when Doc Stone , me and Trevino left 24th evac. we didn't get clearance just got bored. Besides they can't count you AWOL if you desert to the front! we had just left the Hospital and were headed for the airfield to hop a flight. We were a sight, Doc's head and chest was wrapped in gauze, I was wrapped from chest to crotch and tavino's head and eye were wrapped the same. we had put back on our bloody clothes as that was all we had. Crossing a open area an officer hollered at us to stop we were out of uniform! He had only seen us from behind. He walked up berating us and then we turned a round.....I never saw a person so lost for words! We looked like hell warmed over, when he got his voice back, in a normal tone, He said we could find new clothes at the OK coral, turned out to be a white picket fence with the cast off piled in it. but they were far better than we had. FNG's come in officer size as well.

I was at Bien Hoa, Our rear area for a fews weeks till I got my tube out. Like most troops off the front we were pretty rough around the edges. I remember one of the guys that had been wounded went AWOL to Saigon and auditioned for a band. A month later in the field he got orders for a band in Special Services. We didn't see him again till we DEROS state side. He had spent the rest of his tour driving around Vietnam in a Chevy Van playing back up for two round-eyes.

I once hypnotized one of the guys there and put a post-Hypnotic suggestion that he had already gone on R&R to Hawaii. He woke up and told us all about his R&R with his wife. Thinking that he was due to ship back to the field(We could hardly keep a straight face). I had to put him under again to make him believe he had not gone yet!