I had been in country for 30 days,On night guard, seated on the top of my ACAV. I was looking over the dark perimeter to my front when I noticed tracers off in the distance, they were coming from Thunder 4 (fire base about 3 clicks away). Reaching into the turret for the radio handset to report(sitRep) the tree line exploded with the blue dish shaped flames of a mortars. Green tracers from 51-Cal machine guns raked our position as I dove for the Turret.

Returning fire with my 50-Cal,the crew sleeping inside scrambled for their guns, quickly my two M-60s opened up as well. The loader opened ammo down below and handed it up to each MG as needed. RPG's with there blue white flames flew into the perimeter to my right and left. They stormed the wire twice and were beaten back. The ARVN fire base 1500 yards away had been overrun and most of our guys had to unass and try to get to us by running through the enemy lines. The fire seemed to be slowing when a MG raked my position, My 50Cal. exploded. spraying me from chest to crotch with shrapnel.

A medic heard my guys holler and came running, with the loaders help, he pulled me off the perimeter's edge. Using field pack bandages he tied them around me to keep pressure on the wounds. So here I was, in a mortar crater, hopped up on morphine, with my belly tied tightly in field bandages. Tracer rounds both ours and theirs ran back and forth through my field of vision. Green, red, white, and blue streaks across the sky above. The bullets were close enough to hear them pass over my prone position.

I joined in 1966, Hollywood basic they called It for people going into the intelligence service. Learning they needed truck drivers I volunteered and only went to basic 4 days a week the rest of the time I drove jeeps and 2 1/5 ton trucks

My Basic Training had some strange people in it, Nerd central. Note the fellow in the back row 6'11" and a size 14 shoe, He didn't get boots until four weeks into basic. We were all slated for the ASA. from there we were shipped to our AIT's. Mine at ft.Devens I went through S.E.R.E. training. Part of getting a Cripto Clearance. It was a Vietnam or Korean village, run by Minihunes (small hawaian people). In 6 weeks they ran you down, starved you and left you with sleep deprivation. Training you to live off the land,travel in strange territory�and evade capture.

Then on to cryptographic training at Ft. Devens, Witch I busted out of! The Army I surmised was not very happy with having spent all that money on my clearances and such. They proceeded to send me through every combat training MOS they could think of. I think the object was punishment, but to me it was like a big boy scout camp.

I had been thrown into the briar patch,I passed every course at 90% or better. I went to SERE,Pathfinder,Mortor,Artilery,and FO training.Then they shipped me to Alaska for infantry AIT and arctic gorilla warfare school. In the mean time I had passed the armorer program and was firing military competition with the M1911 45Cal. pistol. I volunteered for a special test platoon for arctic conditions, they needed people with secret clearances. The army sent me to armor school at Ft. Knox so I could help test the M-155 Sheridan tank, at that time still secret.

The testing only went on at 40 below so I had the summer practically off. I went to work for a civilian Fur Trader, Martin Victor Furs, working 5 days a week for him and 2 days a week for the army. We traveled on ski planes to the Inuit and Indian villages, delivering goods and bringing back raw furs . Since we sometime stayed at the villages it gave me a chance to do some gold panning (got my prospectors licence). I often went with Denny (Martins son)who flew the plane and a guy named Murrany who worked with me at the base.

Murrany talked me into a river raft Race that he had a bet on. 117 miles in June, the ice was still floating on the river! We tied together six 35 gallon oil drums 3X3, put a 18in. board between them. with six cases of luck Lager beer and one case of C-Rats off we went. It was the first time anyone had tried it! I got letters for years with invitations to The Chena River raft classic. We had created a monster and It all started with a bar bet....

While I was there they discovered Oil the whole town of Fairbanks went crazy land speculators, construction companies and people started pouring into Alaska. Since I was a resident of Alaska I started receiving annuel checks from the State (like a reverse income tax).The town changed when OIL got there. Prior to oil Trappers,prospectors and even the local folks wore weapons. Most bars had pegs so you could hang your weapon between the inner and outer doors. Under The town laws you could not be served if you carried you weapon... Afterwards with so many Green horns the town had to outlaw weapons in the city limits.