F'in New Guy

If you look closely, you will notice that my helmet cover is new, my uniform is new, jungle boots are new, my pack is empty and I don't have a mustache.  I was an "F'in New Guy" (FNG), just starting out in Vietnam.  It was February 1970 and I had been in country for a little over a month.

Three weeks before, I had been assigned to the First Cavalry Division, home of the "sky-troopers".  They gave us that funny nickname because we traveled everywhere in helicopters.  Even when we went into combat, we traveled by helicopter to get there.  Headquarters had assigned me to Ace High (A-Company), 2nd-12th Battalion.

It could not have worked out any better.  Ace High was pulling guard on Firebase Buttons in Song Be when I joined them.  So I didn't have to jump on a helicopter and meet up with them in the jungle.  Being dumped in the jungle right from the start was bad news for an FNG.  There was just too much to learn and a hell of a dangerous place to be while you were learning.  Even better, I had been with Ace High for four days, when we learned that instead of heading back to the jungle, we would be going on R&R to Bien Hoa for three days.  Everything was playing out for me like a gift.  

Funny, I had just left Bien Hoa.  Before being assigned to the 1st Cav, I pulled guard in Bien Hoa for two weeks.  Now I was heading back and feeling guilty about it.  I felt I didn't deserve it but they told me to go anyway.  So I spent three days there relaxing during the day and drinking beer while watching Vietnamese rock bands at night.

On the day this picture was taken, we were back in Bien Hoa Air Force Base waiting to catch a C-123 to Song Be.  Close by was that "freedom bird", the Overseas National jet in the background behind me.  Freedom birds held a very special place in my heart.  I would have loved to slip on board that freedom bird.  They were the airplanes that brought you to Vietnam from the United States and returned you back again a year later.  For me, it seemed like it would be forever before I would be heading back.  So I wasn't a happy camper posing in front of that plane.  Three weeks before, I may have deserted if by some miracle I had been given the chance to jump on a freedom bird.  But not now.  I was part of a team of guys that already were beginning to feel like family.  I would go back to the United States at a drop-of-a-hat, but I was no longer willing to be a deserter as a way to pull it off.  

  If you look closely at my face, you can see the innocence in it.  I wasn't scared but I was uneasy about the unknown out there in front of me.  I even look a little defiant.  Thank god, I had no idea what was coming.  Thank god, none of us know what is coming.