Cam Ranh Bay Vietnam - First Station [1971]

In a combat zone, a combat zone that, or, for that matter, is located in a support unit located in a combat zone, has very few flags sailing in the wind or, for that matter, a search for soldiers standing straight with dressed greens. gloriously awaiting a battle around a bend [like in the movies]sorry, just the troops of the military marching, trampling rain and mud, dodging bullets, rockets.

The soldiers in Vietnam, mostly young people, were a little exhausted in their nerves, trying to figure out where they fit into the scheme of everything that is. Having said that, what was the purpose [that is what we all asked ourselves sooner or later]: - win, stabilize or contain? Nothing was clear except for one thing, or, as I learned shortly after I arrived in Vietnam, they did not win it, this is war, that is, victory in the sense of direct victory.

Whatever the political minds of the decision makers in Washington, the soldiers did not know, but this was not to win the war. For we all knew that it was or could be a simple task. But then we did not want to incite Russia, didn’t it, this was our way of avoiding nuclear confrontation, I suppose; Similarly, in Korea, we did not want to incite China and came across a nuclear arena in this area, that is, we had to use these big bombs to stop a horde of oncoming enemy soldiers. Or at least our decision-makers thought so, or so I think.

Returning to Vietnam, again, I don’t think it would be a hard war to win [had we not put limitations on ourselves, and overlooked targets for the sake of getting other nations mad at us]but then you had your negative forces acting against you / or us, such as Jane Fonda [see also Last Words] in addition to indecisive political minds in Washington, DC and across states ... this has complicated the situation. [As in many wars, you get your wild radicals, even in Persian Gulf II War, such as Sean Penn, and a few like him.] Everyone who wants to arouse our emotions to watch their films, and with them on the protest march, but when you protest against them, they are emotionally unstable, they do not like it [like President George W. Bush, said, "... it's a two way street ..."]And in most cases, protesters like them have never seen the day of the battle, but they lack wisdom.

My protest was that when I return from Vietnam, I will not go to see their films, although I saw it and bought another one, but it was very hard for me to watch them. I think that big movie stars have an advantage that they can get on stage and can give their opinion to millions of people in a matter of minutes, someone like me, well, my only way, or, speaking, is not supporting them whatever is possible. Some people think that this is not the right way to respond, but this is the only thing I know, and the non-violent way that I knew, and this is a good kind American protest style, I know.

And from what I saw in such cases and events, most people could not tell the difference between being assertive, which I consider healthy as a protest against the view of war or peace and aggression, which I consider to be hypocritical at best. But this is the way it always is. You go on the march of peace and create war. For me, a peace march must be peaceful, and so on. D. And so on. D. But we see the creation of hysteria; exactly what they are protesting, shouldn't it be their own behavior? But at the time I was thinking.

Life in general in Vietnam [in a support group environment as I was in] had regular duties, like at home, or in Germany, you cleaned your rifles, washed socks, grabbed warm rain and used it for a shower. Married men tried not to feel the pain of missing wives; I received John's Expensive letter, saying that my girl from Augsburg, Germany, was no longer going to write to me. Paul, Minnesota, tears, the river is destroyed, or it was two rivers, whatever I remember, it was too long ago. In war, it is best to leave love letters.

But it was all over [the relationship in Augsburg]and I was glad I didn’t want to end up doing what the other guys did, that is, you are in a hurry and wait for the mail package to arrive in the hope that you will receive a letter or two, day after day you give power and control your life for this person to decide what to write and when, it all overshadows your mind. You think ... I will go to war today, I will die and go to hell, or you think that I will make it a home. This begs the question of who wants to live, of course, Charlie, the enemy does, and, as I have always said, I do it, and I said that I’ll go home together or not at all, and if Charlie gets my way, we’ll go in hell. But married men always wanted to go home; thought about the house. And you knew what they had in their heads most of the time: especially if they were or were married for a short time, they always seemed busy. In a combat zone this can be dangerous.

I didn’t want the footsteps of the dark leg to wake me up in a dream, but in Vietnam, so that at one glance I slept all the time in Vietnam, and if the shadow crossed my path, he would die or would like him to do it.

In other cases, some of my comrades said:

“Why do you keep your rifle always locked and loaded ...?” Which means being ready to fire, “... even when you know that Charlie climbed the hills, two miles from him, is somewhat harmless if only he stays there” . My answer has always been,

"I liked being loaded, it makes me feel good, as if I am in control, as I want it to be." It would bother some of my friends that, for fear, I would accidentally shoot them. And I believe that everything is possible.

m

In Vietnam, there were many things that could be said that, being a pocket full of experience, something like, but not quite similar, Augsburg, Germany, where I found myself in romance, yes, this was the place where I was before coming to Vietnam. And San Francisco was also quite an experienced experience, which was where I lived a year before entering the army and went to Augsburg. Somehow they all seem to connect, because they all merge with each other, ending here in Vietnam.

Some of my new experiences would have allowed me to use heroin and find me, dancing on top of a free hut in the middle of the jungle, where I and four other soldiers had dismantled a metal hut. Again, here we danced on the roof, listened to the music of some of Bob Dylan, I think, and Turtles, etc., If there were no war. However, I still saved my M16 and loaded; - but God forbid, if the enemy comes; I left him on the ground with other items of clothing that I put on. I needed to jump off the roof to get to my weapon, by the time we were all dead.

After a few hours of our adventure in the rope-doping, we had everything that was dismantled, so Charlie could not use it, and we returned to base camp. This was my first use of white gold, heroin. Three dollars - a capsule, and you can smoke it, rub it into the veins, or, for that matter, enter; even you liked it. It was so good that I told myself it would not happen again. Of course, I would be a drug addict, and it was not for that.

When the sun disappeared that day, we got to our lunch boxes. We had white rice with eggs, a hamburger and green pepper, all mixed and fried together, it was great.

m

In the ammunition dump, as we called it [ammo supply area]where I work every now and then, I flew all day in the trash bin that we used for the office. And to be frank, this in itself is a tedious job, especially if there is no wind that has turned this place upside down. And just try not to deceive them, they eat you alive, that is, they land on everything, everywhere, all day.

Outside the hut there was a brass sun coming down on top of you, as if you could touch the sphere itself; you could cook an egg on a rock, one of the soldiers tried it, it works. Often, when things went slowly, and they often did, you dreamed on the porch of a hut or walked around trying to find a stick to wipe your ass, because there was no toilet paper.

People with their wives or lovers in their homeland were loving half the time, really lost in the heat and rain of Vietnam; Again I say this because it was cause for alarm at times. I often thought about the Israeli army, as I understand it, if a man got married, they would not allow him to serve for about a year. It made sense, he had his own sex, for the most part he made his home; and was focused.

The nights seemed to be stellar, birds were not singing at all, the fact is that there were no birds. Not in the jungle, but in the ammunition cartridge — only dry lizards and not too far from the coast of the South China Sea. No birds, no birds, no sir, never heard them, no birds, and if I had never seen them. [As I write this I can hear them now outside my windows, chirping, and singing. What a lovely sound!]

m

It seemed to me that I would make it live through Vietnam, I think I never thought that I would not, as long as I breathe and not bleed. One of my friends got out of a difficult path, he screwed up so many women that he got all these different types of sexually transmitted diseases, which I had never heard of, and they had to be sent to Japan for treatment. His spelling was rolled back like the hunchback of Notre Dame. We talk at night, and he told me a reservation: "Chick, I sometimes sleep three times a day."

I said, “You have to stop, see what he does to you,” was it a month before he got the disease for the 5th time, or was it the 7th? In any case, this time it was difficult for him to look at me, he was so bent from the problems of the spine, and the conversation was too painful that I could say, and the next day he was not there. Which way, without a fight, is just bad company. I think we all chose our sins and our own way of dealing with them and the unknowns, as well as the boredom and ridiculous rules they had here: and most of the ways we deal with problems like dissociation [blocking your mind to / or from reality], whether it's sex, drugs, gambling, wrestling or drinking, as I often chose, or something else. I assume that war should be war, not sit in anticipation of a pizza. That is, we must fight or train, and not do what we do.

@

And here I am in Vietnam, a year in 1971, halfway around the world, without poets, without rich people, without lawyers, but one of the guys named Presley was a relative of Elvis; [or so he said]In any case, there are no rich and famous, is it not always the case? He simply told you who is and who is not suitable for the government. There was no disrespect, because I don’t mind being here, I don’t have a better place, no one is waiting for me at home, no girlfriend. So for me, it's just a trip to the jungle, along the coast.

My hutch

It was the winter of 1971, when I lived on an army base in Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam, looking up and through dry white sand, and solid mud compressed on the hills surrounding our camp, was a radar station just above us. Along the coast, the coast of the South China Sea, there were several shrines, temples hidden in the jungle, and a road leading to three drops of ammunition, Alpha, Charlie and Delta [Alpha being the Air Force dump], The sand was dry and white, in fact ideal for a swimming beach, and paraphrasing rumors, it was said that after the war the area turned into a resort type, it could well be a good platform for a resort, with some financial planning and capital, it could be perfect, it was really in the air, or, so to speak, with some American businessmen. I could not imagine that this resort to be a realist, but who knows what happened, I told myself. War does not always allow you to see two pictures at once, the present and the potential. But it can be reconstructed as a resort.

I belonged to the 611th artillery company, it included 167 soldiers; with two rolls of cells in our camp, [four men to a hut]; from behind the chairs, from which was a metal floor, extending from the drawers to the dining room with openings in it that covered the inner courtyard. A security measure for all small and large creatures who wanted to visit us, such as snakes, lizards and scorpions, and who knows what else.

We also had a neat room. [main office] in front of our military association [or camp site / complex]a shower room at the back of the complex where the outdoor toilets were, to her left, somewhat isolated, though; - Not bad for connecting to the treated area. And next to our company was a military police company. [MP's], and their creation was similar to ours. Outside our challenging area was a dusty dirt road made of compressed solid, very hard dirt on dirt — well, let me add to this, with some stones covering the surface.
m

Winter in Vietnam was not like winter in St. Louis. Paul, Minnesota, where I was from. Here in Vietnam it was hot, hot, dirty and hotter, and at times the humidity was like a shower in your hot sweat. There were more lizards than dogs, up to six feet. More scorpions than rats, and more crowds, mosquito bulls than wasps, but there were cats, I think we were equal to them in this category in Minnesota against Vietnam or particularly in Cam Ranh Bay. Yes, it was a cat lover who could be said. But these monsters with long legs, seasoned mosquitoes and giant cock-cockroaches, always flew over your head, were enough to keep your mind to yourself when you no longer have anything to think about, and you found yourself at night, a crown of them over your head ; - A giant cockroach falling on your face at night awakens you, and sometimes they will bite you. And if you think that they do not bite, you are mistaken.

And when I felt comfortable in my cage, I had to spend twenty minutes out of thirty, killing flies, I know that I am returning to these flies, but they were everywhere, even in a dream, yes, instead of sheep jumping over the fence, I had flies, which I cheated. But why complain, I told myself, I didn’t have to comb my hair, shine my boots or, for that matter, dress to impress brass [officers]and not in Germany. I believe that everything has its bad and good elements.

,

When I first came to Vietnam, it was an evening of showers, the air was thin — if you could not breathe, we gently [the two hundred plus soldiers with me from the jet] were moved to a metal platform [ something like our camp had here]again, I suppose, so scorpions and other creatures didn't get to Charlie before you [the enemy] did. We were touched, as I said, from the plane to the platform, and the plane was then quickly discarded so that the enemy could not deceive him and destroy. After that, we took buses to this processing center in Cam Ranh Bay. And there in the middle of the night we waited, waited and waited.

We looked like a torrent of ant soldiers, long and winding like a football field. And although in Vietnam there were 205,000 soldiers on arrival, or, as I heard, it was not as much as it was here a year ago, they slowly removed them in the review, where at some point there was 500,000 plus.

In any case, in my understanding, more and more had to go twice a day from this place.

We did not know what to expect in these early hours, and nothing happens, as the old saying goes, “Hurry up ... wait. The army is good for this. I only had eight months before my flight was on duty, and I would come out of the army, but I heard that they were expanding some of the soldiers for another six to nine months; - To be quite frank, I met several that were expanded within a few weeks after their so-called departure from Vietnam. In any case, I felt I could do it by standing on my head. [the eight months that is] However, this heat did not bring me much benefit, and at that time I felt that if something came to me, it would be so.

Being from Minnesota, I'm more used to the cold than to the heat. In fact, I spent ten months in Augsburg, Germany, before coming here, and it was a bit lifeless, but not bad weather. It seems that I adapted to this more easily than here, or maybe he was just a sign in Germany, and I was fussing with this damn heat.

In Minnesota, we actually had a very hot summer, so maybe my complaints are unfounded and very cold winters. And so I told myself that I was not coming up [and so I did]In the same way, for the most part, I was delighted with the snow and cold in both Germany and Minnesota.

“That's all,” commented the soldier next to me. [while I was waiting with the other 200-soldiers who had first arrived with me in Vietnam],

[I gave him a nod to insure him I was in dismay, or not sure of anything myself] I did not know him.

Another guy in my far south [about 100-feet] found a pop machine and bought two cold cokes, drank them faster than you can count to ten, and must have shook his system because of the intense heat and fell as if he was dead - but he just just lost consciousness from changes in body temperature.

[It was February, l971.] That day I took off my khaki shirt, wiped the dirt from my eyes and leaned back on the wall. Something told me that it would be a whole night and maybe all day tomorrow, that is, recycle me to the country with more than 200 soldiers with me [and it was],