David Bias and sister Diane Bias-Mosel

The Short Story of David Bias

David Martin Bias, from Holdingford, Minnesota, was drafted into the Army in February of 1964.

Having been born in 1942, he was 24 years old, about to turn 25 years old on March 16. Once a man was 25, he was no longer an age he could be drafted meaning David was drafted one month before turning 25. David indicated that the letter he received in the mail about being drafted started out with something like, “Greetings, this is a notice you’re being drafted…”

David took a bus from St. Cloud to the Minneapolis St. Paul airport. David had to leave Holdingford about 6:00 a.m. that morning to get to St. Cloud to catch the bus. David commented it “was one of the only times I saw dad cry.”

From the airport, he flew to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, for basic training. Basic training was eight weeks. He commented the worst part of basic training was the physical part, for example, marching.

Once completing basic training, David was stationed at Fort Gordon, Georgia, for military police training which was eight weeks. After MP training, he was stationed at Fort Wayne in Detroit, Michigan. There he worked as an MP, watching the main gate, directing traffic, etc. David indicated there “was a px and officers lived there. It was like a little town or detachment. They also had a club or bar.” David was stationed there for a year and a half.

Sometimes he would go “off base to a ‘drive in’ for something to eat.” In order to get a leave, David indicated, “We had to put in for a leave. If approved, you got it and if not, you didn’t. I don’t remember how many days we got but I think it was thirty a year. Martha Schuman, mom’s friend, and mom (Josephine Bias) would drive from Holdingford to the airport to pick me up and take me back when I got a leave.

“The best part of being on leave was just being home. My aunt Hanna would make lemon meringue pie for me and mom would make pork and rice dish.

“The best part of being in the Army was the people because I got to meet a lot of different guys. I was a private first class soldier.”

David was in Holdingford on one of his leaves from Fort Wayne. At this time, the family was very relieved he wouldn’t be shipped out to Viet Nam, but when he returned to Fort Wayne from his leave, he found out he would be going.

David said, “They needed one more guy to fill up the order and I got to be it.” He got on a ship in California in September of 1965 that took him to Hawaii for a brief stop to “drop off some soldiers” and then it was onto Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam. He never got off the ship until arriving in Vietnam.

Once in Cam Ranh Bay, his job as a military police was “pulling guard on the ships coming in with supplies. I was on different ships guarding and then would get off when they were unloaded and get on another one. We would sleep on the ships, too. The food was good. Each ship had their own chef. They had a menu and we could order what we wanted.

“We dropped hand grenades over the ship. It could bust the eardrums of possible frogmen. They had snakes in the water I could see. I don’t know if they were poisonous. Shifts were twelve hours on and twelve hours off. I never went on land. The uniforms were a green color. I washed my own uniforms. It was hot on the ship but a dry heat.

“When it was time for my discharge, I got on a helicopter in Cam Rahn Bay and flew to Saigon. From Saigon, I got on a jet and flew to California. I was discharged on February 8, 1966, two days early. Usually the Vietnam tour was a year but my time was up so I got to go home without serving a whole year. I went to an office to sign discharge papers in California. I was free.”