A Minnesota PBS Initiative
Avoiding Vietnam
My dad had a 20 year career in the Air Force. As the conflict in Vietnam escalated, we four kids were beseeched by our mother to focus our nightly prayers so that, "...Daddy not be sent remote." That is another way of saying "TDY" or Temporary Duty.
At this desperate stage for the United States, not only single miltary men, but men who were married, and even those with kids were being sent to southeast Asia.
As the bad news of deployment spread throughout our base neighbors, our family intensified our pleas to God. We sympathized with the family next door whose father came back from a tour in Vietnam with jaundiced eyes burned from the intensity of the sun, but more disturbingly, such a dazed look in his eyes.
In hindsight, it was infinitely better that my father didn't get sent to Vietnam as it was such military boondoggle and an embarrassment of ineptitude for the United States.
After many sleepless nights, my parents found out that my father was to be stationed at King Salmon Bay, Alaska. Our relief was short-lived however, as we found out the assignment was more of an outpost - which did not include family housing. So off he went without us for his 19th year of military service.
Much as she had done when he'd been stationed in Greenland early in his career, my mother returned to her roots and family in Minnesota.
She was pregnant with her first child; me, during that initial time they were apart, so he and I didn't meet until I was six months old.
In hindsight, it was infinitely better that my father didn't get sent to Vietnam as it was such military boondoggle and an embarrassment of ineptitude for the United States. We treated our returning warriors abysmally. Many veterans of that era suffered after-effects from Agent Orange and a failed support system.
My father died just over a year ago. He is buried with military honors in Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minnesota. Ironically, his grave marker was inscribed with "Korea" and "Vietnam", but not at the directive of his family. While his career spanned both conflicts, he served in neither country and would be horrified that it appears as though he did.
Biographical Details
Submitted From: Cottage Grove, MN
Primary Location During Vietnam: Topsham, Maine, United States 
Story Subject: Military Service
Military Branch: U.S. Air Force
Dates of Service: 1955 - 1975
Unit: Major
Specialty: Navigator
Story Themes: 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, Agent Orange, Air Force, Alaska, Ann Mattson, Career Military, Children of Veterans, Coming Home, Cottage Grove, Family, Fort Snelling, King Salmon Bay, Korean War, Maine, Memorial, Read, Religion, Topsham