I turned seventeen on Friday, August 14, 1959 and joined the Army on Monday, August 17th. By Tuesday I knew I had made a mistake but it was too late then. After completing Basic Training at Fort Ord, California I was sent to Fort Devens, Massachusetts to train as a Morse Code Interceptor in the Army Security Agency.

My first assignment as a ‘ditty bopper’ was Sinop, Turkey. There we monitored and intercepted radio communications from the Soviet space program. This tour was highlighted by my personal involvement in intercepting the soviet communications during the first manned orbital flight by Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961. After leaving Sinop I was assigned to Vint Hills Farms in Virginia but got my assignment changed to Korea. There I served as a Morse Code Interceptor and a security guard at K-6 as it was known before being renamed Camp Humphries. I returned to the states and was discharged on July 31, 1962 in Oakland, California.

I found civilian life utterly boring. I was attending Diablo Valley Junior College when I decided to join Special Forces. I went to Jump School at Fort Benning starting in December, 1962 and was assigned to Smoke Bomb Hill in January, 1963. There, ignoring my 25 WPM code speed, they decided I should be a Medic. I went to Fort Sam Houston, Texas, to attend SF Medical Aidman’s training. I also discovered a rather delightful place called Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. It was better than Korea. But I digress. After completing my OJT at Fort Campbell, Kentucky I returned to Fort Bragg to complete Branch Training and attend the Advanced Medical Course, ‘Dog Lab ‘.

I was assigned to the newly activated 8th Special Forces Group in Panama upon completion of SF training. Before we departed for Panama we attended an eight-week Spanish course at Fort Bragg. In Panama I was assigned to A13, the A Team I would spend two years on as the junior Medic. Al Gunnell was my senior medic. Willy Queen and Delaney were the team sergeants I remember. I spent LOTS of time in the jungle and attended Jumpmaster School there. In late 1965 my Company, B Company, took over Jungle School so it could be expanded to meet the needs of training personal on their way to Vietnam. I was part of the training effort. I taught rope bridges, small boat training and jungle plants and foods. And, of course, I was a ‘lane grader’ for the field exercises that culminated every classes’ training.

After Panama I was assigned to D Company, 7th SF Group at Fort Bragg. During this period Fort Bragg was the replacement depot for the 5th Group in Vietnam and there was little stability on the A Teams. I was assigned to an A Team but don’t the number or anyone that was on it. During my year in D/7 I remember going to the New Jersey State Fair and that’s about it. I did get promoted to SFC there. I was 24 years and had no combat experience. About this time SF decided to expand the language capabilities among its soldiers. So, instead of the 5th Group I was sent to Washington, DC to attend Hindi/Urdu language school for one year.

After a year of Hindi/Urdu I could speak at Level 2 and write at Level 1. That was the end of it. Two months before graduation most of us received orders for Vietnam. I can still speak some Spanish; I’ve used it occasionally over the years but cannot say anything in Hindi other than ‘hello’.

In Vietnam I was assigned to Camp Duc Hue, A325, in Hau Nghia Province, a border camp just south of the ‘Angel’s Wing’ area of Cambodia. I was the senior medic and spent seven months there. The one junior medic I remember was David Runner. The team sergeants during my time there were Darrel Lind and Forrest K. Foreman. Foreman is the best Special Forces Soldier I’ve ever had the honor of serving with. Other team members I recall are Lew Chapman and Kelly, Commo guys, Peterson and Moon, weapons, and Larry Layton, an unforgettable Demo man. Team Leaders were named Smith, very religious guy who once had me take a carbine to a missionary in Saigon. I didn’t have the heart to tell the missionary I wanted to go to Tu Do Street in Saigon when he offered me his driver. I had him take me to the USO, one block over from Tu Do Street. Captain’s Bradley and Sully came after Smith. Both were outstanding officers. I remember LT Rascoe also. I participated in combat operations as did all team members. Only two of them developed into anything of any size. Others were small contacts. The camp did, however, come under numerous mortar and rocket attacks.

My last five months were spent as the B Team Medic in Tay Ninh, B32. After the border, Tay Ninh was wonderful. An occasional rocket attack is all I remember, combat wise, from that period. The Vietnamese SF Medic there was great and his staff took care of everything. This made it very easy for the less than great medic I was.

I was sent to the 10th Group in Fort Devens, Massachusetts after Vietnam. I was assigned as a B-Team Medic. After about a year there I was attended Operations and Intelligence training at Fort Bragg. At the conclusion of the Operations training I received orders back to Vietnam. I never did complete the Intelligence part of the training but did receive an 11F (Infantry Operations Sergeant) secondary MOS.

My next assignment was non-SF. I was assigned to Tam Binh District, Vinh Long Province, Military Assistance Command (MACV) arriving in country in February, 1971. I was the team medic on a team of six. My involvement with the field operations were similar to what I experienced in Special Forces. All of the team members accompanied the Regional Force (RF) companies on combat operations. Usually two or three team members went out with the Vietnamese, the same as SF. During the second half of my tour they downsized the team and eliminated the medic position. Since I had a secondary MOS of 11F I became the Team Operations Sergeant. This allowed me to get a CIB (Combat Infantryman Badge). Although all of my combat experience outside the wire at Camp Duc Hue was as an infantryman I still was awarded a Combat Medical Badge. The action that I was awarded the CMB was a night assault by an NVA company on a 25th Infantry Division Wolfhound company I was accompanying as the team leader of a CIDG recon team.

After my tour with MACV I was assigned back to Fort Bragg and the 7th SF Group. Shortly after arriving there in February, 1972 they reorganized into the Battalion concept. I spent two years in Company A, 1st Battalion, 7th Group as the Company Medic. In 1972 I was also promoted to Master Sergeant. During my stay the commander I remember best was MAJ Flanagan. Lew Herman, a good man even though he chewed me out regularly, was the company sergeant major.

In August, 1974 I left the unit to attend Methodist College on the Bootstrap program. A year later I graduated with a BA degree in Economics and Business Administration. Although I had originally received orders to the 10th SF Group they were rescinded a week later and I was assigned to the 4th Combat Support Hospital in Fort McClellan, Alabama, as the First Sergeant.

The last time I was in the regular Army I was a SP4. Now, I return as a First Sergeant. I don’t know about the officer ranks but there is no position as satisfying as a First Sergeant for an NCO. I really enjoyed my two years in that position. MAJ Winston Bennett was the commander and he backed me 100%. LTs Michael Torstrick and Cary Payne were great to work with, as were many of the NCOs, especially SFC Jimmy Aguirre, a DSC holder with the 9th Infantry Division in Vietnam.

Sometime in 1976 I was selected for Sergeant Major and Command Sergeant Major and the Sergeant Major’s Academy. I had six months between promotion to SGM and the academy and spent three months as the acting CSM of the 548th Supply and Servicer Battalion until their CSM arrived and three months working as an action officer in the Fort McClellan Inspector General’s Office. I spent a great three months investigating IG complaints. A Sergeant Major from the IG’s office really gets a lot of respect.

After the Sergeant’s Major’s Academy where I got to be with many, many SF types I was assigned as the Command Sergeant Major of the 62nd Medical Group in Fort Lewis, Washington. Other than going on the annual Reforger exercise to Germany in 1978 within a month of signing in, my two years there were uneventful.

I retired in August, 1980 after 21 years in the Army. I had five overseas tours in my first twelve years in the Army and none in the last nine. I wanted to be sent overseas again and the Army wouldn’t send me. That’s why I retired. I’ve never regretted the decision.