The Virtual Wall Check this site out it has a Shockwav plug-in, you can view all 140 panels of the virtual wall and search its 58,000 names. Once you find a specific veteran, you can download an electronic wall rubbing as a keepsake. Thanks Lady J Reassembled! Standing tall, the first words I hear, "What're you chewing there, asshole? You a cow? You don’t chew gum unless I say so, understand?" I nod my head and say, "Yup, got it!" Then I hear him yelling at me. "You some kind of cowboy?" So being the good-hearted guy I am, I answered, "Nope!" That was the wrong thing to say and all hell broke loose. "The first thing out of your mouth is Sir, and the last thing out of your mouth will also be Sir! You got that, Private?" He yells into my left nostril. I am by this time feeling his spittle on my face and smelling his breath, our noses damn near touching. "Sir, yes Sir!" I scream in reply He backs off a little and then tells me, and the rest of the guys, or scum, as he calls us, that this is going to be a fun eight weeks. How was I to know just what I had gotten myself into? We had all prepared for our first day in the Marine Corps by staying up drinking most of the previous night. The first order of business was the haircut, this so they could start the rebuilding process, with everyone beginning even. Then we were ordered to strip down and pack everything we had brought with us to be sent home. The next step in forging our new identities was to be issued uniforms. We were up 'til 4:00 AM getting the uniforms and bedding squared away, then being assigned a barracks and a bunk. When we finally got the opportunity the bed looked so good, I made it up fast then jumped in. The next thing I knew there was this madman back again, yelling and banging on every damn thing in sight and turning still occupied bunks over in a tangle of arms, legs and twisted bedding. I jumped up real quick. I didn't think that I was going to like this place much, it seemed as if I had just gotten into bed when the fun commenced again. We had ten minutes to get ready to go to the chow hall. Man, am I hungry, I thought, looking forward to breakfast as we stood in line. I was to find out in the next few weeks that you do a lot of that in the Marines, USMC. We had ten minutes to eat and you had better eat it all! That was not a problem at all for me. Four months later, I showed up at a dance back home. I asked a pretty girl, Vicki, I had known in high school to dance. As we danced we began to talk. "Where are you from?" She asked with a smile. "Don't you remember me?" I asked with a grin, leaning back to look her in the eyes. "Nope," she looked up at me and shook her head. I had lost sixty-five pounds in sixteen weeks. I was a lean, mean, fighting machine, as advertised. I was a Marine taught to kill with my bare hands. At the time I could never understood why we were treated so badly in boot camp, the DI told us we would find out one day. I left the dance out the side door and the first thing I noticed was some jerk I had seen inside, forcing his attentions on Vicki who had gone out for a breath of fresh air and to cool off a bit. I was alone and walked up to see what was going on and one thing lead to another and the next thing I knew I was being used for a football. Seems there were a few of his buddies around also. All that training and here I am getting the hell beat out of me, I didn't tell too many about that. I remember the day I received my papers informing me that I was going off to Southeast Asia, the little place that everyone learned about every night on television. At the time I was stationed in California, going up to Los Angeles every weekend to parties. They were called "Love-ins" back in the 60’s. I was of two minds at this time; one was to be the All-American Boy doing my country proud. The other was hanging out with the Hippies, drinking beer, and shouting, "Hell no, I won't go!" I think I was like most of the others back then, most of all I wanted to be cool, and the hip thing to do was protest. We were on the plane for fifteen hours, I didn't think we would ever get there. We finally did touch down on Okinawa and was held over for three or four days. Got drunk as hell, as I remember, seems we did that a lot back then. After all I was a Marine and this is what Marines did. The air was hot and muggy; it was the end of January and in my mind at least, it was supposed to be cold with snow on the ground. We landed in Viet Nam and I ended up in Da Nang. I remember that first day a truck came in and everyone gathered around the truck. It was a five-ton, as we called them and used to carry troops around. A Navy Medical Corpsman jumped up in the back with a clipboard and some tags. I asked what he was doing. "You don't want to know," he answered, looking at me strangely. So I jumped up on the back of the truck and took a look for myself. Come to find out he was right, I didn't want to know. There were eight dead Marines lying in the back of the truck. They were sent out on patrol the night before and had not made it back, not alive at least. I have never to this day forgotten that sight. Oh, well, I thought, this is not were I am going to stay anyhow. I had been assigned with a group going to a place they called Hue. That had to be better than this, or at least I thought so at the time. Come to find out Hue was one of the cities that fell during the now famous Tet Offensive. I spent a year over there and found out why the DI’s in boot camp were so hard on us. They broke us down as individuals and reassembled us as a component of a fighting unit. When I came home, the Anti-War protests were going on big time. I remember I took my uniform off and paid full price for my airfare back home. I was ashamed to wear it and was pretty certain I would have to defend wearing it. I had endured enough fighting and just wanted to be left alone. I lost a few good friends over there and I was letting this damn war protesting get to me, I was taking it way too personal. I don't remember much about what went on over in Viet Nam. All I know is that it was hot as hell and when you were in battles it was all the hotter. This is something I didn't talk about for a long time. And 'til this day, I don't talk about it much. After what we went through, and all the buddies I lost, I found out this was not a war after all, it was merely a conflict. It took most people in the States a long time to come to understand this. I went over and willingly did my duty for my country and came back to people telling me how much they hated what I did over there. It was a very confusing time for this country. I know a few good men that to this day still carry around the shame we were given to carry by our country. After all they wouldn't let us win the war and I am still ticked off about that. Also it was the first time many of the people in America found out that our government lies on occasion. We found out that the much vaunted "free" media slanted stories they reported from Viet Nam just for improved viewer ratings or in some cases for political agendas of their own. I did make it back unscathed physically and didn't know how much this bothered me until about ten years ago. That is when I finally dealt with the problem, quit drinking and carrying all the secret shame on my back. ShockTheMonkey, Copyright '99. "Me in 1967" My MOS was Ontos I named mine Ace's & Eight's it's call numbers were A-13 talk about unlucky number to come up with. This bad baby had 6-106's recoilless rifle's 4-50 cal. spotters and a M-30 machine gun. Home Page About Me! USMC Page Lineman Page Fun Backgrounds  Pictures of my Family Music Page Monkey Lake  Poetry Page  Sports Page  Sports Equity  Visit My Friends Lighthouses Lighthouse 2 Lighthouse 3 Homework Guide  Cool & Helpful Links Sign My Guest Book  View My Guest Book Web Designs by Shock Copyright © 1999.  All rights reserved. This background was made by me please don't take it.