JB:: you did know my father was an officer, retired a full colonel right

ME: Yeah

JB:: he was aviation cadets, so he flied in aviation cadets but he didn’t have 20/20 vision so he couldn’t be a pilot, but he was an officer. I have 20/40 vision, so when I applied for aviation cadets I passed all of the exams except that I had to have dental work, and also I had to take the flight aptitude test, I already had a pilot’s license because dad already taught me how to fly. He taught me good and hard, and that’s why I was such a good pilot. They didn’t have anything to do with those who flow with regular officers, so we had to take the exam for flight aptitude test to see if we were qualified for flying, so they said to people like me, you’re going to take the flight aptitude test too because we don’t have anything to do with you.I whipped through the ttest fast, and handed it in. They told me to go back and sit down, in double the time people came up and started turning the tests in.When I was leaving, I was going out the door, they stopped me and told me I had one of the highest scores on the test they ever had, too bad you don’t have 20/20 vision *laughs* So anyhow, I was qualified for aviation cadets, so I had to go get dental work, I went and did that which delayed my class assignment. Then I got my class assignment and they changed. I was only a high school graduate, and they changed it to a 2 year degree.

JB: so I got drafted out of Hughes, ok. So then when they drafted me, they took everybody that had the lowest scores on the tests, and the highest scores, they didn’t want the middle, they just wanted the 2 extremes, so they pulled us aside and put us in a holding aread, so there was nothing but the brainy people, and the dredges in our outfilt. Then we had to take a test to evaluate. It put me in a group that was split. Anyhow, I got put into scout dog training. So I went into scout dog training instead of being a programmer. Dad wrote a letter to Senator Murphy, senator Murphy was in California, and he complained about the placement, where you take somebody that has no training in programming, and you give them programming for being a programmer, then you takes a person who is already in industry in programming and make them a scout dog handler. So then Murphy wrote a personal letter to the Department of the Services, and said look into this ok. A letter from the colonel, and a letter from a senator, and I already had my bags on the truck to go to vietnam as a scout dog trainer and handler, and those two came and made me read both letters and askedd me to verify this, and I says yeah I wrote a letter to Bob Sacks who was my boss at aerospace and he sent a personal letter that said I was qualified you know, software and stuff, but I was on the Minuteman program at aerospace. So anyhow, that got me out of scout dogs, and into Mac V headquarters. Mac V headquarters in thejoint of all the services, they over rule everything, for battle and everything, they position the navy and Marines and everyone for where they are supposed to be, and I got sent to Saigon ok. There top heavy, they had lots of high brass there and everything, and I was a PFC, Private First Class and I was the lowest of the low. They gave me books to read on programming the machine, I studied the machine and knew it by heart, then they had a navy chief with two ensigns who were self trained. So they put me in the class with them. I already knew everything, and the sergeant kept making mistakes, and I raised my hand and corrected him. The next day he came back and would say yesterday I was wrong, and he would repeat what I told him the day before. Then they were also making me walk guard duty around the building. So I said I want to transfer out of Mac V headquarters, so they transferred me to the first logistics command, that was up in Pongyang. I started talking to all the programmers and everything and one of the lieutenants there made me key punch the data. I said my MOS is programming, not keypunch. There were 5 programmers, the keypunchers were mostly vietnamese. So I went up to the programmers and told them what the lieutenant told them, so they wernt to the lieutenant and said we want him with us programming. I analyzed their system and I was looking over their software and stuff. Dad had told me how to do PERG, PErd is critical path programming, it’s a military thing, and so it involves flow charts, you make bubbles and lines, and you move things around and say oh, if I move this up here the whole thing will be done faster, is the object of Perg. It’s a critical path type thing. So I was Perg charting the thing on regular paper, with a template and drawing circles and lines, and the lieutenant came by and asked what I’m doing. Here’s your PERG chart of your dataflow through the system, and the critical path. And you can
Move these things around and get faster output. He said, can you put that on 4 feet by 5 feet cards? I said yeah, I also took drafting by the way in high school. So he gave me the cards and I drew it up ig and inked it in and everything. I was wondering why he needed that in the ig cards, and they put it up on the wall. When the brass would come through, they would say this is the data flow through our system, and they would say wow! Anyhow, the turnaround on reports was once a month, and I looked at that and I studied the machine and I learned how the registers worked inside the machine, so I found out on a keypunch card I can put 80 instructions on the keypunch card instead of just 1 because the program that was generating code to put into the machine was only generating one code per card and I was doing 80 punches per card. And then I also, being an olde programmer , knew about you can clear all registers in the machine, for storing data and the data flow. So I could store80 instructions in one card.So they had 2 trays of IBM cards to load in one program. Running those 2 trays through my program I generated a card deck that big to replace the 2 trays of cards. Then I duplicated it and had multiple copies so if you had a card jam or anything you had another one to go to so you didn’t have to regenerate it. So the reports went from a month turn around to a daily turn around. Now the officers also, dad called once in a while to talk to me. Phone calls from a colonel in the united states out ranked everyone else, so they knew my dad was a colonel too so that probably helpled. So they started pushing me though the board, so in about 8 months I went from a PFC to a spec 5 or E5 which is a master sergeant in 10 months. I didn’t really care about the rank too much. One day it was raining and there were puddles out, and for going to urinate, they had 55 gallon drum burried in the dirt on the other side of the buildings. I had to go out to pee, and I was in a hurry and didnt’g grab my hat, and I you weren't supposed to go outside without your hat on, there were puddles, and a jeep coming and I was looking down where I wouldn’t et splashed, the jeep stopped and I looked up and there was a major in the jeep, so I saluted him. He called me over and asked my name and rank, I went over to him and told him the info. He went on his way. I went to the lieutenant and told him that I was getting really close to getting back to the states. I told him if that major makes any problems for me, things won’t be running around here. He said we will take care of it, and he squelched it. That’s basically my career, what part of it are you wanting?

ME: what’s the DMZ?

JB: the DMZ is the demilatarized zone. The boarder for the enemy and us, is the DMZ. Quingyong is just below it ok.

ME: were you statinoned there?

JB: yes I was stationed there , right below the DMZ. It was where all the soldiers were at. I was stationed just barely south of it, I had to pull guard duty and stuff like that. So for guard duty we had storage tanks for aviation fuel, that was in a little canyon, and we had towers where you would be up in the tower looking out to make sure the enemy didnt’ come in. While I was up there one time, I heard a tiger out in the field. But the field was all ricks and stuff like that, and it would be real easy for an emey to go in and pick you off while you were in the tower. So anyhow the I called in and I said, I hear a tiger crying out here, if he shows himself can I shoot it? They said they would call me back. I got permission to shoot the tiger, but it never did show itself. So anyhow other than that, the only good thing was you got C rations. Creations was better than food in the mess hall. A lot of the people were going to the PX and buying like hotdogs and hamburgers, so when I pulled head count, where the messs hall, where the soldiers are supposed to eat, I would have to pull head count, and the sergeant would come back and say how many people, he would write down double that because a lot of people weren’t showing up. I asked him about it, and he said we get out supplies depending on how many people they are feeding. Turned out the sergeant had a link with the hotel in Quongyon, and the new stuff that they were getting, he was selling to them at lower prices ok, and they caught him just before I left and court martialed him. That didn’t help me while I was there, the food I had when I was there was cooked in old grease and the food all tasted the same. Other than that we were working all the time and putting in 12 hou days. We did have some parties where they had steaks, bbq outside the building not in the mess hall just for our group. We didd get some good food sometimes. BAsically that’s it, guard duty, C rations and food. There was one time it was after work, where I went to go to the latrine, and I had just pulled my pants down, and I heard a bullet go overhead, I stopped and heard another one. Up with the pants, and I was right by the arms place so I ran over and got my rifle. They issued me my rifle, and everyone else was getting their weapons. The sergeants were kind of late, and had been drinking. He came in and said lock and load your weapons. Everybody started jamming clips in and pulling bolts back. These guys aren’t trained for infantry, but anyhow it turned out there were two guard towers, and one guy yelled out to a guy walking up and the guy didn’t hear him, so the guard fired a warning shot over his head. The guy at the other guard tower heard the shot so he shot in the air back, and then everybody got into the action, and that’s why bullets were flying. Nobody had a target, so you got a bunch of kids who don’t know what they’re doing, so that was basically that one. One time I was on guard duty over a field, and they had bunkers with sandbags, they had sandbags on the roof too so people throwing grenades on top would be protected. The natives were told not to go into that field, so anything moving in that field, you could shoot. I didn’t like standing on the ground looking out the window, so if anybody was coming through the brush, they could snak up and see me and plug me before I knew they were even there. So I climbed up top and was laying on the sandbags on top and I saw a bush moving so I chambered a round and waited and watched that bush, and finally a dog came out from behind the bush. So I ejected that bullet and I didn’t shoot anything. Another time I was on reactionary guard, and they had a company up on the hill, the Vietcong had hit, not too far from where I was at, and they wiped it out. They went in through the final line of defense, and overand the unit and killed all the people in it. So the next day they called for volunteers to go up there and help cleanup, which isn’t what I wanted. A buddy of mine went up there and said it was terrible, there was dead bodies all over the place and they had to take personal belongings from people and package them and he said one of the guys had a picture of a girl in his shirt pocket. It was really sad that they were going to have to tell the people back home. I was glad I didn’t go. We had to sandbag the trucks that were going up there to make sure if they hit landmines the shrapnel wouldn’t get into the truck. You like these stories?

Me:i were you near any important battles or anything?

JB: yeah I was just up the hill of that one that got over run. I was there during the Tet offensive. That was a push by the enemy to clean us out of Saigon and south Vietnam. It was a push from the enemy. One of the biggest pushes they have.

(my grandmother more or less forced him to talk about this and he obviously was distressed and uncomfortable talking about this, so i felt uncomfortable punting it on here.)

Me: yeah! What would you like kids today to know and understand about the military?

JB: the military is necessary. It keeps our country free from people, from agressives and stuff like that. I guess everybody knows that. The military is a good place to get a career too. You can get trained for a lot of things and get skills, and be trained for different things. Like scout dog training if you want to work with dogs, also other jobs like programming and stuff like that. Also work at the jobs in the military so when you get out you're skilled to work them. That's about it I guess.