Memories of Vietnam service marked by loss

A couple short stories from my time in the 1st Infantry Division in Vietnam, 1965-66. 

We were the 1st Supply and Transport Battalion. For some reason, I can’t remember why we had an infantry lieutenant in our battalion, Lt. Gray. He was a thin, short person, and was a very serious person. I don’t recall ever seeing him laugh.

Anyway, he didn’t want to serve with us, he wanted to be an infantry officer and applied for a transfer. Finally he was granted his wish and was assigned to an infantry company as a platoon leader. Since he had a lot of friends in our unit, they kept in contact with him. Later we found out that on his first patrol out, he was shot in the head and was killed.

Another was, we had some Vietnamese workers in our camp for unloading trucks and storing supplies. They were from the nearby town of Xian (pronounced as Zian). Our supply sergeant would pick them up in sort of a bus in the a.m. and take them back after work.

This town was American friendly, the Viet Cong didn’t like it so, one day, when our sergeant was taking them back after work, he would step out of the truck and let the workers out, and lo and behold he was also shot and killed. As mentioned the town was American friendly, so what we would call their mayor, was also shot and killed.

Roger Gregory served as a captain in the 1st Infantry Division in Vietnam. He is a Priest River businessman.