTC

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Partial Transcript: So I guess another big thing that you were involved with on campus was ROTC.

Segment Synopsis: Kruger reflects on being in ROTC at Dartmouth College, which provided him with valuable experiences and helped him finance his education. He joined the Mountain and Winter Warfare detachment — a subset of the ROTC program — where he learned to operate in mountainous and winter environments

Keywords: Dartmouth College; ROTC; Reserve Officers' Training Corps; Mountain and Winter Warfare

00:56:20 - Post-graduation — Choosing a military assignment

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Partial Transcript: So I guess we can wrap up a little bit with your Dartmouth experience, then talk about the time that now you have to decide

Segment Synopsis: Kruger reflects on considering many post-graduate paths and deciding to fulfill his military duty first. After his initial training as an infantry officer, he considered many different options and eventually accepted an assignment with the US Army Special Security Group (USASSG), which required an extensive background check.

Keywords: Fort Benning, GA; IOBC; Infantry Officer Basic Course; ROTC; Reserve Officers' Training Corps; US Army Infantry School; US Army Special Security Group; United States Army Infantry School; United States Army Special Security Group; USASSG

01:05:34 - Working for the US Army Special Security Group

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Partial Transcript: As it turned out, I was very smart to have accepted that position because at the end of the day

Segment Synopsis: Kruger describes the USASSG and details his responsibilities while working there. In Washington, DC and Fort Belvoir, VA, he was responsible for safeguarding important intelligence. In Vietnam, he was tasked with collecting and analyzing intelligence, directly supporting military operations and coordination among divisions.

Keywords: Army Materiel Command; Fort Belvoir, VA; US Army Special Security Group; United States Army Special Security Group; Viet Cong; Vietnam; Vietnam War; Washington, DC; USASSG

01:11:54 - Decision to go to Vietnam

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Partial Transcript: Okay. Yeah, so definitely we’re getting there. We now—we’ll talk about your decision

Segment Synopsis: Kruger reflects on his decision to volunteer to serve in Vietnam after two years in Washington, DC as a first lieutenant. His decision was driven by his sense of duty and the support of his family, rather than the influence of the social atmosphere and antiwar movement at the time. The segment ends with a pause marking a break.

Keywords: 1st Cavalry Division; Antiwar activism; Ho Chi Minh City; Saigon; Tet Offensive; US Army Special Security Group; USASSG; United States Army Special Security Group; Vietnam

01:26:05 - Time in Vietnam — Arrival and daily routines

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Partial Transcript: So, now, uhm, going to Vietnam in January 1967, correct?

Segment Synopsis: Kruger recalls his arrival in Saigon, Vietnam in January 1967 and describes many aspects of his daily life there, including shelter-building, hygiene, and nutrition. With the only automatic transmission truck with sufficient capacity, he was responsible for fetching beer rations for his camp every month.

Keywords: 1st Cavalry Division; An Khe; An Khê; Bong Son, Quy Nhon; Bồng Sơn, Quy Nhơn; Ho Chi Minh City; LZ Two Bits; Landing Zone Two Bits; Saigon; Vietnam War; Vietnam

01:37:43 - Time in Vietnam — Riding helicopters and gathering intelligence

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Partial Transcript: So, but I spent—you know, based at that LZ

Segment Synopsis: Kruger recalls spending countless hours in helicopters during his time in Vietnam, being shot down once and crash-landing three times because of mechanical failures. He also directly gathered intelligence for the air-mobile 1st Cavalry Division. He was awarded two Bronze Stars for his work.

Keywords: Bronze Star Medal; Da Nang; Helicopters; Ho Chi Minh City; LZ Two Bits; Landing Zone Two Bits; North Vietnamese Army; Saigon; Viet Cong; Vietnam; Vietnam War; 1st Cavalry Division

01:50:27 - Time in Vietnam — Interactions with colleagues and personal travels

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Partial Transcript: Yeah, so I just looked up some, like, things that 1st Cav was up to during

Segment Synopsis: Kruger describes his interactions and relationships with his colleagues while in Vietnam, noticing a lack of camaraderie. He did not maintain close contacts with any of them. He also reflects on his travels to Hawaii and Bangkok, Thailand, providing comparisons between Bangkok and what was going on in Vietnam.

Keywords: 1st Cavalry Division; Bangkok, Thailand; Hawaii; Vietnam; Vietnam War; Đức Phổ; Duc Pho

01:58:58 - Time in Vietnam — Other contacts, health, and communication with home

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Partial Transcript: Yeah. And I—also kind of going off on that, I’m curious if you were able to get in kind of contact or was able to ever encounter

Segment Synopsis: Kruger recalls having limited interactions with the local Vietnamese (due to the sensitive nature of intelligence work) and occasionally collaborating with the White Horse division of Korea. He remarks that he maintained good health and kept in contact with home through letters, the Stars and Stripes newspaper, and a private communication network. He returned to the United States two weeks before the Tet Offensive.

Keywords: 9th Infantry Division of the Republic of Korea; Korea; Stars and Stripes (newspaper); Vietnam; Vietnam War; White Horse Division; Tet Offensive

02:07:13 - Military involvement and life after Vietnam

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Partial Transcript: And you said that on your memoir that you were reassigned to Washington and spent another very interesting year in the Army.

Segment Synopsis: Kruger describes his intelligence work at Fort Belvoir with the Army Corps of Engineers after returning from Vietnam. At the end of his military service, he declined to go back to Vietnam, got a new civilian job offer, and ran into health issues that gave him a disabled veteran status. He eventually lost his job offer due to the loss of a Navy contract by the company.

Keywords: Disability; Fort Belvoir, VA; US Army Corps of Engineers; United States Army Corps of Engineers; Walter Reed Hospital; Washington, DC; Walter Reed National Military Medical Center

02:14:26 - Career in banking / Overseas tenure in Hong Kong

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Partial Transcript: Okay, now what do you do? Well, we packed up what we had and sold the house.

Segment Synopsis: Kruger describes his 30-year career as a banker specializing in commercial lending for a bank in Boston. Having an international outlook, he considered different relocation options and eventually accepted a senior credit officer position in Hong Kong in 1982, spending six years there with his family. While his daughter went back to the US for boarding school, Kruger's family spent time traveling together every summer.

Keywords: Banking; Boston, MA; Dartmouth College; Travel; Hong Kong

02:24:45 - Banking career in Boston / Decision to retire / Visiting Vietnam

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Partial Transcript: And then? — Then back to Boston for a very senior role.

Segment Synopsis: Kruger describes his career in Boston after returning from Hong Kong, taking over the entire commercial lending function of the bank. He reflects on two crises the bank faced, one of which sent him to work in Singapore for a year. He also talks about the changing nature of employer-employee loyalty over his career and his decision to retire at age fifty-three (53). Before retiring, Kruger visited Vietnam and Cambodia.

Keywords: Banking; Cambodia; Ho Chi Minh City; Saigon; Singapore; Travel; Vietnam; Boston, MA

02:30:58 - Revisiting Vietnam

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Partial Transcript: So, uhm, yeah. So what was the experience like when you visited there?

Segment Synopsis: Kruger anecdotally describes his multiple visits to Vietnam for different purposes including leisure and business from 1988 to the 1990s. He remarks that Vietnam is one of the few places that he really enjoys revisiting, because he "[sees] something new and different every time."

Keywords: Hanoi; Ho Chi Minh City; Rex Hotel; Saigon; Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi; Vietnam

02:43:44 - Life and work after retirement

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Partial Transcript: Yeah. Great. Yeah, we’ll actually talk more about your life after retirement after my class. It’s about that time.

Segment Synopsis: Kruger describes his life after retirement, which included doing pro bono work with non-profit organizations, maintaining an 18-acre farmhouse, and traveling around the world. He also conducted extensive research and published several family histories, including a notable work that won The Donald Lines Jacobus Award for genealogy.

Keywords: Exeter, NH; Genealogy; New England Historic Genealogical Society; Travel; Wentworth Institute of Technology; Donald Lines Jacobus Award

02:54:51 - Reflections on antiwar sentiments and US's war strategies

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Partial Transcript: I guess we’ve pretty much covered everything—about you life—unless there’s anything else

Segment Synopsis: Kruger reflects on the negative stereotypes and mistreatment that Vietnam war veterans face in the US, contrasting them with his positive reintegration experience. He acknowledges and discusses strategic errors in the US's approach to the war, suggesting that better outcomes could have been achieved.

Keywords: Antiwar activism; Ho Chi Minh; Office of Strategic Services; Tet Offensive; Vietnam; Vietnam War

03:01:55 - Reflections on nationalism / Future plans

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Partial Transcript: And then my longer view of Vietnam: While their system

Segment Synopsis: Kruger provides his reflections on the nature of communism in Vietnam, Vietnamese people's perception of Americans, and Americans' inability to see the world from others' perspectives. He also shares his future plans, which include traveling and working on his family history projects.

Keywords: Dartmouth College; Nationalism; Vietnam; Communism