In seven days I continue a journey that began on this date in 1968. On April 29, 1968 our plane was circling to land and deposit us at Ft. Campbell Kentucky for U.S. Army Basic Training. Flash and I looked at each other as the plane descended and we said together, "What the hell have we gotten ourselves into now?" Flash was a friend from my hometown and we had been running together for some time. The previous week we had gone to the local draft board to see when we were going to be called up and they said not until the end of May. Our next stop was the Marine Corp recruiter and thanks be to God, he was out to lunch, so we went back to the Draft Board and they said try the Army recruiter, they have a new two year enlistment plan. The draft was a two year commitment and that was all we were willing to give was two years. You could avoid combat for the most part if you joined the Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard or the Army with a safe job for four years. When you are twenty, two years is a damn long time, four years is an eternity. We went to the Army recruiter and sure enough they had a two year enlistment program with no promises other than that. It would most likely be two years as an 11Bravo, which was combat infantry man, a twelve month tour in Vietnam and if you survived you were free. We signed up and asked when we left and he said next Monday and that was perfect as it gave us time to have a going away party. Buzzy, another friend signed up also and was set to go, but he got arrested after the going away party for minor consumption and the Army wouldn't take him. They did draft him though a couple of months later.
We survived Basic Training and at the end you get your MOS, Military Occupational Specility, which determines which AIT, Advanced Individual Training, school you will go to. The guy next to me who was married, had a family and a college degree got 11Bush and orders to Jungleland at Ft. Polk, Louisiana. He literally fell to the ground and cried. My orders said 62Mike and Ft. Leonardwood, Missouri. I asked my Drill Sgt what 62Mike was and he said, "You're a f*&^%#, engineer get on the bus." My buddy Flash ended up getting orders for Ft. Huachuca, Arizona and clerk typist school, he was going to be a Radar O'Reilly. We thought we hit the jackpot, no combat infantry man for us. At Ft. Leonardwood I was trained as a heavy equipment operator and at the end of training everyone got a thirty day leave and orders for Vietnam except those who were seventeen years old and couldn't be sent until they were 18 and me. I got orders for Ft Carson, Colorado and a thirty day leave. I couldn't believe my luck. After my thirty day leave I reported to Ft. Carson and was assigned to a heavy equiptment battilion. I was a grader operator on a Cat 12 and we graded roads at Ft. Carson, which was the second largest Army fort in the U.S. In the winter we cleared the roads of snow. I also was being groomed to be NCO Training Officer which was a cushy desk job. I needed to get to twelve months or less left in my enlistment and I would be safe from the Nam. Meanwhile, Flash, had finished clerk typist school and been given a 30 day leave and then sent to Vietnam. He had a safe job as a medical supply clerk and worked at a huge supply depot in Cam Rahn Bay. One day he thought that as long as he was in a combat zone he might as well be in the action, so he volunteered to become a door-gunner on helicopters with the 281st Assaault Helicopter Company click on this link for more about Flash aka Michael Olson and his Recollections about John A. Ware. Cool job and you're not foot pounded the jungle and you get to wear a prestigous set of wings on your uniform. The down side was door gunners' lives were measured in minutes. My luck ran out in February 1969 when I got orders to Vietnam and a thirty day leave. I went home for thirty days and spent much of the time with friends who were attending Mankato State. Interesting arrangement....they had to set their alarm clocks to get up for a noon class and I was up every morning for reville at 5:30. Said my good-byes, convinced myself that Vietnam was worth dying for and got on the airplane. I was leaving Minnesota in the winter and going to the jungles of Vietnam. The flight over was long and boisterous with stops in Alaska and Japan. We had a lot of time to think and most of us thought about surviving and reconcilied the fact that we were likely to get wounded and maybe even killed so get over it and accept it otherwise you will just drive yourself crazy with worry.
We survived Basic Training and at the end you get your MOS, Military Occupational Specility, which determines which AIT, Advanced Individual Training, school you will go to. The guy next to me who was married, had a family and a college degree got 11Bush and orders to Jungleland at Ft. Polk, Louisiana. He literally fell to the ground and cried. My orders said 62Mike and Ft. Leonardwood, Missouri. I asked my Drill Sgt what 62Mike was and he said, "You're a f*&^%#, engineer get on the bus." My buddy Flash ended up getting orders for Ft. Huachuca, Arizona and clerk typist school, he was going to be a Radar O'Reilly. We thought we hit the jackpot, no combat infantry man for us. At Ft. Leonardwood I was trained as a heavy equipment operator and at the end of training everyone got a thirty day leave and orders for Vietnam except those who were seventeen years old and couldn't be sent until they were 18 and me. I got orders for Ft Carson, Colorado and a thirty day leave. I couldn't believe my luck. After my thirty day leave I reported to Ft. Carson and was assigned to a heavy equiptment battilion. I was a grader operator on a Cat 12 and we graded roads at Ft. Carson, which was the second largest Army fort in the U.S. In the winter we cleared the roads of snow. I also was being groomed to be NCO Training Officer which was a cushy desk job. I needed to get to twelve months or less left in my enlistment and I would be safe from the Nam. Meanwhile, Flash, had finished clerk typist school and been given a 30 day leave and then sent to Vietnam. He had a safe job as a medical supply clerk and worked at a huge supply depot in Cam Rahn Bay. One day he thought that as long as he was in a combat zone he might as well be in the action, so he volunteered to become a door-gunner on helicopters with the 281st Assaault Helicopter Company click on this link for more about Flash aka Michael Olson and his Recollections about John A. Ware. Cool job and you're not foot pounded the jungle and you get to wear a prestigous set of wings on your uniform. The down side was door gunners' lives were measured in minutes. My luck ran out in February 1969 when I got orders to Vietnam and a thirty day leave. I went home for thirty days and spent much of the time with friends who were attending Mankato State. Interesting arrangement....they had to set their alarm clocks to get up for a noon class and I was up every morning for reville at 5:30. Said my good-byes, convinced myself that Vietnam was worth dying for and got on the airplane. I was leaving Minnesota in the winter and going to the jungles of Vietnam. The flight over was long and boisterous with stops in Alaska and Japan. We had a lot of time to think and most of us thought about surviving and reconcilied the fact that we were likely to get wounded and maybe even killed so get over it and accept it otherwise you will just drive yourself crazy with worry.
When the plane landed at Ton Son Nut and I stepped out into the heat I thought I'm not worried about getting shot because the f*&^%$g heat and humidity was going to kill me in just a couple of days anyway. After a couple of days waiting I finally got orders for D Company 31st Engineers (C) in Lai Khe. We loaded up on trucks to go by armed convoy to Dion and then from there by Caribou, an Army transport plane, to Lai Khe because the road was too dangerous to travel. I reported in to the First Sgt and he said I'll get your platoon sgt and he will square you away. In walked Sgt Anderson, an instructor in a leadership school I attened in Ft Leonardwood and I was kind of his adopted son. He had 8 daughters and his wife said no more. Here's this white boy from the Midwest taken under the wing by an African-American. Well, Sgt Anderson helped me carry my things to our hooch and introduced me to the guy I was replacing so he could go home. Sgt Anderson introduced me to Buzz and we looked at each other and said have we met before? He said I'm from Sioux Falls. SD and I said I'm from southern MN but that's not it and then it dawned on us...............I had replaced Buzz on the Chrysler assembly line in Belividere, IL during the summer of 67 because he had been drafted. Buzz was glad to be replaced again by me. Small world and not the last case of serindipity in Vietnam for me. Sgt. Anderson made me his driver and so for the first few weeks I had a cush job and a vehicle at my disposal. On one of those first days as a driver we were driving past the hospital and dustoff pad. A large number of dustoffs had landed and were off loading the wounded and dead and two guys with a stretcher trotted in front of us causing us to stop. The stretcher had a body on it covered with a poncho and the guy in front of the stretcher tripped and fell. When he fell the torso of this body fell off the stretcher and the legs remained on the stretcher. I was horrified and watched as the guy tried to put the torso back on the stretcher, but it kept slipping off because of all the blood and fluids. That scene will be in my head till the day I die. Most days now it is a small picture, but always there. I didn't appreciate it at the time but Sgt Anderson probably saved my life on a couple of occaisions. Once there was a firefight going on across the rice paddy from a road we were reconning and we wanted to join the action, but Sgt Anderson said it's not our fight let the infantry, artillary and air support take care of it. The big thing that he did was not let me transfer to the 281st AHC as a door gunner to be with Flash. Flash had been writing me and saying we need more door-gunners and you can transfer and we'll be together, etc. Good ol' Sgt Anderson said we need you here and request is denied. I was mad and upset with him and later I realized what he had done, saved some dumb asse's life because he wanted to wear wings and fly. Thank you Sgt Anderson. Next bit of serindipty involving me, but I wasn't there. Flash was looking and waiting for me to arrive at the 281st AHC and one day he was leaving the PX and he thought he saw me. He was yelling "Dennis" at this guy who looked like me walking by and when the guy turned around Flash saw that it wasn't me. They started talking and comparing notes. Flash told that he thought he was me and told him the story. The talk quickly turns to where you from and the guy said California and Flash said Minnesota. The guy said I was born in Minnesota, where in Minnesota are you from? Flash replied Albert Lea and the guy said That's where I was born, where in A.L. do you live and Flash said 715 Blackmere Ave and the guy about flipped, he said I was born in that house. What are the chances????????????? Well, this story has one more bit of serindipity at the end of my tour in Vietnam and KAXE 25 years later.
In seven days I leave for California and The Run For the Wall. I went half way in 1998 and now with retirement I am going all the way and I hope to blog during the trip each day. Check out RFTW.org
2 comments:
My nephew has been to Iraq 2x so far and has never received any leave before or after. I'm not sure the military is doing that any more, or maybe their just too hard pressed for men right now. Vietnam sounds like some experience. Maybe you could use that to help young vets coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan...
Dear Anonymous,
Words are not enough to express my gratefulness to your nephew. Thank you soldier for serving our free nation. I can't imagine they did not get some time off before or after deployment. I think we would all know if they were not believe me. Every war has its own unique situations. WWI US troops went to Europe and trained extensively before combat and didn't enter the war until the last two years. WWII you served the duration. Which meant you served until wounded, killed or the war ended. My Battalion Sgt Major in Vietnam served in WWII and Korea also. In WWII he was in the Army before WWII started and went from E-1 Private to E-8 First Sgt because he was one of few survivors in his unit. It was figured that the average soldier began to suffer combat stress/PTSD at about 18 months. The average soldier was dead or wounded by then so he beat some great odds. Vietnam you served one twelve month tour and went home. If you were wounded three times you could request to go home. Marines served thirteen months in Vietnam. Surprisingly people requested to return to Vietnam and do another tour. Some people extended their tour so that they had 150 or less days they would go home. If you had more than 150 days you would have to return stateside and serve your remaining time. I actually got to go home nine days early because I needed to be at Winona State College to register for 1970 Spring Quarter. Talk about culture shock. I am going on The Run For The Wall next Tuesday. This event started 20 years ago to make people aware of POW-MIA issues. Then it seemed to attract a lot of Vietnam Vets and now it is for all POW-MIA's and All Veterans. I last went in 1998 and There were a couple of Gulf War Veterans and of course since 9-11 I am sure there will be Afghan and Iraq Vets. I would like to hear from your nephew sometime . Direct him to this blog.
Love+Peace 2 Cor I:8-11 DJ
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