In 1967, I enlisted in the United States Air Force. I thought it was the right thing to do to serve my country even though I really didn’t understand very much about Vietnam and why we were fighting there.
I was trained as an operating room technician and sent to Clark Air Base in the Philippines in 1968. My first day on the job, I saw wounded GI’s from Vietnam with terrible injuries. Imagine my shock when the surgeon I was working with informed me that by the end of the day, I would be expected to help him debride dead tissue from the wounds of injured soldiers. The sights, and the smells of the dead tissue, were overwhelming for a young man from York County, but I soon learned what I needed to do to help the surgeon.
After 18 months at Clark Air Base, I was sent to Vietnam in 1969. I was assigned to the operating room at the 12th USAF Hospital at Cam Ranh Bay. At Cam Ranh, we received causalities direct from the battlefield via Huey helicopters. We operated on the injured in a small 6 room plywood operating room. We did all kinds of surgery and my experience from the Philippines served me well in Vietnam. We worked 12 hour shifts and I spent many days and nights standing at an operating room table working feverishly alongside young surgeons to help save lives. It was an exciting and heady experience despite the dangers of being in Vietnam.
The experiences from these two assignments changed my life forever. With all of the knowledge I gained in the military, I decided to pursue a career in the medical field following my discharge from the Air Force. But the civilian world didn’t really appreciate, or care, that I learned so much in Vietnam. And so, I didn’t really use all that knowledge to help others.
Despite this, I am still proud that I volunteered for military service during the Vietnam era. I know that it taught me so much and made me the person I am today.