In January of 1965 I was midway through my internship at Wilford Hall, a one-thousand bed USAF hospital in San Antonio, Texas where I was anxiously awaiting word of my next assignment. 

I had joined the Air Force my senior year in medical school. Not only was I paid as a 2nd Lieutenant that year, I was guaranteed a good internship with the promise that I would be given preferential choice of duty stations during the three year payback period that followed. There was a physician draft at the time so most doctors could expect to serve in the military but with little choice of where, when or what branch. Things were starting to heat up in Viet Nam and it was a war I hoped to avoid.

Naturally, I breathed a sigh of relief when I learned I had been given my first choice, an assignment as a Flight Surgeon to a U2 squadron near Melbourne, Australia. By the time that three year tour was scheduled to end, my military obligation would be complete and I could get on with the rest of my life. All I had to do was finish my internship and a ten week course in Aerospace Medicine at Brooks Air Force Base. 

After months of planning and anticipation, the dream ended. One week before my departure date, I was notified that the base in Australia was closing. The trans-pacific flight that followed landed in Saigon instead of Melbourne. 

In 1965 the United States was rapidly increasing its presence in South Viet Nam. In one year the number of U.S. military personnel in country increased from 24,000 to 185,000. I was on the cusp of that build-up. 

I arrived in early October and was assigned to the 14th tactical dispensary in Nha Trang, a beautiful resort city on the central coast of Viet Nam. Nha Trang was home to the 5th special forces group and the 100-bed 8th army field hospital.

There were 1,100 air force personnel when I arrived. For three months I was their only physician. Our primary responsibility was to give tactical support for special forces camps in the central highlands. We provided them with supplies and animals dropped by parachute or unloaded from C-123’s cargo planes after assault landings on short runways. When the camps came under night attack, we lit up the sky with magnesium flares. In addition to routine sick call and dealing with public health problems, I spent time with the air crews and participated in their missions.