World War l ~ World War ll ~ Korea ~ Present
Thoughts
from Viet Nam…..
scattered
memories….
Most of the bad
memories have been suppressed as a protection. When I remember back 38 years,
random thoughts filter through. My mind can still picture Hill 22 and the Que Son
Mountains and Valley, our
hooch, and things we all did to cope. As a Corpsman, many of my mental pictures
are those of doing things to increase the safety and well being of my Marines.
What men experienced and held dearly in Nam were simple…home, family, and
making the best of what you were doing and where you were…..Survival and
developing a defense mechanism that would allow them to return home.
Care packages
from home, kool-aid, soup, cookies, popcorn used to pack it in and how we split
it up so all could have some. I remember getting a can of cream of mushroom
soup, something I loved, then being on 100% alert and eating it right out of
the can, concentrated, sitting in a trench! Didn’t touch cream of mushroom soup
for a good 10 years later. Kool-aid was a must to help the taste of the water
we drank. We used to wait for the ice truck to arrive with a 500 lb block
hoping to get a small chunk to throw into a helmet of kool-aid.
When allowing
yourself to think about those days, you could write page after page of
memories. I will not do that to you, so just allow me to write bits and pieces
of memories….
“Red” conning
this city raised Corpsman into taking a big bite of chewing tobacco, then
cracking up as I turned “utility green”……gathering c rat cigarettes to add to
the canteen cover of other odds and ends that might be needed in the bush…..trading
the bandage scissors, that would not cut cloth, to the engineers for a demo bag
to house med supplies…..running to a bunker the first time we were mortared,
then finding out it was an ammo bunker……chasing guys down to give them their
big orange pills {anti-malarials}, then later, them chasing me down to get
something to stop the diarrhea it caused…..giving up the M-16 I carried to get
a shotgun { if I couldn’t hit anything, I would sure scare the hell out of
them!!!!}…..c rat peaches and learning the fine art of eating them and making
sure ALL the juice was saved for last to drink……trying to figure out why they always
seemed like they were cold……finding out which c rat you traded off to the “new
guy”…..carrying 5 canteens, but only 2 for you, the others kool-aid with
electrolytes for the heat casualties…..having jungle boots flown out to you
because they didn’t have any small enough at Bat rear………Russian cigarettes and
candy found during searches….crawling into a tunnel to experience it, then realizing
that the brave men who did that should have a psych consult!!!!!!!
Other memories that pop into my head at times ... helmet stew, monopoly money, newbies (that never included US did it??), Indian country, Hill's 22, 327, 324 & Que Son, Ice truck !!! Landing on moon, 4th of July (awesome display from the 81's), Betel nut smiles, bug juice, John Waynes, mules, starscopes, Freedom Bird...and "Don't mean nuthin'".
So many things, but
the ones always there……Lt Schuler, Sgt Lopez, Kadar, “Red”, “Sweathog”, Rivera {my
body guard, who was later KIA}, Doc “Bear”, “Yorker”, and all the names I have forgotten,
not faces…….no, not faces…those I shall remember forever.
My biggest regret
was not being able to thank the chopper pilots that flew into harms way. These men
did the impossible many times. To each and every one of them “THANK YOU!! You were
there when we yelled for a dustoff and you saved countless Marines!!!”
"CORPSMAN UP!...CORPSMAN UP!..."
WE HAVE ALWAYS ANSWERED THAT CALL...
THE CALL NOW GOES OUT ... HELP THIS CORPSMAN TO BRING ALL OUR CORPSMAN BROTHERS BACK TO "THEIR" MARINES!
WE ARE LOOKING FOR YOU...CONTACT US!
