I WAS FIRST DRAFTED IN FEBRUARY 1966 AND THEN AGAIN IN MARCH 1966 IN CLEVELAND OHIO. THE LEVEE IN FEBRUARY WAS OVER FILLED, HENCE I WAS PLACED ON THE NEXT MONTH’S LEVEE THEREFORE RECEIVING A SECOND GREETINGS FROM UNCLE SAM. AFTER BEING DRAFTED TWICE AND INDUCTED, VOLUNTEERS WERE ASKED FOR THE MARINES. I VOLUNTEERED WITH A FEW OTHERS, BUT SINCE THE REQUIRED NUMBER NEEDED DIDN’T VOLUNTEER, THEY LINED US UP AND COUNTED US OFF BY THREES. EVERY THIRD MAN WENT TO THE MARINES, I WASN’T ONE OF THEM, BUT MY HIGH SCHOOL BUDDY WAS. HE’S NOW ON THE WALL.
After arriving at harmony church ft. benning and going through indoctrination and innumerable tests, I was offered an opportunity to be trained as an operating room technician if I would enlist in the regular army. I agreed, so I was discharged as a US and enlisted as an RA. I received an honorable discharge as a US immediately before I ever saw a duty station. It evened out, I have two honorable discharges, one as a US and another as an RA.
MY ACTIVE DUTY STATIONS WERE: 3/1966 Ft Benning Georgia, basic infantry Pvt.; 5/1966 Ft Sam
Houston Texas, basic combat medic, hospital orderly, central material supply,
and operating room technician PFC; 9/1966 Ft Knox Ireland Army Hospital OJT
operating room technician PFC; 11/1966 Kishine Barracks Yokahama Japan 106th
General Hospital, operating room technician Sp4; 12/1967 67th
Evacuation Hospital Qui Nhon Vietnam, operating room
technician&cast/orthopaedic specialist Sp5; 12/1968 Ft Lewis Washington,
separation Sp5.
Major places I transited in Vietnam: Ton Son Nuot? Airport Saigon, Camp Alpha,
Long Binh, Bien Hoa, Cam Ranh Bay, Qui Nhon, and Da Nang. I was hospitalized for about 7 weeks and
evaced to Japan for hepatitis and returned.
I R&R’d in Bangkok October 1968.
I retired after 30 years working in production in a hot
strip steel mill in Cleveland Ohio. A
year later I moved to East Texas and live on over six wooded acres a ¼ mile
walk from a dam separating a 3500 & 9500 acre lake.
