Page 105 - Stand Down Vietnam

The Vietnamese people I was connected with, they were a
pretty good group of guys. When I first went into the
country, when I landed at the Coastal Group in 1968; I
had a meeting with them and I told them that I know
that a group up at I Corps, a group right up above us,
that group of Vietnamese would just run out on us. The
Viet Cong would come in that night and kill the biggest
part of the people on the base. So, I told them, the

first one I see run, I’m going to shoot you.

For me, they were as good as gold; if I was to go into
a village, to search; they’d be right beside me. They
wouldn’t be behind me; they didn’t have my back; they’d
be right beside me. It was like they were my own
personal guard. They protected me; they were going to
make sure nothing was going to happen to me. It worked
out right good; I had a good relationship with them.

The last month I was in the country (1969), I was in an
evacuation hospital. Staying on the base with the
Vietnamese people I had contracted what they called an
Amoeba parasite (Amebiasis), which caused an intestinal
illness that's typically transmitted when someone eats
or drinks something that's contaminated with a
microscopic parasite called Entamoeba histolytica. I
had a stomach infection that was eating my stomach and
liver. When I came back stateside, I had to go to the
Millington, Tennessee Naval Hospital for another month.

Then I started going back and forth to the VA Hospital.

We patrolled in what they called junk boats, that’s
what it was called. They had a big eye painted on the
front of the boats. They’d always travel with that eye
pointing back to home, so they wouldn’t get lost.

Our boats were equipped with 50 caliber machine guns,
plus we had hand weapons like M16s and grenade
launchers.