I
spent two tours in
Viet
Nam
.
Between tours I became a helicopter flight instructor at
Fort
Wolters
,
Texas
after my ear and wounds healed in six months. Got married and
divorced, obtained a direct commission as a 1st Lieutenant in the Army
Signal Corps and went to the Signal Officer Basic Course at Ft Gordon Georgia.
On reflection from my first tour, I took more risks than I should have. I
vowed to not take the same risks on my second tour. In some cases, I took
different, but the same risks. On the first tour, I mentioned in an
earlier page that we went to
Viet
Nam
on the first tour to “win the war”. On my second tour, I spent a lot
of time just trying to keep aircrews trained and alive. My personal focus
on the second tour was to keep the crews alive so they could come home.
Since I was again in an Assault Helicopter Company, it meant giving close
protection to the slicks. I returned from the second tour and was assigned
as a Signal Company Commander at
Fort Gordon
,
Georgia
. In January 1973 after the pullout of all American ground troops from
Viet Nam
by President Nixon, the last of the American POWs returned. Now I knew I
did not have to go back for a third tour, I bought a 1973 Porsche 911.
Married a girl from
Aiken
,
South Carolina
. We had two beautiful, intelligent daughters and I retired from the US
ARMY in 1995 with 29 years, 8 months and 4 days of military service with
the rank of Colonel. My retirement was signed by President Bill Clinton.
Drafted by Johnson, retired by
Clinton
.
In
August 2001, I went to my first reunion of members of the Aviation unit.
Some thought I was dead, but I also thought some I met were also dead. We
all looked the same, but older, and heavier. I was surprised at the
interest that the families on the unit had in the other in the unit. I
guess they had heard stories over the years and now they got to meet them.
I loved the reunion. But, I’m not sure I would want to go to reunions
every other year. I might wait another 32 years. When I first saw the
Washington Viet Nam Memorial, I thought it was a “scar on the mall”, a
joke. Years later, now when I go, or take someone there, I wind up crying.
Most all that went to
Viet
Nam
,
and those that died there, went to do the right thing, to serve their
country. You can philosophize about whether the
US
should have been involved in a civil war in
Viet
Nam
now. But using today’s thought process, for decisions back then is a
little off the mark. And again, I see individuals and politicians say
US
troops should not be somewhere overseas, so they don’t even deserve a
visit from the President of the
United
States
,
or support from home. We have not had to fight a war on
US
mainland soil since the Civil War. The US has the only military in the
world that, for the most part, does not do military/police operations
within its borders, or on its borders, but deploys thousands of miles from
home, to protect its National Interests. I hope that we continue to only
shed American blood for our national interests, and not the interests of
some former superpower or 3rd world nation.
