God loves drunks and fools

Originally published January 23, 2016 in response to a Question - 

"What's the best thing you've done while drunk?"

September 1970 Fire Support Base Fuller, Dong Ha Mountain, Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam -

I was one of 12 American soldiers on a fire base on top of a mountain in South Vietnam. With us were approximately 600 South Vietnamese soldiers. One of their officers, a Captain Nguyen, had gotten an undergraduate degree at Stanford in California and spoke almost perfect American English. We got to be pretty friendly.

For almost 3 weeks I had received no mail or any word from my parents or my fiancee. During a time when I was off-shift and really depressed, I opened a brand new bottle of Jack Daniels whiskey and proceeded to drink. About the time I had drunk approximately 2/3 of the bottle, the North Vietnamese started hitting us with mortars and rockets. The last thing I consciously remember was seeing Captain Nguyen get hit.

(Everything afterwards, in italics, was described to me later, after I sobered up).

I put down the bottle of Jack Daniels, walked across the compound to Captain Nguyen, picked him up, walked back across the compound to our bunker, administered first aid and called a Medivac helicopter. When the helicopter arrives, I picked up Captain Nguyen, carried him out to the helicopter, put him on the helicopter and then stood there, waving "good-bye" as it took off. The I went back to the bunker to finish the bottle. During this whole time, mortar and rocket rounds were landing all around me but for some unknown reason, I didn't get a scratch.

Without my knowledge, the other Americans and the other South Vietnamese officers sent detailed reports of what I did to their respective higher headquarters.

When I returned to our main base in Quang Tri several weeks later, there was a reception party of South Vietnamese officers waiting for me and I was presented with the South Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry Medal.

Several weeks after that I was presented with my first Bronze Star Medal.

Captain Nguyen survived his wounds but was killed several months later in a firefight between his men and a North Vietnamese Army unit.

By the way, it turned out that the reason I had not gotten any mail for the 3 weeks was that all the letters had accidentally been sent to the wrong unit. When everything got straightened out, I got about 20 letters all at one time.

I have often maintained that, if I had been sober and less depressed, I probably wouldn't have done what I did.