Anyone else learn to drive in a war?

[fish]

As a young man I had ridden 2 Honda motorcycles, but had never driven a car - before going to Vietnam.
Near the end of my time in country as a medic my paper-work got all "Army-ed" up and I was mistakenly issued orders to prepare to head State-side.

As I wandered around in-country with fouled up orders trying to get back to my unit in Pleiku... I spent a stormy Christmas eve. night with some brothers who were sorting Xmas mail in a hangar in Phu Bai.
Eventually I caught a ride on a C-130 with the boys from graves registration hauling a midnight load of sad cargo.
In Da Nang air terminal I spent the night eating stale donuts and opening a box of Xmas cards from a third grade class in Utah.

Back in Pleiku I was essentially orderless & jobless for the next 3 weeks - so I volunteered to do the daily mail run on route 19. (Anything to get outside the wire again!)
"OK Fish, you have a military driving license, right?"
"Well, no." (slipped my mind to mention I didn't know how to drive)
"No problem. Go down to the motor pool and get a license issued and select a vehicle from the best of the wrecked vehicles there."

At the motor pool I found a 3/4 ton with a lovely patina, including shot out wind screen and driver's door.
I was issued a paper license, installed a plywood sign, lettered - "US MAIL DO NOT DELAY"

My truck leaked gas badly up front but with no windscreen, nor driver's door I figured it was OK to smoke. The roads were cleared of mines nightly by the brave ARVN's - consequently I drove extra fast figuring I could outrun any explosion.


I learned that when a speeding armored personnel carrier painted with dragon teeth and lettered "BAD MOON RISING" approaches at a cross road - HE gets the right-away!
For the next 3 weeks I terrorized myself, and others, speeding between 3 distant compounds - and taught myself to drive!
(yesterday my teenage daughter asked how I learned to drive)
Fish
3/4 ton Army truck looks like this...when new, I guess.


[youtube]5BmEGm-mraE&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

[Old Grinner]

Fish - Thanks for sharing your experience . . ..

BTW if you were trying to post a video just the code rendered . . . no video . . . or maybe you just wanted to embed the picture.

When I was in Ft. Dix, brief as it was, they put me into truck driving school right away and I conquered the deuce and a half stake body. They must have had plans for me . . ..

FWIW they still use Da Nang and service commercial flights.

China Beach has been recently developed into more of a tourist resort area with big fancy hotels and the like. Anyone who was there back in the day would be amazed at what that area looks like now.

The locals are still dealing with the "agent orange" hot spots at Da Nang air field.

Though I was never there the possibility of being drafted came so close. I was basically on hold . . . and continuing on with my education in college got me through the '73 Peace Talks (Accords) and eventually Vietnamization went into effect. By the time I graduated the U.S. embassy in Saigon was under new management.

That said, I still felt I owed something to my country. Maybe it was "survivor's guilt". I don't know. But I tried. Maybe I would have failed the physical anyways. I did have two surgeries done right after I graduated. And when I got the medical discharge I marched on into the future on another path . . . and as I sit here today the weeks seem to go by like days. Everything happens and somehow I look back and wonder what happened.

[fish]

Thanks for your reply.
Yeah, that was supposed to be CCR, "Bad Moon Rising". A favorite for many reasons now.
But I always screw up attaching youtubes.
I had an interesting youth....left home at 18, thumbed from Mass. to the Big Sur, spent summer of '67 cooking for a couple in Haight/Ashbury. Married an 18 yr old girl from Los Angeles. Got my draft 1-A status changed in Mass. to 1-AO because I really wanted to be a medic. Flew dust offs in the central highlands.
Wife says I wore out more than a few angels.
Seemed natural at the time.
Fish

[Old Grinner]

Great tune from CCR . . . also "Who'll Stop the Rain" is good too!



Something from the early '70s done years later at "Farm Aid".

[you you]

Great post

[Old Grinner]

One more for the road . . ..

(speaking of Honda motorcycles)

[Mel46]

I went into the Air Force at 17, so I beat the draft and chose my service. I didn't deploy to Vietnam but I did get to witness some of the results. I was an x-ray tech at a base that sometimes acted as a quick stop on their way to Brooke Army Burn Center, especially if the plane had mechanical problems. We had a burn unit set up for these patients, and I sometimes had to x-ray some of them. (I also had to x-ray pilots who ejected into the ground or were involved in a training crash and burned up as a consequence. They needed a 'cause of death'. Go figure that one out!)

In any case, it was heartbreaking to see what the soldiers were going through. Most of them were kept on morphine, but there were some whose pain kept them in constant discomfort anyway. I could only pray for them.

As for learning to drive, yes I learned while in the service, but they wouldn't let me touch any of the field ambulances. What can I say? Who would let a 17 year old drive a top heavy 4 wheel drive anything?! ...and believe me when I say that it was really top heavy. It was scary just riding in them. But I did get to drive the regular ambulances. Good training.

[gn2]

I learned to drive in the army on Tangmere airfield, a former Battle Of Britain RAF Fighter Command base.
Fighter aces Douglas Bader and Johnnie Johnson both served there.

[fish]

I went into the Air Force at 17, so I beat the draft and chose my service. I didn't deploy to Vietnam but I did get to witness some of the results. I was an x-ray tech at a base that sometimes acted as a quick stop on their way to Brooke Army Burn Center, especially if the plane had mechanical problems. We had a burn unit set up for these patients, and I sometimes had to x-ray some of them. (I also had to x-ray pilots who ejected into the ground or were involved in a training crash and burned up as a consequence. They needed a 'cause of death'. Go figure that one out!)

In any case, it was heartbreaking to see what the soldiers were going through. Most of them were kept on morphine, but there were some whose pain kept them in constant discomfort anyway. I could only pray for them.

As for learning to drive, yes I learned while in the service, but they wouldn't let me touch any of the field ambulances. What can I say? Who would let a 17 year old drive a top heavy 4 wheel drive anything?! ...and believe me when I say that it was really top heavy. It was scary just riding in them. But I did get to drive the regular ambulances. Good training.

Took conscientious objector basic training and then combat medic training at Brooke on Ft Sam. All CO's take basic there, the only military base set up to deal with us.
While in training a freq duty was as "Litter Bearer".
Meet the planes full of wounded, move them to a specially equipped bus, then distribute them to wards at Ft Sam. Always middle of the night.

Just one night of this helped motivate one to get real serious about medic training. Most of the instructors had a couple of tours under their belts....and liked to remind us that if you were a lousy medic, your platoon had but one good, quick way to get you replaced - something unfortunate happens during your first contact with the enemy.
If you could be counted on - no one cared if you were a CO in Vietnam (except for some 0's) 2 CO's were awarded the MOH for their service.

Yeah, Brooke had the burn center. More earless, noseless, hair and face less guys walking around the post in blue bathrobes...

Was lucky and qualified for nearly 11 months of training before shipping over. Score top % you get offered more training. This being an Army of inductees---- not hard to do.

Not fun as a 19 yr old husband with an 18 yr old wife.....but no regrets.

Fish

[Mel46]

What I thought was interesting when I was in the Air Force boot camp was the day they wanted to assign us future jobs. I had never heard of that, and my dad was an E-8 in the Air Force. (When I told him I had enlisted in the Air Force he said,"Why? Wasn't the Navy good enough?" ...My oldest brother joined the Navy that day.

In any case, I told the D.I. that I wanted to save lives and hoped not to do anything that hurt others. He looked at me like I was crazy, shook his head and said,"Medic or cook?"
I chose medic. Then I kept graduating with honors and had to choose yet another specialty. I ended up as an x-ray tech, which was fine with me... at that time.

[RusticCharm]

I was in the Air Force stationed at Danang Air Base 1967-1968. We lived on one side of the base and worked on the opposite side. I was assigned to drive my flight to and from work in a truck or a bus. My training consisted of the instructor telling me that if I ever struck a Vietnamese person to back over them because getting hit by military vehicles was their occupation and it would cost less for the military to pay a death benefit than an injury. I was driving a bus around the flight line after work during the tet offensive when it came under rocket attack. I stopped the bus but left it running with the lights on while we all laid in a ditch waiting for the attack to end.

[fish]

I was in the Air Force stationed at Danang Air Base 1967-1968. We lived on one side of the base and worked on the opposite side. I was assigned to drive my flight to and from work in a truck or a bus. My training consisted of the instructor telling me that if I ever struck a Vietnamese person to back over them because getting hit by military vehicles was their occupation and it would cost less for the military to pay a death benefit than an injury. I was driving a bus around the flight line after work during the tet offensive when it came under rocket attack. I stopped the bus but left it running with the lights on while we all laid in a ditch waiting for the attack to end.

My highschool class president, all-everything in school for 4 years - West Point grad. - lasted 17 days in-country before augering his A-37 Dragonfly into the runway on a base in SVN. I think it was Danang, for certain it was 1972. "Non-hostile" death.
I had no idea, until attending my 30th HS reunion in DC. No one else from my HS grad. class of 120. (they all went to college and missed the show - he nearly did)
Ya' just never know how things will turn out....
Fish

[Mel46]

Yep, I had a friend who ended up over there. He died the day he was leaving. I heard that he was killed either on his way to the plane or in the plane while it was on the runway. I never did get the whole story. There was another guy with him that day, and he had shrapnel in his leg that messed up his leg enough that they had to put pins in his leg. That would really suck, but at least he made it home.

[Old Grinner]

I was in the Air Force stationed at Danang Air Base 1967-1968. We lived on one side of the base and worked on the opposite side. I was assigned to drive my flight to and from work in a truck or a bus. My training consisted of the instructor telling me that if I ever struck a Vietnamese person to back over them because getting hit by military vehicles was their occupation and it would cost less for the military to pay a death benefit than an injury. I was driving a bus around the flight line after work during the tet offensive when it came under rocket attack. I stopped the bus but left it running with the lights on while we all laid in a ditch waiting for the attack to end.

I really feel annoyed at the way that whole situation was handled. I could go on but I'd only be pontificating and you don't need that . . .. It was a different world then.

It would have been nice if they at least gave you a Model 1911 or something as a pocket protector. Glad you got through to come home. . .. Thank you for your service.