Names
removed to protect the innocent.
#1Jan 9
#71447
So, I have a serious question for everyone.
What was considered acceptable while deployed to Vietnam?
Beer / Alcohol?
Marijuana?
Other substances?
How was it acquired?
Responses are not considered admission of
usage, and this is purely for my personal curiosity and discussion.
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#2 Jan 9
#71448
Booze was always acceptable, except while
flying. Didn't matter much if you were
sober enough to fly - you flew.
Mary Jane was tolerated, but I would not fly
with someone who was stoned. And you
didn't do it in the open. But the smell
was everywhere.
The bad stuff was never spoken out loud. I can honestly say that I did not know of
anyone who was using coke, LSD, or worse.
But I'm sure there were. They
just hid it.
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#2 Jan 9
#71450
My thoughts: our infantry guys will have to
confirm or tell me I'm full of crap, but I think the use of drugs in the field
was more prevalent than booze, just because it was more portable and easier to
conceal. Booze use was heavier in
companies like ours because it was more readily accessible.
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#3 Jan 9
#71451
Scotch and/or beer were my only alcoholic
vices.
No weed or anything else for me.
I felt that it was hard enough to try to stay
sharp with the controls in order to stay alive, and I didn’t want to lose that
edge.
But, if I knew that I had the next day off, I
drank way, way, way too much
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#1 Jan 9
#71453
#2, Do you think it might have helped guys with
all the shit you all were going through? I sometimes wonder if it would have
helped over in Iraq.
I haven’t had the best of times in the years
post deployment. Survivor guilt has been the worst part for me, knowing Scott
never got to hold his daughter before being killed. Paul left behind a son,
Kyran left behind a wife and several children and Ben left behind a wife, she
was deployed with the 101st in one of our sister battalions. I left 6 weeks
before 431 was shot down, to this day I REGRET LEAVING IRAQ when I did.
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#2 Jan 9
#71454
That's why I drank, #1. Beer helped me dull the senses and settle the
nerves. Not all days were bad, in fact,
most days were not bad, but I can't think of a day that passed that I didn't
have at least two beers. Like #3, I
never did the weed (didn't even smoke cigarettes), but I also never drank wine
or hard liquor. Beer was my solace.
I did fly a few times with a serious headache
and hangover, but never drunk. I know
there were souls over there that did not partake, but I don't think I knew any
of them.
My nerves were shot when I came home, despite
not seeing combat in my last three months.
Even slack duty down near Saigon had its own stressors. But I managed to avoid the PTSD and never
lost control of my emotions. Many
didn't.
I can't explain why, except that I had a pretty
unstable childhood and probably developed some shields along the way. Best guess.
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#4 Jan 9
#71456
#1, "acceptable" is a questionable
term. For us 1st generation Lancer, some of us hit the ground running on the
beer and alcohol - Lots of OJT at Carson. And acquisition of beer was never a
problem, even if it might be all the dented and rusty cans you could get in a
sandbag for $1.00. Wacky-Weed was available through a number of sources,
sources I never questioned. However, there were certain opportunities when
sitting at some locations when one of the local young entrepreneurs would approach
you, "Ten for 2, GI." These kids would roll the tobacco out of
cigarettes, reload with weed, and put 10 of them back in a cigarette pack and
sell it for $2.00. And nobody thought anything of you having a pack of
cigarettes peeking out of your pocket. Rolling papers were few to nonexistent, and
certainly wouldn't want to be tagged with them...busted with paraphernalia.
No rolling papers; no problem. Here we were
again with the creative entrepreneurs of our very own hydraulic shop. They had
all the components to make bongs and bowls that even Cheech and Chong would
marvel at...Fittings, tubing, screens, you name it. Want something special that
you wouldn't burn your lips when giving someone a shotgun...Not a problem. All
at a fair price.
While I'm not sure if anyone had to do a
press-to-test on this - The thinking was as long as that pipe was clean, no
weed residue, it could not be considered paraphernalia, simply a bunch of
mismatched Army aircraft hydraulic parts.
Outside of the circle of guys I associated
with, there were other substances; some much harder. Honestly don't / didn't
know anything about that traffic other than it was out there, and I hesitate to
stereotype those who were involved.
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#5 Jan 9
#71457
I did smoke cigarettes. There was a time when
we were flying with the doors off, and for whatever reason the tobacco burned
faster than the paper. I took a long drag and burned the crap out of my lips.
Looked like I had Botox lips for a couple of days. I was more careful in the
days to come. I just remembered we had ashtrays.
Going to the Club after a particularly
stressful day of flying and sharing the camaraderie with others, recounting the
events of the day, having a beer thrown on you for using the wrong term or a
cliche, laughing was all was very cathartic at the time, as this site has been.
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#6 Jan
9 #71464
Tolerated in Vietnam? Well, I was there
'68-'69. From the Comancheros at Camp Eagle to the Lancers after they arrived.
I was in the group that smoked pot rather than
drink beer although I had the occasional Black Label, and my dad would send
care packages containing gin and tall cans of Coors along with dry lemonade mix
for the gin.
I gave the Coors to those guys from east of the
Rockies who seemed to think it was gold.
We flew such long hours that there was little
time for beer or pot on those days. We didn't have a club when I got to the
Lancers.
I don't know anyone who smoked pot before
flying. Not something that sounded good at 0500. If I had a day off I could be found in
"Happy Valley", that gully between the hooches and the flightline, on
a pallet with an air mattress on it, smoking a bit and reading a book I'd
gotten off the bookmobile. Even read the Bible down there.
As for where we would get it. I know if you
could get off post you could buy a sandbag full at the place where the
Vietnamese filled sandbags and for about $10. I seem to remember that the guy
who worked in supply always had some for sale.
We only had one incident when anyone took issue
with the pot smoking. Sgt made it his goal to root it all out. It didn't work
well for him and after that, I remember being in the orderly room when some NCO
brought a bag of pot to the CO who told him to just put it back where he had
found it. It was never a problem with the flight crews as far as I knew.
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#4 Jan 10
#71466
Everything #6 said is exactly what I recall.
Hell, #6, and I probably toked up together down in the valley. It doesn't /
didn't matter so much what you might use, booze vs weed. It was when and to
what extent you used it. I can honestly say that at 5 AM my head was straight,
no hangover. And I certainly wasn't seen throwing up next to the revetment any
morning. Yes, I've been drunk on occasion, but i can't
say I enjoy being so. And generally, the only ones that tolerate being around
drunks, are other drunks. They can be
truly obnoxious! And when we speak of
substance abuse, booze can be just as dangerous because it is socially
acceptable, legal, and readily available.
And with that, I'm looking forward to this
coming Saturday evening, getting together with a few friend for dinner and
playing cards. AND popping the cork on a
bottle of single malt Scotch my son gave me for Christmas. One of his traditions
for a number of years now, never the same label. I also enjoy good beer, more
specifically Bitters. The Bird In Hand pub just outside of Mildenhall Air Base,
UK had the best bitters with a head like whip cream, along with their fish and
chips...miss those trips!
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#2 Jan
10 #71467
Booze, she's-a-no-good! I quit drinking when my son was almost a year
and a half old. He'll be 45 this
month. I rarely got drunk, and when I
did I tended to get quiet, keep to myself and didn't get rowdy. But I didn't like myself when I drank. My dad was a drunk, and I did not want to
follow his path. And I definitely did
not want my son to ever remember seeing me drink. Setting the example as a father was/is serious
business to me.
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#8 Jan 10
#71468
Does anyone remember the night the CID gave a
pot party for all of the officers and NCOs? Everyone got stoned on factory
rolled joints.
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#1 Jan 10
#71469
I went through a VERY BAD couple periods with
mixing drinking and pain meds post deployment.
Luckily I made it past that stage if I drink
now it’s socially and not even close to every week. I have learned to control
my consumption and what I can and can’t drink. As for pain meds, I only take
them when I absolutely have to take them. In fact, I struggle with even taking
my normal day to day meds.
Having you guys to chat with GREATLY HELPS! So,
I sincerely THANK YOU!
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#3 Jan 10
#71470
Of course, you smoked cigarettes, #5.
They were in every C Ration meal, and only cost
$1.10 per carton. That was up from
&.09 per pack when I first arrived in Vietnam.
What could be wrong at that price?
When I Derosed, I brought home 12 cartons of
Winston’s.
Thank God I kicked that habit in MAY of ‘83.
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#5 Jan 10
#71471
I smoked Winston’s as well and got sucked into
a bar bet. The bet was, I bet you can’t smoke that cigarette to where it says
Winston. When I smoked it to the printed Winston I asked for my money. They
laughed and said, I didn’t hear that cigarette say Winston! Can’t remember whom it was and sort of sorry
that memory is taking up valuable space!
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#1 Jan 10
#71472
Thankfully I never starting using tobacco. I
will very occasionally smoke a cigar, but that’s rarely done.
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#7 Jan 10
#71473
I started smoking on September 3,1969 and
stopped fifteen years later.
I remember a short Battalion Medical Officer in
1970 standing up in a meeting and saying pot wasn’t bad. He was gone before the sun set.
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#2 Jan 10
#71475
Didn't smoke, but always kept a carton of Winston’s
in one of the door jamb holes behind the A/C for anyone who wanted them. When I first saw 140 at the Restoration
Center, one of the first things I did was to check and see if those cigarettes
were still there! Crazy, huh? 🤔🥴
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#4 Jan 10
#71476
Maybe it wasn't that time that I recall. But I
remember a few times in my years that Intro to Marijuana - 101 was given to O’s
and Sr NCOs.
Over the years I could probably have filled a
55-gal drum with all the piss tests I've taken. The first was in '76, Ft Ord,
DPT, Aviation Section. We reported in at 0700 as normal. At around 0730 about 6
guys pull up and they start securing all the exits and close the hanger doors.
The they had all of us – O’s, WO’s, and E’’s queue up for the latrine.
Afterwards no one disappeared or was hauled off, so I guess we all came back
clean - which kind of surprised me because I had my suspicions about good ol'
Sal, one of our OH-58 CEs.
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#3 Jan 10
#71477
I remember when we were given a class on how to
recognize the smell of marijuana so that we could get rid of it.
We were offered a joint to see what it was
about. I didn't partake, but I do
remember #10 Bob Archer taking full advantage of improving his understanding of
this "drug".
I think
every potato chip disappeared from the Round Table that night.
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#4 Jan 10
#71478
It was during my "lost but learned
years" between being discharged '70 and rejoining '74. I was riding an ol'
beater 250 cc dirt bike. Figured out with my monthly fun money allowance, and
what I was spending on cigarettes, I could buy a new 350. I still remember, vividly, my last cigarette
after eating lunch where I worked. To quit smoking there has to be some
incentive. For me, I was financially committed the next month. There were a few
time I thought, "Damn! Sure, would be nice to have a cigarette with this
cup of coffee!"
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#3 January 10, 2022,
I remember when we were given a class on how to
recognize the smell of marijuana so that we could get rid of it.
We were offered a joint to see what it was
about. I didn't partake, but I do
remember #10 taking full advantage of improving his understanding of this
"drug".
I think
every potato chip disappeared from the Round Table that night.
________________________________________
#8 Jan
10 #71484
You could buy a pillowcase of MJ for $10.00 or
or cocaine in a thumb size vile about the size
of the small cases for our hearing sides.
You could also buy your MJ rolled but some cook
said the generals laced the MJ with cocaine, so I nixed both. Liquor was cheap.
I hated the smell of cigarettes, so I didn’t smoke.
One day I was by the CO office walking on
pallets and as I saluted a warrant he handed me a roach and went into the old
man’s office. I threw that shit down and crushed it out.
My father was an alcoholic, so liquor was out
of the question, so I drank beer.
I can’t remember if I was drinking when a crew
member hit me in the eye and knocked my ass over the rotary blade seats. The
crew chiefs separated us, and they were just joking. I had a good shiner the
next day.
Ah. The good old days.
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#9 Jan 11 #71487
I never smoked. I watched my father
hack and hack every morning and decided it's not for me! He still lived
to 94.
#1 Brian Weltch #2 Gary Bowman #3
Bill Walker #4 Bill Griffith #5 Barry Beard #6 Bruce Nesmith #7 Steve (RS16)
#8 Sol Herrera #9 Dana #10 Bob
Archer