A GREEN LIEUTENANT A memoir of a Vietnam veteran
					Game Day, Ohio Stadium, 1966
			It wasn’t that I didn’t see Vietnam coming. I’d a been a history junkie all through school. I watched the news almost every night, listened to it in my car, knew about Dien Bien Phu, the Domino Theory, and the presence of American Advisors. Somehow that never seemed to include me. I continued to wear a uniform to class (always scheduling plenty of time before and after my ROTC classes to run back to my apartment and change out of or into so as to minimalize the torture).  I continued to party and fall in and out of love and to assume that somehow someone would find the light at the end of the tunnel and I would never have to serve in a war. Then came Christmas break of 1964 and one of my best friends from high school, Bob Fox, called to tell me he was on his way to Danang. That summer I went through my basic training at Indiantown Gap Military Reservation, Pennsylvania. All but a few of the cadre wore the MACV patch on their right sleeve, most also had the Combat Infantry Man’s badge, indicating combat duty. Not a day went by without hearing the phrase, “When you’re in Vietnam you’ll need to …” Back in school that fall, I noticed a difference in the ROTC instructors. They stopped opening each class with a joke, they often broke from the scheduled instruction saying things like, “I know what the book says, but this is what you’ll really need to know.” I continued to party, study and fall in and out of love. Next