GANGWAY!! MAN WITH A BABY!
-or-
"Don’t Fence Me In"
I was assigned as the Battalion Ammo Officer in the Spring of 1967. Been awaiting word from back in the states about my pregnant wife, Cathy. Finally got word. Leslie Springer was born on 5 May!
I
was at battalion HQ at LZ Montezuma and got a call on my radio that there was a
Red Cross telegram waiting for me at some location.
Can’t remember where I had to go to get the message but in my haste to
get there (knowing what the message would be) I backed my jeep up right into the
concertina wire that Col Holbrook had around his well sandbagged personal
trailer. The wire caught on the rear
bumper of the jeep and as I roared out, it yanked a significant section of it
down. I stopped to untangle the wire
and figured that my ass would be in a sling with our dour and humorless
Battalion Commander over this little mishap, but he actually saw what happened
and knew why I was rushing. In one
of the few times ever, I saw him laugh.
He just waved me on and told me not to worry about it.
Of course he had someone repair it ASAP.
It’s
a good thing that “motor vehicle skills” wasn’t part of my OER.
Lt Gary Dean Springer