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Veterans History Project Service Summary:

  • War or Conflict: Vietnam War, 1961-1975
  • Branch of Service: Army
  • Unit of Service: Army Hospital, Training Center
  • Location of Service: Fort Jackson, South Carolina
  • Highest Rank: E-5

View full service history

“It’s a great honor to serve this country, but I think it’s just as honorable to be able to serve those that have served this country.” (Video interview, 18:01)

Drafted into the Army at the height of the Vietnam War, Kenneth Tinsley set a path for his future and stuck to it. Prior to his time in the service, he had worked in the chemistry department of the Nassau County Medical Center on Long Island, where he grew up. Arriving at basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, he faked an illness to gain entrance to the base hospital, and then used a two-minute interview with the pathologist to talk his way into an assignment there. He spent the next two years coordinating critical lab work, such as blood donation for shipment to Vietnam, and teaching soldiers the lab skills they would need to work in field hospitals. After his discharge, he became a physician assistant and spent his career caring for veterans in VA Medical Center hospitals.

About this Item

Title

  • Kenneth Tinsley Collection

Names

  • Parisi, Joseph
  • VA Medical Center, Northport, New York
  • Tinsley, Kenneth

State of Birth

  • NY

Home State

  • NY

Headings

  • -  Tinsley, Kenneth
  • -  Vietnam War, 1961-1975 -- Personal Narratives
  • -  United States. Army.

Form

  • DVD

Extent

  • 1 item

Repository

  • Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

Gender

  • Male

Race

  • Black or African American

Status

  • Veteran

Service History

  • Vietnam War, 1961-1975

    • Branch of Service: Army
    • Unit of Service: Army Hospital, Training Center
    • Location of Service: Fort Jackson, South Carolina
    • Highest Rank: E-5
    • Dates of Service: 1968-1970
    • Entrance into Service: Enlisted
    • Military Status: Veteran

Materials

  • Video: DVD [1 item] -- Oral history interview (collected 2/8/2010)

Collection Number

  • AFC/2001/001/71911

Cite as

  • Kenneth Tinsley Collection (AFC/2001/001/71911), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

Online Format

  • image
  • video

Additional Metadata Formats

Wars & Conflicts

Service Branch

Location of Service

Service Unit

Gender

Race

Highest Rank

Service Entrance

Discharge Status

Interviewee

Interviewer

Organization/Affiliation

Rights & Access

Using VHP Material in Publication or Exhibition

The Veterans History Project (VHP) at the Library of Congress collects, preserves and makes accessible the firsthand recollections of U.S. military veterans who served from World War I through more recent conflicts and peacekeeping missions, so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand what they saw, did and felt during their service. The Veterans History Project Collection includes oral histories along with documentary materials such as original letters, diaries, photographs, and memoirs.

Veterans and interviewers contribute these materials to the Library for scholarly and educational purposes, retaining any copyright they may hold. Therefore, permission must be obtained before using the interview or other materials in exhibition or publication. Researchers or others who would like to make further use of these materials should contact the Veterans History Project for assistance.

As a publicly supported institution, the Library generally does not own rights to material in its collections. Therefore, it does not charge permission fees for use of such material and cannot give or deny permission to publish or otherwise distribute material in its collections. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item from the Library’s collections and for securing any necessary permissions rests with persons desiring to use the item.

Please contact us with questions.

Obtaining Copies of VHP Materials

In order for VHP materials to be duplicated, we must receive written permission from the interviewee for you to obtain a copy of the recording unless the proposed use is limited to personal use, research, or other uses permissible by copyright law. If the interviewee is deceased, their next-of-kin may grant written permission.

Please contact VHP for assistance if you need to contact a veteran for permission to use their materials in exhibition or publication, or if you have received permission from the veteran and need access to high-resolution copies of VHP collection materials.

Citing VHP Materials

Please use the following formats when citing Veterans History Project materials (substituting the appropriate name and collection ID number).

Materials as a whole:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Manuscript material:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Memoirs (MS02), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Transcript (MS04), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Correspondence (MS01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Recording:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Audio recording (SR01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Video recording (MV01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Photograph:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Photographs (PH01), photographer unknown, Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Photographs (PH03-PH14), Ralph Williams photographer, Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Computer file:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Computer file (CF01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Artifact:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Artifact (AR01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Parisi, Joseph, Northport Va Medical Center, and Kenneth Tinsley. Kenneth Tinsley Collection. 1968. Personal Narrative. https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.71911/.

APA citation style:

Parisi, J., Va Medical Center, N. & Tinsley, K. (1968) Kenneth Tinsley Collection. [Personal Narrative] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.71911/.

MLA citation style:

Parisi, Joseph, Northport Va Medical Center, and Kenneth Tinsley. Kenneth Tinsley Collection. 1968. Personal Narrative. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.71911/>.