Bill's Military Career spans from 1962 to his retirement in 1984. He had served in numerous posts in the Continental United States and Europe, as well as a tour of duty as a Mortarman in Vietnam.

He writes...

"I arrived in Vietnam the first week of January1968. I was a 11C- Mortarman, so I wasn’t worried too much. I was in for a rude awaking. As soon as I got to the field, I was assigned to an infantry platoon. I was told that the company didn’t carry 81mm mortars in the double/triple canopies of trees. It took too long to clear a field of fire, as the trees were so plentiful and 2-3 layers thick.

The job of night listening post (LP) was assigned to me the first night. Of course I was very afraid being outside the perimeter with 3 other soldiers. I pulled my 2 hours on and then woke up the next man and made sure he was awake. Well I awoke some time later to find him asleep. After waking him, I went back to sleep. Every time I got LP, I got this same guy who never stayed awake while on guard. Right after we came back that first night, something happened that really scared me. We had the charging handle for the Claymore mine on the bunker. Well someone didn’t lock it in place and it was sat on, causing the claymore to explode right after we walked by it. The four of us could have been Swiss cheese if we had been a few minutes late coming back to the perimeter!

We "humped" every day, looking for "Sir Charles". Each day we built a fighting position, cleared fields of fire, pulled "OP" and "LP" duties, plus pulled 50% alert on the line. The next morning we emptied our sandbags into the hole, started "humping” again. Same Stuff, Different Day.

After being out of the Army for a year and a half, I reenlisted. I went to 5/68 Armor, 8th ID. I was in Germany for 10 months before my orders came in for Nam . I had volunteered. During this whole time while out and about in Germany, I drank a lot of beer, so I had a hard time humping as a "Grunt" in Vietnam. Also being in the Central Highlands of Vietnam wasn’t the best place to be a grunt. Those mountains seemed to go straight up and forever higher!

I don’t know how or why, but I never went out on a recon mission with 3 other people. Some went out for the day; others went out for 3 days. I guess the good LORD was looking out for me.

The first time I was out with the company, we came upon a "Charlie" camp. Charlie had left but the point man "smelled" Charlie. Charles fired on us. This was when I saw the first wounded Americans. However the company commander called everything in, including the kitchen sink on the enemy. I was never so happy that he came along with the 2 platoons that went out! Well, I humped for 3 months before we were called back to the battalion to form a mortar platoon from the line companies. I saw my share of things while humping and I kind of wish I had stayed with the company. I had my first "Hot CA" (Combat Assault), saw burned enemy bodies several times, got rocketed and mortared.

I went back to the firebase where the battalion CO and his staff was located. I was happy that I didn’t have to hump anymore, although I did miss it. I was an E4, so I was made Squad Leader. With my one man mortar crew, I was gunner, asst gunner, and ammo bearer. Jake the "Snake' had humped for about 9 months as a 11B. He was a great man and very fast with the 81mm. Anderson was my FDC and he was the best, never saw anyone handle that plotting board so fast!! Both of these fine young men were also accurate. If there was a mistake, it was the ammo, not these two.

Speaking of ammo. We had the shorter rounds, I guess, that were used in Korea and/or World War II. They had powder bags that we called "cheese". Most of these powder bags had been wet from time to time. Let me tell you that this caused many "short " rounds to fall. We never knew where the round would land. Needless to say, when a company got in contact and needed firepower, they wouldn’t call on us. Of course, this bothered us that they didn’t trust us. Which I didn’t blame them! In the meantime, we got brand new rounds issued, because of all the problems with the short rounds found in the older ammo.

Well one night the company we were with didn’t have much choice but to called on us. We had D Co. and A Co. mortars on the hill. The Fire Support Base (FSB) was getting hit with mortar, RPG's and a mass human wave attack. This left all our firepower going to them. This included 4.2-inch mortars, 105mm, 8-inch, and 175mm artillery. Meanwhile our LP's were reporting movement and it was close to them. Not wanting to give away the positions of the M60 Machine Guns or 90mm Recoilless Rifles, they called on my mortars. I had my gun firing Illumination rounds with A Co. firing High Explosive (HE) rounds. We were the only thing firing that night except "Puff the Magic Dragon" (AC-47 Gunship) that was called in later. The next morning a patrol was sent out and found 17 enemy dead except for the one that moved and was shot. It seemed like the whole company came by and patted us on the back and told us what a good job we had done.  This was the best that we motarmen had felt in a long time! There was never a problem after this calling for the 81mm's to provide support for anyone."

Today, Bill is retired and is enjoying life with his wife.