Being a veteran it’s good to see a site like the Veteran tribute page, Comes A Soldier’s Whisper.
I enjoy this site. It’s good to see that people care about our Vets. I served in Vietnam, 70-71, with the 101st airborne in the 2/320 Artillery, Air Mobil, and proud of my service to our country. I was drafted in 1969. I had a good job with PG.and E, and was engaged to someone, but all of that changed. I received a ‘Dear John’ letter about 6 months into my service. I had taken a leave of absence from my job before I went into the Army. When I got out, I was able to get my job back but without any seniority. I called the VA and was told they couldn’t help me. I did find a better job and after 8 years started my own business as an excavating contractor for 32 years.
My MOS was 13-E field artillery. I also was a radioman in the field and did night ambush patrols around Camp Eagle. I was sent to Vietnam from Fort Carson, Colorado with 10 months left of service. I served in two operations, the Lom Son 719, and 720, and worked with the 1st ARVIN division around the Ashaw Valley, a real hot spot for the NVA.
The Bob Hope show performed at Camp Eagle in 1970. Johnny Bench and the Gold Diggers were with him too. I waited 3 hours outside the gates to see the show and sat about 12 rows back. The first 2 rows were for the wounded solders. The show was good and it was nice to see American girls. I was hot out doors and the moral of our boys was so, so. I think it was because the war was winding down. It all seems like a dream now. I took pictures of the show, but they didn’t come out.
Here is a picture of myself where I just got in from all night ambush patrol at Camp Eagle. When I returned home to Fort Lewis, Washington, we arrived around 2-am. We came in from hot temperatures, and they stuck us in old wood buildings, with no blankets, or pillows, for three days. From there and at the end of my time served, I went home to California. It wasn’t much better there.
My parents are from New Mexico and Colorado. I was raised in the San Francisco are and now live in Pacifica, California. I was married in 1974, and still married today to the same lady, raised 3 kids, and now have 5 grand children.
Although I suffer from P.T.S.D. and am 100 % disabled with the V.A. life is still good, and I’m blessed to have a good wife and kids.
~ Steve Ray Lyles, Vietnam Veteran
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