To fully appreciate my “Viet Nam” experience, I must address just how I got there, being a “Green Card” holder, Resident Alien from Zunsweier, West Germany, immigrated at the young age of eight, I always assumed that I could not be drafted.
During my Senior year at Mountain View High School, Kingsley, PA, I took the Physical Exam and Aptitude Test for the US Air Force at (MEPS) Wilkes-Barre, PA, which placed my name on a very long Enlistment Waiting List. Sadly, that was all for naught because in 1966, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania must have determined that it had too many teenage male residents and volunteered all of us to the Federal Government for Military Service; some looked at it as giving us up as “cannon fodder for the war,” but for me, it was exactly what I stated in my yearbook about a “career in the military.”
Rather than let the Army chose my Military Occupational Skill (MOS), I found a respectable shortage MOS in Telecommunications and signed up for an additional year to make my long schooling a better “return on investment” for the Army. After an abbreviated Basic Training at Fort Jackson, SC, (6 instead of 8 weeks), 31 weeks of High Frequency Transmitter Repair (32C10) and Station Technical Controller (32D10) at the US Army Signal School and Center, Fort Monmouth, NJ, I found myself at the In-Country Placement Center at Long Biehn, RVN, on 17 October 1966, as a Private E-2. We had just spent 28 hours of flying time in a commercial passenger airplane from Travis AFB, CA, where it was nice and warm, but what assailed us as we disembarked was a clammy, incredibly humid heat that never subsided for the entire year of my tour.
After about a week of in-processing and all kinds of nasty “details” such as latrine “waste” burning, guard duty, “kitchen police” (KP) and daily police call, a couple dozen of us with a Signal MOS were reassigned as “slave labor” to Navy CBs building the Vung Tau Mountain Radio Relay Facility operations and living quarters for about two months. Being a farm kid with lots of manual labor skills, that suited me just fine but I was still disappointed when we left because I never received the promised hands-on training in the (Mobile) Tactical Tech Control Vans (MSQ73?).
During my stay, we had a handful of opportunities to be trucked into town, which was an in-country R&R Center during the daylight hours but belonged to the Viet Cong at night, to experience the local culture and come away with some unwanted STDs, if you weren’t careful as some of my fellow troops found out in short order. There was only cold water in the showers on the mountain, so the steam baths and the hotel swimming pools suited me just fine and their bars were a great place to relax and play hard-to-get with the “Tea Girls.”
Me and about six fellow 32D10 classmates, finally arrived at the Phu Lam Signal Support Agency just South of Cho Lon (Saigon) at the edge of the Mekong Delta in mid-December. The Army was building Fixed and Tactical Telecommunications facilities all over Viet Nam and we were in high demand as Technical Controllers who worked as the “heart of a communications facility,” where we rerouted defective circuits to feasible alternative routes and coordinated repairs and testing of defective remotely located equipment for maximum telecom capacity restoral. We all came up as either Receiver, Transmitter or Carrier equipment repairmen with pretty high aptitude levels, so we were perfect candidates for “32 Delta” work throughout that war-torn country.
Being young, single and adventurous, I took all of that action “in stride”
After only two months as a Primary Technical Controller, where I was rapidly absorbing the skills of my duty, I was reassigned to the newly constructed AUTODIN (Automatic Digital Network) Tech Control where I worked with Philco-Ford civilian contractors, many of whom were prior-service Air Force Cryptographic Repairmen and just did not adjust well to the tech control mindset.
To my utter surprise, I was cleared for a Top Secret Security Clearance billet, green card and all, and receive promotions to Specialist E5 before completing my tour. The work was highly classified so I still can’t discuss any specifics, but suffice to say, I knew it was vital to the US war efforts and had my full attention and required my mindful application of telecom knowledge and skills.
My NCOIC hounded me on a daily basis to extend my tour of duty there but I was determined to have a short tour (18 months) in Germany before my three-year hitch was up and that’s exactly what I got. I did leave Phu Lam with a letter of recommendation from the Philco-Ford Civilian Site Chief who wanted me to come back and work for him after processing through Willow Grove, PA, upon ETS (estimated time of separation from military service).
As a tribute to my German upbringing by my incredibly strong minded parents who were constantly aware of our tenuous “foreigner image” and status, I never, ever got into the commonplace illegal drug habit; yes, I admit to consuming too much alcoholic but it was under the more mature tutelage of Senior NCOs and Civilian co-workers. I saw too many of my fellow troops become absolutely stupid just smoking grass and I could not allow myself to be seen behaving like that.
Me and a handful of others with the same mindset moved out of the Tech Control Hooch and joined the Base Firemen at the back half of theirs. Working the 12 hour Night Shift, 7 days a week, we were required to fill the ever-deteriorating burlap and plastic sand bags on the Base Perimeter and the heavy Machine Gun Firing Position Bunkers all the way around. During Tet (Chinese New Year) of 1968, I saw just how useful these sandbag-covered bunkers were when we repelled several “probing ground attacks” and survived a half dozen Mortar and Rocket attacks, as well.
The Viet Cong were thick as fleas on a feral cat in Cho Lon and much of that city was leveled during constant artillery and air attacks, ground maneuvers and attack helicopter action; some just across the road from us on the two sides which were not planted with rice paddies as were the southern exposure. We actually expired all of our rations and had to conduct an unsupported convoy into the center of Saigon where the supply depot was located. I was in the back of a sandbagged 2-1/2 ton truck and did my fair share of return fire from the numerous “hot spots” we drove too close to; no one was hit and we hauled enough food, ammo and supplies back to base to sustain us for the duration of the Tet Offensive of “68.
We did suffer losses from mortar attacks, both US Army, ARVN Guard Company and US & LN Civilians, but had a strong perimeter defense of barbed/razor wire, sand filled 50 gallon drums, Claymore Mines and sand bag covered converted con-exes for .50 caliber and M60 machine gun emplacements, with many 20’ and 40’ sandbagged observation/guard towers.
Being young, single and adventurous, I took all of that action “in stride” and never suffered any PSTD from this or my 1972 ten months repeat tour in the Nam. Quite a few of my fellow soldiers never left base for any reason other than for mission requirements but I went out into the local culture at every opportunity and even ventured over the Saigon River to the stockyards where we were not at all welcome. I saw the floating restaurant where many US personnel were killed by VC ordinance, the Saigon Zoo, played golf at the Saigon Golf Course and even had a Chinese girlfriend in a downtown Saigon apartment before Tet changed everything; no more civilian clothes worn downtown, written off base passes and lots of restricted areas. Of course I experienced Tudo Street and all of the GI bars but soon found them too expensive for my taste and a long/costly cyclo ride from Phu Lam so me and my drinking pals would only frequent the Cho Lon Chinese restaurants, hotel rooftop swimming pools and bars.
All of those excursions had to be done during the 8-9 hours we should have been sleeping between shifts, but we were young enough to get by with only 4 hours of sweat-soaked sleep during the day. Oh yeah, the MaMa San LN cleaning ladies just loved to watch us white, brown, yellow and black guys in the open showers while they pretended to wash our clothes at the nearby sinks (for pay!?!?). Some horny troops actually compromised their principles and had friendly relations with those old hags but paid the eventual price of some nasty STDs (most too vividly graphic to discuss in this public forum).
I better stop here before I have to be censored (lol) and say that I am proud to have served my two tours of duty in the “Republic of Vietnam” and receiving my Bronze Star Award and Joint Services Commendation Medal for my duty performance there. The $25 a month Pennsylvania Vietnam Service Bonus was also appreciated.