journalism in my pocket, I'll probably be assigned as a war correspondent for the Stars and Stripes military newspaper.  Yeah, right.  How naive I was. .. the military doesn't operate that way.  They assigned me to an artillery battery, ironically, one with 105 howitzers, just like my father had worked with on Iwo Jima more than 20 years before.

    I remember flying into Vietnam on a commercial flight, I think it was Pan Am, wearing my combat fatigues.  As we descended to land, the stewardess, as they were called in those days,  told us that the airfield was receiving mortar fire from the North Vietnamese and that we had to circle around for a while until things quieted down.  I remember thinking to myself " My God, we haven't even landed and they're already shooting at us!"  Finally, we were able to land and I began my tour, which lasted from November 1968 to  the end of October 1969.  During the long, hot months that followed, I learned a lot about life and grew to become a man.

    I served with Hotel Battery, Third Battalion, 12th Marines on a hill called  LZ Russell overlooking the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) separating North and South Vietnam.  However, when I got there, there wasn't much to see of  LZ Russell , as the firebase had yet to be built.  We worked long hours, 8 hours on, 8 hours off, around the clock to build up our perimeter defenses, our "hootches" where we lived, our gun batterys and the FDC (Fire Direction Control) where I worked, plotting the coordinates (range, distance and elevation) for our 105 Howitzers to hit a target spotted by a forward observer out in the bush.  We built our living and working quarters out of ammo boxes, filled with dirt and stacked on top of each other with steel aircraft landing strips on top covered with sandbags.  My "home" was called Toad Hall, and I lived there with three other great guys, including my buddy, John Dalton, who slept on the bunk above mine.  I remember listening to Jimi Hendrix on cassette tapes in Toad Hall and sharing oranges and chocolate cookies with my "family" on LZ Russell that had been sent to me by my family back in the states.

    I also remember taking the battery laundry back to the rear once, a real treat, since it meant getting a hot meal instead of the canned C-rations we usually ate on the hill, and finding a Vietnamese hand grenade in one of the bags of clothes when I brought it back.  A scary moment; luckily, the contact grenade hadn't hit the ground hard enough to explode, or else I wouldn't be here writing this.  Hot meals and mail from home, unless it was a "Dear John" letter from a girlfriend, ( like a lot of other guys, I got one) were eagerly anticipated and gave us something to look forward to.  Those "care packages" were especially welcome.

    I was on the hill the night of February 25, 1969, when we were attacked by the North Vietnamese. Again, I was very lucky, although I had a few close calls that night, including a Vietnamese hand grenade that had been tossed my way.  It rolled right past me, down the wooden ammo box steps we had built on the side of the hill from my hootch to the FDC.  I've never been so scared in all my life.  It was a long night, made worse by our own artillery shells firing support that dropped in too close for comfort and wiped out a lot of good men. We lost a lot of Marines that night.  It was a living hell that  gave me nightmares for many years.  I remember the next morning,, my buddy John, who, luckily, had a been in the rear during the attack, arriving on a helicopter and handing me a cigarette -- one of the nicest presents I'd ever received.  I received a navy Commendation Medal with a Combat V for Meritorious Service from Nov. 20, 1968 to October 26, 1969, a Vietnam Service Medal, a Vietnam Campaign Medal and a National Defense Service Medal.  I was honorably discharged with the rank of Corporal, E-4 in March  1974.

    Today, I live in San Francisco, CA, near Golden Gate Park, with my wife, Linda, and our two boys, Matthew, 16, and Ryan, 13.  I work for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as a Public Affairs Officer, writing news releases for the space agency.  Although the Marines wouldn't let me do it, after being discharged I worked as a newspaper reporter and editor for several daily newspapers throughout California.

I am proud to say I served on LZ Russell along with all the other Marines, some of whom, sadly , are no longer with us. It was an experience I will never forget.  For those who, like me, were fortunate enough to escape with our lives,  I wish you all the best.  I consider you part of my family, and it was an honor serving with you.

Sincerely,
Mike Mewhinney