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My Vietnam tour followed the month long, “Jungle Expert” training course taught in Panama’s Canal Zone. It did little to prepare me for my duties with a Battery, of the 6/27th Field Artillery but I did get to visit Panama, observe Navy SEAL teams and sample monkey meat.

I arrived at Tan Son Nhut, Vietnam, in early September of 1966. I arrived as most of the replacement troops did, in a large military aircraft that flew the great circle route through Alaska. We ate three identical meals of frozen turkey dinners on the seemingly endless flight. We wore our Class A uniforms and arrived cold and uncertain. I had no idea what to expect when I exited the aircraft.

I spent a few days in Saigon getting processed and waiting for transport to my new unit. Saigon was a busy, bustling city filled with pedestrians, motor bikes and military vehicles. The streets were unpaved, packed red dirt. Kids hung around the various US military posts trying to sell all manner of things to the troops.  The military units
added diesel fumes from our tracked vehicles and the burning of the latrine waste to the air in a combination that I will always remember.

Fear raised adrenalin levels to un-experienced highs. Everything was new and it filled me with excitement and a relentless state of heightened awareness.