I’d been home for a week before my first contact came in from Oak Knoll, but it wasn’t from the medical side. It was from Johannson, the Marine Corps liaison officer both Mary and I’d dealt with when I was in the ward with the other prisoners. The call came in at seven a.m. which was unusual. Nobody called at seven a.m.
Thompson might show up, which he’d done before seven on three occasions, more to see Mary than I, or so I thought. His excuse was always the same; he needed to open early for one reason or another, and he’d gotten used to my pumping the gas for his patrons. My other job was answering the phone, although I never really got to talk to anybody because everyone calling in wanted to talk only to Mickey. I’d drag the phone, on its super-long extension cord, out to the garage and hand it over. When he yelled, I’d go get the thing and clean it because Mickey didn’t believe in using gloves to work on cars. I tried not to look at my GTO because it was such a mess. He’d even taken the doors off, and then fully apart. What could doors have to do with drag racing? I just shook my head and kept my mouth shut.
stopped reading after you got…hit
finally opened the next..chapter
read all the rest..couldnt..stop
thank you
Great chapter – My folks lived in Arkansas so my dad got the respect he desired after 3 tours in Nam. My mom was an army nurse so our family was strictly military. I appreciate your opening up about your time in the A Shaw Valley and afterwards with such great detail. My dad never talked about his service in the three wars he fought. Thank you for your service and your commentary.
I never talked about the reality of the experience either, not much anyway. Certainly not the truths I’ve laid down in the three, and now four books.
Thanks for the compliment and the encouragement.
Semper fi,
Jim
Thank you for another Great read.
Thanks Raymond, much appreciate that comment.
Semper fi
Jim
That Disney song can be heard in the background, ” It’s a small world after all…….” It seems to never go the way you think it will huh. Peace LT and again , welcome home!!
Yes, that song: …”There is just one moon and one golden sun,
and a smile means friendship to everyone…though the mountains divide, and the oceans are wide,
it’s a small world after all…” How apropos for the writing about all of what happened, and what is happening now.
Semper fi,
Jim
Thanks for another great chapter, Jim. And the introduction to Tom and Jerry!
I got out in Nov. ’67, almost exactly a year after I returned from Nam. In all the years since, I have seen only one person from my Squadron, our Senior Chief. Spotted him at a gas station outside Pensacola in ’75. We said Hi, and that was that.
Keep the Lion moving forward!
When coming out of combat one must almost be foreably reminded that the number of survivors of real
combat are pretty damned rare. Probably only about a hundred and fifty thousand left from the Nam thing.
One fortieth of one percent of the population. Not good odds in running into old members from the same unit.
Semper fi,
Jim
At last count, Jim, there are only 30% of we Vietnam soldiers, sailors, Marines, and Airmen still alive. And I wonder how many of us are rated at 100% disabled, like you and me.
Sad statistic, ain’t it?
I agree, Craig
Thanks for your support.
Semper fi,
Jim
Where do your answers to comments come back? I have made two Here on the Cowardly Lion and looked on my yahoo web page for your comments but…. Nothing.
Stay well, keep pounding on that keyboard.
I am not always here to comment Bud, as I have so many other things to accomplish and these comments cannot be answered by just anyone.
Thanks for caring.
I am working on these this night.
Semper fi,
Jim
It has been 57 years since I got back from Vietnam and discharged, but every time our squadron has a reunion, we all fall back into our prior roles of pilots, crew chiefs, and gunner team. We are immediately comfortable with each other. We slip backwards, but we are content.
It is really good that you have that Warren, as so many of us do not.
I find it hard to be around most vets, although easier among those who have read the books.
Semper fi,
Jim
Lt. Straus, this was very interesting especially the parts about the respect and camaraderie of the Sgts. I was a Sgt. In DaNang & Phu Bai (2/5)my friend from high school was in the Army with American. Retired E-9. We call each other once in a while and inevitably Nam comes into the conversation. He was base camped near Cu Chi. It is sad and. Comforting to talk to one with similar experiences. Anyway thought I’d mention the conversation I have with a Nam brother. There is a closeness between us war torn vets.
There is a closeness among SOME war vets, certainly not all. Vast chasms of difference in life experience lay out there between us, although
the public, and much of the peacetime serving military and veterans administration don’t view us that way.
Semper fi,
Jim
Thank you, Sir, for another chapter. Hope writing this isn’t bringing back more of the painful memories that you may have been able to suppress over the years. (For the most part, I remember PI being a beautiful place, LOL)
Some of it is painful to the extreme and more difficult in some ways because my wife is now reading the Lion
and that creates a whole different dimension to things. We have different memories and perspectives and sometimes I
must incorporate hers as I have come to believe, about some things, she is spot on.
Semper fi,
Jim
You have my utmost respect
Thanks Don, much appreciate the comment on here…
Semper fi,
Jim
James, I served as the crew-chief door gunner on a Huey slick in Viet Nam. US Army 121st Assault Helicopter Co. We mostly supplied outpost, hauled troops etc. but every now and then we were able to provide direct support to troops in the field. We had a commitment that everyone lives to go home and whatever we could do to make that happen is what we did. We provided medEvac when dust off was called off. Many of the wounded we transported were serious but we got them to medical attention quick (we flew a lot of wounded over the year) I celebrated each success! I didn’t stop to consider what those wounded warriors went through to get a life again, you have made me think it through. Thank you
The long winding road to recovery physically, the adjustment back to a planet that had disappeared to become something else,
and then the dealing with the memories and readjusted circumstance of dealing with it all…yes, long and hard…
Semper fi, and thanks for the ride!!!
Jim
LT, another entertaining chapter. WOW. What an amazing bunch of characters you have run across in your short life. I’m sure there will be more interesting characters to appear in the future. As always looking forward to the next chapter.
You have mentioned this but did the gunny get wounded on the plateau that night or was he lucky enough to escape the hell.
The Gunny. I don’t know if he got hit or not, as when I saw him almost 20 years later in New Mexico he seemed physically fine.
That he wanted nothing at all to do with me was a shock, but I came to understand it. Neither of us were the most honorable of men
under the effects of the A Shau.
Semper fi,
Jim
WHAT???!!! You met the Gunny 20 years later and he didn’t want anything to do with you?!!! Well that blows a real image I had of him so FUCK him! You saved his bacon many times over with your skills at calling in Arty….maybe that’s why he tried to keep you alive…..but that was more than an even trade off Jim. I thought he would have been more “professional” than that. You listened to his sage advice more than once and that shows you had great respect for his combat experience and knowledge – he owed you the same respect back. I believe that the Gunny also came to view me sort of like this lieutenant in Band of Brothers before it was over…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrRarZyjGgc
The Gunny owed me nothing. We were both courageous cowards of combat, trying to save ourselves while we also tried to save others, never sure whether we were trying to save them in order to better secures chances to save ourselves. I was recently told by a friend that he was ashamed about how some of the representatives and senators reacted to what happened to them on the 6th of January. I got upset with him. I told him that if he’d read my books, as he claimed, then he’d understand that their conduct was almost an exact copy of how human beings react to their first times in actual combat. It’s not pretty. The Gunny and I survived thirty days together and we didn’t go it by being the Band of Brothers, as so wonderfully portrayed in that television series. That series was about as true regarding combat as the West Wing show was about how things really work in the White House. Not! The gunny owed me what I owed him, which was mutual respect, to include privacy and not forcing ourselves upon one another. He did not survive in order to help me survive afterward. That has been up to me and some very few others of great generosity and compassion. Those two things were not the Gunny’s strong suits. Actually, I also think the Gunny sort of felt this way about me. It was eerie to watch this segment and realize how much like Speers I was….https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrRarZyjGgc
Semper fi
Jim
Sounds more like “When Trumpets Fade” HBO. The Hurtgen Forest.
Had not seen that movie. Will watch it now. Wow! Like real stuff…a bit like my stuff. I am impressed.
I will let you know my analysis…
Semper fi,
Jim
Just one typo in this paragraph for “Mickey.”
Every chance I got I spent hanging in the garage, trying to figure out what was being done to the GTO. Mikey (Mickey) would occasionally mention what he was doing but,
thanks for the help Don!
Semper fi,
Jim
LT, another very entertaining chapter to say the least. What amazing characters you have run across in your life and it’s only started. Always looking forward to the next chapter. Who knows but I think there will be some big surprises yet to come.
You never mentioned if the first sergeant was injured on the plateau or was just lucky enough to escape that awful situation. Maybe to come yet layer in the story.
Thanks, JT
My wife says that a lot of people meet characters during their lifetime, its just that most do not go right in and encounter them
straight across the table like I do and have done.
Most famous people, well, you learn over time that they are not going to do much for you and that you don’t really want
to become like them. Most are very alone.
Semper fi,
Jim
Great read as always!
Thanks Tom, I am on it this night with Chapter Fifteen and the comments coming…
Semper fi,
Jim
How I look forward to every chapter. Thank you Sir.
Almost done with 15 as I move on to finish the book which I predict will have about 25, before the San Clemente series
begins…
Semper fi,
Jim
James, thanks for another great chapter. Semper Fi!
You are most welcome Michael and I much appreciate the compliment and mentioning it on here…
Semper fi,
Jim
Oh, Jim, I devour every chapter the instant it arrives, and yearn for more! My heart goes out to you and others who have given so much and received so little in return! Every day I thank God that I served at a time when we weren’t involved in a shooting war. Last night, I mentioned to Sheila as we were watching a WW2 movie about the Polish aviators who were allowed to enter combat against the Germans in the battle for Britain. I indicated that I’m not sure I could have performed if called upon. She generously commented “You would have risen to the occasion”. Perhaps, but I have deep admiration for those who did!! When I comment on the fact that I am a veteran of the USMC, I hasten to add that I was blessed not to have served in combat lest I be elevated to the status of those who were forced into that situation. Every day, I look at the American and Marine flags that wave in my front yard and pray for those who serve. I am a blessed man! Semper Fi. Batman
I would have been proud to have such a brilliant ‘can do’ kind of officer to be with in the A Shau, although the others I did have
didn’t do so well. You cut a path and course through life that has been pretty damned successful and extraordinary. You would have
been terrific in combat, although frightened to death and not far from it either. I am glad you are here to write to and, at one time, two
work with.
Semper fi,
Old friend,
Jim
another great read, you add people to it that really make the story. and of course waiting to see whats next………
The people came as I extended my self back into the social structures I could find.
I was in total need to have contact with humanity, even if I didn’t really know how to do it.
Semper fi,
Jim
Respect, you earned it and you received it from those who know !
Most times, that was true, and remains so, although there are times…and, as with the guys on the Harleys at the
station that day, I am so glad that somehow I did not have knee jerk macho reactions to immediate threat. God gifted me
to be allowed to wait to see how things would develop and also to consider the long term instead of the immediate and the short.
Semper fi
Jim
James , the Phoenix is arising from the A shau , not The cowardly Lion .
As you, old friend, have guessed, the Cowardly Lion was an act I had to assume in order to survive in a culture that
celebrates violence wildly but punishes the exercise of it cruelly and in draconian ways.
Chameleon might have been a better choice but I did so love the actor in that movie who played the brilliant part so magnificently.
The Wizard of Oz. A totally made up piece of fiction all about real life….
Semper fi,
Jim
Just wondering if those bikes were not four stroke instead of two. Two stroke do not have that roar and rumble.
They were the big four stroke Harleys, although at the time I really didn’t know the difference.
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim, Like I said before, frying pan to frying pan. Seems to me, both searing & scarring, physically/mentally, in their own way. Not sure if right or not, but “being” there was almost instintaneously – the “after” , though it might soften a bit over time, hasn’t nor ever will end. Just sayin’. God’s speed. Doug
The second surgery was looming before me, and the frying pan comparison seems accurate for the time, although being close to
being around those making me want to live changed everything.
Still works. Like with you guys and gals writing on here.
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim, God love them for being there at that point in time & helping you live. Regards, Doug
Thanks for the kindness of that comment and the support.
Semper fi,
Jim
Great writing. Thank You for your service. Can not wait for the next chapter.
Thanks for the care and the compliment Hayward.
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim, you are a blessed man, not a Blessed Man, you’re too much of an SOB for that! BTW, somewhere up above you called Mickey -Mikey. As you know there are times in life that things happen without our initiating them. There is some other Authorship at work in those times. Usually it is when everything is so FUBAR that we are ready to quit. That is when we bow our heads and say, “Thank you”.
Thanks for the well thought out and great comment Michael. Much appreciate the read and then the thinking about it.
Semper fi,
Jim
Great read Lt.! You seem to be gathering quite the set of characters along the way. Hope that surgery goes well…
All the Best,
Tim
The characters were all about, all I did was circulate among them and now bring back their memories.
Thanks for the sensitive comment.
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim, you just keep amazing me, this is the kid in Twin Lakes that would love to buy you and your
wife dinner one night
262 581 5300, We’ll put it together!
Semper fi, and thanks,
Jim
Thanks for another good read. So sorry you and your boys had to go through the horrors of the A Shau.
You’ve been with me a long time on this trail Ed and I appreciate you making comments now and then.
Your care and consideration do not go unnoticed.
Semper fi,
Jim
Good segment JAMES , I never got above “BUCK” myself.
NCOs were and remain the backbone of the military effort, especially in ground
combat situations. Came home and never treated an enlisted man with anything but
respect and understanding…either in or out of the military.
Semper fi,
Jim
James, Much happening in this chapter. A cast of new characters is being assembled. May
all the threads come together for your and your family’s benefit.
Just two tiny editing suggestions follow:
I inserted the handle’s pipe into the tank filler
Maybe substitute “nozzle” for “pipe”
I inserted the handle’s nozzle into the tank filler
Con Tien
or Con Thien
Blessings & Be Well
Always appreciate your help, Dan
Semper fi,
Jim
LT, another interesting chapter filled with crazy characters. What an interesting life and it’s only beginning.
Thanks for the comment JT and for the others, as well! Encouragement, yes!
Semper fi,
Jim
LT, another wonderful chapter. What a life and it’s only beginning.
And there you are again, and appreciated for you consistency of reading and commenting, not to mention the compliments!
Semper fi,
Jim