CHAPTER 1
From Dixie Cup to Helmet
It was a snowy day at Great Lakes, Ill when we began our class "A" corpsman school. When we completed it 16 weeks later, the weather was better, but I was exhausted by the rigorous curriculum. I had studied, among others, Principles and Techniques of Patient Care, Minor Surgery & First Aid, Materia Medical & Toxicology, Anatomy & Physiology, Hygiene & Sanitation, Atomic, Biological & Chemical Warfare, and Military Requirements (the Navy way of doing things like recordkeeping, hospital or clinic procedures).
I enlisted my new friend, Wally Baker, who was second or third in the class standing to help prepare for the final exam. A few days later my twin brother Don joined us, and then a couple more fellows. Wally had plans to become a doctor after the military; his students all did well on the exam in the large auditorium where there were more seats in one row than there were in my entire high school class. I don't see his name on the wall of the Vietnam Memorial, so he might have made it. So many corpsmen are on that wall.
I remember the graduation ceremony when we all stood up and raised our right hand, while the Commanding Officer read the Hospital Corpsman's Oath.
We all took the oath very seriously, and we were all eager to start our new jobs.
The Corpsman's Oath
I solemnly pledge myself before God and these witnesses
To practice faithfully all my duties as a member
of the hospital corps.
I hold the care of the sick and injured to be a sacred trust
and will assist the medical officer with loyalty and honesty.
I will not knowingly permit harm to come to any patient.
I will not partake of nor administer
any unauthorized medication.
And off we went to our assigned duty stations; both Don and I were assigned to the U.S. Naval Hospital, Oakland, CA. Two boys from No where's ville, Missouri off to see the world as a sailor.
We were poor growing up, but we were a good Christian family. We said a daily prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance each morning in our schools. In 1963, I was a senior in high school. I was senior class president and an all-state basketball player. I played football and ran track just like thousands of kids across the country. Our house and car were never locked. In short, life was good. We lived in a state of innocence.
One day I was in high school, and 800 days later I was on the front lines in Vietnam. What had I gotten myself into? I was too young to vote but old enough to die for my country. I kept thinking to myself, would someone please shake me and wake me up? The recruiter, Petty Officer First Class Allan Ensor, didn't tell me the pitfalls of my enlistment. At age 19, I would witness atrocities that no one should witness at any age.
My twin brother Don and I had joined the Naval Reserves in Joplin, Missouri, in 1962; we were juniors in high school. We went to the Naval Reserve meetings every Monday night until we graduated from high school. Upon graduation we went to Great Lakes, Illinois, for boot camp (GLAKES). We both decided to become Hospital Corpsmen and enrolled in HM class "A" school, the training for future corpsmen, also at GLAKES.
Oakland Naval Hospital was also called Oak Knoll. There we were exposed to the servicemen who had lost arms and legs in the Vietnam War. Many of the guys were my age, and I immediately saw their lives were changed forever. Seeing these wounded soldiers made me realize the seriousness and tragedies of this war. For several months at the hospital, I pondered the situation I was about to encounter. But I was not destined to serve in Navy blue for long.
I received orders to the Fleet Marine Forces at Camp Pendleton, California. I was to become a corpsman with them. I left Oakland Naval Hospital in May of 1966 and attended Field Medical school training in Camp Pendleton, California. By early July I was attached to the Marine Corps as an 8404 corpsman, 10,000 miles from home and a whole world away from the life I'd known in Joplin, Missouri.
The Marines gave us corpsmen a 5-week training course under battlefield conditions. The training was extensive. We were taught field medicine, field operations and how to survive in a combat situation. After weapons familiarization, I qualified expert with a 45 cal. Pistol and M-14 rifle. We take and return fire. The Navy Enlisted Code for this position is 8404, so everyone uses that label as a verbal shortcut. Many corpsmen strongly prefer to avoid becoming an 8404. One wears Marine uniforms with Navy insignia. When you see a Marine in his greens but having on his arm the chevrons of the Navy, you have a Fleet Marine Force (FMF) corpsman. On the front lines in Vietnam a corpsman never wears a chevron on his jungle fatigues, there are no markings. You cannot distinguish the corpsman from the Marines. Even in the rear they do not wear them, unless they are in dress uniform.
Being a corpsman is arguably the most dangerous job in the Navy during hostilities; in the Vietnam War, we lost 690 Navy/USMC corpsmen. Almost 5,000 received the Purple Heart. More than twenty Medals of Honor were awarded to Navy corpsmen for actions during battles. When a soldier was wounded, it was our job to administer first aid, no matter where on the field he was hit. This is why so many corpsmen and medics were either killed or wounded. Corpsman is Navy/USMC while Medic is the similar position in the Army
My second day at Pendleton I was told to report to the office. Evidently the Marines didn't think too much of the bumper sticker on my car: "The Marines do have a few good men, Navy Corpsmen." I was told to take it off immediately.
My orders separated me from Don, who remained in Oakland. He would be assigned to a ship for a short time, but then he too went through the medical school training at Camp Pendleton. Then he was sent to Okinawa for duty.
I was sent from Pendleton to Vietnam. We took a Pan American Boeing 707 out of Los Angeles (LAX), made a fuel stop, and then on to Okinawa. From Okinawa to Vietnam it was a USMC C-130 Hercules. They were carrying cargo and troops. We sat on canvas seats. It was a very long and noisy flight. We were all new recruits, scared, confused, lonely, and depressed.
As I stepped off the C-130 at the Da Nang Air Base, the atmosphere seemed alien to me. I had never felt that depth of penetrating humidity before....
