Dartmouth Veterans: Vietnam Perspectives

Tet's Albatross

Tet’s Albatross ---------------------------------------------------------charles g. williams jr. : u.s. marine corps W hen I was in the second grade, my father forced me to do two things— ­ study math and memorize items (Catholic church). This had a profound effect on my future life. When I took the SAT test and an IQ test in high school, I did much better than expected. This performance enabled me to receive a scholarship offer from Dartmouth and one from the NROTC. I chose the NROTC, which I didn’t like for the next eight years, but in the end it worked out. With the NROTC I was scheduled to be a Navy officer. After two summers of Navy work I decided to become a Marine, because the Navy forced people to get up at night and do a four-­ hour meaningless schedule. I continue to be a person who doesn’t mind missing food, but I can’t miss sleep. When I went through my first summer with the Marines, I had to take a test. Since I was quick with numbers, my score was quite good. The Marines wanted to keep me in spite of the fact that my body and I were very un-­ Marine like. I flew an F-­ 4 Phantom in Vietnam. I had four or five interesting experiences there. I was a good Ping-­ Pong player, so I was invited into town (Chulia) to play in a match. I did not do well, but learned something. The people in South Vietnam hated the North Vietnamese, and they hated the Americans even more. While flying I noticed that their farms had a large number of bomb craters, which affected their ability to provide food. When I got to Vietnam, I stayed at a new, poorly built small cabin with eight other Marines. When the wind blew, sand would come in through the wooden sides. I also learned that the nicest bugs were spiders. You never removed their webs because they caught the bad insects. One night I was awakened by a gunshot. There were no lights in the Charles G. Williams Jr. : 131 cabin, but I saw somebody with a flashlight. He was a fellow cabin mate who had his flashlight on a rat that he had just killed. We always put any type of food in a locked storage site for a good reason. Our cabin (not the right word for our living quarters) had no water inside, but there was a source of water outside. The previous residents had improvised an outdoor shower. Water passed through a metal hose, which was fixed to the top of the side of the cabin and sprayed water down. However, the metal hose coiled through a large, sand-­ filled barrel. When you wanted to take a warm shower, you poured a gallon of gasoline into the barrel and lit it. The water coming out of the showerhead went from 50 degrees to 140 degrees for about twenty seconds. That is when you took your shower. One day I was walking to work. About one hundred yards ahead of me I saw another person walking in the same direction. I heard a gunshot. He fell to the ground, dead. He shot himself, but no one ever talked about it. Albatross Our cabin was right beside the runway. It was extremely noisy all the time. I often wondered if I would hear if we were being attacked. The Tet offensive began January 29, 1968, in the middle of the night. I heard the first rocket bomb explode. There was no question this was an attack. The nine of us ran out and climbed down into the bunker. It was completely dark, and as I was sitting, I heard this voice that I knew. I had just cut the speaker’s hair earlier that day. I asked the man next to me to trade seats. I moved next to the guy whose voice I recognized. Three days later I awoke on a hospital ship. The man that I traded places with had been killed. He was married and had two young children. At that time I was married but had no children. Charles Williams after solo flight (U.S. Navy official photograph) 132 : dartmouth veterans I was injured at the end of January 1968. When I awoke in the hospital ship, I got my second gift. The doctor told me that it...