Chapter 1
Prelude to Vietnam

In order to convey my year in Vietnam in 1969 and 1970, I need to back up and tell you who I am, where I came from, and how I got there. My first year in the army in 1968 is also an important prelude to my year in the division in Vietnam.

My mother's father died after gall bladder surgery when she was nine years old. She was interested in medicine and wanted to be a doctor but majored in home economics, which was a more conventional vocation for women of her era. She transmitted her interest in medicine to my younger brother and me.

My grandfather came from Alsace-Lorraine, and a good many of my relatives were both German and French. I inherited the German work ethic (Arbeit macht das Leben suss and Faulheit stirbt sich-"Work makes living sweet and laziness kills you"). I started working in eighth grade and have always had at least one job since that time.

When I was four years old, I made rounds with a navy physician while my father was stationed in Cape May, New Jersey, during World War II. I knew at that point that I wanted to be a doctor. I was bored in grade school and clocked a lot of time in the nurse's office. Miss Shea, RN, read poems to me and caused me to develop a lifelong respect and admiration for nurses (and poetry).

During high school I visited a "snake pit" ward at Peoria State Hospital. It was before the first antipsychotic tranquilizer Thorazine