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I joined the Navy Reserve to get a different view of the world than what the Mendocino Coast had to offer. After Boot Camp at Treasure Island, San Francisco I shipped over to the Regular Navy to get Hospital Corps School in San Diego. I then requested and received a billet at Naval Hospital in Yokosuka, Japan.

In Yokosuka I ended up working on a Rehab Ward where the patients were mostly Marines convalescing from their wounds waiting to go back to Vietnam.

After 18 months and with the rank of HM3 (E-4), I (along with 40 other corpsmen from Yokosuka) was reassigned to the Fleet Marine Force, Viet Nam and in September 1966 sent back to Camp Pendleton, in Southern California for training in the art of being a Marine combat corpsman.

Field Medical Service School consisted of 1 month intense training at Camp Del Mar (area 21) of Camp Pendleton. We went through a course of combined Marine Corps Boot Camp and Field Medicine. We were instructed on everything from basic marksmanship and advanced first aide, to camp sanitation. We were immunized for all types of tropical diseases and then it was off to that mysterious place somewhere in Southeast Asia called Viet Nam.

Field Med School. While digging in around the perimeter of a hilltop, one of the corpsmen dug into a rabbit hole and flushed out a scared bunny. He immediately killed the beast and held its carcass up on his e-tool as a gesture of triumph. Another "Doc" unearthed a rattle snake and did the same. The entire group of corpsmen started chanting "Kill! - Kill! - Kill!" It was a primal bonding of the warrior spirit. In a mere four weeks, thanks to our training, we had mentally prepared to kill the enemy as well as provide lifesaving medical aide to our comrades. We were good at what did and proud of it.

Field Medical Service School Delta Company November 1966. I am located third row up sixth from the left with the sunglasses. Our drill sergeant was Sgt Burkhalter (third row center).

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