I sailed to Vietnam in 1965 as an infantry platoon leader with the 1st Cavalry Division. I say sailed because we went over by troop ship. Many stories from my first “cruise”. We landed in September at Qui Nhon-over the side on cargo nets and hit the beach charging out of LST’s only to find the press and cameras waiting and even a sign saying “welcome to Jones Beach”. The war was like that-when you expected the enemy, you got none….when you relaxed all hell broke loose. After about a month to get our base camp set up I was in combat almost all the time for the next 8 months till I was wounded, reassigned and then medevaced out of Vietnam via Clark in the Philippines to Valley Forge Military Hospital in PA.
While I was in Vietnam I corresponded with a young woman (Jeanne Carson) who was at Millersville University with my sister-even though we had never met we carried on a fantasy romance by mail. As luck would have it, Jeanne lived not too far from Valley Forge and she visited me in the hospital. Long story short-we dated and the fantasy became reality. We married the following year when I left the service. Jeanne finished college 2 years after we were married and went on to a 30 year + career as a teacher. After a number of years we adopted Thinh, a young Vietnamese refugee, who for more than 20 years has been working in the US Senate. We have a large extended Vietnamese family and three terrific grandkids-Jeanne, Jay and Carson.
I worked for 23 years in PA state government-including time working in the Governor’s office, the Legislature and as the State Commissioner for the Blind among other assignments.
During all those years my avocation was as a professional tennis umpire. I worked at tournaments all over the world including, Wimbledon, the French and Australian Opens, the US Open, 3 Olympics (LA, Seoul, and Barcelona)and more than 30 Davis Cup competitions in other countries. In 1990 I left government and became the first Director of Officiating for the US Tennis Association in NY and in 1993 became the Director of the US Open. While I was Director we built Arthur Ashe Stadium-the largest tennis stadium in the world-and completely rebuilt the Billie Jean King Tennis Center on the site of the 1964 World’s Fair in New York. I retired in 2002 but continued to work for the Open as a consultant for 10 more years.
Vietnam has always been with me. I met my wife because of Vietnam, we owe our family to Vietnam. Recently I reunited with the men I led and served with in Vietnam which has opened up a whole new phase in my life. So even while I hid my service in the late 60’s and 70’s (all my awards and decorations were in a box in the barn and all my wartime correspondence was in another box and everything else from those years was locked in a third box in my mind) Vietnam kept sneaking up behind me and tapping my shoulder.
I admit I have PTSD-but I also have so much more, all because of Vietnam…