I'd like to tell you a little about my military experience. I enlisted in the Navy and went to boot camp at Great Lakes in 1967. After NTC, I was stationed aboard the USS Enterprise, at the time the largest ship afloat and the only nuclear surface ship. At that time, I was a Ship's Serviceman (Barber). I requested and was transferred to become a hospital corpsman striker. This was my first exposure to Marines and I haven't been the same since.
We left for WestPac in January of 1968 and went to Pearl Harbor and Sasebo, Japan on the way to the Tonkin Gulf. Sasebo was pretty exciting because we were the first nuclear surface ship ever to pull in there. I guess they had a reason for the riots. After leaving Japan, we were sidetracked to North Korea where, the day we left, the USS Pueblo was captured.
After spending about a month cruising around Wonsan Harbor, we proceeded to Subic Bay then to the Tonkin Gulf where the Big "E" flew missions in support of our troops during Tet '68. Many of the "fast movers" that blasted the area around Khe Sahn were from the Enterprise.
After getting to drydock in Bremerton, Washington, I was transferred to Hospital Corps School in San Diego, then FMF School at Camp Pendleton. After leaving Pendleton, I went to the Naval Hospital in Portsmouth, Virginia, where I spent my time at the Air Evacuation Department. My job was to separate officers and enlisted from the service and arrange for flights to VA Hospitals and other Hospitals near their homes. Also to coordinate the pick up and admissions of sick and wounded coming in from Viet Nam. Most of the people I dealt with were wounded Marines and Sailors.
I then got orders to report aboard the Sanctuary in Danang. After reporting aboard, I was assigned to the Marine Liaison Office due to my 8404 NEC. I was there for about 3 weeks and due to the shortage of grunt corpsmen in-country, was transferred to the 1st Marine Division, where I was assigned to A Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines. After visiting some of the more famous vacation spots in RVN such as Khe Sahn, An Hoa, Elephant Valley, QueSon Mountains, Arizona Territory, LZ Baldy, and others too numerous to mention, I was medevac'd back to the Sanctuary with Falciparum Malaria. I have no idea how I got it. I think it was because I thought the pink pills were heat tabs and the blue ones were malaria pills. Anyway, it was pretty exciting when I lit up a Camel. I happened to come down with a case of Tsumaguchi Disease (scrub typhus) after I was medevac'd from Sanctuary to the Army Hospital at Cam Rahn Bay. Thirty days later and 50 pounds lighter, I went back to 1/5 and was assigned to the BAS.
I left Danang in March 1971 and went to Okinawa then Long Beach, CA. for separation. Then boarded another Freedom Bird to Eastern Massachusetts and home.
