Reid Douglas

This is an interesting conversation that I'd like to continue but I didn't want it to be done on Kenny Smith's In Memory page, so I have moved the posts made by Jim and Terry to this forum and will post a reply there once I'm sure I've got this done correctly.

JIM McCreary

Thanks, Reid, for setting us straight on this. It looks like a number of us were in the military, but none died in Vietnam.

What was your military experience?

I was in the Corps of Engineers at Ft. Leonard, Missouri, for AIT. One day I saw alert orders to go to Vietnam as a combat engineer. That would have been a very dangerous job of of finding and destroying mines in roads in South Vietnam. A friend from Dayton, Ohio, saw a notice on a bulletin board about a special demolitions class at Ft. Belvoir, Virginia. This was for atomic demolitions munitions. We all knew there were no nukes (not yet, anyway!)  in Vietnam, and naturally we all signed up immediately. I got in, went to Ft. Belvoir, and then went to West Germany.  Most of the people I was with had dodged the draft by getting educational deferments, and we were all in our early 20's.  

Our targets were in rural parts parts of West Germany, near the Fulda corridor. This was the supposed invasion route the Soviets would have taken to invade W. Germany. They had us dress up in civilian clothes, and drive our POVs to the potential targets and take pictures and make notes of what we saw. This was to update files so that we knew what we were supposed to blow up later if the necessity arose. The sad part was that we didn't tell the Germans what or where the targets were. We were not NATO, but USAEUR. 

Now that I see the problems in Ukraine, I think back to that time, and how much more dangerous it was then.  Civilians back home had no idea of what would have happened in Europe had there been a war. We had 5 teams, and they told us that the survival rate would be 1 in 5, just to get to the target. They said we all would have likely died had there been a real war.  

Reid Douglas

on behalf of:

TERRENCE KELLY

You were lucky/smart to dodge RVN.     Did one single good thing come from that idiotic fiasco in SE Asia?

I think not

Anyhow, I was there for 9 months as a legal clerk in the Special Forces JAG office, having been drafted out of my first year in law school, mostly bored during the day and drunk at night, gawking at go-go girls and drinking beer !   Actually, typing class at RRHS saved me....I could still type 80 wpm when tested on day two in the US Army.   Thanks to the Moms who said "you have to take typing so you can type your notes and papers in college!".   The days when I still believed everything Mother said !  To the positive, I did make two exceptional friends in the military (both deceased now).   I still cringe when anyone says, "the military will be good for you".    Especially when it is someone who did not serve.

Did anyone else from '64 go to Nam?    Curious to hear your take on that.......