Today I want to tell you about a friend of mine I served with named Jerry, he was from Kentucky. I say “was from Kentucky” because he also is dead.
Jerry and I hit it off right away. I was in country first, but the first day he walked through the hooch I knew I had a friend. He was tall and lanky and had this huge knife strapped to his leg. I can’t remember ever seeing him take it out of the sheath, but he never went anywhere without it.
We did everything together and it seemed like everyone would gather around my bunk at night and talk about the day. We drank, played cards, got in a ton of trouble together. One night he talked me into tear gassing the warrant officers…it was a riot. After we threw about 6 “gassers” into their hooches we went back to our barracks and waited for the sirens to sound calling for a formation. When they did Jerry and I were the only ones that had our gas masks on when we fell in line. Top, the first sargent, was screaming at us with tears rolling down his face and all we could do was laugh.
After the war Jerry called me one day and said, “Hey Chancellor, what are you doing?” I said not much and he said good Jerry Wayne (his son, named after the two most important people in his life…Jerry and John Wayne) and me are going to come up for awhile. I said that’s great I would love to have you and Jerry Wayne. But what he didn’t tell me was the police were looking for him because of some type of domestic violence claim by his exwife and that he was kidknapping his son and bringing him to Indiana. After a couple of weeks Jerry went home and things got straightened out.
When we flew in Vietnam Jerry and I always kept in contact via the radio. We were not suppose to use it but we did. Jerry’s door gunner was named Lively. I think Lively was from Ohio. I’m not really sure right now, but it doesn’t matter. Jerry’s Aircraft Commander was named Sue. No one knew his real named we all just called him Sue. One day they were flying re-support mission somewhere in the central highland when they went into a valley for something. Again I don’t remember why, but I’ll never forget what happen then. They started receiving fire from the side of the mountain. The fire was coming down from above them so they could not return the fire because if they would shoot up they would have shot the rotor blades of the helicopter . They were sitting ducks. Once they got up Jerry began to return fire. After a few secounds he called to Lively. When his door gunner didn’t respond he immediately left his position in the ship and went to him. Lively had taken a round down through his neck, through his chest and the round exited right below the ribs. We were only taught the most basic of medical training and the only thing Jerry could do was to put compresses on the wounds and pray…and that is what he did…for a few secounds. They began recieving fire again. What was Jerry to do? If he left Lively he would surely die. If he stayed with him they could all die. He went back to his M-60 machine gun and started returning fire, possibly saving the lives of the crew.
When I got back to camp Jerry was no where to be found. He had been back about an hour before I got there so I thought he would be sitting around waiting for me. When I couldn’t find him anywhere I went to the shower that was outside. There was Jerry still in the shower, still in his cloths, leaning against the wall on his hands letting the water flow down his head. When I first got there I didn’t say a word. I just stood waiting for him to recognize me somehow. To look at me or talk to me,anything at all. I just waited. When I couldn’t wait any longer I asked him ” Are you OK?” He didn’t say yes or no, he just said “It won’t come off!” I didn’t understand and said “What?” He again said “It won’t come off!” then he mumbled “The blood, Lively’s blood, it won’t come off.” I got Jerry out of the shower and back to the hooch. After a couple of days he seemed OK, like everything was back to normal, but it wasn’t, I knew it would never be OK again.
Jerry and I kept in contact until he died in his early forties. No one knew what caused his death. He had some type of growth in his fore head, and a terrible alcohol probem, and would get into a little trouble once in awhile but nothing serious. He worked at TVA in Kentuckyand loved his family very much. His son JerryWayne asked me to speak at the wake. It was difficult. I talked about the things that matter most to Jerry, honor, courage and family. I talked about how we survived Vietnam together. I knew without a doubt that he had my back, and I hope he felt the same way. Jerry was a good guy and I often wonder how his life would have turned out without Vietnam. There were several guys we flew with at the funeral. Sue was there, Jerry’s new door gunner after Lively named Rodgers was also there. Sue had this huge tatoo of our unit on his arm. Rodgers stayed drunk for the three days. I was there. We weren’t kids anymore. We were suppose to be out there making a difference in the world, working hard to make a living and raising our families. But for some it didn’t turn out like that, for some the nightmares of war are as real today as they were 30 years ago. I hope Sue and Rodgers are OK today wherever they are.