Michael Alioto

Michael Alioto was born in 1947 in Detroit, Michigan. Despite having a college deferment, he received a draft notice in 1969, and rather than argue the issue, he decided to go into the Army anyway. Despite his high test scores, he was trained as an infantryman, and was deployed to Vietnam in April, 1970. Assigned to B Company, 1st Battalion, 501st Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, he spent most of his year in Vietnam on patrol in the northern part of South Vietnam, usually in or near the A Shau Valley. His platoon took heavy casualties in a number of firefights, and participated in the Ripcord campaign in the summer of 1970, reopening Firebase Gladiator to support Ripcord while it was under siege. When his tour of Vietnam was up, he was sent to Germany briefly, and then completed his enlistment in the United States.