biography

I enlisted in the Army for Military Police in March 1966. I attended Basic Training at Fort Benning, Georgia, and MP school at Fort Gordon, Georgia. I received orders as permanent party, “B” Company, 720th MP Battalion, at Fort Hood, Texas.

I arrived at Fort Hood in August 1966, and found the 720th. The place was deserted. The CQ asked if I knew where they were going. I said no, I thought they were going out drinking. I was wrong, he said they were going to Vietnam. I said who was? He said we all were. There went my permanent party at Fort Hood. The area was deserted because everyone was home on leave. They processed me in and sent me on leave.

In the first part of October they put us on buses to Temple, then flew us to Travis Air Force Base, California. "C" Company went by train. At Travis they bused us to Oakland and put us on a troop ship. The ship was the USNS General Daniel I Sultan. We spent 19 days at sea, stopping one day at Okinawa. We dropped a company of Marines off at Da Nang, then we went south to Vung Tau. They flew us to Bien Hoa Air Force Base, then bussed us to Long Binh Post.

We had sent an advance party ahead, they put tents up, and that was all. The area was right in front of the main gate of LBJ (stockade). We were the rear unit at Long Binh. We showered and used the latrines at the stockade. About half the battalion area was under water whenever it rained. Our first job was to build our battalion area. We filled sandbags, dug drainage ditches, built latrines and showers. I was on a detail that built the original perimeter fence for the battalion. We put in fence post, strung barbed wire, and put up concertina wire.

At first they did not have any MP duty for us to perform, so we drove ammunition trucks from Long Binh to Tay Ninh. After awhile we started escorting these same convoys. We worked a lot of perimeter security defense for Long Binh, and at the ammo dump. We also provided security at the barge site at Cogido. We guarded POWs at the 93rd Evacuation Hospital and 50th Medical. We pulled some patrol at Long Binh at the end of my tour. I also participated as security in the riot at LBJ on Easter of 1967. I saw the ammo dump blow up right after we got there.

I returned to the states in September of 1967, where I was assigned to the 202nd MP Company at Fort Sheridan, Illinois.

I was discharged in March 1969. In 1971, I joined an Army Reserve Military Police unit. I retired from the reserves in 1990. Most of my time was as a MP or a senior instructor for the MP course.

I appreciate my time in Nam. That is where I grew up. I think I am a better person because of my time in the military, and my time in Vietnam.