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Sandbag Counseling
Establishing and staffing a mental health service for a 10,000 man combat Brigade in Vietnam was my assignment. Not having that capability integral to the unit (like Division size units) had resulted in soldiers often being lost to their Company for days of transit and evaluation at coastal psychiatric services with incomplete or absent communication to commanders of the evaluation's findings.
Based on my clinical training I had been directly commissioned in the Army Medical Service Corps (CPT, MOS 3606, Psychiatric Social Worker Officer). Before being assigned to Vietnam I was assigned for 2 years at Ft Lee VA as a team member in the Mental Health Consultation Service.
My duties: evaluate soldier's clinical fitness for combat duty; escort unstable soldiers to hospitals in country with inpatient capability; complete the psychiatric evaluation of soldiers being considered by Command for administrative separation from the military as unsuitable; and, to ACTIVELY consult with and advise commanders at all levels - NCO to Field Grade.
The Brigade was spread out over the eastern area of II Corps about 200 x 100 miles in 5 base camps. To execute my duties effectively I set up a 'round robin' circuit and usually spent a day at each site.
At times I was on site in the field with Company and Platoon size units to both conduct evaluations and directly consult with and advise commanders. I saw combat situations and was in 'harms way' at times.
Travel was by air, both helicopter and fixed wing - whatever I could catch.
Both the work of my duties and the attendant logistics was arduous, exhausting, and stimulating. It deepened my clinical knowledge and expertise immensely. Often, sitting on sandbags in the midst of surrounding activity doing counseling and evaluating a soldier was a real challenge. Secondarily, experiencing the day to day leadership and management of commanders was an exceptional experience that I drew on often during my civilian career.
At the end of this six month assignment the Commanding General awarded me a Bronze Star for my performance. My boss, the Brigade Surgeon (Medical Director), who was a West Pointer, informed me this level award to a noncombatant was unusual in the Brigade, which deepened the honor. As I have reviewed the narrative accompanying the award two thoughts keep returning - I performed my duties to the best of my ability, and, I am a patriot (not the boisterous variety) who served his country.
Experiencing the day to day leadership and management of commanders was an exceptional experience that I drew on often during my civilian career.
A few anecdotes -
- Being handed a grenade by a defiant, distraught soldier at the conclusion of our evaluation and counseling session
- Visiting the Vietnam Wall in DC frequently in the 70s and 80s and looking up names - college classmates, soldiers I had worked with
- Laying on the beach in 1969 in Honolulu on R&R with my wife looking at the moon trying to see the astronaut who were on it at the time.
- Experiencing Christmas Mass in the field on an abandoned French airstrip
- Rereading the book Soldier by LTC Anthony Herbert, Holt Rinehart, 1973, sections of which discuss the 173d at the time I was in it.
- After doing a special evaluation of a Navy Ensign who would get 'crazy' whenever he drank alcohol, and telling his CO that the officer had an alcohol problem, having the Navy Captain CO say "G.. D... it, no man can be in my command and not be able to drink"
- Observing two NCOs trade a marginally performaing soldier between their units in Cam Ranh for 4 cases of coffee. It worked! (And I didn't have to compose my report)
Biographical Details
Submitted From: Edina, MN
Primary Location During Vietnam: Cam Ranh, Vietnam 
Story Subject: Military Service
Military Branch: U.S. Army
Dates of Service: 1967 - 1969
Unit: Ft Lee Va, 173d Abn Bde, 78th Med Detachment
Specialty: 3606
Story Themes: 173d Airborne Brigade, 1967, 1968, 1969, 78th Medical Detachment, 98th Medical Detachment, Army, Bronze Star, Cam Ranh Bay, Commendation, Edina, Holiday, James Stoebner, Jim Stoebner, Medical Personnel, Mental Health, Read
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