A Vietnam Veteran Having Fun After the War

Mike was in Vietnam from 1968-1972, for four tours. He was in Special Forces, and was often loaned out to other groups. He learned quite a bit about bombs and how to make them. He did a lot of scouting and even did stints as a sniper. He did his job well and managed to come back. His last hour in Vietnam was not quiet either. While he was waiting to board his plane to come home, a sniper opened up. That time, he didn't even have a gun with him. He had already turned it in. His duffle bag received a bullet hole in it, two inches from where his head had been lying on it in the airport in Vietnam.

Here are a few episodes in his life after combat:

When he came back, he became a deputy in his hometown. He left just a few years later and wandered the country for a while. Then his car broke down in a little town in the far south of CA. He painted houses to get it fixed and eventually joined the Sheriff's Department there.

He joined the National Guard in Imperial County, CA. They went on their two week training duty, and they were pitted against another Guard group from Riverside.

They were all billeted at Fort Irwin for the exercise. Mike's group decided to take over the Riverside command camp during the night. They did a magic mixture between the C-ration beans and Sterno, which made a noxious odor of condensed outhouse. They lit it up and watched as the smoke rolled out of the little cans of beans and filled the rival camp. The rival soldiers poured out of their tents, coughing, gagging, crying, and choking. They gave up without a fight. This pleased the heck out of Mike's group but the Riverside Guard was highly displeased. A few months later, the Captain from the Riverside Guard transferred to the one Mike was in.

When asked why, he answered simply, "I never want to have to go up against HIM again. I want him on my side." They became very good friends.

In another incident, Mike's wife was pregnant and went to her first OB appointment. The Doctor, who was a wizened old man (who looked as if a good stiff breeze would blow him away), noticing that she was fifteen pounds overweight, commented that she was so fat that she should never be pregnant. In her wildly emotional state of mind, she started crying. When she left, she was still crying, as the Doctors comments got increasingly nasty during the appointment. She went to pick up the two year old at the babysitter's house. Being the good friends they were, they talked her into waiting to drive home until she was calmer.

When she arrived home, Mike was just arriving from his job as a Deputy. He asked how her appointment went and she told him, starting to cry again. Mike calmed her down and told her she was perfect. Then he went to run a few errands and to pick up some dinner on the way home. He tended to spoil his wife a little.

He went back to the Sheriff's office and talked to the Sheriff. They then went and filed a report on the offensive Doctor. They sent a couple of Deputies down to the Doctor's office and arrested him for disturbing the peace. He had disturbed the 'peace of mind' of a pregnant woman and to them, that mattered. Mike, being slightly on the vengeful side, then called a friend who worked at the power company. They had his power shut off. They called the water company and had his water shut off. They called the newspaper, and had his paper delivery cancelled. When the offending Doctor got out of jail that Friday night, and went home, he left right away to go to a hotel for the week-end. Mike really did not like people making his wife cry. The next Doctor, an elderly man, asked why they switched, and then shook his head and commented that someday that man was going to find a husband that was violent and would just shoot him.

One of my favorite stories is a joke played on Mike's best friend Frank. They were deputies together and had quite a few wild times. They had most of their wild times off duty. Frank was married to a witch that didn't like Mike. Mike didn't like her either but he put up with her for Frank's sake. Mike decided one day to play a practical joke on Frank and wired his mailbox to explode when Frank opened it. Mike miscalculated and missed that Frank's stepson was home from school that day. He checked the mail. The mailbox exploded right on cue, no one got hurt, Frank's wife hated Mike even more.

A more scary story with a humorous twist is a period of time when Mike had a contract working security for the farms during a farm workers strike. He hired his cop friends to work security in their off-duty hours. Frank was one of the friends that was working for him, the money was good and the risk was relatively low. One night the farm workers gathered while Frank was on duty as a deputy. Mike called the Sheriff's office and called everyone in. There was going to be a riot, he could feel it. The re-enforcements rolled in, all of the deputies that could be spared, all of the security guards that could be found, the Highway Patrol, all sent people to help in this riot situation. One of the deputies had a frog with velcro on it. The other side of the velcro strip was on his riot helmet. When he knew a riot was imminent, he would slap it on his riot helmet. He said he needed its protection. When the riot went down, they fought to control it and tried to keep anyone from getting hurt. They tried to convince the rioters that it would not do them any good to riot. It didn't work. They rioted and hundreds ended up in the hospital. Mike's crew did pretty good. No one got killed and very few serious injuries. Frank sprained his ankle. The frog was fine.

One night, the farm workers gathered and were going to riot. Mike had gotten permission to use a few small rocket launchers in desperate circumstances. He figured this was one of them. He and two others against a hundred farm workers, the reinforcements were not there yet. Mike touched one of the rockets off to hit just to the right of the rioting group. Just then, Frank came speeding into the dirt field to the rescue, pulling right in front of the rocket. The rocket flew straight towards the car Frank was in. Mike held his breath, too horrified to look away. It took off the light bar and kept going. Frank had some burns from the flames of the rocket but was otherwise unhurt.

As the ambulance loaded Frank in to take him away, he looked at Mike and said, "Why is it, that in twenty years of being a cop, I never get hurt or have to pull my gun unless you are involved." Then he started laughing maniacally as they shut the doors and drove off.

When Mike moved from Imperial County, his friends decided to give him a royal send-off. One was highly placed at the power company and shut the power off for 20 seconds. Another was flying over in a military plane which was designed as a spy plane. He shut down all communications at the same exact second. For twenty seconds, electricity and communications were off in the whole Imperial Valley.

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