Vietnam Era Vet; North Korea; Soldier Boy

Yup, I am a Vietnam Era veteran of the US Army. Yup, I was sent overseas. Yup, I carried a rifle as a ground-pounding soldier in the US Army, assigned to Battery B of the Artillery. Although I had a college education, scored well on all the tests, & obviously had leadership skills, I refused to accept being sent to Officer Candidate School because I refused to give the orders that I would have had to give, but I had no problem being a soldier once called up in the draft. I believe that defense of the country I am accepting a lifestyle from is just the price that has to be paid...never mind if it is right or wrong or in-between.

In April of 1968, when I was a senior in college, the Tet offensive in Vietnam has just kicked our asses & the US Government felt that a "surge" would solve the problem (sound familiar?). In the month I was drafted, ripped out of college in my senior year, 68,000 of us young men (no women in combat in those days) were processed, trained to kill, & outfitted to be sent to Vietnam, complete with the (then) new M16 (which we were told wasn't much more than a .22 caliber rifle, & that the bullets bounced off the leaves in the jungle, oh joy), jungle boots, & jungle fatigues.

On the Sunday that I was to board the plane for Vietnam, while I was in the barracks finishing packing up my kit, the loud speaker boomed across the post grounds: "All personnel with last names starting with the letters S-Z report to the parade ground immediately". Shit, I figured we were going to have to get Special Forces training or something, which had been the scuttlebutt going around, & that I was sure to die, which I figured I would anyway.

The post commander showed up, told us that we were to turn in all jungle kit, & to report to the post quarter-master where we would be fitted out with cold weather gear, because a major world event had just created an immediate need for combat-ready troops on the DMZ in Korea. Actually, I was happy *:-) I figured maybe I wouldn't have to die, if I could get lucky.

So, what brought all this up? I read Al Jazeera online this evening & on the front page, lower part, was a fairly long story, with pictures, about how the North Koreans still have the USS Pueblo on public display, which is visited by many, as their primary example of how duplicitous the USA is, & as an example of how the USA cannot be trusted, because the USS Pueblo is a spy ship, & was disguised (poorly) as something else, & was in North Korean waters spying, & was captured (oops).

It was the capture of this ship, the USS Pueblo, with its US Captain, Lloyd Bucher, that had changed my life from jungle & certain death, to sub-zero cold & a chance to live.

I went to Korea, was stationed at Camp Snow just outside the small town of Pob Won Ni, near the DMZ, & was on the DMZ fairly often, up on the Imjin river. I worked my way up to acting Intelligence Sergeant, & was on duty 9 months later when the captured captain & crew of the USS Pueblo were flown by helicopter, not more than 200 feet over my head, back to our side & freedom.

There are many more stories, but, another time *:-) I am grateful that I did not die at that time.