I arrived in Vietnam on April 1st. How appropriate. I had been in "A" school with Marines but this was different. First we checked in with Gunny Brewington. My Navy haircut was inappropriate and Gunny made that abundantly clear in very colorful terms. Not only did I get chewed out, but the Marine who was checking us in got chewed out and so did Larry, (my Navy compatriot) just on G.P. The man commanded a great deal of respect. I was glad to have served with Gunny Brewington. If you did your job well and proudly with military bearing, that's all he asked for. Gunny was a true molder of men (probably still is...) In the next 30 plus years whenever I encountered a (rare) clueless O Brancher I could hear Gunny in the back of my head saying "THAT %&*($# COULDN'T COMMUNICATE THE CLAP!" We worked port and starboard, 12 on, 12 off, with a 6 hour switch over on Sundays. On one of the 6pm to 6am watches I got the "midwatch sillies" you know, when you're over tired and everything is funny...I pinstriped a Gray Model 28 Teletype with a marker pen. It looked pretty good at the time. Gunny was NOT amused. I was back in for the day shift to scrub it off. Somehow Gunny and I both survived my time with 1st Radio. I'm personnally better for the experience.
CTOCS Ken Spranza