I started riding horses in summer of 1965 and I was hooked.
I learned some techniques that allowed me to become a good horseman. One of the principles at the core of my training methods is to make the right choice for the horse easy and the wrong choice uncomfortable but not unbearable. I was an athlete in high school, running cross-country and track, so I was pretty fit when I entered the Marine Corps. The regimentation of boot camp wasn’t that difficult to deal with and I knew it would only be 13 weeks.
Athletes, as a whole, did better than non-athletes. I think it’s probably due the mentality of being a ‘team’ rather than just an ‘individual’. This is taken to extremes in the Marine Corps resulting in our esprit de corps.
As an 18-year-old Marine in Vietnam, my job and CAP Marine team, 2-4-1 counterinsurgency unit’s mission was to protect villages from the cruelty of the Viet Cong. Our team picture was taken in February 1971. I am standing on the far right. They began calling me “Daddy Wags” and then shortened my nickname to “Wags”. In the next picture, Doc Bolden and I were taking on our resupply run our CAP 2-4-1 needed from CACO 2-4. It was a candid shot by a Marine from CAP 2-4-3 showing my reaction to looking at 4 dead VC, missing a lot of brain material, blown away by my buddies in CAP 2-4-3 the previous night before as VC tried to sneak into their ville, Tan Taxy, ran into CAP 2-4-3’s ambush. You can read more about the CAP Marines by visiting http://capmarine.com
My best friend, PFC Gregory Scott Karger from Marine Corps Boot Camp died five days after coming to Vietnam. He was on a CH-47 helicopter and on his way to his first assignment with the 1st Marine Regiment. He was killed when a Viet Cong rocket shot down his helicopter. An ironic circumstance, since he was killed within 10 minutes of me almost getting killed by AK-47 shooting one foot over my left shoulder in my first firefight on January 21, 1971. Every time I think about Vietnam, which is daily, the carnage I witnessed is replayed in my mind but I no longer dwell on them.
There are some things that stay for the remainder of your life, I guess.
~ Jim “Wags” Wagner, Vietnam Veteran
Veteran Stories Collected by Jenny La Sala www.JennyLasala.com
