and my chances of not going to
Vietnam were two, slim and none. When I graduated from high school (1966) Vietnam was heating up and the US was getting more an more involved. I figured that if I had to go (going to Canada wasn't an option) I at least wanted a say as to how I went.
So in high school I joined the Navy. I figured the worst case senario would be me floating off shore in some boat. The Vietnamese didn't have much of a Navy and it looked like the best choice. So that is what I did and in Dec 1966 I left for boot camp.
This was in the middle of the airlines strike so I took a train to San Deigo CA. This was the first of many omens that all was not going to go as I had planned, but I didn't pay any attention to it at the time. In boot camp because I was color blind I only had two choices of jobs clerical and medical. I took medical because I didn't want push a pencil all my life. What a dumb statement most of
what a nurse does is write.
Well color me suprised I got
Corps School. On the 1st of April 1967 I reported to the Naval Hospital Corps School in San Deigo CA. The second of many omens that I overlooked. What I didn't know then was that every Corpsman that goes through FMSS will spend 1 of every 4 years he is in the Navy with the Marine Corps.
I got FMSS out of Corps School. I flew into DaNang in a Bright Orange International Airliner
(I thought then that this doesn't seem like a very good idea. I mean a brightly colored plane in a war zone?)
Another omen that I missed. I was assigned to 1st Force Recon DaNang. This was the last place I wanted to be. For a Marine to be assigned to Force Recon he had to do a few simple things like swim the Pacific Ocean in 15 min. or lift the Himalayan moutain range. You know something easy!!. Force Recon is to the Marine Corps what the Green Berets are to the Army or the Navy SEALS are to the Navy, the best of the best. For a Corpsman all I had to do is be in the wrong place at the wrong time. My first thought were "Oh my God, what have I done?" In about August I was transfered to 1st Medical
Battillion, Preventive Medicine Section where I finished out my tour in Vietnam. While in Vietnam I was fortunate enough to see a Bob Hope show and unfortunate enough to lose some friends (as we all were) There isn't enought space to put down all of my thoughts on Vietnam so
I'll just say SEMPER FI BRO
SEMPER FI.