PREPARING FOR SERVICE
Us: How did you decide to join the Reserves? What stage in life were you at?
John: After graduating from high school, it was my dad’s idea that he didn’t feel that his kids
were mature enough to go on to a four-year school, so we went to school at Pasadena City
College. I got a summer job with the city of Pasadena, so I continued to work part-time while
I was in school, and I started taking classes at UCLA through their extension program. And
then I felt the draft breathing down my neck, so I asked some people who I was working with
at City Hall what they recommended. One of them was a commander in the Navy Reserves,
and he suggested I join the Navy Reserves. So I signed up, swore in, to serve my country,
and bought myself a year’s extension while I continued going to school. But about ten months
into that was when they canceled all student deferments for all reservists…so they said, “Okay,
you’re all going on active duty. We’ll send you to Class A school – what school do you want to
go to?” I said “Engineering Aid.” They said, “Sorry, that’s closed, can’t let you do that. What’s
your second choice?” I said “Engineering Aid” – I wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. I argued
for me and another friend of mine that I was in the Reserves with, and we both got into that
Engineering Aid school.
So I got to the class late…a lot of engineering, a lot of drafting, a lot of surveying, and soils –
basic engineering stuff, very valuable for me throughout my career. After graduating from the
Class A school, we were given a week’s leave, and then we reported to Little Creek, Virginia,
for three types of training. We had a classroom teaching on the history of Vietnam, the history
of the counter-insurgency, communist theory…that kind of background of what to expect in the
Vietnamese culture. We also had intensive training in small arms, such that we were trained in
every weapon we might come across that’s able to be hand-carried.
After that, we did what was called SERE training – which stood for survival, evasion, resistment, and escape. They basically put us into elements of 9 men in a unit. They gave us one rabbit,
two potatoes, and I forget what else…not much food. We had to start off before they sent
us out into the swamp – this was in the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia. They sent us off
through the swamp, and during the three or four days in the swamp, we had to do survival and
concealment shelters as individuals, as well as in a unit. They gave us a head start, and they
had special forces chasing us through the swamp. We had code words and what we were
supposed to do…We did steal a few farmers’ corn while we were there, and caught some wild
turtles and had turtle soup. So finally they stopped, and they said, “Okay, you guys have made
your last check-point, you’ve done good, you evaded everything.” They put us in a truck, and
gave us one can of C-rations for all nine of us, and I’m not sure we were able to finish it.
Then they stormed the truck and “captured” us to put us into a simulated prisoner-of-war camp.
That was interesting. One of the first things they did with you when they brought you in – how
they decided, I don’t know – was they were either going to treat you psychologically or treat
you physically, to try and get out of you what they wanted. Well, my hair was a little long, and
I hadn’t had a haircut, so they were calling me a “gay from Hollywood”. They’d throw me over
the head by my hair, and just harass me…they were just trying to stress you out in a lot of ways.
When we begged for food, one time they threw us an ammo box. We opened it up, and it had
a copperhead snake – a poisonous snake – in it. Just different things they did for a couple of
days…When we finished with that exercise, let me tell you, we did not want to go through that
training again. We were ready – to get on with it.