Page 80 - Lubbock Senior Link Magazine Fall 2019- Online Magazine

Charlie Scarborough
“Lord, I can’t do this
anymore!” muttered Charlie
Scarborough as he fell face
first in the mud in Vietnam.
But those words set the scene
for a life-changing event. “In
an instant, a calm came over
me I had never known before.
I knew everything was going
to be alright.” His despair
lifted. Charlie spent one
year, a month and two days
in Vietnam. When he was
discharged in 1969 at Ft. Lewis,
he was “more than ready to go
home.” Because of his newly
softened heart, his life was on
a different trajectory, but not
without the occasional miracle
or two to remind him of his
need for God.
Charles W. Scarborough’s
nickname was “Lightning”,
a moniker which he acquired
during his senior year of high
school when he accidently
stuck an aluminum irrigation
pipe into a three-phase power
80 Lubbock Senior Link
Recycled for a Reason
by Katherine McLamore and Larry A. Williams
Veterans Liasion Co-Chairs
Texas South Plains Honor Flight
line. “Electricity went
into my hands and out
my feet. I ended up
in the hospital and on
crutches for a month
after that.” He went on
to Texas Tech, where he
obtained a degree in Ag
Economics in 1967 and
joined the Army soon
after graduation.
He was born in
Lubbock in 1944 to
Henry and Essie B.
Scarborough. His
father farmed in
Petersburg where he
graduated in 1963. A
few years later, he received
his “greetings” from the Army
and was inducted into the
service on August 24, 1967.
He broke his foot in Basic
Training at Ft. Polk, Louisiana
and had to be “recycled”,
extending his stay before
active duty. The extra time
benefitted him as he trained as
a wireman in AIT (Advanced
Individual Training), and
he learned to climb poles,
string communications wiring
and communicate with
cryptography.
After landing in Cam Ranh
Bay, Vietnam in January 1968,
he was assigned to the HHB
Americal Division, Artillery.
He was put on a bus and taken
to Chu Lai Air Base. “The
buses had screened wire on the
windows, and we saw G.I.’s
filling up sand bags as fast as
they could beside the road.
I knew I was in a different
world!” Charlie’s arrival in
Vietnam couldn’t have been
any worse. The North Viet
Cong were about to start the
largest assault of the Vietnam
War, attacking over 100 cities
on January 30, 1968 in what
was called the Tet Offensive.
Arriving at the base, Charlie
recalled that “a sheet was
put up between our hooches
(improvised living spaces) for
us to watch a movie. When
we were attacked, we were
hit with rockets and mortars.
You started looking for those
sandbags for cover. I had no
rifle or anything. You learned
to run, crawl and hide (during
the attacks), but I didn’t even
know where all the bunkers
were.”
In Vietnam, Sgt. Scarborough
was flown to several LZ’s
(Landing Zones) and fire bases
for his crypto work. “There
would be a compromise in our
signals, and I had to deliver
new instructions and call signs.
I had two flight jackets, one I
wore and one I sat on. I carried
an M-16 and an M-79 grenade
launcher. We had sandbags all
around our hooch (which was
dug into a hill), artillery, and
a guard tower. Whenever we
played poker, we would never
take an I.O.U. Two incidents
got my attention. Jumping off
on one LZ, I looked down and
was straddling a claymore
mine. Another time, back at
our hooch, I awoke one night
with a Viet Cong looking at
me. I reached up and hit him