Sandbags
How many of those suckers did I fill during my Vietnam vacation? Too damn many to count – literally tens of thousands! But sandbags are a soldier’s friend, and they protected us, so I bear [...]
Getting There
Trip to Vietnam I heard during my tour the difference between a fairy tale and a war story is that one starts with “Once upon a time” and the other with “This is no shit!” [...]
Erik B Villard and Ken Burns
Erik B Villard and Ken Burns. I expect the 10 part Burns series to look at our society during the war. Erik has done more than anyone to elevate Vietnam vets status in America. His [...]
There is no single truth in war.
The Vietnam War Nick Ut story in A Film By Ken Burns & Lynn Novick.
Burning Shit: A How to Dispose of Waste Instructional
Within this story lies one of the many ironies of my tour. Our human waste was valuable to the Vietnamese, and we were burning it. Burning our shit actually deprived local farmers of valuable fertilizer, [...]
Living in a Hole
32,672,800 seconds I joined the Army to become an artillery officer, and I actually did go to Officer Candidate school – for a while. My job specialty training was artillery Fire Direction Control (FDC), so [...]