Story ABOUT
My
Vietnam
Experience
I knew when I resigned from Officer Candidate School that my next assignment would be Vietnam. I was not disappointed. Got an assignment to the 89th MP Brigade. I spent December 1966 in San Antonio with family finally January 1967 flying to Oakland the Army processing point for Vietnam. I had a friend stationed at Fort Baker California and he came by to pick me up and spend the day with him and his family. The fort is on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge.
When I returned, I learned that I had Charge of Quarters duty that night. Gruesome discovery. I was instructed to turn off all the lights at 10. Well. One of the soldiers that worked there did not take kindly to that so when I knocked on his door, he threw a boot at me. Fortunately, it bounced against the wall. I just said something like “fuck you” and kept on going.
In the morning, we were processed and got on board some unknown airline chartered to take us to Vietnam. Landed at Ben Hoa. Taken to the 90th Replacement Battalion at Long Binh for processing onward. Kind of. Got there and found out that my orders had been cancelled. Seems like someone wanted to promote their man and I was going to take the billet, so it was a clear send him away. Which they did. I waited for a week at the 90th waiting for someone to tell me something.
Finally, this sergeant comes to me and asks me how long I had been there and what duties I had. One week and none was the answer. Wrong answer. He informed me that I was going to be Commander of the Relief. Transients did the perimeter defense and that is what I had to do. Deliver the guards to their post and make the rounds to make sure all was well. And everything the sergeant explained would have happened except for a minor detail. While he was talking to me my named was called out and I was admonished for not being in the bus. Apparently, someone was supposed to notify me to get in the bus. So, I boarded the bus and off into the wild yonder we all went. Along the way I learned that I was going for an interview at Hq USARV. We parked at the transient tents and were told to visit the offices and look for a job. I started at the Personnel place and went from office to office. I was told the same thing at each place that had my specialty. Saving the billet for my soldier.
Finally, I stumbled into this Master Sergeant. He just pointed at a Sergeant and told me to watch what he did because I would replace him when he left. Until then I was shuffled from one desk to another doing odd jobs. Mostly typing. Lots of it. They all knew that I was a clerk typist, they just did not know how good I was. They found out. In between I saw what the sergeant was doing. Finally, the day arrived he was to leave. He called me to the window handed me a sub-machine gun and a 45 pistol with a beautiful western holster. He explained the keys. Somewhere in Saigon was this apartment. The keys were for the apartment. In the apartment was this beautiful French Vietnamese lady. She went with the apartment. He also gave me the keys to a 21/4-ton navy truck. All this in exchange for doing people favors. Like letting them return 60 days early and getting credit for the tour. You had to spend ten months in country to get credit for the tour. Otherwise, you would be return to Vietnam for another tour. You did this until you got it right. Curtailing the tour by 60 days was an authority that I had and no one above me had to approve anything. I was in contact with Department of the Army in Washington and I took all my orders from them.
My title was NCOIC Personnel Management Division. My job most of the day was processing applications for early withdrawal from Vietnam. People who thought they had a reason to leave Vietnam early would apply. The applications would come to me. I would check them all. I would read them and I would say yes or no. The majority were no because most dealt with marital problems. There was little that a person’s presence could take care of. All were disapproved. Right
I did have one that was rare because this issue came in and he had a lump he had a hump on his back and he just put he was kind of kind of kind of like a camel and this happened every time there's a temperature and humidity hit a certain point he would get the hump so I this wasn't medical decision and I could not approve it on my own so I took him over to the surgeon general and let him look at it and he came back and he said how fast can you get him out of here so I can get I'm out of here right away you should take care of out of here so I sent him to Japan.
Most have heard of Saving Private Ryan. message one night from Department of the Army and it stated that Private by some name was going to be evacuated from Vietnam upon receipt of the message by direction of the Army Chief of Staff, General Harold K. Johnson. I called his unit and people were not very cooperative. First that there were two people by the same name in that battalion and they couldn't figure out which one it was. I helped them identify the person and then he was out in the field so I took over at that time and told him exactly what to do sending a helicopter out to pick him up. Pack all his belongings in the helicopter and when he comes in from the field put him in the helicopter and take him to Tan Son Nhut. AB. The battalion commander called me and told me that they were not going to do what I had told them. I informed him to look at the orders; there are 4 letters VOCG that's verbal order of the commanding general. Right now, what I'm telling is that I can get that Four Star General to give you a personal phone call. Next phone call that I got was from Tan Son Nhut wanting to know how I could send somebody out of a country without orders. I told him, very simple, if you are a 4-star general you can do all that and get away with it.
I had a desperate major come to talk to me because he was rotating back to the states and he had to relocate his family and he did not have an assignment. I understood his predicament. Before I said I could help him I had to give him my disclaimer that I'm not supposed to be touching officer assignments at all. But given his situation I was going to see what I could do. He got his assignment that night and it was a real good assignment.
We had this extra duty called task force we spent two weeks on and two weeks off. We played soldier every time that headquarters was notified that the Viet Cong were going to attack. The VC never attacked but we were ready for them because they ever did attack, they were not going to like the consequences. The 24-hour days were fun days.