What was I thinking - Part 3

Have you ever felt like you were absolutely helpless. That is the way I felt finding out about my wife being pregnant and then I find out that my dad had a throat cancer operation. Too much going on with me out of the picture. It was out of my control so I just took care of business and took one day at a time.

In the section where I worked I was asigned as part of the IG (Inspector General) team which meant I would have to take trips to our 3 class B finance offices in Plaiku, Anke and Tuey Hoa. That usually meant hitch hiking down the coast on a Huey helicopter. Anke was located in a valley between two mountains and because there were snipers we had to approach with caution. It was a small Army prop plane. The pilot would come in high, get to the appropriate place and cut the engine and fall, cutting the engine back on at the right time to come in for a quick landing avoiding a long approach and chances of getting shot at. When we leave the pilot sits at the end of the runway and guns the engine for all it's worth and lets off the brake and almost goes straight up. Quite a ride. During the time I was in Viet Nam (19 months) I kept records and found over one million dollars in errors on military pay records, some in favor of the GI and others in favor of the government. Yes I said over one Million $$.

All military installations in foreign countries usually hire locals to work on compound and hope that they are good and loyal to your cause. There was this small boy maybe 10 to 12 and every morning when he came onto the compound he would salute whoever he met whether they were a PFC or a General. He was everyone's friend. One time when I came back from an asignment at one of our other offices I found out that they had caught him pacing off the distance between our perimeter fence and our movie shack probably to give coordinates for a mortar round to kill some of us. I never saw him again.

You get bored easily when you don't have acutal work to do and some of the Vietnamese girls that worked at our enlisted men's club suggested I go to an orphanage in Qui Nhon. It was operated by Catholic nuns and one or more of the girls would go with me to act as interpreter since the nuns could not speak english. The children were starved for affection and would climb all over me craving attention. Some of them were blonde and had blue eyes and were products of Vietnamese girls and GIs and were outcasts, not wanted by anyone. I visited them every chance I got and when I went home for my 30 day leave after 13 months I got folks in my area interested by posting an article in the local paper about the orphanage. I got so much clothes and can goods that it really touched my heart. I shipped the boxes and when they arrived even my commanding officer went with me to present all the great stuff to the children. It was a glorious day seeing some of the children wearing new clothes for the first time in their lives. More to later. Coming up a leper colony......

What was I thinking??

It was back in February of 1968 and I was 20 years old having a good old time in Indianapolis, Indiana stationed at Ft. Benjamin Harrison Army Finance School. After basic training at Ft. Bragg and being agrivated at Ft. Jackson, SC I was now actually having fun.

School was from 8 to 4 and after that I pretty much could do whatever I wanted to do. So on the weekends I would get a room at YMCA in town and enjoyed being in civilian attire and interacting with people other than soldiers, namely USO girls. Don't get me wrong, they were really nice girls that helped you keep from getting bored by playing board games and even taking us roller skating. Gave me a break from the Army routine.

All was going pretty good until one day I received orders reasigning me to Viet Nam. The dreaded tour. Well, back home I had this girl friend in NC so I broke the news to her and her immediate response was that we should get married. Now bear in mind that I was just 20, stupid, inexperienced and gulible. I fell for it and swallowed it all, hook, line & sinker.

Now of course I was a buck private, without a vehicle. Happens though that I had a cousin stationed there with me that I had never seen that actually lived near where I lived back in NC. Somehow I convinced him to drive me to NC on a (3 day pass) so I could get married. We traveled all night through the mountains of West Virginia and made it home. My dad let me use his car so we hurried over to Tarboro, NC shopping for rings and then tried to line up her preacher to marry us. Turns out he was gone fishing, true story. She attended the Pinetops Baptist Church. Well we had to scramble and found that the Methodist minister was available so we lined him up. My folks met us there along with her mother, since her dad never went to funerals, I mean weddings. The service lasted about 15 minutes and off we went to Rocky Mount, NC about 20 minutes away for the quickest honeymoon on record.

My cousin & I make it back to Indiana and what do you think happened. I got more orders recinding the Viet Nam orders. This time for Ft. Ord, California. All that and I am not going to the war zone after all. So here I was, married, a buck private making (less) than $100 a month headed for California & trying to understand how I am going to get her out there and we survive 3,000 miles away from family & friends. More to follow.......

Viet Nam

Hello everyone. Lately I have had Viet Nam on my mind as I do from time to time. When you spend 19 months somewhere it tends to stay with you. Lots of memories, some good, some not so good. Just felt it was time to get some of them in print.

I arrived there in late 1968 after a 12 hour plane ride that made stops in Hawaii, Wake Island and the Phillipines. Had to board a C130 and fly again this time to Qui Nhon which would be my home for some time. Qui Nhon is a fairly large city located on the coast of Viet Nam and the streets are almost always filled to capacity with motorcycles or the 3 wheeled mini taxis that were so popular as public transportation. Didn't quite know what to make of this new place but I would learn.

My first negative experience happened soon after I arrived. Was walking down the street outside of our compound with many vehicles racing past my friend and I. Suddenly I felt a tug on my wrist and my watch was gone. A Vietnamese male on a scooter had grabbed it knowing that the expansion band would break easily. You learn quickly that to safeguard your watch you must wear leather that buckles.

Most of the structures outside of our compound were built with whatever they could find, including flatened cans. Culture shock for this NC boy so far from home. Inside our compound we had a lot of the creature comforts that would come to be appreciated. Our living quarters had panels that would open up to let a breeze come through and were actually quite comfortable. Our mess hall had some of the best food I had eaten in a while which really surprised me. We also had an enlisted mens club that offered steaks, shrimp, beverages of all kinds and at a very low price.

I was a quality assurance inspector for 13th Finance and my job was to audit military pay records for mistakes. The pay records were to say the least a mess. I had been to the Army Finance School in Ft. Ben Harrison, In. but some of the people working there were never trained to work with pay records and it was my job to get it right. During the 19 months there I found errors that totaled to almost 1 million dollars. Some in favor of the GI and some to the Government.

Boredom could be a real problem since my unit was a support unit and did not see any hostile action. That meaning I did not have to shoot at anyone or spend time in the jungles and rain. I learned to develop my own film at the photo lab to pass the time but what took most of my off time was an orphanage just outside of Qui Nhon. There were Vietnamese nationals working at the club and one invited me to go one day so I agreed. The children there were products of relationships with GI's & Vietnamese females. Now the children were considered as outcasts and some even had blond hair and blue eyes. It was run by Catholic nuns and filled to capacity. One day the nuns invited me to have lunch with them and offered me a sub. I ate the sub only to find out later that the meat inside was from a large lizard. I never questioned it because it was very tasty.

After about 13 months I was allowed a 30 day leave to go home. A backwards note: I learned shortly after arriving in Viet Nam that my wife was pregnant so when I got home there was a good sized daughter waiting to see her daddy for the first time. It was quite a reunion and so good to be on American soil again. While there I had an article put in the Rocky Mount Telegram about the orphanage needing food and clothes. The calls started and before long I had a load of stuff to ship to Viet Nam. People can be so generous when children are involved.

When I got back to Viet Nam and the packages arrived we had a party at the orphanage. My company commander even joined us as we watched the excitement on the faces of the childen having new clothes for the first time. That was a rewarding day for us all.

I made quite a few friends during the time I was stationed there and often wonder how they are today and if the orphanage is still in operation. Have always wanted to return to check on Qui Nhon but it is a world away.