Here's my case.

This quick over-view of my tour and some of the aftermath was posted 10/05/2003. I've edited typo's, restated a few things, and elaborated here and there. I was pretty heavily medicated when it was posted.



I'm a 70-71 era VN Vet that served 10 months with the 187th AHC out of Tay Ninh.



Since I was a CE (Crew Chief) fresh out of school in August the first 45 days or so was served in maintenance waiting to be assigned my own Huey. For unknown reasons the NCOIC (non-commissioned officer in charge) of maintenance refused to check me off for my own bird and instead insisted that I work in the engine shop or stay in maintenance.



Instead, I volunteered to fly as a DoorGunner. Things were fine until right after Christmas I was given a direct order by the CO not to fly any more. Some female VIP we hauled around on an ass and trash mission made a big scene about how young I looked. Hell, by then I was nearly 19.



They re-assigned me to Flight Operations on the night shift. I felt guilty, pissed off, hurt, and bored crazy in the rear with the gear. I eventually turned to drugs and being nieve, accepted some of the 99% pure heroin they freely offered as cocaine.



I didn't know the difference and didn't have a clue what was wrong with me when I went into withdrawals. I was needing my adrenalin fix so I started riding gunner on Dusters with an MP unit escorting convoys from Tay Ninh to the Cambodian border. During that time I was going through the wire into the country side and going out on day and weekend night patrols with a squad from 33rd ARVN Rangers. Their CO (commanding officer) had even given me a custom taylored set of 'tiger stripe' fatigues so nobody would ask questions.



I got nailed a couple of times when I didn't make it back to the company area in time for my shift in flt.ops. The first time I got stuck at a FSB (fire support base) with the MP's when it went under seige. Those idiots with quad-50's mounted on deuce and a half's just charged any position firing rockets or morters head on, guns blazing! Many of us braved the incoming to watch and give supporting fire.



The second time I had been intercepted at night by a squad of VC as I was leaving the base though the cemetary and entering the outskirts of Tay Ninh. I'd spotted'em a block away and cut through yards and back alleys to escape.



(The leader of these guys and I had met before. I've published the story elsewhere and will either link to it or republish it here later.)



I was doing fine at first vaulting over the walls around folks back yards. 'Charlie' wasn't tall enough to follow. They had to go around and had split up trying to head me off.



My escape came to a halt when I fell into one of those back yare cess-pools the locals double as 'water gardens'. The hole was filled with ribbon wire to keep folks out. When I fell in I got so tangled that I couldn't move, and had to just submerge with just my face out.



Other than the facts that I contracted hepatitus and TB from spending the night in that hole, it turned out to be providence that I fell in it. The gorillas never did find me and gave up when it started getting light. I extricated myself when I could see better and slunk back to the base.



Late April or early May the Rangers and PathFinders in Cu Chi who had been doing our recovery work were standing down and going home. The 187th sent four other guys and me to Cu Chi to learn extraction and recovery for our downed crews and their birds from them before they left.



The Crusader Recovery Team worked mostly in Tay Ninh Province and supported ARVN in Cambodia. We also traveled North far enough to hit red mud and dust to train teams for other aviation units like the 1st Cav. After our first mission I was made an acting E-4 and team leader. I think we helped them in Laos during Lam Son 719 but I couldn't swear to it. I do know the 187th send some of our Cobras in suppport. For obvious reasons a lot of that period was very hazy. My nightmares, when they come, are as vivid as my memories of the time.



I ran into problems out in the field getting enough drugs to support my habit once the team started getting loaned out. That caused me to have withdrawal symptoms bad enough that I felt I was a risk to my team mates. The next time we got back to the company I told the CO I wanted to go into the amnesty program being offered and get detoxed. He called me a 'damn coward' trying to avoid the field, and refused me permission. He then gave me a direct order not to go on amnesty.



I hopped a ride to Cu Chi and talked to a counselor with the program. He said the offer for amnesty was from a higher authority and that the CO couldn't lawfully refuse me permission. He said that SOP was to transfer folks who complete the program anyway, so I checked myself in and completed the program and my recovery.



(Supposition) I think my CO convinced whoever was responsible for reassignments that I was specially trained for a vital function in the company and he couldn't replace me. They sent me back to Tay Ninh and him.



He hit me with an ton of AR-15s post dated and Court-martialed me for disobeying a lawful order, using them as evidence of my character. JAG laughed when I went before him and dismissed everything but the two AWOLs that I admitted to for failing to make formations. He gave me a 60 day sentence and reduction to E-1 SUSPENDED for 6 months and warned me not to come before him again.



Once again I was sent back the the 187th rather than being reassigned like they were supposed to. The CO put me on permanent parimeter guard in a bunker with the drug dealer who'd origionally tricked me into taking herion by calling it cocaine.



A few nights later Maroney had three vials of drugs in the bunker. He kept complaining about how they weren't fair measure and kept trying to get me to take one and look at it. I kept refusing. Telling him that I wanted nothing to do with it. About that time an NCO and the XO stepped into the entrance of the bunker. The NCO stopped at the door blocking the XO long enough for Maroney to put the vial in his hand on a beam near us. Then the NCO charged into the bunker and grabbed up the vial. He turned and ask the XO to witness that the vial had been in my easy reach. (I was set up, but don't think the XO had anything to do with that)



They took our weapons and handcuffed both of us. I told the XO none of the drugs was mine and that if he'd let me take a piss test I could prove it. He said I could state my case at my probation/suspension review.



They drove us direct to battalion HQ(?) in Cu Chi and took Maroney inside leaving me cuffed in the jeep. A short while later they came out without Maroney and drove me to Long Binh Jail.



I wasn't allowed counsel or given a chance to defend myself. They didn't have the proper paperwork so the folks at LBJ didn't want to take me in. The XO insisted saying that the paperwork would follow in a few days. The CO has said that he wouldn't allow me back in the company. They finally took me in and put me in maximum confinement which was a 6'x6' conex with psp welded on one side. They said it was because that was the only place they could hold me outside of the general population until everything was straightened out.



A JAG representative came and told me not to worry, that I was there illegally start to finish. He said he'd get me released, but it would take some time. I ended up spending 17 days waiting in maximum and another 30 in the yard filling sand bags waiting on JAG's determination. One day out of the blue they released me. I was reassigned to the Americal in Chu Lai. They didn't restore my rank and never forwarded my personal belongings from Tay Ninh. I never saw my personal belongings again.



At Chu Lai the CO wanted me to work with his PathFinders. I only had a couple of weeks left in country so I used a medical profile I had been given for wounds received to sit it out in my hootch. I went home when the Americal stood down in September.



By this time I had 19 year old attitude and felt the Army, the system, and my country had betrayed me.



My 'what they gonna do, kill me and eat me?' attitude induced me to stretch 17 day delay in route to 47 day before I reported to Ft.Carson. I felt like they owed me anyway. There was a note in my 201 (that wasn't supposed to be there) that I was required by terms of my amnesty to get drug counseling.



My counselor got me work as a drug counselor/screener with the Kit Kharma and Inscape Vet outreach program. I eventually found out that addicts that we were referring to drug rehab programs were being offered and given Chapter 10 discharges and turned out on the streets. I objected because I felt it was generally wrong, and also a breech of trust those men showed us. It got me kicked out of the program.



Even though I was only a few weeks from ETS I took my new NCOIC's advise when he suggested that I could go AWOL until I was DFR and request a Chapter 10 myself. He said he knew that I was a trouble maker. If I stayed he was going to see to it personally that I shaped up or broke.



I currently have that Chapter 10 discharge. Released for the benefit of the service as unable to adjust to military duty. My DD-214 doesn't show my Vietnam service or any awards and commendations I was issued. The SPN on the DD-214 is the code for able to re-enlist upon review.



Regardless of that, I've only been able to find one SO that would help me put in for upgrade. The Quaker House tried in the early '70s and was told the 'fire in St.Louis destroyed my records' lie. Serveral SO's that I've asked to help have claimed that the statute of limitations had expired. Lies and half-truths. One of them represented the VVA and DAV. He SHOULD know better!



I've tried to get other SO's to help. Some of them were friends who knew me well. All of them seem eager at first and say my chances are good. All of them run into something in the process and drop me without notice or comment. I know the chances of an upgrade and/or benefits are nil without an SO to represent you, and don't know which way to turn.



Even Social Security refuses to help even though I've been diagnosed with ptsd, and related side effects from the symptoms of ptsd and agent orange. They say I have to expend all possibilities of appeal with the VA first. It's catch 22. (I've found this to be also untrue. The only consideration relating to the VA is that if I'm getting benefits from them the Soc.Sec. may be reduced accordingly.




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