GUARDIANS OF FREEDOM
Saluting Those Who Served in the U.S. Army
Bill Holdwick in Vietnam, Part 4
by Janis Stein

Bill Holdwick was as prepared as any soldier could be when he left for Vietnam, but first the troops had to get there, which proved to be a battle all its own. Join me as Bill and his fellow soldiers embark on the U.S.S. Gordon.

In August, half of the soldiers in Bill's artillery unit were given a two-week leave, and when they returned, the other half was sent home for two weeks. Bill's homecoming was bittersweet for it was hard on his mother. With the world's situation being what it was and Bill's unit working with eight-inch artillery guns, Bill figured his mother knew as well as he did where the Army's next orders would take him. Bill's mother gave him one last hug before he departed: Stella Holdwick knew she was sending her son off to war.

When all the soldiers in Bill's artillery unit reassembled after their vacations, all the equipment was given a final inspection; the men had been working on their equipment all along to ensure everything was up to snuff. Once everything was thoroughly cleaned, all the equipment they needed was loaded on train cars. The initial destination was California where the equipment would be loaded onto boats: the final destination, Vietnam.

Bill and the other soldiers in his artillery unit flew to San Francisco where they boarded the ship that would transport them to Vietnam over the waters of the Pacific; she was called the U.S.S. Gordon, and the 4800 soldiers aboard were pretty certain the United States Army resurrected the old girl from the moth balls.

The Gordon was 650 feet long and 65 feet wide. Bunks aboard the boat were five high, and while Bill didn't exactly know how his first excursion across the ocean was going to go, he made sure he crawled into one of the top bunks available. Holding on to his rifle and crammed in among the steam pipes of the ship, Bill set sail for Vietnam. The date was October 5, 1965.

Soldiers commented on the sights as they sailed beneath the Golden Gate Bridge and by the island of Alkatraz - anything to keep their minds off the not-so-distant future. By the next morning all the men would see was an endless mass of water. Bill awoke to the sounds of hundreds of sailors throwing up the previous night's dinner, and as he hunkered down in his top bunk, he commended himself for choosing his location - plenty of men below who had sea legs were getting vomited on by the soldiers with quivering stomachs while Bill remained high and dry!

Boredom quickly settled among the soldiers because there was simply nothing to do. During the first two weeks aboard the Gordon, Bill volunteered for guard duty just to help pass the time, and the second two weeks he volunteered for KP duty. A section of the boat served as the mess hall, and the soldiers lined up to get their daily meals. With nothing else to occupy their time, many soldiers ate what they were served only to go around the outside and go back through the line again.

During the second two weeks aboard the Gordon, some of the food was becoming a bit questionable, but those who were on KP duty had easy access to the storage room. The notion of food poisoning didn't seem too appealing, so Bill and his buddies lived on oranges and sugar wafer cookies during the tail end of their voyage. The sweet treats hit the spot, and those on KP duty congratulated each other on their good fortune. So many cookies did Bill eat, he found it would take him quite a few years before he could stomach sugar wafers again!

The soldiers among him continually wondered if the old boat the Army trusted their lives with would sink to its watery grave, taking them with her. She creaked and groaned on a good day, it seemed, and many wondered if she'd be able to weather a storm. It didn't take long and the soldiers wished they hadn't wondered.

The Captain got on the horn one day and announced nobody was allowed on deck. For two days the soldiers hunkered down, riding out the rough seas. Swells estimated at 80 feet ravaged the Gordon, and her crew was quite certain they'd never live to see Vietnam. Each time she went over another swell, her props came out of the water, and the boat just shook. Soldiers aboard knew the Gordon would never make it through the storm; the boat, they thought, would simply disintegrate.

As it turned out, the old girl proved the soldiers wrong, as the U.S.S. Gordon continued to prove she was seaworthy. Two weeks into their journey, though, the boat docked at Okinawa because the Engineers needed to replace a bearing in the main drive shaft. Though Bill would have enjoyed working on the drive shaft himself, the Army frowned upon soldiers found in places they weren't asked to be, so he joined the other soldiers who were allowed to venture off the boat.

For some reason, those on shore were throwing a party for the soldiers aboard the Gordon, and it didn't take long for chaos to erupt. Soldiers spent the afternoon eating their fill of hot dogs and hamburgers, and the pop and beer flowed freely. For the two weeks the soldiers had so far spent on the Gordon, they were deprived of any alcohol, so those men who were in the habit of drinking beer were quick to indulge themselves.

By evening, the soldiers boarded the boat once more, and the Gordon sailed on the open waters, heading toward Vietnam. Another week passed; the sheer monotony was more than some soldiers could take. When at long last, the soldiers reached the shores of Vietnam, the Gordon anchored two miles away from land where she and her soldiers would sit for another week though no one would share the reasons why. And so they waited. Temperatures hovered around the 110 degree mark, and tempers flared nearly as high. Bill had been on the boat 31 days, and it was the longest month of his entire life.

Finally at long last, the soldiers were ordered to prepare to unload. Barge after barge, hauling 100 men at a crack, floated into shore. The soldiers were simply ecstatic to be on solid ground again. Bill arrived in Vietnam on November 5, 1965, and his unit, the 6th of the 27th Artillery, some of the U.S. Army's finest, was ready and eager to take care of the business at hand - anything to be off that blessed boat!

Troops were loaded on the back of 2 ½ ton trucks, and they settled in their seats on the back of the truck for the four-hour drive which lay ahead. During the four-hour road trip, the soldiers got soaked to the skin with heavy downpours four different times, but with those 100 degree temperatures, they dried out as quickly as they had gotten wet. Soldiers were not apprised of their destination, nor did they care at this point. All were still flying high they had made it off the boat alive!

The convoy stopped in a clearing, and the men were instructed to set up their pup tents; they would be camping in the area for the next week, and the jungle surrounding them was their new backyard. The rains were frequent and heavy; it didn't take long for the soldiers to realize if they didn't stake everything down, the water would surely wash it away.

Their first night of slumber on solid ground was quickly interrupted; the equipment they had last laid their eyes on in Texas when they loaded it all up on train cars had just arrived, and it needed to be unloaded immediately. No matter that it was the middle of the night and that it was pouring rain; there was work to be done.

Be sure to look for the continuation in next month's issue as Bill learns to deal with the sights and sounds of Vietnam.

© 2006 Janis Stein