40 Years Ago Today

40 years ago today I would have been in Nam for 7 days. I had landed on December 31st. I remember having to brush our teeth with unpotable water that we were not to drink but did take some sips - it was hot compared to Nebraska's winter. That day we in processed and ate at the mess hall called "Alice's Restaurant". That night all hell broke loose and a guy in the bunk above me fell out and ended up with a bloody nose. We didn't know what to do but then some how one figured out it was just the GI's shooting off some rounds celebrating the new year.

The following day I was assigned to the 24th Evac, a semi mobile 400 bed hospital. I showed up and the Top Sergeant wanted to know what the hell I was doing there. They didn't need a Communications Center Specialist. I was sent off to a hooch at an old NVA POW compound on the hospital grounds where I would spend time until a regular hootch would open up. There I met a new of the new and newer guys and Tom, who would become my best friend and who was an OR Tech. A night or two later I was taken out by the guys to drink and could not keep up with the beer I was being handed over and over again. They had to drag me back to the compound. Around 0200 hours I had to take a piss so bad and could not walk. I remember literally dragging myself and crawling outside in my jungle fatigues and taking a piss while laying on my side with the overhead spotlights lighting the compound and looking up at the fencing and barbed wire. What a sight that must have been. Around the 7th of January I was called into the Top Sergeant's office and told they had an assignment for me at A&D and that I'd be reporting in the a.m.

I knew nothing of what A&D stood for or what I was going to be doing. I was just glad to know that I was now going to be put to work. But, never in my life did I expect what was to come next.