May You Live In Interesting Times: My 1960s!

By Calvin C. Seybold

In the Fall of 2013, at the urging of family and a few friends Cal Seybold wrote a small book of some of his youthful escapades in the Army during the 1960s. The booklet was self-published locally by him and given as Christmas gifts to family and a few friends. He called the booklet, “May You Live in Interesting Times: My 1960s”, and it covered his time as a second lieutenant of Infantry during a tour in Korea and two tours with the Army Special Forces in Vietnam, initially as a first lieutenant and then as a captain. The booklet is more akin to “M.A.S.H.” than any serious military literature.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Oct 27, 2014
• ISBN: 9781483540573

Book preview

EPILOGUE

PROLOGUE

It is certifiably true; I am an Old Fart!

I was born in 1940, and I would now like to tell my Army stories from the 1960s. While it is not really important or relevant to my stories, I was born in a small southeastern Illinois town; my father was a small grocery store owner before the days of large chain grocery stores.

My adult family, teachers, scout and civic leaders, and, eventually, military leaders, were all from the Greatest Generation that survived the Great Depression and World War II. They were my role models and heroes.

I spent the entire decade of the 1960s following the leadership of the Greatest Generation in military college (Virginia Military Institute) and the Army. Therefore, I concede, my recollections are a little lopsided. Yes, I missed the college free speech campaigns and the Woodstock revivals of the 1960s. My stories are mainly about the Cold War and the occasional Hot War (Vietnam) against International Communism.

It was a different world in the 1960s. More so than just through the innocence and enthusiasm of youth. There was a real threat to America and the world from international communistic aggression. In American society, abortion was illegal, and divorce was rare. Society ostracized teenage pregnancies, and most teenagers had never heard of marijuana. All that would change by 1969 and the end of the decade.

The movements for racial equality and free speech on college campuses got their start in the early 1960s. There was social turbulence and change throughout the nation.

Upon graduation from college and receiving my commission as a second lieutenant of Infantry, I attended the Infantry Officer Basic course in preparation for service with troops. The first real crisis was the Cuban Missile Crisis, which fortunately was resolved when Russia agreed to withdraw its missiles from Cuba. This was followed shortly thereafter by the assassination of President Kennedy in November 1963.

The nation had heard little of Vietnam until the presidential elections of 1964. President Kennedy was dead; candidate Goldwater was a war monger, and President Johnson promised that only Asian boys would fight Asian wars. President Johnson won the 1964 election in a walk.

By 1965, President Johnson had decided that American boys could fight Asian wars after all, and shortly thereafter, the Vietnam War protests were in vogue. The draft and the potential for thankless service and possibly death in Vietnam for the young men of the 1960s was a great motivator for many to protest the perceived illegality and immorality of the Vietnam War. In my opinion, the young men who were drafted or enlisted and served in Vietnam, in spite of the social and media pressure not to, are the real heroes of Vietnam. By 1969, the youth of America had irrevocably changed from the innocence of the post-World War II to that of the Woodstock generation. As Thomas Wolfe said, You can never go home again.

I really do not want to talk about blood and guts battles; you know they were there. I want to tell about the people and anecdotal stories that gave me such pleasure, in later years, to remember and to share. Not only did we fight a war, we were also very real participants in the social revolution of the 1960s. All that war and social revolution could not have happened without some folly.

The intent of this undertaking is to relate some anecdotes from that era without identifying the other people involved except in very special circumstances. I must confess, that at the time of the events we participants often failed to see the humor in the situation; the insulation of time and distance allows me to better see the humor in what, at the time, seemed like a social disaster. It has been said that every good war story must have an element of truth, as well as a lot of bull; but, with a really good war story, it’s sometimes hard to tell the difference between the truth and the bull.

It was an exciting time to be young. The cauldron of war mellowed by the possibilities of free love was enough to invigorate any young man. The mantra of that era was, Never trust anyone over the age of 30!

In the words of the progressive three curses of increasing severity of a supposedly ancient Chinese proverb or curse: May you come to the attention of those in authority.; May you find what you are looking for.; and, finally, May you live in interesting times. I believe the youth of the 1960s in the United States could definitely be defined as qualifying for all three stages of the Chinese curse. We definitely came to the attention of the authorities; we obtained the liberated colleges and life style we were looking for; and, I believe the 1960s, by any definition, were interesting times.

Enjoy!

PART I: KOREA

CHAPTER 1: My First Overseas Assignment

Korea is called the Land of the Morning Calm.

I had, of course, heard of Korea. I remember well the Korean War. I was 9 years old when it started and 12, when they signed a cease fire. That war, or police action, has never officially ended; they have just had a truce in place for all these years.

The flight from the United States, through the Philippines and Japan, to South Korea was incredibly long. I think the sheer duration, some 5 days of flying and processing time in Japan, added to the perception of strangeness and how far I was from rural southeastern Illinois. After arriving in South Korea in April 1964, we were in-processed and sent to our units.

At that time there was an Army Corps (I Corps) with two combat divisions: the First Cavalry and the Seventh Infantry Divisions. There were a lot of other Army combat support and combat service support units throughout South Korea, but I, as a lowly second lieutenant, really did not comprehend their existence, let alone the military importance to the projection of power during the Cold War.

I arrived at my First Cavalry Division unit by jeep and I was immediately assigned to Company A, Second Battalion, Second Brigade, of the division, as a Rifle Platoon Leader of the Second Platoon of Company A, which was located at Camp McKenzie (Compound 75) on the main battle position (MBP) of the Korean War cease fire line. At that time the Army was trying to recreate the proud regimental linage by referring to brigades as regiments; therefore, in Army talk, I was in the 2A, 2-7 CAV, which was also known as the Gary Owen. The 7th CAV was the unit that Colonel Custer commanded at the Little Big Horn. The phrase Gary Owen was associated with the 7th CAV because in the 19th century it was staffed almost completely with immigrants from Ireland. The term Gary Owen was supposedly the name of a bar that they all knew in Ireland.

The officers’ quarters in Company A consisted of five small Quonset huts shaped like a T with three huts making the stem of the T. Being the junior lieutenant, I was assigned lodging in the Quonset hut farthest from the door at the base of the T’s stem.

There was only one gasoline fired stove in the officers’ quarters and it was located at the top of the T where three huts came together. Consequently, there was little or no heat in my portion of officers’ quarters; as the junior officer, it was my duty