Rick Springfield has said he believes he killed a Viet Cong fighter with a mortar during a visit to Vietnam as an 18-year-old musician, revealing that the incident has remained with him for decades.
The “Jessie’s Girl” singer discussed the experience during an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience, recalling how he and his band travelled to the war zone to entertain American troops in the late 1960s.
Springfield said the most disturbing episode took place at Marble Mountain, a naval base near Da Nang. While staying at the camp, he was invited to fire mortars during a night-time alert after troops reported movement outside the perimeter.
He said he fired five or six rounds without fully understanding the consequences, describing his attitude at the time as akin to “John Wayne”. The following morning, he was told that one of the mortars had struck a Viet Cong soldier.
Springfield was not serving as a soldier and had travelled with the band to perform for troops. He said the knowledge that his actions may have caused someone’s death had a lasting psychological impact.
He also recalled the danger surrounding the performances, including rocket and mortar attacks and occasions when the musicians had to take cover. The band spent about four months in Vietnam, staying at military bases and in old French villas near the front lines.
During the conversation with Joe Rogan, Springfield described the experience as something he had struggled to process, despite the passage of almost six decades.
