Ed "Spooky" Nored

RVN Sep 69 - Sep 70

After basic and Infantry training, both at Ft. Lewis Washington. I went on leave for about 3 weeks and then was to report to the Oakland Army Base. This base was only about 20 minutes from my house. Many of you reading this departed for Vietnam thru Oakland. After reporting to Oakland and getting jungle fatigues issued to us along with nice new boots there was a gap of time that I was able to call my parents to come pick me up. These 3 photos were taken during my return home. The clock is ticking and these last precious minutes spent with my girl friend, Linda, her sister and mom as well as my own parents is hard to describe. I felt sorry for my mom who had spent 2 years waiting for my dad to return from fighting in the pacific (Okinawa and the Philippines) in WW2 and now 24 years later she was sending her son off to war. Linda and I were going off in two different worlds me to Nam and she off to college at the University of Santa Barbara Ca.

In some of here letters to me she related how fellow students felt strongly against the war and those who served were not put in a favorable light to say the least. I'm sure it was very hard at times to care about someone so dearly in this very unpopular war. I can't say enough about my family who put up with all the stupid requests I made to send me things. They had there own problems at home. Looking back I was terribly selfish. What helped me get thru Nam and helped me keep my spirits up was Linda Dalton. Those nights pulling guard in the bush sitting by the claymore switches and staring into the jungle belonged to her. Not distance traveled, not span of time, nor harshness of environment that one finds himself in, can diminish the memory of a good woman.

On Sunday night Linda and my parents drove me back to the Oakland Army Base and outside a large building filled with the next wave of replacements for Nam we said our final goodbyes. The next morning we all loaded onto buses that took us  to Travis AFB about 1 hour away and were loaded onto a civilian airliner and off we went.

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These 3 photos were taken on the flight over. The stewardess pretty much let us do what we wanted.

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Above is the military currency issued to all military in Vietnam. We nicknamed it monopoly money for obvious reasons.		Pictured above on the left is Mike Euklund. Mike and I went thru training together and both of us were assigned to Delta company. He was placed in 1st Platoon. Doyle, on the right came down with malaria after only a month in the field. He spent 5 months in a hospital bed and actually had to learn to walk again. He nearly died from the disease.
This is the main entrance to the 1st Team Academy where everyone assigned to the 1st. Cav. Spent 3 days in orientation.
Mike Eukland and Doyle. (I can't remember his full name.) At the first reunion we had I believe it was Mike who told me Doyle had come down with Malaria early in his tour and was in the hospital for about 6 months. We were just 3 more "cherries". We all landed at Bien Hoa air base on Sept. 22, 1969. On the 25th we received orders for the 1st Air Cav. Arrived at the First Team Academy and were issued "16's" the same day. At the F.T.A. Mike took a picture of me being winched to a helicopter in a Medavac display. What's sort of funny is at the time this picture was taken I still had not yet set foot in a helicopter. On Oct 6 we received orders for the 1/8 Cav. I originally was assigned to "A" company but upon arrival at Quan Loi I was switched to Delta company. Oct 7 received field gear. It should be noted that we are part of the 4th generation of replacements for the 1st Air Cav. I was a junior in high school when the big battles at X-Ray and Albany took place.

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Grunts & the gear we carried (start here)

Maps

LZ's

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