Where’S the Music?

By John Adame

I came up with the title Wheres the Music because as a boy growing up watching John Wayne and Audie Murphy win World War II on the movie screen or television with their heroics punctuated by a musical background. In my first experience with the sting of battle, I wondered where was the music that was supposed to accompany the action happening around me. As a result, I learned that in real battle there is no musiconly fear.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 6, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503535725

John Adame

The first awareness I had with the results of war was when I was very young. It was at a military funeral for a soldier who had died in combat in the Korean War. I really did not have any idea what was taking place, but I recall soldiers in uniform and the sound of the 21-gun salute, the sounds of the trumpet, and the constant crying. After the service, my parents and I traveled to the home of the dead soldier. As we entered the home, I spotted a portrait of the dead soldier, and as the people passed the portrait, they stopped momentarily and continued into the home. The second took place while we were visiting my maternal grandmother’s house. I made my way to one of the bedrooms, and on the bed was a military uniform (my Uncle Chava’s Marine uniform). I do not know if he was on his way to or coming home from Korea. All this had been forgotten until the last few years. War and the military were only experienced through John Wayne movies. Family involvement was occasionally mentioned. I remember my grandfather, Abundio, wearing a large heavy coat, which I later learned belonged to one of my uncles while in the service. I knew I had uncles who had fought in World War II and Korea but never heard any war stories. Playing war games and fighting to play John Wayne was just part of a young boy’s life. Watching the news of wars on television and newsreel film on the movie theater screen made war a thing that was done in far off lands. As I grew up, I learned of a war in a far off land called Vietnam. I read “Deliver Us from Evil” by Dr. Tom Dooley. It was about his experiences with people in Vietnam during the post-French, Indochina war, and the splitting the country into the communist north and the free south. I later learned that he had influenced President John Kennedy to help the South Vietnamese people. As time went on, I heard more and more about this war in Vietnam.

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Copyright © 2015 by John Adame.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2015900854

ISBN:   Hardcover   978-1-5035-3571-8

             Softcover     978-1-5035-3573-2

             eBook          978-1-5035-3572-5

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Based on a true story.

Rev. date: 03/04/2015

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Foreword

Where’s The Music?

Chapter 1 Greetings

Chapter 2 My Name Is Sgt. Payne

Chapter 3 Where Is Charlie?

Chapter 4 Will I Survive?

Chapter 5 Life On The River

Chapter 6 Staying Awake

Chapter 7 Cries For Help

Chapter 8 From Student To Teacher

Chapter 9 The Brooklyn Bar

Chapter 10 Into Charlie Country

Chapter 11 Going Home? Report Here

Chapter 12 Coming Home Happy And Sad

Chapter 13 My Name Is Sgt. Adame

Chapter 14 I Have Lived A Past And Now It’s On To The Future

It’s Ok

The Medal

This book is dedicated to the 3rd platoon the Walking Coffins of Company E(D) 3rd Battalion 9th Infantry 9th Infantry Division and to all who served in Vietnam.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I wish to thank those who have helped move this work along.

I want to thank the members of the third platoon (the walking coffins) that trough our discussions at our reunions have brought back many things and incidents that I have long forgotten. I learned that we may have been in the same battles but experienced them in different ways.

To Elijah Levy Ph.D. who has pushed and encouraged me to get this story into print and to Jean Higa who read and helped me make it readable. To Tom Rosholt, Howe Beach and Ted Garcia for their help. Also to my fellow classmates at the La Mirada Veterans Legacy class.

FOREWORD

The first awareness I had with the results of war was when I was very young. It was at a military funeral for a soldier who had died in combat in the Korean War. I really did not have any idea what was taking place, but I recall soldiers in uniform and the sound of the 21- gun salute, the sounds of the trumpet and the constant crying. After the service my parents and I traveled to the home of the dead soldier. As we entered the home I spotted a portrait of the dead soldier and as the people passed the portrait they stopped momentarily and continued into the home. The second took place while we were visiting my maternal grandmother’s house. I made my way to one of the bedrooms and on the bed was a military uniform (my uncle Chava’s Marine uniform). I do not know if he was on his way to or coming home from Korea. All this had been forgotten until the last few years.

War and the military were only experienced through John Wayne movies. Family involvement was occasionally mentioned. I remember my Grandfather Abundio wearing a large heavy coat, which I later learned belonged to one of my uncles while in the service. I knew I had uncles who had fought in World War II and Korea but never heard any war stories. Playing war games and fighting to play John Wayne was just part of a young boys life. Watching the news of wars on television and newsreel film on the movie theater screen made war a thing that was done in far off lands.

As I grew up I learned of a war in a far off land called Vietnam. I read Deliver us from Evil by Dr. Tom Dooley. It was about his experiences with people in Vietnam during the Post French Indo-China war and the splitting the country into the communist north and the free south. I later learned that he had influenced President John Kennedy to help the South Vietnamese people. As time went on I heard more and more about this war in Vietnam.

Our involvement in Vietnam was based on the SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Organization) treaty backed and signed by then President Dwight D. Eisenhower. I heard in an interview that he gave that we needed to be involved in the area because there was an island in Vietnamese waters that had minerals we needed for our space program. With this signing we were now committed to help any nation in the region that needed our assistance and one of these countries was South Vietnam.

Our involvement in Vietnam started to creep into our daily lives. It started to get more and more press and time on the television increased little by little. The news that American advisors were beginning to be dispatched to assist the South Vietnamese government in training their troops to fight the insurgents from the North and rebels in the South. The gradual escalation of our involvement started to grab my interest. The first news of the deaths of our advisors brought back the memory of the things I had read in Dr. Dooley’s book. The inhumane treatment that the peasants suffered at the hands of the communists of the North made more and more of an impression on me.

I began to learn more of the history of this conflict and the political problems it caused. Kennedy wanted just to send advisors and not troops. Advisors at first were not to participate in any field operations. Then it was permitted that they go on field operations but not participate in any hostile activities. Counteroffensive groups (special forces) were sent in to both advise and participate in their own operations. Combat deaths were at first hidden, but later as the deaths mounted the death toll became a weekly feature on the nightly news.

Fighting the spread of Communism became our foremost reason to be involved in the Vietnamese civil war as it was first called. Later it was announced that we needed to make a stand against communist domination of the world. Later the domino theory evolved as our reason to assist the South Vietnamese government. Kennedy had considered withdrawing a large number of advisors, but when He was assassinated and Johnson took over his different view on how to handle the Vietnamese situation became the new policy. During Johnson’s run for the White House in 1964, he made a pronouncement that I will not send American boys half way around the world to do what Vietnamese boys should do on their own. During this time plans were being made to increase the numbers of in-country combat troops. Large orders were being made for more war material. The draft was dusted off. All that was needed was an excuse to escalate manpower.

The Gulf of Tonkin incident was what they were waiting for. As history now shows the attack on American war ships never really took place. The Congress came up with the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which gave the president the powers to react to the attack in anyway he felt was necessary. Troops were beginning to be sent in division size units (eight to ten thousand men). As the request for more troops came from Vietnam more were sent.

When I turned eighteen is 1964 I marched down to the draft board and registered. For a while those who were married were excluded from the draft. As the need for more troops became necessary this became a situation that needed to be addressed. The marriage deferment was given closing date and a mad dash to get married was made by thousands of draft age men. As for me I was in school and safe. Later the need for more troops became apparent and a cry that the draft favored the rich collage boys, a draft deferment test was administered to weed out the serious student from the not so serious student. I passed the test and again I felt safe.

The television war became the dinnertime war. The nightly news brought the war into living rooms and pictures of our troops dying. The nightly death count became commonplace. As I watched the news I considered how I might react to being drafted because I sure as hell was not going to volunteer. More and more of my friends were going into the service either by way of the draft or enlistment.

I guess I became a little overconfident when I finished at East Los Angeles College in January of 1967 and decided to take some time off from school and transfer to Cal State Los Angeles (later California State University Los Angeles) in the fall. It did not take long for the draft board to catch on to the fact that I was not enrolled in school. I had taken a pre-induction physical the previous year and was declared fit for service. I did not see any indication of any interest in me for the draft. On April 29th, 1967 I received my Greetings and my life changed from that day.

WHERE’S THE MUSIC?

I came up with the title Where’s The Music because as a boy growing up watching John Wayne and Audie Murphy win World War II on the movie screen or television with their heroics punctuated by a musical background. In my first experience with the sting of battle I wondered where was the music that was suppose to accompany the action happening around me. As a result I learned that in real battle there is no music only fear.

CHAPTER 1

GREETINGS

Vietnam was the first television war. A war whose loss was a result of those multitudes of Americans watching from the comfort of their homes and did nothing in support for those who fought and died. Why? Because it was viewed with no connection to its reality.

John Adame

Turning 18 in February 1964, while attending Salesian High School, I took the morning off from school on the day after my birthday to go downtown to register for the draft. Soon to have my draft card, I thought that it would give me a little status. I still carried a school deferment card after passing a draft deferment test. I had also taken some pre-induction physicals and unfortunately had passed them. After graduation from high school, I had begun my college education at East Los Angeles College. After two and a half years there, the total years devoted to my education came to 14 ½ years so I thought that it was about time that I deserved a sabbatical to work and to party. I planned to enjoy myself for a few months and in September 1967 continue my education at Cal State Los Angeles. Remember what they said about the best-laid plans of mice and men in John Steinbeck’s book.

The country is involved in another war

The draft is going full bore

My number is up and I must go,

I must part with my family and friends,

As others have done before.

John Adame

It was April 29, 1967 and I had just finished a day of mowing lawns and was ready to go out and have a good time. Coming into the house and looking around for the mail, I noticed a letter from the Selective Service. I guessed that they wanted to know if I wanted to continue my education. Easy, I thought. I’ll just answer in the affirmative and go on with my party life for the time being. To my absolute surprise, it was the dreaded letter from Uncle Sam, which began Greetings, the letter which had put fear into the hearts of many guys my age. The letter said that I was to report to the induction center at 1033 S. Broadway in downtown Los Angeles at 7:30 AM on May 11, 1967 (Destination: Vietnam, without a doubt.) After breaking the news to my family, I decided to go out. What else could I do?

They had given me only 13 days to prepare for this momentous event in my life! Normally they would give a draftee a 30-day notice to report for duty. Did they need me that badly that they would allow only half that time? Having followed the progress of the war on television and the newspapers, I knew that troop commitment had been increased drastically. I assumed that I was part of the next increase.

All you guys of draft age,

America is once again at war.

Those of you who are in school now,

Think of laying down your books,

And learn to bang the cong.

John Adame

After some contemplation about my situation, I thought about how our family had been impacted by war in the past. I had uncles who had fought in some of the biggest battles of World War II and the Korean War. My Uncles Carlos, Alex, and Salvador Vargas, Vincent Sorlozano, Frank Daily and Rafael Adame had entered the service by way of enlistment or draft to defend our country. Our country had enabled their parents to enter and build better lives for themselves and their children. Uncle Carlos was the only war casualty. He died on the Japanese P.O.W. ship the Arison Maru (Hell ship) on which he was a reluctant passenger. The ship had no markings on it to identify it as a transport carrying American P.O.W.’s and so was torpedoed by the American submarine Shark north of the Philippines. Uncle Mayo (Ismael Vargas) had entered the service after World War II ended and served in the occupation of Japan. Now our country was involved in a new conflict and I was being called to make my contribution.

Whether the war was justified or not, it was our duty to respond when Uncle Sam called. I was asked years after the Vietnam War was over if I ever considered evading the draft by fleeing to Canada. I answered, Hell, no. If I was going to do something like that, I would have gone to Mexico where I could blend in. After 13 days of good-byes and never thinking of going to Canada or Mexico, I got ready to make my way to downtown Los Angeles. I was lucky enough to have a family who gathered on short notice to throw me a farewell party. On the day I left, I said farewell to my family and told my sister Susie I had a special going-away gift for her since it was her birthday that very day. I told her she was getting rid of me.

I had informed some of my school friends about being drafted. They gave me their addresses and promised to write. One guy told me that I should never have quit school, fine time to remind me! The ride to the induction center seemed very short. I guess that when you wish time would go slowly, it just seems to fly. I think the bus I was on made every green light. Sitting there, I thought about what was going to happen to me over the next two years. Was I on my way to Vietnam or somewhere else? If I went to Vietnam, would I survive? If I was wounded, would I be missing a limb or two, or even worse would I permanently lose my ability to look at pretty girls?

We arrived at the induction center to be processed. I was not the only one who was scared. All of us wore the same bewildered and lost expression, I thought. As we entered the induction center, we were told what line to follow and where to sit. After filling out forms and being sworn in, we were given a box lunch and loaded on three buses for our trip to Fort Ord California for basic training. As we boarded the bus, it felt like we were cattle being herded to go to the slaughterhouse. I assumed that some in the group were volunteers, but not many.

The bus I was on arrived at Fort Ord very late due to a flat tire. We were allowed to leave the bus and stretch our legs while it was being serviced. A few of us remarked that this was maybe our opportunity to make a break for it. Most of us had never been in this part of California before so had no idea where we would go. We were somewhere between LA and Fort Ord, but where? This was my first trip to Northern California on the coastal route. I had traveled north by way of the 5 freeway years earlier for a big cross-country race near San Francisco. I looked out the window of the bus and was enthralled at the beauty of the fertile valley as we traveled on Highway 101.

We turned into a large area with a sign over it that read United States Army Reception Station Fort Ord California. My thoughts quickly turned to what the future would bring. I was now 400 miles away from home. Being delayed about four hours, we were exhausted and disoriented. Our greeters were grumpy because they had to wait so long for our arrival. I guess we had interfered with their plans for the evening. The draftees who had preceded us had been processed hours before and were long gone. From the moment the bus doors opened, we were informed that we were the lowest forms of life and were now property of the Army and we had three F—king seconds to get off the bus. We were told