I grew up in the country in western Pa. I worked for as many as 6 different people at one time. Most were farmers and my granddad who owned a sawmill and I worked there from the time I was 8 years old and until I was 16 then I worked for another lumber company.

In the 60's you knew where you were going after graduation from high school, college or the service. I said that they weren't drafting me. So I volunteered for the Army. 10 days after graduation I was in the Army. I did my basic and AIT in Fort Jackson then I got orders to go to Fort Benning for NCO school. After that I got orders for Fort Hood. I checked with some old timers and they said Ft Hood was all mechanized and I was happy that I was going to be riding instead of walking. When I got there they took away all the tracks and APC's and gave them an M 16. There sure was a lot of upset GI's. Our whole Brigade went over the same day. I went over with C 5/46 198th in the Americal Div and after 3 months I was infused into C 4/21 11th inf also in the Americal Div.

When everyone else got malaria they got sent to the rear. Then I got it and they just let me lay in a rice paddy and guard the rucksacks while they ran day patrols.  After 5 days my fever broke.  The medic told the Lt. and he said let's go. I was still so weak I could hardly put one foot in front of the other. A couple months later I was helping load some wounded guys on a medevac and after it left I discovered I had been also wounded and I asked what the heck does it take to get out of the field. Never ask that question! 3 days later I found out I had a bouncing betty go off 2 feet behind my back. I had 30's to go in Vietnam when this happened. I was in intensive care in the 312th evac for tet 1969 and a rocket went right past my bed. They had to ship me to the hospital in Japan and then onto a VA. hospital outside Philadelphia Pa. I was there for 3 months before I was discharged from the Army. After that I went to school to be trained to be a Aircraft mechanic where I retired after 35 years.

While I was working as an A/C Mechanic I joined the Air Force reserve and flew as a flight engineer for 8 years. I started on the C123 thunder pig and the C 130 A model.