I was 1 of those smart kids who crammed 4 years of college into 4-1/2 and never received a student deferment for the extra semester.  10 Days after arriving home from college I received a pre-induction physical notice.  I looked for a job, but my 1A draft status kept getting in the way.

May 9, 1969 my wife & I got engaged.  May 26 I got my first draft notice.  My dad had died my senior year of college.  So, with my mom being a widow I applied for a deferment to stay home & help her.  Each of my 2 brothers had served 4 years in the military (1 Air Force & 1 Navy) and were married.  My deferment application was denied.  So, on Aug 26 I found myself on the way to the induction center in Chicago.  I ran into our classmate Phil Elvert on the downtown Evanston train platform.  Phil was heading to the same place as I was.

I completed Basic Training at Ft Leonard Wood in Missouri and infantry Advanced Individual Training (AIT) at Ft Ord, CA.  After a week's leave I departed for Viet Nam.  Jan 26, 1970 I landed at the 90th Replacement Battalion at Long Binh outside of Saigon.  While waiting for my orders to be processed 1 of the first things I did to fight the war was mow grass.  From Long Binh I was sent along with 9 others to the 18th Engineer Brigade where we were to serve as part of a security platoon.  When I arrived they had already received their quota of security soldiers & they asked us what we wanted to be.  I told them I wanted to be a clerk typist, that I had taken a typing course in high school & had typed a few papers in school.  My typing scores were not good enough for brigade headquarters so I got shipped further north to the 45th Engineer Group at Phu Bai outside of Hue.  Hue only needed a supply clerk so I was assigned as company clerk for Headquarters Company, 14th Engineer Battalion (Combat), which was located at Fire Support Base (FSB) Nancy.  In May 1970 my unit moved even further north to Quang Tri Combat Base which was only 12-15 miles south of the DMZ.

The army's policy was not to issue weapons until a soldier reached their permanent party destination.  Consequently, I was in transit in Viet Name 2 weeks before I arrived at the 14th Engineer Battalion (Combat) where I was issued a M16 rifle.

While in View Nam they institued a policy whereby if a person came back stateside with less than 150 days active duty remaining they would let them out rather than give them 30 days leave & send them for 4 months duty stateside.  Since I was a Remington (as in typewriter) Ranger Chairborne I extended my tour in View Nam 63 days and got out of the Army after outprocessing at Ft Lewis, WA on mar 29, 1971.  Due accelerated promotions I went from civilian to a rank of E5 in 11 months.

Due to Uncle Sam giving Beth & I an almost 2 year engagement we got married 19 days after I got home from View Nam.  It was during Beth's mid-term exams her senior year, which she deferred until we returned home from our honeymon.  I used my GI Bill education benefits to complete 12 months of Medical Techonology internship.

Vernon, thank you for your service, and thank you for sharing your story.

Thank you for sharing your Vietnam experiences.  I look forward to seeing you next week to just say thank you for your service.

There are more stories about my time in Viet Nam.  If you are interested speak to me at the reunion on Saturday evening.