PRESERVING A MILITARY LEGACY FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS
The following Reflection represents SP4 George McDaniel’s legacy of their military service from 1969 to 1970. If you are a Veteran, consider preserving a record of your own military service, including your memories and photographs, on Togetherweserved.com (TWS), the leading archive of living military history. The Service Reflections is an easy-to-complete self-interview, located on your TWS Military Service Page, which enables you to remember key people and events from your military service and the impact they made on your life.
Of all the military operations you participated in, including combat, humanitarian or peacekeeping operations, which of these made a lasting impact on you and why?:
Memory, Muscles, and the Incredible Brain
Why do I jerk back? Why am I startled? Our minds are incredible, aren’t they? How can something so small and lightweight store memories for years and suddenly spark muscles to react without our thinking of doing so?
Day after day, I’m fine, so I’m surprised when my brain responds due to events in Vietnam in 1969. For example, I was having dinner with a friend at a restaurant. Suddenly, a fan nearby made a loud noise. I flinched, teeth clinched, my shoulders, neck, and head arching backward. Just as suddenly, the noise was gone. I started to explain, but he kept on talking as if he hadn’t noticed a thing, so I didn’t.
Recently in an airport, I was walking to an escalator, which is normal. Loud footsteps I heard behind me, getting closer and closer. I stopped, stepped aside, looked back, and let a young lady wearing high heels pass me by. Why? I don’t like unexpected noises coming up behind me, getting closer and closer.
Those are but little things I live with — hardly noticeable to anyone — effects of jungle warfare more than 50 years ago when I was with the First Infantry Division. I remember walking behind our point man, who stepped on a booby-trapped mortar round. I remember the blast and being blown like a leaf in the wind and landing on my back. Coming to, I remember looking up and seeing a peaceful blue sky, small white clouds, and brown leaves falling as if it were autumn stateside. As they fell, they intermingled with a rising plume of black smoke.
I didn’t know what had happened but then remembered, and grabbed my helmet and M-16 went running up to help Bill, who was not killed but screaming. In training, we were supposed to wait for help since it might be an ambush, but when your friend in front of you is screaming in pain, he becomes a priority.
His legs were scrambled, snapped shinbones sticking out of his torn pants. We shot him up with morphine and called in the medevac. I can still feel shrapnel in my chin.
Coming home, no big deal. That’s war. You simply live with it. Life goes on. But I do wonder how my brain remembers, firing nerves and triggering my body to react.
I remember seeing a brain exposed, the top of a Viet Cong’s skull shot off as he peered behind a bush looking for our ambush position. Somewhere in those gray folds had lived memory. But that image of a brain is not what triggers my response, for the VC’s brain’s a mental picture I can call up when I want to. Instantaneous, this startle response is different, deeper.
I am not alone. Many vets have memories that arise without warning or conscious will. The novelist Marcel Proust wrote about deep-seated memory and connected it to smell. We, vets, have all sorts of memory sources, don’t we? The brain is incredible.
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I remember coming up on a levy while stationed in Eschborn, Germany in May of 1970 to go to Nam. All kinds of thoughts start going through your head. The first being how to tell your mom and dad. The second if you’re gonna come back home alive and in one piece when you leave there. We landed in Cam Ranh Bay in the middle of the night. First thing that I remember was the oppressive heat and the small arms fire in the distance. Flew to my duty station the next day, Da Nang, which I new was not too far from the DMZ. The first night we had an alert. Just being there one night didn’t know what to expect, scared shitless. The VC were shelling the Marine base just up the road from our base, the 85th Maintenance Battalion. Got orders to come home in April of 1971. That’s when Nixon started to pull out troops early. Came home in one piece to a country that hated my guts. Now 50 years later l have the side effects of agent Orange, prostate cancer. Welcome home my fellow Vietnam Vets.
Congratulations, George; your story is a masterpiece of writing and the emotional connections to past memories of Vietnam and other far-off places are still carried by many.
I thank you, Michael. I’m glad you liked my recollections and the connections of past and present. If you want to read more, go to my Facebook page, George McDaniel, the one with photo of me holding a redfish I’d caught. Scroll down and you’ll see a lot of brief stories I’d written. Again, I thank you.
I REMEMBER SEEING A A DEAD MARINE ON THE GROUND. THE MARINES BODY WAS POSITIONED FACING DOWN FROM THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN. I GRABBED THE MARINES WRIST AND IT SLIPPED BETWEEN MY HANDS. HE HAD BEEN HIT BY A WHITE PHOSPHORUS ROCKET. AGAIN I GRABBED HIS ARM TIGHTLY. I PICK THE MARINE UP AND HIS FACE FLASHED ACROSS MINE WITHOUT THE BACK OF HIS HEAD INTACT. THE ROCKET HAD HIT HIM THE BACK OF HIS HEAD. THE MARINES LOST TWELVE THAT DAY. ONE DEAD, 2 WOUNDED FROM DELT COMPANY, 11DEAD FROM ALPHA COMPANY. ALPHA HAD WOUNDED BUT WERE NOT EVACUATED. ( ANOTHER STORY, THE ARMY HELPED US OUT) A MEDAL OF HONOR WAS EARNED THAT DAY! ALPHA COMPANY COMMANDER NINTH MARINES WAS AWARDED THE HONOR. OPERATION DEWEY CANYON THE MOST SUCCESSFUL MARINE CROPS OPERATION IN VIETNAM. I WAS WITH C COMPANY, SHOREPARTY.
Thanks, John, for responding to my story. We press on, don’t we?
I remember. I was with the 509th and 313th in Da Nang and we got shelled everyday ad night. . I saw blood, brains ,legs, arms etc all blown off and I wonder everyday how I survived. You never forget . As they say war is hell.– Hell is having to relive it everyday. Yes, when I returned home, we could not leave the base after being discharged due to the antiwar rallies going on outside the base. We were called all kinds of names..ie child killers etc. The VA says it is not PTSD. So much for the VA . I will not go anymore. I will die with this PTSD . I am tired of explaining my trama.
John; I urge you to fight for compensation for PTSD.Sounds like you are deserving. When I talked to the VA psychologist about my problems related to intense combat in Vietnam, my emotions poured out spontaneously. He immediately said i do have PTSD and was awarded compensation by the VA. Go for it. Maybe get help from VFW, DAV, or AL.
I thank you, John, for your remembrances. We don’t forget, do we? War takes its toll, when we returned decades ago and it continues to do so, as you well know. What to do? Press on and try to find meaning in your life’s work.
Great work there George. I was in Nam same time, artillery. I too am startled by noises especially mortar fireworks. and more common noises.
Thanks, Michael, it’s remarkable how our brains remember something that occurred decades ago. The experience drives home its imprint that deep. That’s one reason why war should never be entered into lightly. It’s odd how those who talk tough about war in meetings or cocktail parties or in speeches are seldom those who are actually sent into combat, isn’t it?
George – Great writing. Thanks for sharing your memories the aftermath, even up to today. I, too, was with the BRO, stationed in Phu Loi with the Quarterhorse Cavalry unit. Was a DG and CE on Hueys and OH-13’s, 66-67. Like you stated, it’s be well over 50 years for me, but the memories, sounds, and smells are as fresh as yesterday. And no one other than we veterans really understand what is going on inside on a daily basis. I’m at 40% for Agent Orange (cancer), but doing well now. Again, thanks for your testimony.
Thanks, Bruce, for your thoughtful response. I’m glad you were the First. We worked some with the Quarterhorse,and I continue to appreciate the fine work that the DG’s and the Ce’s did for us infantry guys. Since few people know about the daily life of us infantry guys, that’s what I’ve chosen to write about on my Facebook posts, George McDaniel, with photo of me and redfish I released. I was drafted out the Peace Corps in Africa in 1968 and sent to the First in 1969-70, so I write about both peace and war, since the two experiences become intertwined. I’d value your reading my Facebook posts. I try to write clearly and simply, to not pontificate, and to speak from personal experience rather than from I am “supposed” to say. I’d value both your reading my posts and your feedback, as I want my stories to resonate positively with combat vets like you and to earn their nods of approval.