Chapter 144B

2/24/2007

Stateside Assignment

A Simple Twist of Fate

for recent update & video see ch 9

Like ships passing in the night, our military careers overlapped by a few months. As a draftee generally not favoring the war but still trusting in our country, I'd taken the pot luck the Army computer chose for me Jan 31,1969. Kind of the mid point of the war with 30,000 more American KIA's to come and exactly a year after the infamous Tet Offensive that was the turning point of the war. Infantry training at Ft Dix, NJ then Military Police at Ft. Gordon, GA. This low light pic was on leave just prior to my 2 yr assignment at the 140th MP Company there. Mystery girl apparently had case of giggles. My only real choice would have been to take OCS Officers Candidate School which was a shoo in with the college degree. Would have become a lieutenant, picked my specialty, and picked my first assignment but the second tour of duty would have been Vietnam in all likelihood. All very uncertain.

The closest I came to combat injury was wrestling a gold toothed Black Panther Party radical off my first sergeant while serving guard duty in the maximum security cell block C wing. (cameras verboten, court martial offense just for this pic) Even had a few Marines, in temporary holding. Yes, like Charlie, the American troops were my enemy. Sometimes your enemy is your friend. Sometimes your friend is your enemy. And sometimes your enemy is just your enemy.  Had a few dudes with bad attitudes in for manslaughter  fragging an officer, treason or desertion. Believe this guy was in for felony arson from LBJ (Lon Bin Jail Riot, Nam) and didn't want to follow our orders. He'd attacked sarge when his cell door was unlocked. We let each guy out of his locked 9 by 9 cell to shower and shave once a day. Afterwards put on restricted diet (2100 calories/day= bread and water) for behavior modification as allowed in UCMJ. There was the one sarge locked in up front then I'd be locked within the C wing with a dozen prisoners and one other low ranking guy would have the D wing. We were allowed no weapons in there. On a compassionate note,  I saved at least prisoner untying his suicide T-shirt as I made my hourly rounds during the middle of the night (lovely 12 hour shifts).

Pulled some random security duty like gate guard duty. This Gate 1 is site of  MP killed here couple years earlier. Guarded ammo dumps, bus routes to town where race riots were going on, and the base parade grounds at night [site of perhaps the most violence, stabbings muggings etc].

Sometimes I'd escort prisoners to the infirmary with Ithaca 12 ga shotgun (slugs) or 45 cal Colt automatic pistol. On occasion I searched for escapees, donned riot gear & gas masks for uprisings at the general stockade, search incoming at the Sally Port (on left) or man a tower (upper right) with M14 30 cal deer rifle. One guard shot a Puerto Rican prisoners leg off one time as he tried to escape over the fence to see his girlfriend. But it was taking the OD (Officer of the Day) thru the barracks one fateful midnight that made my day. We did a bed check prisoner head count every night. This Lieutenant, who was a graduate engineer from Ole Miss and fond of bragging about his Archie Manning football hero classmate, helped me get reassigned to cush duty with the Corps of Engineers.

Several other guys from my college house served. My freshman roommate Jed Kennish and Don Boone were Air Force Facility Engineers ?, (Cam Rahn Bay Airforce Base?), Ran into Don at Orchard Taven, now is Facility Engr at Albany VA hospital, lives 2 miles from me.[Alumni News: Jed accepted State Dept offer for a one-year tour with Iraq Reconstruction Management Office, currently in Baghdad.]  Mal Fordham, Tom White Army Lts.,Ed Bentley AF. Another stumpie Jim Colcohoun lost an eye exiting a chopper, became DEC Bur Habitat Dir. While on the job for DEC I met up with Bruce Madonna, down in Long Island. His wife worked at our regional office. Taking off at the Islip Airport in his Cessena, then handing over the controls to me over the Sound he said he wanted to apologize to Pete for getting him inducted.

Now, as I do my daily rounds past the Justice Building in Albany each day, I pass by a Vietnam Memorial that has the name of a fellow classmate draftee,  Dave Finger, a stumpie from the College of Forestry who lived in the other Co-op #2 on campus and graduated with me. He lasted less than 3 months in country, died from an exposive device at the time I was still a guard in the stockade, just before the gathering at Woodstock began. The Wall  Served in the Screamin Eagles, 101 Airborne, combat assault Company C 1/506 stationed at  Camp Evans near Ashau Valley apparently was on Hill 937 (Hamburger Hill) and died on Hill 996.   Wash, DC Memorial   If he were asked today why his memory deserves to be enshrined forever downtown across the street from the likes of General Sheridan perhaps he'd say, "But I tried, didn't I? Goddamnit, at least I did that."