From the First Day in Vietnam to Cam Ranh Bay to Trouble

Dad: That was my first day in country. When I knew it was for real. When they open the door to the plane, and there's an MP jeep there with machine guns. I thought, Oh fuck, I really am in Vietnam.

Then they bussed us to Long Binh. It’s kinda like a holding area.

Me: How long were you there?

Dad: A week at least, I know. You just wait for your orders.

That's when I got the first taste of the sound of artillery. You know when you go to the fireworks show? that big boom? As night starts to come, the artillery starts. Every hour you could hear it coming closer. You don't know if it's your imagination or if it's actually getting closer. You can feel the impact from the floor.

They could be miles and miles away, but you hear it getting closer. I remember our first day here, there are slabs that have tents. It's like 40 people to the tent. You got bunk beds. I can remember the sgt. He's telling everybody if you have to go to the latrine, go that way. "I don't want anybody pissing outside the tents." The first night, when it's getting to be around midnight - I thought it was raining. All the guys pissing right outside the tent. It was like, you want me to walk all the way down there by myself? Up yours.

Needless to say I joined them. I ain't walking down there.

Just before daybreak, all the artillery stops. They had the firefights at night time. Very seldom do you have them during daytime unless it's a continuous one.

It was a nothing when I got there. You have the barbed wire around the encampment, but they turned it into an R&R place. They built a swimming pool, all kinds of things.

The orders were to report to the 129th Ordinance Company, Cam Ranh Bay. So they bus you back to Tan Son Nhut, you have to go through Saigon. You can see the outposts with sandbags, machine guns. You get onboard, it was a C130, a Hercules. You walk up the ramp, put your duffle bag where you can get at it easily. I sat on the bench. When you fly through the clouds, the plane jerks. This other captain comes out of the cockpit area. He was telling everybody don't worry about the turbulence, if we get hit by artillary, we're all gonna die.

Cam Ranh Bay was was completely different from Saigon. There's a bunch of buildings, thats where the Air Force stayed. They had actual running water.

Me: You had no running water at the place you stayed in Saigon?

Dad: You know, it wasn't exactly the Ritz.

The company that you're going to already knows that you're going to be there. They'll send a jeep to pick you up. Then they took me to the company. The 100,, 150 guys are going to different companies in the peninsula. Ona peninsula, there's one company here, another here, one down the street. It's like a shuttle bus. There's always a clerk there. So you give him the orders, you tell him who you are. I was there I think 2 days. And then they said, you're being transferred to the 74th supply company.

(My dad points to his lockerbox in the garage, still stamped)

I don't know if they took me or somebody came and got me, but I gave them my orders. So I got to the 74th, you present yourself to the CO. PFV Lopez, Armando R. Reporting for duty. Something to that effect.

They said we don't have room for you in any of our hootches, but they have a big tent that holds like 40 people. You stay there until they can find a bunk for you.

What happened was, when I first got there, there was nobody to report to. Stayed in the holding tent for one week. I made the bed. And then they said when the company comamnder, the first sgt or the Ex O, the Executive Officer, second in command, comes, then they'll come assign you a hootch, a bed and your job. But until they assign you all that, you don't do anything.

So. On the first night, I went to the mess hall with everyone else and ate.

Me: Did you sit by yourself?

Dad: No, there were other guys there. But you don't know them from Adam, they don't know you from Adam.

So I went back to the tent. I'm waiting for someone to come and call me to report. Nothing happened that night. In the morning, I get up, and I get in line, I go eat. Nobody's asking me who I am, when did I get here, how many days I got left.

Everyone's going to work the motorpool or the depot or wherever they're assigned their job. The depot is a huge, huge, huge area with a bunch of buildings, that's where the supplies are. From there they get issued throughout the country.

So the second morning, I get up, I go get breakfast, then I go back to the tent. I figured, ain't nobody looking for me, why should I volunteer? I go to lunch, I go to dinner. Nobody comes for me. I go back. This went on for a week. I figured, that's one week down out of my year in the country.

On the seventh day it got boring. So now I got to figure out how tell them I've been here for a week. I don't want to make them feel like they're dumbasses or something like that. So I got dressed, I got my papers, I went inside. The company clerk is there, same guy. I told him I had orders to report. He didn't even remember I've been there for a week. Dumb ass. He said the captain's here. He goes in there, PFC Lopez is here to report.

So I go in there, and I present myself, and they said, we've been looking for you. We didn't know what happpened.

I said I had been with the 129th. They said, "They finally released you?" I said, "Yes, sir!" So I got away with that one.

I had been in country for at least 3 weeks. I figured that's three weeks down. 11 months and days left.

So they assigned me my hootch and my bunk.

Me: How many people to a hootch?

Dad: Eight people to a hootch. They're bunk beds. For people who are E4 and below. I was E3 at this time. Private First Class.

Then they issue you a weapon. They write down the serial number. You sign for it. It was an M14. And then they issue you your gear, your backpack, your mess kit, canteen, gun belt. The jungle boots, the fatigues, the helmet, all that stuff. And you check it out, you sign for it. 'cause you're responsible for it.

So then they told me I was going to be working at the depot.

When I got to the depot, one of the guys, I don't know if he was in the same company or not, I forget, he was working at the Korean liason office there at Cam Ranh.

Me: Korean Liason?

Dad: The go-between. He had said that they needed another person. And it's inside an air conditioned building. And he said, Why don't you volunteer?

So after the day, when I got back, I told them there was an opening at the Korean liason office, and I'm volunteering to fill the spot. They said OK. I didn't know what the job entailed or anything. I didn't know at the time that there were Korean soldiers there.

So the following day, I go there and they introduce me to the lieutenant in charge, and other people. They said you're going to be dealing with the Koreans. I thought they meant Koreans in Korea. I wondered why the fuck they had a liason office for Korea - we're in Vietnam.

I don't know how many days later that the Koreans came in. They introduced me to Captain Kim, Captain Lee was there. I forget who else. They said this is PFC Lopez, he's gonna be working with you guys.

Me: So what was it like, the work?

They bring in the orders from the Koreans, what they need. The different air hangars has the different supplies. Plus out in the middle, it had to be stacked 100 feet tall with supplies, out in the open. Dried food, medical supplies, clothing, boots. It was just stacked there. You go to the different hangars to fill the orders. You go get the stuff, then you make arrangements for them to come pick it up. For huge orders, you make arrangements for it to be taken to the airfield, to fly to the outposts. It was strictly for the US army and the Koreans. The Marines, they took care of themselves. There was a division. There was no love lost between the Army and the Marines. I thought we were all in this together, but no, it wasn't like that. "The Navy's a bunch of pussies, the Air Force is a bunch of pussies," that's what they all were saying.

So one day, the Koreans were there and I was talking to them. And I forget who it was, but I told them I wanted to go visit the Korean troops. Spend the night with them, eat their food, try to get to know them, know what's going through their minds and stuff.

They told me I had to make arrangements with my company. So when I got back, I told the company commander that the Koreans had invited me to go to their camp, spend a couple of nights with them, to get to know them. He said yeah, I could do it. He'll cut me a pass. Because every morning, everyone's counted to make sure nobody went AWOL. If you had a pass, then you had an excuse.

Me: Did anyone ever go AWOL?

Dad: Not there. In 'Hood. There was one guy in Aberdeen. They caught them.

Me: Did they get in trouble?

Dad: Yeah, big time.

Me: What kind of trouble?

Dad: You get court marshalled and jail time. And jail time is dead time, it doesn't count toward your two years.

Anyways, I went back and told the Koreans I could go. They said they'd pick me up that evening. So I went back, and told the guys in the hootch that I'll be spending a couple of days with the Koreans, that I'd be back.

I got my field gear on. My backpack, my weapon, all that.

The Koreans came and picked me up, just like they said they would.

See, now, I'm being assigned to the Korean Army, just in case something happens during the two or three day pass and I don't get back. Like if someone blows up the bridge.

I know the first sgt. didn't want me to go.

Me: Why not?

Dad: Me and him didn't get along. He's third in command of the entire company.

He was a racist. When he was sober, he was probably one of the best soldiers I ever known. Guy knew how to command, how to lead. The guy built us a little bar there at the campsite. He lied about the supplies for the wood and nails. He got a pool table for us. He had some of the guys who knew how to build things to build a bar. When he was sober, the guy was great. He bought beer, he had it shipped in, nobody knows how he did it. He bought pallets of beer. I mean, pallets of beer. Now, ice was a problem. So most of the time you're drinking warm beer. What he did was, he had two guys man the bar. They were selling beers for five cents a can. You can either buy it five cents Vietnamese money, or if you happened to have a nickel, which you don't want to have. It's illegal to have American money in a war zone because of the black market. It was maybe 2 cents American per beer. They're not gauging you or anything like that. The bar was more like a rec room more than anything else. At Cam Ranh, there was also a big bar where they had music, entertainment, hard liquor.

He was from Texas. The problem with him was when he got drunk and that was almost every night. When he got drunk, then he got mouthy. And it's "You know my family owns half of Texas." That's how big their ranch is. Every Texan I've met owns half of Texas. I thought there was only two halves, but according to all Texans, each one of them owns a half.

And he would always talk about the Mexican workers that they had there.

When he was drunk, he would say, "When the wetbacks want more money, we just called Immigration and have them shipped back across the border. And we just hire more Mexicans, they don't know any better."

When he was sober, it was like, "Mexicans are the greatest workers, you don't have to watch them, you don't have to oversee them, they're the best workers."

When we were sitting around drinking, I made the comment to someone that he was a fat fucking bigot. And he heard.

Me: Were you drunk?

Dad: I don't think so.

Me: I think you were.

Dad: I might have had a buzz.

(We both laugh)

Me: So you made what comment?

Dad: That he was a fat fucking bigot.

Me: Was he?

Dad: Yes! When he was drunk, they were wetbacks, they're dumb, they're nothing. When he was sober, they were the best workers he ever had.

Why he would get that way when he was drunk was beyond me.

So either he heard me or somebody told him. Well, that's insubordination. You can't be doing that. He wanted to court marshall me. There are three stages of court marshall. One is Article 15. Usually it's one month's pay, you're confined to quarters. You might have to do extra duty.

The next day the captain wanted to see me. The XO stopped me when I was going in. He said, "What happened last night?" I told him. He said the first sgt. wanted to slap me with an article 15.

I remembered Mr. Peeples at the playground had told me - you never wanted to get anything, even an article 15. And I promised him I wouldn't.

The XO says, if you volunteer to go with the Koreans, you won't get anything. You won't get an Article 15 or a summary court marshal.

I didn't know to what exent the Koreans were in Vietnam. It was not exactly an official transfer. It was more like, just go.

(this is from the transcript of September 14, 2008)