Page 46 - Stand Down Vietnam

My father was upset about the whole thing. He was
losing a son to the war and a farmhand all at the same
time, but there were seven boys and three girls. He
wanted help on the farm.

After basic, I went to Fort Gordon, Georgia, for
Advanced Infantry Training (AIT). After AIT, I went to
Fort Benning, Georgia, for jump school. Jump school

was physically tough. We had to run almost five miles
each morning – before breakfast. It was tough. I
remember we’d come in from running and line up at the
mess hall to eat. We’d yell out our service number and
be allowed entry into the mess hall. We were only
given a short time to eat. If you didn’t finish – too
bad, you went the rest of the morning without
breakfast. Again, being raised on the farm helped me.
I was physically in good shape, so the physical stuff
was not too bad on me.

At completion of Jump School, the sergeant lined us all
up and started calling out names. If your name was not
called it meant you were headed for Vietnam. I spent
all of 1967 in Vietnam. When my bunch was left, he
looked over and said: “All you are headed to Nam”.
That’s the way he said it. We were given a thirty-day
leave before having to report to Fort Dix, New Jersey,
for a flight to San Francisco, California, and on to
Vietnam.

When we left the states, it was cold. We had winter
uniforms, but when we landed in Vietnam, they didn’t
even need to open the doors for us to know how hot it
was. I couldn’t wait for someone to pick me up and
issue me my jungle uniforms.