Vietnam Vet Watches Interview He Did With KSL While Still Fighting War

By Kevin Eck 

For a 70th Birthday surprise, Steve Rasmussen got to watch an interview he did 45 years ago near Da Nang, Vietnam with former KSL reporter Dick Nourse.

“We got back from on a patrol, and somebody says ‘There was a newscaster that was interviewing people from Utah’ so they sent me over,” Rasmussen told current KSL reporter Keith McCord. Rasmussen who was 24 at the time, was a Lance Corporal in Fox Company, 2nd Battalion of the First Marines.

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Rasmussen’s family asked the Salt Lake City NBC affiliate to dig up the archival footage to celebrate his birthday. He had never seen the interview showing him as a young Marine fighting in Southeast Asia.

His wife Darlene told KSL she remembers watching the interview and remembers Rasmussen saying he didn’t have a girl back home. “Oh, I remember him,” said Darlene. “And jokingly I said, ‘Oh, I’ll be your girlfriend,’ just to myself. It was a dumb college girl trick.” They’ve been married for more than 41 years.

Rasmussen served in Vietnam from 1966 to 1968. About six months after the interview Rasmussen was awarded a Purple Heart after being injured by a land mine.

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