As I got off the Military Sea Transportation Service, my heart raced. The sun beat on me with its scorching rays. Beads of sweat began to form on my forehead. It was clear I wasn’t supposed to be here judging by how my hands were shaking, while everyone else seemed to be composed and sticking to the mission at hand.  Literal muscle monsters were everywhere surrounding every part of the base.

Why was I here? I wasn’t drafted, it was my stupid decision to make a change over the control and communism in Vietnam but who am I  to make a change?

There were only a few thousand of us that arrived for now. We arrived at Da Nang Air Base on March 8, 1965. The warm late afternoon breeze was very calming; great weather under worse circumstances. Perfect almost. The lake is vivid with an uncomfortable feeling of doubt while it sparkles under the sun. One of the men in charge, Sergeant Smith held his position at the front of the Marines.

“Marines!” He yelled. “Get your tents together. You should be done by 15:30 SHARP!”, ‘’Aye sergeant” they replied. The tents were greatly more complex than the type we assembled in training for the past month. We had flame throwers, rocket launchers, grenade launchers, you name it. We learned to use them however I still struggled with some. It was inconvenient putting the tent up because the other men with me were ALSO struggling therefore they didn’t help. It was 15:27 pm and we hadn’t put up the tent yet. I quickly scrambled to see if I could find any directions anywhere. My buddies and I quickly assembled our tent. There was a quick inspection by the sergeant. He said, “Good work,” leading to me. “As you know, the war has struck Northern Vietnam and China Mainland. We are to watch them for they may attack at any given moment.”

That’s when in the middle of his speech, our tent fell. “WHOSE TENT WAS THAT!” Everyone in my group looked away. I knew I had to take accountability so I raised my hand cautiously. All eyes were on me and the sergeant yelled, “DROP DOWN AND GIVE ME 50” I assumed I was done with penalties and I may set up the tent but our Platoon Commander 2nd lieutenant  Boyd said, “You’re on night patrol from dusk to dawn.”

2-hour sleep rotations were in fact so that made it a whole lot worse than running on 6 hours of sleep. “Yes sir, “I  replied. We finished defensive practice at 2100. Suddenly, the sergeants blew into trumpets and played Taps. Everyone gathered into their tents while a few others stood guard with me. I was starting to drift off when a loud bang awoke us. The Vietnamese were attacking. I wish I paid more attention in training, for I didn’t know how to fire the grenade launcher but luckily, I figured it out. After firing 3 grenades I then slung my grenade launcher and started to return fire with my M-14. Immediately, my training started to kick in and I was no longer the same nervous kid who showed up to fight.