Happy Veteran's Day

In lieu of flying a flag for my patriotism I thought I could "talk" about it.

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In 1967, America was involved in the Vietnam Conflict. At that time in my life I was in my last year of high school and my patriotism was based upon war movies. I knew that by watching the nightly news coverage on Vietnam that I had to go "fight the gooks." I was naive and young. I had a lot to learn.

My time in the Army began at the US Army Induction Center in downtown Los Angeles, CA. After a bus ride to LA from Vegas I checked in and was given vouchers for dinner and a hotel. I stayed overnight in an old hotel that looks similar to this one below, one that my new room mates and I were too afraid of fire, to sleep that night.

Do you know how loud a glass coke bottle is when it hits a street three floors below you in downtown L.A. at 3:00 AM? I do. It's a wonder LAPD didn't alter our army plans that night. It was also my first time downtown L.A. seeing "bums" (homeless wasn't used then) sleeping in closed storefronts, picking cigarette butts up and saving them for later use and then me not seeing the sun through the thick smog until about 9AM the next morning.

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After being sworn in while standing with a room full of other young American males, I was officially a Private in the US Army. Ironically, all my privacy went out the window. I stood in endless lines, wearing only my underwear & t-shirt, (everyone isn't created equal) getting shots with new-fangled 'guns' and being seen by various doctors as a car on an assembly line in Detroit gets put together. Automated actions, no-personality-employees of this center.

All my new friends and I were then put on buses for a trip to the airport. We weren't told our destination, several guessing we were off to Ft. Ord in northern CA. We sat on those buses for hours finally boarding, buckling in for our new adventure, being told only after we were in the air, we were off to Ft. Lewis, Washington. "Cool" I thought. Enlist and see the world. I don't remember the exact times, but I remember the hour we were marched into our new barracks and told "lights out, reveille is at 0500 hours." (it was 1:30 AM now!) The bathroom had a row of white toilets, urinals and sinks, showers in adjoining room, all in old, faded, white porcelain tiles. I passed on using the bathroom, brushing my teeth or showering before bed. What had I done? By 5:30 AM I was eating powdered eggs, cold toast and drinking lousy coffee but loved it having not eaten for 12 hours, and that was airplane food. We were all very cold as we had dressed for So Cal and hadn't been issued uniforms yet.

Above is an actual barracks in Ft. Lewis, built during the 1940's. They hadn't changed since then to when I arrived. I felt like I was in a Jerry Lewis movie although, I hated it. I was in a new world, in awe at all the tall pine trees surrounding us and wondering why and who painted all the little rocks bordering everything, white. So, I survived basic training 12 or 13 weeks, I can't remember to be honest, it was a blur. But these guys where my family and best friends in the world, and I, theirs. We deepened on each other through it all.

Then as quickly as we had bonded we all separated being sent off to our individual training bases. (I have no idea what happened to these guys and I can't remember their names.) I was sent to Ft. Eustis, VA, arriving in November 1968. The picture below was taken soon after arrival, sent home to mom & dad showing them my new home. I was beginning to think the Army only had old, wooden, pre-WWII barracks. This one had a coal furnace and we had to take turns with "fire-watch." More freedom than in Basic, but I didn't like the Virginia weather, smell of coal in the air, the pig farms in the country side, the night-time training or Army life in general.

So, after three months of AIT (Advanced Individual Training) I was sent to Vietnam, and more fine living conditions. And, I was developing some patriotism.

So, another picture sent home to mom & dad, these were the newest barracks I'd slept in yet, in my seven months in the Army. Plieku, Vietnam. April 1968 to April 1969. Then I was sent to finish my three-year enlistment in Ft Rucker, Alabama. I remained in helicopters as a flight engineer as new pilots learned how to fly them before they went off to Vietnam. I flew half days, these young pilots rotating from class room to flight training. I told the war stories then.

This is my last home-away-from-home, courtesy of Uncle Sam in Ft Rucker, Alabama, for almost 18 months. The tan car closest to the barracks on the right, was my 1963 Ford Fairlane and the first car I'd ever owned. My bunk was the first one on the left as you go through the lower floor screen door. The same screen door that everyone let slam as they came and went. These barracks were also pre WWII era construction, and although I'd been housed in newer, brick barracks when I first arrived here, for some unknown reason, my company was moved to these old ones. It was a fitting end to my career. I'd gained a knowledge of true patriotism, if not by what I went through, but by the ghosts and my imagining the thousands of soldiers before me, some who never came back home, in those old barracks I'd lived in at three different Army forts. Happy Veteran's Day to all. I'm glad my name isn't on "the wall."