Scope and Contents

Photographs captured from the NVA in the Delta document military training and medical activities, while photographs taken by Don Jellema and others in the 69th Signal Battalion document damaged aircraft, automobiles, buildings, and additional U.S. military activity in Saigon during the 1968 Tet Offensive and the 1968 May Offensive. The collection also contains 247 slides taken by Jellema during his service as platoon sergeant with Headquarters Company, 69th Signal Battalion.

Biographical / Historical

Donald Duane Jellema
(20 January 1932 (Orange City, Iowa) - 7 March 2018 (Brandon, South Dakota)

Originally from Orange City, Iowa, Don Jellema served in the U.S. Army from 1952 until 1976. Before going to Vietnam in 1967, he was stationed at Camp Breckenridge (Kentucky), Fort Sam Houston (Texas), Munich, Germany, Fort Lee (Virginia), and at 5th Army Headquarters in Chicago (Illinois).

Jellema served in Korea between 1952 and 1953 in E Co., 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, where he took part in combat on Pork Chop Hill and in Operation SMACK. In Vietnam, he served in Saigon as a platoon sergeant in Headquarters Company, 69th Signal Battalion, and was there during both the 1968 Tet Offensive and the 1968 May Offensive.

After he left Vietnam in 1968, he served at the Pentagon, in Hawaii with DASPO-Pacific, and in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, as a recruiter. Jellema retired from the Army in 1976.