biography

I am originally from a town called Adna, Washington, located about 30 miles south of our state capitol, Olympia. I resided there or near there until I enlisted in the Army on August 11, 1966.

I initially signed with the US Army to be in Special Forces and a Green Beret. It was during basic that I had second thoughts and asked for another type of assignment. I didn’t know what 95B meant when I received the assignment upon graduation from basic training in Fort Lewis, Washington.

Most folks there thought that Fort Gordon, Georgia meant that I was going to the signal corps. It wasn’t until I arrived at Fort Gordon that the 95B’s were dropped off at the MP training (pre WWII barracks) site that I realized I was going to be a military policeman. I had originally volunteered for Vietnam upon enlistment and sure enough I was assigned to Vietnam right after graduating from MP training in December.

My assignment in Vietnam was with the 615th MP Company January 1, 1967. I performed many duties in country. One duty was day and/or night highway patrol on the highway and byways from Saigon past II Field Forces to Xuan Loc.

I can’t remember all the operation’s names but remember working convoy’s to Di An (Big Red One) and another with the 25th Infantry. Also, I remember some work with the 9th Infantry Division, slogging through mud and swamps south of Long Binh.

Other duties were for law enforcement either in motorized patrol or walking patrol in Bien Hoa. Later I worked in Operation Emporia with the 11th Cavalry Armored Cavalry, using machine gun jeeps and V100’s in escorting vehicles 44 miles north of Saigon. I was one of the first members of the V100 operating unit. After that, I participated in convoys at night from Long Binh to Xuan Loc returning in the early daylight hours.

Other duties that I participated in were patrol sweeps outside of Long Binh Post, and was a member of an ambush patrol extraction team.

I left Vietnam in the middle of December 1967. I served in the states at a small communications site outside of Davis, California (Sacramento) and them moved to Fort Richie, Maryland (near Camp David) where I worked as a desk sergeant and a patrolman until my honorable discharge in August of 1969.

After working for two years I went back to college and graduated from the University of Washington in the Spring of 1975. I worked in the transportation business last serving as a regional sales manager for a company, Delta Lines, in Portland, Seattle, San Francisco. The company was bought and dissected for its over a century old assets of properties and pension, and we were all left without much.

Since then, 1983, my wife, Dawn and I moved our children (2 boys, 24 and 22 years old now) to a place we thought 'best' for them to be raised. Bainbridge Island, Washington, a ferry ride directly across Pudget Sound from Seattle, Washington.

We continued to operate a company, SpecKlean, which we founded, that serves professional offices and banks in the area with cleaning services. We’re like an employment agency, securing contracts with offices and buildings and then supplying the professional contractors to fulfill the needs of that contract.

Last, I just graduated with a Masters of Science of Education, from Old Dominion University and also received a certificate to teach in the state of Washington. I have not secured a teaching position yet but will probably begin substitute teaching soon. I also coach boys high school basketball and used to coach high school baseball. We now live a little north of Bainbridge in a town called Poulsbo, Washington.

"The Zippo Lighter" SP/4 David Kerkhoff, 615th MP Company, 720th MP Battalion 1967 to 1968 & MAJ Rolf Gerster, Branch Artillery, Swiss Armed Forces.