Leaving for Viet Nam
"His" story, as told by the troopers themselves, in their own words. Augmented by after action reports and other official documents.
By the time you get this mail it will be tomorrow 15Aug 02. Marks the day 33 long hot summers ago that I left home for the War. Can never forget that day. It was a beautiful warm day, went to the airport for a 5pm flight to Ft. Lewis, remember that the last song I heard on my car radio on the way to the airport was "Kemosabey" by a group called The Electric Indian. It was my girlfriend's birthday. Vivid in my memory is my mother crying and waving goodbye, reminding me to write to her, as if I needed reminding , also reminding me to say my prayers. Irony of Ironies, that friday that I left was the opening day of the Biggest anti war concert in the History of Mankind, WOODSTOCK. While the last of the Flower Generation was going to the farm for that historic love in, I was going off to fight a war, not very popular at that. I thought of going AWOL in order to make the concert and chickened out at the end. The Music from Woodstock is still popular today even 33 years later, "I wanna take you Higher" still gets to me and gets my blood pumping, Santana's "Soul Sacrifice" is still a masterpiece and of Course Cosby Still Nash and Young's "Judy blue eyes" is still an anthem around these parts. Who can forget Country Joe and the Fish singing "....Come on mothers, now's the time to send your son off to Viet Nam, be the first one on your block to bring your son home in a box..." I did not think I would make it back home in one piece, so many of the guys in the block were messed up over there, Benjie was shot a couple of times at Khe San, Roger lost an arm to mortar round, Mike did not make it back at all. All these years, having been 11B10, I have been very thankful of having been assigned to the 4/12 Cav. The oportunity to serve with some of the finest guys I have ever met I will always treasure. The Day I left is a day I always remember in a special way, I came home a year later to continue with the plan..So many young guys our age did not, they also had that farewell and friends and parents waiting for them back home. We should never let the World forget that there once was a war in a little country far away that lasted longer than the Trojan War. WE should talk about it to the younger generation because they are already begining to forget. Lets continue this wonderful friendship we have rekindled again over the net, lets all be at the Reunion and hug, and laugh, and drink, and tell lies, and war stories......"WE OWE IT TO OURSELVES" Love you all, See ya in a couple of months, Wally |
from Jersey |
from Jim Good |
from Bob Taylor |
from Keith Eaton |
After the last few days and reading the events of others, I have racked my brain trying to remember the trip across the ocean and I can't remember any of it. All I remember is sitting in the big warehouse with a million others at Oakland army base that’s all. Charles Russell |
I sure remember the stench when we landed and they opened the cabin door. We arrived around 6:00 Pm. I remember them putting us on buses that had metal grates along the windows and some guy asked why because he couldn't see out to well and when the driver told him it was to keep grenades and explosives from getting, the poor guy about passed out. He never said another word the whole trip. Joe Byrne |
Coming over we flew a charter on Seaboard World Airlines.. We left from McCord in Washington to Hawaii. They let us off for forty minutes, then on to Guam. I remember seeing the B52s and B47s, their wingtips almost touching the concrete. We landed at Cam Rahn Bay about 11PM, and it was 99 degrees and 99% humidity. That and the stench hit you like a punch in the face. The next night they gave the 11B's M14s to walk guard duty. I flew to Nam with a friend of mine, Bill Stimson. He and I grew up in the same town, we played LL baseball together, went to HS together, Basic and AIT at Ft. Ord in the same platoon. When we got our orders at Cam Rahn we went to that big map that showed where all the divisions were in country. Bill went all the way south to the Delta with the 9th Div. Neither of us had heard of the 5th, so it took a minute to find it at the DMZ. I saw him once after we both got home. He was in some serious shit over there. Bill died of alcoholism at age 35. In my opinion he was about as much a casualty of the war as anyone else. James Clark |
I can remember silly bits......I remember getting my fatigues in Calf., a huge stuffed bear in Alaska, the terminal in Japan, and the red dirt when we landed. I remember getting a GI version of a Dairy Queen and it tasting like plastic. I remember a skinny black dog with six inches of worm hanging out his backside, and the one that I have laughed at my self over; the beautiful white flowers covering a small green hill side on a village edge. Viewed from the road it was very pretty, for a privy. Bob R |