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Kanaan Jadalla
In the fall of 1965, I had just got a job at Ford Motor Company, in those
days like now, it was considered a good paying job. Some time right after that,
I received a letter from Uncle Sam telling me he wanted me. I started taking
written and physical exams. Therefore, officially being drafted in November of
1965, we where bussed from Detroit at Fort Wayne to Fort Knox, Kentucky.
Basic training was in the winter, and it was one experience of a lifetime. My
AIT was at Fort Polk, Louisiana; that was extensive infantry training with
better weather, but chilly weather until around 10AM, then it would be warm to
hot.
I left after a short leave from Detroit, May/June, for Vietnam, through Oakland,
California arriving at camp Alpha, Vietnam. While there, people in charge sent
me to what was later referred to as LBJ to do guard duty. When we got there,
there was only one building up and that was the mess hall. Later when I left
Vietnam in 1967, it was like a little city.
Later I was sent to the first infantry division at Bear Cat or Ben Cat I Can't
remember which. There we stayed for a while doing guard duty during the night
and different duties in the day. Later, we where sent to our unit, which was at
the Michelin Rubber Plantation. We arrived there at night, then were taken in
from the landing zone to a supply tent and told to sleep until daybreak.
As a new day started, we came out of the overcrowded smelly tent. Soldiers from
our new unit came from their positions to say "Hi" and ask where we
came from. People in charge divided us among the different company's platoons,
later squads then teams, once we where settled down they paired us off with a
partner. My partner was a Mexican-American from California, that everyone called
Pancho via, We spent the next few months operating out of the Michillon
plantation, doing ambushes and patrols and listening posts out in front of our
lines.
Suddenly, they started taking us out by helicopters to do search and destroy
missions and use us as a blocking force. On search and destroy, they would take
us by choppers to a certain location. We would walk to another area and stay
overnight. Next day, walk to another area; get picked up by choppers to hike to
another area, stay over night and do it all over again. Sometimes it would be in
rubber plantations, other times it would be in open areas or in thick jungles or
a combination of different terrenes.
What we went through was always something new or unique. Rice paddies, hilly
terrene, marshland, or wetland complete with wild animals and mosquitoes, near
villages or in them. We also went into no-mans land, where you were to kill
anyone whom was there. We were involved in small actions and very large ones,
the most memorable where the long-range reconnaissance patrols we did with the
orders not to engage the enemy unless necessary. Also, the operations we did out
of Vong Tao where the area was full of rivers and creeks, and everyday at around
afternoon the water would cover up the land very quickly and in the morning
would leave, just as fast.
I did my tour of one year and one day in Vietnam. I left the war, both happy and
sad. I was happy to make it but I was sad because many of my fellow soldiers did
not make it. I left on a diplomatic flight AC-130 outfitted like a commercial
plane in the opposite direction through Thailand, India, and Pakistan. We where
to go to Saudi Arabia, but because of the war between Israel and the Arab
countries they took us to turkey. From there, I made my way to Lebanon because I
was trying to get to my wife, parents and children in the West Bank. I did not
succeed until after I was honorably discharged then I left to see my family in
the occupied city of Al-bireh, Palestine in 1968.
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