My Home Away From Home in 1968

As follow up to the post of me in my US Army uniform, I thought I would post a few shots of my military life before that one.


This is BTExpress the draftee. I was drafted on May 6, 1968 at 19 1/2 years old.













Here I was in basic training at Fort Jackson South Carolina. I'm just a bald as my mom used to keep me growing up. I hated these kind of haircuts. Come on, you know why, look at those fucking ears sticking out.









After stops in Oakland California, Hawaii, Midway Island and the Philippines, I landed South Vietnam and on October 6, 1968. The next day, I was in the 25th Infantry Division at Cu Chi. A week at Cu Chi, a week or so at Fire Support Base Pershing and then to Fire Support Base Stewart or Stuart depending who you talk to, right outside Trang Bang (Just down the road a piece from Cu Chi on the map).





This is a nice shot of Cu Chi. There were so many trucks driving around that place all the time, that the smell of diesel fuel permeated the air. To this day, whenever I smell diesel fuel, it brings me right back to Cu Chi.








This is a shot of FSB Stewart. It was just a patch of sand surrounded by razor wire and mines.

















This is 12 inch artillery cannon(?) on tracks like a tank. There were two of these monsters right in the middle of the FSB. When they fired, the ground shook.
















I was an infantryman. We are the guys that got to walk around waiting for someone to shoot at them.
















Sometimes we didn't have to walk. Sometimes we got to rides in helicopters. My favorite spot was right behind the pilot sitting on the floor with my feet hanging out the door.

The guys in this shot are holding their rifles the wrong way. They are suppose to hold them with the barrel pointing down. That's in case one accidentally goes off. They could a shoot the engine and in turn shoot down the helicopter.









I was wounded on November 6, 1968 just a month and two days after arriving in South Vietnam, but that's another story.

Picture credits: None of these shots are mine, but they are pictures of what I described in the captions. I found them by searching the internet over the last several years. I have no idea where I got them, so I can't give proper credit to the owners.