"My nose knew, before I ever saw it, that Vietnam was a place like no other."
Since the aircraft didn’t feel as though it stopped, maybe it never started. Perhaps the flight had never left Ft. Dix. Conceivably there was an alternative scenario. Maybe this was a Twilight Zone trip. It might be some kind of surreal illusion, like those military LSD tests the 1950’s. Soldiers were tricked, confined inside a metallic pressure vessel and psychologically transported to another dimension.
There was no other military job, in Vietnam, like being a Correspondent for the Army.
Only a couple of dozen people in the entire Division were authorized to wear the black shoulder patch. The emblem was sewn over the Big Red One with the words "Official US Army Correspondent" emblazoned in yellow letters.No rank was required. Many people thought that we held the highest rank: civilian. As a photographer, there was only one rule. It was that prime directive about “no dead, dirty or wounded GIs”.
The troops gratefully accepted any entertainment offered.
The USO had other acts beside Bob Hope. They were pretty much scaled-down versions of the Bob Hope’s familiar formula for success.
Yearlong exhibit featuring work by veterans of Iraq, Afghanistan and the Global War on Terror.
More information at Explore Chicago Website
Softcover and digital versions of Saigon Shuffle are available at Lulu.com
Life had become a game of chance. Personal destiny was arbitrarily based on ‘the luck of the draw’. Where was your number in the draft lottery? If chosen, where would you go or what would your job assignment be? Life or death was riding on your placement in fate’s randomly shuffled deck…
Dominic
Yorba Linda, CA
Wheaton, IL
Chicago, IL
Washington DC
(773) 327-4538