A Medic was the person you confided in. The guys that got Dear John letters, the guys that were having any kind of problems at home, they came to the Medic. And, so you know, you had a very serious bond and, and had quite the responsibility if you recognized what they wanted you for, and you were delivering. You had a lot of responsibility to take care of the guys in your platoon.

And I would tell you in, in hindsight that probably the biggest strength in, in my adult life was that my experience in Vietnam—the experience of the friendships and brotherhood, and lack of barriers and lack of discrimination, the strength that you have, you have to get some strength out of it. And then for me maybe I was lucky enough to get more strength out it because I had these things happen after I got home to help settle me down and help put it in a, a different or better perspective.

I had some very fortunate things happen to me when I got home. I got married, which was extremely fortunate. I dated my wife all of four months. We dated one month before I went to Vietnam. I went to Vietnam. I came home not quite the same person. In fact, nowhere near the same person. But it was the best thing that could happen to me.

I'll never forget what happened that day. It was actually one guy, I was getting mad at him. That might be why I look a little upset in the picture because he was taking pictures. I said, "What are you doing? You know we just lost." They didn't, they didn't die but "we just, just medivaced 1: Emergency evacuation of the sick or wounded, as from a combat area. 2: A helicopter used for medevac.
< http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/medevac >
< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medevac > four guys out of here. One of them my best friend and you're taking pictures."  And he said "Well I'm—it's his camera. I'm trying to get rid of the stuff so we can have less, so we can move on." So, but I know that day still stays in my mind, certainly.

We didn't know who it was. But we found out it was, it was a group of about 15 or 20 Montagnards Montagnard is pronounced 'mountain-yard,' as one word and is French for “mountain dweller.” Montagnards are the indigenous people of Vietnam’s central highlands, and they refer to themselves as Dega. Approximately 40,000 of them fought alongside American soldiers and became a major part of the U.S. military effort in the highlands.
< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degar >
< http://www.montagnards.org/history.cfm > and one of them was very pregnant. I mean, well, she was, she was in labor. And so, I took care of her and basically delivered the baby. And as soon as we got the baby delivered, we put them both on a helicopter to go to a hospital. Her husband was very appreciative and we had, you know, our own interpreter with us. And he gave me those beads, which were supposed to be very high honor with the Montagnards. I think they were his. And so it was, it was very touching at the time to, for him to be that kind and to want me to have that. And I wore them. I wore them the rest of the time I was in Vietnam.

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