Vietnam, 1967 R&R (Rest & Relaxation)

It was as though the Devil had given us a pass from Hell!  I was on my way to Honolulu for a week’s worth of R&R!   On the plane, most of us were happy.  But, at the end, it was all overshadowed by the six months most of us had left in Vietnam.  We knew what it was like to have to go to war and, after our R&R, would have to do it again!    

One of the most wonderful memories of my life was walking into the airport past a glass wall behind which the wives and sweethearts were going into a frenzy of joy to see us.  I found Susan and held her for a very long time before we went to our hotel. 

One morning, a few days into R&R while Susan was showering, I sat on our balcony.  I have no idea what made me do it but I wrote down the serial numbers of the $20 bills I was carrying in my wallet.  I think I was enjoying looking at US money again and I noticed that some of the serials were sequential.  That little almost nonsensical act had a profound impact on my tour in Vietnam and probably changed my life. 

Later that day, we drove up Diamond Head to take pictures of the spectacular waves smashing onto the lava flows.  As we walked down the steep slope, three men were climbing up.  I had a bad feeling about them but they kept moving.  Suddenly, I remembered that I had left my wallet in the car.  No one in Vietnam carried a wallet.  When I got to the car, the wallet was gone. 

Suddenly, out of nowhere came an unmarked police car. A Detective asked me if I had lost anything.  I said that my wallet was gone.  The car roared out of the parking lot and up the road.  A few minutes later, the suspects were apprehended a short distance up the road and arrested. They were the same three men who walked up the lava flow.  However, my wallet and the money were missing.  

As we stood there awaiting a uniform car to take them to jail,  I remembered my list of serial numbers which I had placed in the glove compartment of the car.  I told the incredulous detective that I was providing him with a list of the serial numbers.  He stood there dumbfounded.  I remember him asking, “Can you tell me why you wrote those serial numbers down?”  I told him that I really didn’t have a good answer for him.  He just laughed and said that it was a moot point since the money had not been recovered.  We searched the area but to no avail.  The police left to take the suspects to the Station.  We learned that they had been under surveillance suspected of committing series of robberies in the area.   We also learned that they were “bad boys” who were dangerous. 

Susan suggested that we search some more.  After about a half hour, we found the wallet under three rocks.  We called the police.  At the Station, the Detective asked me again why I would have written down the serials.  I couldn’t give him a good answer.  The DA had to retain the money as evidence but they gave me $300 from a special fund so we could continue our R&R.  Two days later, we learned that the men were to be indicted and tried.  I was held over for a day in Honolulu but Susan had to return to her teaching job in New York.

What had been a joyous reception a week earlier was now a scene of somber wariness for the future.  A pall of sadness was everywhere as the wives and sweethearts filed back into planes.  Many of these couples would never see each other again. Those thoughts played inside my head until I finally cleared them at the hotel bar that night.  Since I had missed my original flight, I was routed back to Vietnam through Saigon where I had to catch a “hop” on a C-130 to DaNang and then a truck out to my Battalion Headquarters where an arrest warrant had been issued.  When I presented the credentials from the Marine liaison in Hawaii, I was returned to duty immediately.

My Battalion became part of Marine Amphibious Unit with the mission to attack the North Vietnamese Armies as they moved south for what we later learned was the Tet Offensive.  My job was in Operations and Legal but the losses grew in the intensified  ground combat.  We had trouble getting replacements on a timely basis since our casualties were so high.   

In early March, 1968,  the Battalion trapped an NVA Division on the banks of the Cua Viet River.  The Battalion Commander decided to take everyone off the ship who could carry a rifle for the attack.  Dutifully, with about 30 days to go, I got my rifle, pistol, extra magazines, and hand grenades and climbed into a C-46 Assault Chopper for the hop into Dong Ha.  

Suddenly,  a Corporal from HQ Personnel appeared and I was pulled from the helicopter.  I had priority orders to Honolulu to testify at the trial!  I went from the USS Valley Forge aboard a chopper to DaNang two hours later.  In DaNang, I was priority on the first flight to Okinawa.  I did three days of processing there in five hours and was placed on a Continental Jet for Honolulu.   Upon arrival, a Marine Corps staff car was waiting on the tarmac to take me directly to the District Attorney’s Office.  I was able to call Susan and tell her that I was in Hawaii!   I went into the Courtroom wearing combat boots and the utility uniform.  The trial went quickly.  When it was my turn to testify, the Prosecutor went to great lengths to stress that I had been in Vietnam and headed for commbat just days ago.  He asked me how I knew that the three men on trial were, in fact, the three men that I saw.  I told him that in our training, we focused on details to potentially save our lives in the field.  I then drew a picture of a tattoo.  I told them that if they looked on the left arm of the defendant, they would find a similar tattoo.  The defining moment came when the tattoo was shown to the jury.  I had other identifying details for the other two men.   The Defense tried to shake me.  He asked if it were possible that I saw them on the beach.  I said “no!” and told him that I felt potentially threatened by the men and focused very hard on them.  With the corroborating testimony by the Detectives and other witnesses, the jury took less than an hour to convict! 

I was sent to the USMC HQ in Hawaii Camp H. M. Smith.  I was apprehensive that they would return me to Vietnam.  However, the Major in the Legal Office offered me a chance to stay in Hawaii.  However, when he learned that I only had six months left on my enlistment and was married, I was given orders to Camp LeJeune, North Carolina.      

The simple act of writing down serial numbers plus some determined wifely persistence set in motion a series of events that got me out of Vietnam about five weeks early and potentially saved my life.  I often look at my Children and Grandchildren and think back to that fateful day in a hotel room overlooking the ocean where I wrote down the serial numbers!  Perhaps I cheated the Devil out of his due!