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| ISBN-13: | 9781504919357 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | AuthorHouse |
| Publication date: | 06/26/2015 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 112 |
| File size: | 101 KB |
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AWOL in Saigon, Vietnam
The True Story of a Soldier
By Robert L. Rice
AuthorHouse
Copyright © 2015 Robert L. RiceAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-5049-1936-4
CHAPTER 1
How It All Began
I met Frances in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1957, when my family moved next door to her family. For me, it was love at first sight. In the months following I tried to get Frances to become my girlfriend but to no avail. I felt belittled because she did not respond to me the way I thought she should have. At that time, I had very low self-esteem because I was already three years behind in school. In the first grade, I had become very ill with asthma and pneumonia. I couldn't go to school, and that created a real problem — and a complex — for me. Because I had had to repeat three grades, other students would make fun of me, which only added to my low self-esteem, coupled with my being overweight. Before I met Frances, the neighborhood children would call me Fat Daddy. I resented being called that name.
Those were the kinds of obstacles that caused me to feel inferior, even though I had friends and girlfriends and was well liked.
At the age of twelve I was a Boy Scout and went to camp for a week. At the time I couldn't swim well enough to be called a swimmer. The day I arrived at camp, the swim instructor asked all scouts who could swim to stand in one line and all non swimmers to stand in another line. Most of my friends got in the swimmers line, and I didn't want to be outdone, so I joined the swimmers line with them. The instructor took all the swimmers down to the lake to be tested. One by one, we had to swim behind a boat for about fifty yards out and back. It was my turn. My only thought was that I had lied. I could swim, but I couldn't swim fifty yards. My plan was to swim out so far and catch the end of the boat. I swam as far as I could, but when I tried to catch the tail end of the boat, I couldn't hold on. Every time I attempted to catch the end of the boat, the instructor would paddle away. He actually thought I was swimming and didn't know I was in trouble. I was ashamed for lying, and I had too much pride to ask for help. I began to drown.
I stopped trying to swim to the boat. I was breathing out my life when the thought occurred that I could never have Frances as a girlfriend. I felt useless, and I asked myself, Why go on living? I looked down and saw darkness; I looked up and saw light. The air flowed out of my lungs, and it didn't hurt. I was sinking into death because I felt I was a loser. I did not have the self-confidence to believe I could become a happy person. Then I heard the voice of an angel say, "Get up."
Instantly I came out of the water and grabbed the boat. What seemed like ten minutes was only a few seconds, and no one really knew that I was in trouble. I learned to swim that week at camp, but I almost lost my life in the process. The angel I heard from at camp appeared to me again while I was in Vietnam.
When I was twelve, Frances's brother and I developed a friendship. I attended church with him, and we played together daily. I had joined the church against my mother's wishes. There was an overseer in the church who gave strict orders that the members could only date within the church. The members could not participate in dances, parties, social gatherings, or any after-school activities. The membership could only go to church, school, and work. There was absolutely no participation in any extracurricular activities such as movies or bowling.
The pastor, at that time, was a woman who had no voice. I didn't care that there was no outside entertainment as long as I could be with Frances. I was in love and knew I wanted Frances in my life forever. I grew to love the membership like a real church family, and that was one of the happiest times of my life. At the age of fifteen, I was told that I was a preacher. I later learned that the church was a "cult." It was definitely not like the Baptist Church I attended. The overseer of the church ruled every member's life. She presented herself as the mediator between the members and God. If you were planning a trip, you had to have her permission. She would supposedly consult with God and then give you an answer. If she said no to your request, you had better not go because you would be declared out of the Will of God. Needless to say, we no longer attend that church. Foolish as it may seem, you would actually be amazed how many people would not do things they really wanted to do or go places they really wanted to go without her permission. That church exists today under different leadership and a different set of rules and guidelines.
My sister and I were brought up in a middle-class family environment. We were very happy, even though we didn't have a lot of extras. Both of our parents worked, and they provided for us adequately. We always had everything we needed and some of what we wanted.
As time went on and being around Frances and her family we started dating, Frances and I were first married on May 23, 1964. We did not have a honeymoon. She was sixteen, and I was seventeen. The officials of the church made all the arrangements. My mother did not know about the marriage until after it had taken place. Frances's mother knew about the arrangements since she was a member of the congregation. Frances and I loved each other, but we were not ready for marriage. She was determined to complete high school. I cared about school too, but I cared more about Frances.
I dropped out of school and started working. We lived with Frances's mother. We wanted our own place but couldn't afford it because of our limited income. I thought about going into the army because there I could finish school and learn a trade. When I got out of the army, I would be skilled enough to get a better job and buy a house using the GI Bill.
CHAPTER 2Basic Training
I joined the US Army at the age of seventeen. Frances and I had been married only a few months when I asked my father to sign me into the service against my mother's wishes. As I took the oath, I knew I had made a big mistake. I had to leave the one I loved. I would have to pay for my actions. In boot camp, I was one of the fattest guys in my outfit. I always got the toughest training because I was fat. I did not see the need for extra training but my sergeant did, so he stayed on me. While we were standing in formation, the sergeant called out, "Where is Rice?" "Up, Sarge," I'd answered. He asked, "Did you understand my command?" "Yes, sir," I'd answered. "Well, since you understood, drop down and give me thirty push-ups." I felt like the sergeant was picking on me. I didn't realize that he was really making me strong and teaching me to believe in myself. When I began basic training, I could only do two correct push-ups. When I completed training, I could do sixty, thanks to my drill sergeant.
Every morning we did a four-mile run. My drill sergeant would run beside me and ask whether I wanted him to stop the entire company for a few minutes so I could get my breath. Well, I was no more tired than anyone else. I was doing fine; in fact, I enjoyed the run.
So my response to him was, "Thanks, but no thanks." The sergeant told me to drop out of the ranks while the other troopers continued to run. He had me do thirty push-ups and then catch up with the company. I did just that. I was proud of myself because I had lost weight, trimmed down, and was looking good.
I learned some life lessons from Sarge. At the time, I thought he was picking on me. During a training event, he caught me with my hands in my pockets. We were not allowed to have our hands in our pockets. He made me empty both of my pockets and give him my personal belongings. I had to fill all my pockets with sand — even my field jacket pockets, which held a lot of sand. Carrying that sand made for an extremely tiresome day. I learned a valuable lesson, which was to do what you are told, and get it right the first time. The service was very beneficial to me. Prior to going into the service, I was inactive. I didn't play sports in school and was considered to be overweight, but by the end of basic training and AIT (Airborne Infantry Training), I was a fit soldier. In addition to being able to do fifty or sixty push-ups, I could run five or six miles nonstop. I was proud of my training.
While training to fire the M-14 rifle, I was observed holding it incorrectly. My sergeant ordered the entire company to stop firing. He asked me, "Why do you have your head up your ass?" He told me to tell the sergeant overseeing our company in a tower about a hundred yards away that I had my head up my ass. When I started to yell out to the sergeant in the tower, my drill sergeant said to me, "No, not yet." He instructed the rest of the company to start firing their weapons and then turned to me and said, "Now tell him." There I stood with over thirty troopers firing their weapons, and I was trying to tell the sergeant in the tower about the position of my head. Needless to say, I made the third-highest score on the M-14 rifle training. I received a three-day pass to go home because of the high score.
Because I had little travel experience, I didn't realize that taking the bus would decrease the time I could spend with my family. I learned a real lesson in travel. The next time I would fly. When Frances saw me, she was shocked that I had lost thirty pounds in two months. She cried because she thought I had been mistreated, but she was proud of my weight loss.
I enjoyed my time at home. I saw my family, my church family, and my friends. While at church, I was told that the church overseer didn't approve of me going to the military. She wanted me to stay home and be a minister at the church.
Because this church was a cult, the overseer did not want ministers to have outside schooling or proper training. I wanted to serve in the military so I could see and experience the outside world. I wanted to complete high school and become a minister and create a financially better life for me and my wife.
At the end of my AIT in Fort Gordon, Georgia, I was assigned to Fort Reilly, Kansas, for my duty station which was First Division, Twenty-Sixth Infantry. Since the church didn't believe in killing, I chose to be a chaplain's assistant.
I thought that once I completed my military duty and became a chaplain's assistant, I would be a full-fledged minister. I did not know the necessary steps it took to become a minister. I informed the military that I was a conscientious objector and that I was willing to do all I could in the service but that I was not willing to kill anyone. I was transferred to the Fifth Army Division Fire Fighting Unit on the airstrip at Fort Riley. We worked twenty-four hours on the job and twenty-four hours off the job. A very relaxed position. During the On Job Training (OJT), I was taught to put out fires, put foam on runways to prepare the runway for airplanes landing on their bellies without landing gear. It was a rewarding experience. I was called a plug man. I made sure water was supplied from the fire hydrant to the fire truck.
While I was working as a fireman, First Division (approximately five thousand men) was deployed to Vietnam. I was with the Fifth Army at that time. I saw the troops on the airfield as I stood with the fire truck. First Division was prepared to depart to Vietnam. Wives and children were crying because their husband and fathers were going off to war. They flew out of Fort Reilly to meet a ship for their journey to Vietnam. The day First Division departed Fort Riley, the base resembled a ghost town. Only a few bars were open off base, and downtown was empty, because that was an army town.
Three or four months later, I got orders to go to Vietnam. I was given shots and paperwork before I cleared post. They gave me fifteen days of leave time and five days travel time before my departure to Vietnam. I used nineteen days leave time and one day travel time. I had learned from my previous travel experience. I went home to visit my family and my church family. While there, I went hunting with some church brothers, one of whom showed an interest in my wife. While hunting, I missed the targets several times and jokingly told them to pray that I returned home. The brother who showed interest in my wife said, "It doesn't matter how much we pray. If it is meant for you to be killed, then you will be killed." I thought that was a thoughtless thing to say to someone on his way to Vietnam.
My wife was sad; she didn't want to see me leave. She acted a bit indifferent. She was withdrawn and very sorrowful, and I could understand, but I also thought she should be happy to make the most of the time we had together before I was shipped out to Vietnam.
CHAPTER 3Arriving in Vietnam
I checked myself in at the nearest military base so that I would not be AWOL. That Air Force base was between Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Nashville, Tennessee. They put me on a C-130 to Oakland Air Force Base. I traveled from Oakland Air Force Base on a C-141 cargo plane where everyone was seated facing the tail of the plane. We flew to Guam and from Guam into Tan Son Nhut Air Force Base in Saigon, Vietnam. I left the States on the morning of December 24, 1965. After more than twelve hours in the air and crossing the international date line, I missed Christmas Day, arriving in Saigon on December 26, 1965. I had come from a cold climate to an extremely hot tropical climate, and it was a nightmare. When the cabin door of the plane opened, the heat and humidity almost took my breath. I felt certain I wouldn't survive that country, but I learned to adjust.
We stayed at a place called 90th's Replacement. At that time it was located on Tan Son Nhu't. It eventually moved to Long Binh. The odor at Tan Son Nhu't was horrible.
I wasn't used to the odor of the country yet. Female Vietnamese workers in the mess hall or eating area wore what appeared to be black pajamas and funny-looking hats that shielded them from the sun. Their teeth were black or red — not white, as I was accustomed to seeing. Their teeth became this color from chewing betel nut leaves. It was a narcotic that preserved their teeth. The color of their teeth reminded me of the teeth of elderly women in the states who dipped snuff, which stained their teeth a brown color. They smiled as they passed out eating utensils, and that turned my stomach. The first three days I couldn't eat. Hunger pains soon helped me get over the odors and appearances. I went into the mess hall, smiled at mama san, the name given the elderly women of Vietnam, accepted silverware, and ate without a problem.
Several guys there were in transition. They were either going to another base camp or were going home. They informed us of the horror we could expect to see in the fields, including the number of guys that had been killed. I didn't know what to expect. Vietnam was like a dream. It was unreal. I couldn't believe that I was actually in a war situation. It was calm at Saigon Tan Son Nhu't Air Force Base. It housed both Army and Air Force units.
You could not hear bombs or big guns; there was no obvious action.
At 90th Replacement the barracks had electricity and lights. You could take a warm shower. My next duty station would be different. From 90th Replacement some of us were sent to a place called Phouc Vinh, the Big Red One. I was put back in the First Division. It was different from 90th Replacement. We stayed in tents without electricity or hot showers. The floor was ground grass and mud. The mosquitoes were as big as flies. Thousands would come out at the same time every night and buzz until three o'clock in the morning when they departed as if someone had called them home.
There were fifteen guys to a tent. We took showers outside the tent, where there was an overhead fixture with a bag of water held together with three poles. The sun heated the water bag, and the water would trickle down, providing a warm shower. This was the basic camp where our belongings stayed while we fought in the field. I met guys I was going to be with for the next twelve months. The ones who had been there for a while told us new arrivals to stay around them, and they would take care of us.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from AWOL in Saigon, Vietnam by Robert L. Rice. Copyright © 2015 Robert L. Rice. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Foreword, ix,1. How It All Began, 1,
2. Basic Training, 7,
3. Arriving in Vietnam, 13,