VIETNAM:

OR WHAT DID YOU DO IN THE WAR DADDY?

By Jon Wallace Jacobsmeyer

This record of my experiences in the Vietnam War and those events leading up to that period is by no means a complete record. It is now January of 1985 and time has robbed me of many of the fine points and dates of the years 1968-69, but with the help of the letters home (which my wife Janet saved for some unknown reason) and the Army's paperwork, I will try to recreate what it was that I saw, felt, and experienced at that time.

My first recollection is of a spring day, about April 14th, 1968, as I was shooting a game of pool with one of my fellow firemen at Fire Station 71 and the phone rang. It was Bruce Pixley, a fellow mortarman from my National Guard troop and good friend, asking me if I had heard about our activation for duty in Vietnam. I didn't believe him, since Bruce and I kidded around a lot, but upon listening to the news later on that evening I realized that I was going to active duty with possible action in the Vietnam War.

Before continuing, let me go back a while and tell how I got into the National Guard and to the point of being activated.

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