Dan drives back onto Fort Knox, KY
BC:
How do you feel driving on to the base?
DC:
Probably old more than anything. Last time I was here I was twenty...Let’s see, in ‘67 I was...(laughs) 23 years old. Just about to turn 23, actually. I was 22. Mom was 23.
BC:
How’d she get so old?
DC:
She just gets there a little quicker than me.
BC:
Were you nervous when you came out here the first time?
DC:
No, I wasn’t nervous. I was kind of excited.
BC:
What were you thinking about in terms of -- you and mom were just married, right?
DC:
We had been married for 10 months. Nine months. I’ll get it right.
BC:
Were you thinking you might have to serve in Viet Nam?
DC:
Yeah. But everybody was going so it wasn’t...it was kind of like a herd mentality. It wasn’t a reality yet. And it was something I was trained for. I was looking forward to the experience.
BC:
Did it cross your mind that you’d have to go over there and that you might have to actually see action -- fight?
DC:
It crossed my mind but the reality of it I don’t think crosses your mind until you actually get involved with it. I don’t think you can actually think what it’s like to kill a person without having done it.
BC:
But at the time, did you think if you had to do it you’d be able to?
DC:
Yeah, I thought so.
BC:
And as it turned out you didn’t have to go.
DC:
I didn’t have to go.
BC:
What was the flight like, you were one of 144 (that didn’t have to go) right?
DC:
Well that wasn’t the flight. That was the class. My armor officer basic class, which I took here, was 144. And I was one of 144. Three or four went to Germany. And another three or four went to Korea. And everyone else went to Viet Nam. Except me.
BC:
So you were the only one not to go serve, basically.
DC:
Yeah, as far as I know. And I know fairly well. We used to keep track of who was going and I think we had it on pretty good authority that I was about the only one that didn’t go.
BC:
And what was the official reason for that.
DC:
There was no reason. It was just luck.
BC:
Have you thought a lot about how that luck has affected your life?
DC:
Sure, yeah, I’ve thought about it. That’s why I thought I would never get sick. One of the reasons. I’ve always been lucky.
Dad turns to camera and gives a knowing smile.
DC:
I just missed one bullet here.
BC:
You feel like the Parkinson’s (bullet) has grazed you?
DC:
Yeah, that’s right. In the big picture...you know, they say in the big picture Parkinson’s is a degenerative disease, well so is life. You can’t get out of it. It’s coming a little quicker. It speeds things up a little, maybe. Maybe. Maybe not. Actually it’s slowing things down a little. I don’t know where I’m going, I’m just driving.
BC:
Sounds okay to me.
DC:
I hope to see something familiar.
BC:
Now you were also a tank leader, is that correct?
DC:
Tank commander. Platoon leader and tank commander.
Dad sees a tank off the side of the road.
DC:
Just like that one. M-48A1. The top priority in terms of equipment was Germany. Even though we were in Viet Nam, that’s where the real threat was considered to be for a conventional war. The second priority was Viet Nam. Third priority was still Korea. The United States was the fourth priority so we got the worst equipment and the worst repair and support. It was kind of a difficult situation but it’s just a matter of priority.
BC:
Now you had an episode one time where your driver, late at night, didn’t see the cliff coming.
DC:
Right. We were on night maneuvers and in simulated warfare you can’t drive with your lights on. It was a dark night without much of a moon. And he didn’t see the cliff we were approaching and I did. Our communication, we were linked by an internal radio, was not working. I was yelling at him and he didn’t hear me. So I ended up finally kicking him in the head. He stopped just before we went over the edge of a cliff. That was a close one.
BC:
The other near miss you had was when you were flying.
DC:
That was in ROTC. That was before I got in the army at Renton Airport, south of Seattle. I was just beginning, as part of my flight training, to do my cross country solos. That’s where you go up without an instructor. I was behind in my training so I really wasn’t as familiar with radio procedure as I should have been.
BC:
You were working a lot of hours then?
DC:
Working a lot of hours, taking a lot of classes. Just pretty well taxed.
BC:
Dating a hot woman.
DC:
Yeah. Dating a hot woman. Late nights, early mornings. Ha. I better stop or I’ll get myself in trouble here.
BC:
Okay, so you’re taxed...
DC:
I was up flying solo and I was waiting for landing instructions. And I didn’t understand them, so I said, “Say again, landing instructions”. So they said them again.
BC:
And what did they sound like?
DC:
They sounded like garbage. it was just all garbled. But I knew where the airport was and I knew what had been the landing instructions. So I took what I thought was the correct path. Third leg, you’re lined up with the approach, with the runway in your eyeline, and I was about to touch down when I saw an airplane taking off into my landing pattern. So I turned as sharply as I could, circled around, parked the plane and I never flew again. I thought, ‘somebody’s trying to tell me something -- this is not for you’. And it turned out to be a very fortunate decision because I probably would have been a forward observer. And in Viet Nam there was nothing shorter than the life span of a Second Lieutenant forward observer. The average person died in less than a month after reporting for duty over there. Very hazardous. That might be a little exaggerated but it was not a good situation by any means.
BC:
And, again, somehow you were able to avoid that again...
DC:
Another one of those bullets. Maybe I was supposed to do something great.
BC:
You don’t think you have?
DC:
Maybe in a “It’s a Wonderful Life” sense.
BC:
Well I think you’ve done some great stuff. And I think you’re still sucking in air, too.
DC:
Sucking in air...sucking in air...things have changed so much since I was here last.
BC:
Well you haven’t seen it in 37 years.
DC:
That’s quite a while, isn’t it?
BC:
Do you think you still might do something that you would deem great at this point in your life?
DC:
It’s possible. I’m not planning on it. Who knows? Maybe this film will be great.
BC:
Maybe.
No comments:
Post a Comment