October 12, 1971 - 2001

In '68 I got my orders--
Hello Vietnam...goodbye North Dakota.
With eighteen months of surf and sand
at Tuy Hoa...the life was grand.

I worked the nights and counted days;
and then an added six-month phase.
From there to Beale, and I hated it,
so back to 'Nam (I needed it).

I found Saigon (at Tan Son Nhut),
I was a QRT recruit.
But a drug bust up in Cam Rahn Bay
meant I would soon be on my way.

I left Saigon for later days
in a new assignment up the road a ways.
Just six weeks later up in old Cam Rahn,
I saw Alvin's snake, and then I was gone.

"Six volunteers", the Sergeant sang,
to move their butts up to Nha Trang.
So off I went to see the sights--
I slept the days and worked the nights.

But time was passing, quickly so.
The signs ahead said, "Time to go".
And thirty years ago today
I left the 'Nam, no more to play.

                           John Fox

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