David Robinson, 1964
I found out the hard way that college was not for me! I got a job in a bank and waited for Uncle Sam to come get me. My draft notice arrived in Jan ’64, and I headed off to Fort Leonard Wood for Basic Training. What I wanted was to be a clerk/typist or a chaplain’s assistant, but the Army had other ideas. Off I went to Fort Gordon for Military Police training. I have to say that I was in the best shape of my life after Basic. Even my mother didn’t recognize me when she came to pick me up. I had gained weight and was tan from all that outdoor training. (Above, David in 1960)
Vietnam was just a name on the news to most of us. We really had no idea what we were in for when we got orders to ship out. It was June or July (don’t remember) when we landed at Ton San Nhut Air Base outside of Saigon. We could feel the heat and humidity even before the airplane door was open.
We were in temporary billets. Of course, they ran out of mosquito netting before they got to me. That first night, I was eaten alive by mosquitoes and saw my first lizard crawling up the wall next to my bunk!!! My only thought was how in the hell was I going to survive a year?
Ironically, within a week I was billeted in an air-conditioned hotel with maid service. My as
signment was to the 560th Military Police Detachment in Danang. During the first week, the unit’s clerk was shipping home, and the officers asked if any of us knew how to type. My hand shot up so fast that I quickly became the clerk/typist that I had hoped to be. This was a great job with many perks. Our group of MP’s was like a fraternity, and I was a big part of that. There was always a threat of danger, but nothing like what the brave men experienced out in the fields. (Left, David and his typewriter)
My commander urged me to join him in teaching conversational English to a class of Vietnamese. With that experience, I got to know some of the stud
ents outside of class and learned about their struggles enduring the dangers in their daily lives. The Vietnamese are a very warm people.
When I arrived in Vietnam in 1964, there were approximately 25,000 US troops there; when I left in 1966, over 200,000. As we all know, this was a horrible chapter in our country’s life. I consider myself VERY lucky to have had a different and positive experience there.
Discharged and back home in November 1966, I stayed on in the San Francisco/Bay Area for over 40 years. I returned to Wichita in 2003, and it was another per
fect move for me. I am so happy to be back!
I did not think I would be interested in reconnecting with the East class of 1960, but I really am enjoying it. You guys are doing such a fantastic job. I hope that I can contribute a little something and maybe reconnect with a few people.
David, thank you for your service with the Army in Viet Nam. This was a very different and scary time for all of us. Different because most of us were unfamiliar with Viet Nam and scary because Uncle Sam seemed to be on the heels of so many, my former husband included. Happy to read that your story had a good ending and you landed “back home” in Wichita!
David,
This is a fabulous story (and yes, I was a fan of Jack Reacher long before the Amazon series, so we can all see how you really did things). I also feel that learning typing in summer school in 7th grade was a life saver, affirmed by Marilyn’s many gentle inquiries about what I thought I wrote in longhand. I worked each fall over a dozen years with many Asians gathered for a program on taxation in Taiwan, and visited many of them as I subsequently toured various Asian nations alone. Their comments on their individual lives, reflection on their nations, ethnicities, and challenges always awed me as so different from my world. Like you, they taught me a lot more than I taught them.