What a long strange trip its been--and how it seems to be happeneing all over again. On this Veteran's day, I'm going to talk about the most important part of my life, or better said, the part of my life when I was the most important.
When I was young, age 17, I got it in my head that I wanted to be a paratrooper. I grew up like most young men of my era, watching Bonanza and John Wayne movies. It was a culture that revered and mythologized violence. It was truly said, I believe by H.Rap Brown, that violence is as American as Apple Pie. And I love Apple Pie.
I really knew nothing at all about the politics of what was going on, knew nothing at all about Vietnam, or even which side we were supporting
I'm not sure why I wanted to be a paratrooper now, I think I was overly influenced by the movie the Longest Day. Paratroopers had the reputation of being really hardcore--and thats what I wanted to be. I enlisted for Airborne Infantry, which is a two word term for paratroooper, in April 1966.
Supporting your country, right or wrong, was popular when I went in---not so much later. Thats one lesson I learned the hard way--never enlist based on info you get from Talking Heads--6 months later they'll be talking about something alse but you'll be stuck on the front lines.
I can't say enough about the mindfuck they give you in Basic Training. this is what changes you from Average Citizen to an Army minded person. I understand its changed since then but they said that when I went in, referring to WWII, and it turned out they hadn't changed much at all--same ol'bullshit.
Harrasment, sleep deprivation, the breaking down of the indvidual. Theyre trying to break down what you thought about your rights and transform you into an order taker--even in the face of death.
I fought my way through Basic, Infantry training and Jump School--not bad for a 17 year old and a fairly small one too. A lot of grown men didn't make it, I was one of the one in ten who did.
they sent me to Panama after Jump school because I was still 17 and they didn't send you to the Nam untill you were 18. this was very lucky for me because I got to train in the jungle for 9 months--something the guys who trained in Ft Dix, NJ or Ft Carson CO didn't. I passed my 18th birthday in the Jungle Expert school at the JOC there. By the time I got to Vietnam, living in the jungle was a home county hunt. ( I still practice moving through the forest silently where i live)
I could have spent my whole tour in Panama but shortly after I turned 18, I volunteered for Vietnam because I wanted to see it.
they gave me a 45 day leave which I spent mostly partying in Berkeley and the Hashbury (I grew up in the East Bay--I'm what they call East Bay Grease) I missed the Summer of Love but I was there for the Spring of Love, '67.
I arrived in Vietnam, age 18+ 4 months on Apr21, 1967. After w week of preliminary training and acclimatization, I was put into the 1st Battalion, 327th PIR (parachute Infantry Regiment) 1st, Brigade, 101st Airborne. Thats me, 1st row, seated, 2d from left by this time I'd been there 5 months and was the platoon RTO (radioman)
I cover my time in the 101st more in this diary Sufffice it to say here, I got sick and tired of it--it wasn't what I signed up to do at all, like running people out of their houses and burning them down. I had a naive, liberal desire to help people and this was definitely not helping the Vietnamese people, even a dummbass teenager could see that. I started to see that what the government said was not what was going on at all.
One day, after a brutal battle and weeks of living in the rain, A lrrp recuiter came by and asked me if I wanted to volunteer to be a lrrp. I had been in combat with the 101st contiuously for 5.5 months at that time. I didn't exactly know what this was but I figured it couldn't be much worse than where I was and it looked like I'd get a hot meal and shower out of it so I said OK. I gave away everyting I had to my pals, except my .45, which I stuck in my pocket, and hopped on the slick (helicopter)
Lrrp (said "lurp") stands for Long Range Reconnaisance Patrol and what we did was go out in 5 and 6 man patrols reconning (spying) mostly but other things like prisoner taking and calling Artillery and Air strikes when warranted.. They called us the Poor Man's Special Forces because they would send us out to do ANYTHING.
The lrrps were forerunners to the Airborne Ranger units existing now. One day in June 1969 someone waved the military Magic Wand over the lrrp units and they all became Airborne Ranger units. Same job, same pay, new hat. That was after I left, so I still call mself lrrp--it has the quiet anonymity lrrps like. Come out of nowhere, do the job, fade back into nowhere--that was being a lrrp to a T.
My platoon and company mostly patrolled the Cambodian border of what was then called II Corps. And what we were patrolling was the Truong Son Route, aka the Ho Chi Minh Trail right before, during and after the Tet offensive, 1968.
they sent us through a 2.5 week Recondo school in Nha Trang ,which was an abreviated version of Ranger School. Lrrps are considered Rangers today, they grandfathered us into the Ranger Association. But i had learned all I needed to know about patrolling in the 101st. Its basically just doing it and hoping God woke up on your side today.
I passed my 19th Birthday walking point on a lrrp patrol in the Ia Drang Valley. here's a picture taken right before that patrol, thats me on the left
Here's a shot of us out in the Ia Drang a little later, thats me on the left, my pal Stuart waving Hi--or is it a peace sign? On that patrol we were on the same map page as where the "We Were Soldiers" battle had taken place a couple years before. All those lives lost and we were the only Americans in the Valley then---the Only law west of the Drang, as we liked to say then.
God, that was exciting! in 6 months as a lrrp,I shot my way out of more bad jams then I could ever tell you about here. And it was always back-to-the-wall stuff--we patrolled so far away from others (i.e. help) they had to put teams midway to relay radio messages. If things went bad, they went way bad because help was an hour away, or more. A lot can happen in an hour, specially when youre always heavily outnumbered.
That was the most important I ever was, making life or death decisions on a sometimes daily basis. Its been an enriching satsifying life since but there's nothing that EVER happend like that.
I'll tell one patrol story. This was in Mang Yang PAss, between Pleiku and Anh Khe. for some reason which I don't remember, we were going in at last light--twilight, instead of first light. This is disastrous because you go in right before dark, don't know where the f**k you are and are surrounded by hostile, heavily armed people who do.
I was the pointman/asst team leader. I led off the Landing Zone into some bushes and got down flat. And then a squad of VC ran right in front of me. Holy shit they got there fast. Mang Yang was that way, they owned it the whole war--we tripped over their commo wire frequently
I didn't speak more Vietnamese than I needed to get laid but it didn't take a chrystal ball to know they were saying stuff like "You go look over there!" I was lying flat under a bush, when one of them comes back and starts peeing into the bush I was hiding in. Now when a man taks a pee and doesn't want it to be heard he writes his name in a bush to quiet the Niagara effect---and that was what Mr Hostile Peasant was doing.
I was sure he was going to see me and laid my hand on the .45--the M2 carbine I carried was lying in leaves. I figured he was going to see me so I just looked at his wang, figuring he'd drop it first when he saw me and I'd start shooting. See you in Hell, c---sucker!!
Luckily for us both, he just shook it off and went somewhere else. I started breaking the record for the backwards low crawl--believe me--sometimes you just ca NOT crawl backwards fast enough!
We figured there was about a platoon (20-30 people) around us and more bound to arrive soon. Sam the team leader called in for gunships (helicopters) It was dark by that time so we flipped out a trip flare when they made their run--it was f**king stupendous, an unbelievable wall of sound and a wall of red tracers right in front of us. I broke the backwards crawl record again.
we stood up to move away and two VC stumbled right into us. Some hand to hand combat in the dark for a minute. One was struggling with my friend Stuart and I just walked up and emptied my .45 into him, the only time I ever shot it in combat. I don't know why it was in my hand instead of the carbine. the others took care of the other VC.
the gunships worked out for a while and then it was time to get a slick in to get us out. He told us he was making his run in and then kaboom-- a controled crash landing almost right in the middle of us. I almost sht a square turd!! We started piling on, a quick head count and Zoom, off we went, unloading our ammo and dumping grenades on those below us.
This was one of my last patrols and by this time I was starting to lose it. Here's a picture of me then: I had walked right up to the edge and looked over for a long long time--and it was starting to show on my face. It took me a long time to lose that look and my family says I still get it sometimes.
I went on over 30 patrols in 6 months, each one a mini, personal D-day, walking point on most of them. And that was after 5+ months as a 101st grunt.
I'm happy just to be alive.
I returned to the States one week short of a year, which was more time spent in combat then my dad and both my uncles had done in WWII--all together! And i was mighty sick of it. After 9 more moths spent testing parachutes at Ft Bragg I was honorably discharged on Jan 1969 (3 month early out for college)still too young to vote or buy a beer in my home state (CA)
When I got out of the Army, I protested the war untill it ended, later went back to Vietnam in 2003. I speak more of that in the diary I cite above. I played a very minor role in organizing demonstrations--but it made it a lot easier to look the Vietnamese in the eye when I went back in 2003.
What a long strange trip its been. It all turned out good though