Aside from a three-and-one-half year stint as Tactical Officer of C Co. and Field Music at Valley Forge Military Academy & College in Wayne, PA, I worked in the publishing industry after retiring from the Army in September 1991. I started out as Executive Editor of Presidio Press, a San Francisco Bay Area book publisher specializing in military history and military affairs. After leaving VFMA&C in the summer of 1998, I became my own boss--using contacts I'd made with Presidio to line up freelance copy-editing projects for several commercial and scholarly book publishers. I finally had to give up work entirely in 2004, however, when my body began letting me down. Fortunately, all of my disabling conditions are either directly or indirectly service-connected--making me eligible for a wide range of VA benefits--without which I'd be up the proverbial estuary without a manipulator!
Other Comments:
For 20 years I lived on Hawaii's Big Island with my wife, Carol, in a subdivision about a mile outside of Mountain View--almost exactly halfway between Hilo and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. However, I moved to Idaho in late July 2019 to settle in the Sagle area not far from the Pend Oreille River. Between the Blue State politics, earthquakes and eruptions, I decided it was time to bid Hawaii Aloha and head for cooler climes! It was a wise decision. I absolutely love it here in the northern Idaho panhandle!
Best Friends PFC Larry Busick (KIA Sept. 20, 1970) PFC Larry "Mouse" Moore SGT Larry Plagman SGT Glenn Wittenborn PFC Scott "Red" Curtis
Worst Moment Lying pinned down by heavy machine-gun fire, feeling bullets hitting my ruck and being unable to get to SSG Ronnie Fields as he bled out from a .51-cal. wound in his throat just a few feet away from me on Sep. 30. . . .
Chain of Command MG Albert E. Milloy - Americal Div. CG COL John Insani - 11th LIB CO LTC John B. Luke - 3-1st Inf. CO CPT Gregory L. Morgan - C/3-1st Inf. CO 1LT Samuel E. Grashio - 2d Plt. Ldr. SSG Dan Pritchett, Jr. - 2d Plt. Sgt. SGT Glenn Wittenborn - my squad leader
Other Memories *David "CPT Fly" Smith - truly a wild man! Hysterically funny, but deadly serious when it mattered most. He went berserk on Sept. 3 when Charles "Lucky Chuck" Callahan was shot in the face by an AK-47 as we fought back against dug-in NVA when we hit the big ambush in Nghia Hanh Valley. . . .Ã?Â
*Kenneth "John Wayne" Warren and his incessant prattle about how many "dinks" he was going to kill. . . .
"Doc" Mitchell pulling me and SGT Wittenborn--both fair-skinned guys--aside in the late afternoon in NDPs to squeeze pus out of the boils and jungle ulcers we were constantly getting mostly on our butts. . . .