Vietnam is frequently on Tucson attorney Randolfo “Randy” Lopez’s mind.
How couldn’t it be? Having dropped out of high school, he spent some of his most formative years there as a Marine fighting for his country.
“I was just two weeks into my 18th birthday and I’m in Vietnam,” Lopez said.
Even now, certain sights, sounds, smells and weather conditions can spark those memories.
The humidity, in particular, makes Lopez think of Vietnam.
When he starts to talk about his experiences, you understand why.
“When you’re in battle, your adrenaline flows and you sweat,” Lopez said. “And the first thing you remember is how thirsty you are.”
That’s what happened to Lopez and his Marine compatriots in early 1969 a part of a major offensive called Operation Dewey Canyon.
U.S. forces were positioned near the DMV in an effort to keep the flow of troops and materiel from flooding into the south.
After more than 50 days of fighting, the operation was considered a tactical victory for the United States. But the costs were immense. More than 130 U.S. Marines were killed, and nearly 1,000 were injured.
“I still have memories of this,” Lopez said. “That was a battle scene of battle scenes.”
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He remembers rushing down steep canyon walls with other Marines to aid another company that had been ambushed. Dead and wounded Marines and North Vietnamese forces lay across the canyon floor.
“What we had to do was get the the dead and injured out,” he said.
Lopez said he helped drag a dead Marine back up the steep slope, inch by inch, pulling the fallen man by the belt, grabbing onto tree branches and roots and anything he could find for leverage.
It took nearly 12 hours to reach to top of the mountain, fallen colleague in tow.
After two tours in the war, Lopez returned to Tucson and started working and going to school.
He earned a GED while still in the Marines and used his GI Bill benefits to help pay the costs of tuition at the University of Arizona. Even after graduating, Lopez said he wasn’t sure what he would do.
One day, while working as an auto mechanic, he met someone who would change his life.
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“I met an attorney who came in the shop,” Lopez said. They talked, and the man suggested Lopez consider law school.
That man was Armand Salese, a Tucson lawyer who fought for civil rights and was known for taking on cases representing the underdog. He died in 2013.
Now 65, Lopez has been practicing law since 1985.
For his final law school project, Lopez chose a topic he knew well.
He wrote about post-traumatic stress disorder in Vietnam vets as a claim for insanity defenses.
“It was a labor of love for me, being a Vietnam veteran and seeing how PTSD had affected people,” Lopez said.
