I came to the Vietnam experience very early in the game and not by choice.

In June of 1960, two days after high school graduation, I enlisted in the US Navy and by 1962 was in a hospital corpsman in medical laboratory school.

I was married in 1964 thinking I had 18 months to the end of my enlistment. That changed in a instant when orders came for me to report to Field Medical School (FMF). That is the medical part of the US Marine Corps, so I left my pregnant wife of nine months and off to Camp Pendleton, CA to train and join the 3rd Marine Division (3rd MarDiv) in Hawaii. That was were my Vietnam adventure was to start.

The 3rd MarDiv had left on “Operation Silver Lance” an amphibious exercise. So we -6 fresh out of FMF training- eventually joined up with the Div in Okinawa and were sent to Danang,VN and dispersed to different battalions A, B, or C. I went to B Med.Bat by helicopter with the mail and about 200 hundred loaves of fresh bread and 5 new Marine privates.

Our base was a PhuBai, the airport for the city of Hue. The Med group had arrived the day before me and were still setting up the base.

By the time I left 15 months later B MedCo,3rd MarDiv was set, operating room. XRay unit, laboratory and recovery room.

I was not prepared for my home coming.

I was not prepared for my home coming. Our son was 9 months old and just starting to walk. My wife and I made up for lost time fast. I got a job in a hospital lab very quickly. I was working with men who had all except one been draft deferred and no one wanted to hear of my experiences. I was proud of what I had experienced and did.  But this was before Kent State and slipping off to Canada was the thing to do. If a guy was married and had at least one child he was safe from the draft. This was 1966.

It has taken a long time to get over being bitter. One friend from high school has never been in touch. There was one chance by encounter at an amusement park. He didn’t make eye contact. I keep in touch with a Lab school Navy friend from California. We can share.

I make quilts though the QOV Foundation for vets and give them to Lebanon Valley VA Hospital and designate that they go to Vietnam Vets. It little, but it’s what I can do to help them feel that someone still cares and knows in some small way – we shared the experience.

It has taken a long time to put these feeling into words and I can’t confront these men without being overcome.  It’s hard to keep from tearing up.

Hm2 William H.KOPPENHAVER
BMed Co.,3rd MarDiv.
PhuBai, Vietnam
June 1965 to July 1966