It's interesting how some people panic at the strangest times. I remember one person, a small guy who just hung there on the net half way down. After loosing my patience with him, I just climbed right over him and kept on goin' down the net. I heard him comment quite strongly about it as I made my way over him. Later on in Vietnam, he was in front of me again. We had to slide down a steep mountain cliff in the middle of the night. It was so dark that I couldn't see anything. I thought he'd gotten out of the way when I came crashing down on him again. He got mad and started swinging his fists and cussing at me, but he couldn't see what he was swingin' at!
Training was sometimes fun, but where we were headed wasn't fun to think of. For the rest of the time on this troop carrier headed to Vietnam, we learned what it was like to be packed in together like sardines for nine days. Some of the waves we encountered were enormous. The ships bow would rise several yards into the air and then plummet incredibly deep below the surface of the water, leaving the deck submerged in roaring water. The bow of the ship rose so much that while sitting on the commode, which was way down in the bow of the ship, you had to hang on with both hands to the sides of you or you would slide off the toilet seat. What really struck me while sitting there was watching guys as they come running in trying to throw up after getting sea sick. A navy guy would be in the process of mopping it all up when some army guy, like myself, would come running in there to throw up and then hit this wet, slippery floor.....
The whole trip was full of bittersweet experiences. Even though these experiences were exciting, they were all tainted with thoughts of where we were headed just a few days away. I used to enjoy watching flying fish while they came out of the waves along side of the ship to glide with their slender wings for several yards at a time. At night I laid on my back in the middle of the deck on top, watching the stars while the ship rolled on. It's hard to describe the experience of blending in the beautiful Pacific with going to war at the same time.
Combat in Vietnam
Soon after we docked at Quin Nhon Harbor our ammunitions department started dispensing ammo. That's when things began getting scary. I heard a lot of explosions taking place in the water by the sides of the ship. After running up several layers of stairs to get above ship, I could see fiberglass speed boats racing around it with 75 horse Johnson motors on them. There was one man in the back of the boat throwing hand grenades into the water as fast as he could pull the pins. They were doing this to protect the ship from Viet Cong divers who might be trying to blow it up.
I'd been lying in my chain held rack down in the bottom of the ship writing some kind of poetry or something. My head was positioned closely to the bow of the ship and these grenades were going off a few feet from where I was lying. The racks were made out of canvas and were hanging three high on steal chains. It's difficult to put into words how different this is from digging foxholes and sleeping on the ground. Swaying on a rack down in the bottom of a crowded ship full of people wasn't exactly my living style. The clean, navy bedding was to be appreciated though.
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