Page 44 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2025 - Online Magazine

by Marita Tedder

Two weeks later, he was sent to a
“forward area.” He and another
guy were helicoptered to Phan
Rang where they lived in tents
on the sand. The detachment was
tasked with supporting the 101st
Airborne (Screaming Eagles). For a
full year, he was regularly sent out
with a battalion for days at a time,
living in a hole where he monitored
communications using the PRC-10
radio, which he carried on his back—
often for up to 18 days without even
a cold shower.
When the year was up, Tommy was
rotated out. He was sent to Fort
Wolters in Mineral Wells, TX, where
" t was the ’60s and the pervasive The setting for basic training was a he did lots of training exercises
attitude among teens was ‘I frigid January at Fort Leonard Wood, and occasionally got to go home to
Idon’t want to go to war,’ reflects MO, where Tommy remembers the Morton on weekends in his red VW
Morton, TX native Tommy Combs. coal heater spewing black dust into bug.
After graduating from high school the cold WWII-style barracks. He was
in 1964, he enrolled at South Plains sent next to Fort Devens, MA where From Fort Wolters, Tommy was sent
College (where he spent more time in he spent nine months training to be a to monitor communications at the
the Student Union Building playing Communications Security Monitor/ 1968 DNC Convention in Chicago—
Spades than he did in class) and, as Analyst. because issues with protestors were
a result, his student deferment was expected. The military vehicles
terminated. He knew he was going to During that time, the US military and uniforms garnered negative
be drafted, and the chances of going was engaged in major buildups attention in that anti-war era. Next,
to Vietnam were great. in Vietnam. As Tommy and his Tommy and 11 other soldiers were
classmates neared graduation, sent to Washington, D.C. to monitor
Instead of waiting for Uncle Sam’s he kept saying “I’m not going to the communications during the
letter, Tommy enlisted in the Vietnam. My recruiter told me.” But “Poor People’s March” of 1968. They
Army. After a battery of tests, he unfortunately, Tommy’s first duty arrived in D.C. on June 8, 1968, the
qualified for the Army Security assignment was Saigon. day Robert Kennedy was buried.
Agency. The recruiter assured him Tommy and his passenger drove in
that he wouldn’t go to Vietnam, When the new soldier arrived at Tan to Arlington National Cemetery and
and that sealed the deal. Despite Son Nhut Air Base, the war became were able to see the historical event
Tommy’s dad having served in the very real—bunkers, machine guns, as it took place. For the next several
Army Air Corps in WWII, Tommy and Huey helicopters everywhere. weeks, Tommy and his companions
had little personal knowledge about After spending the first two weeks patrolled the area around Lincoln
the military, or the tactics recruiters in a Quonset hut, he was sent to Memorial in a van full of equipment
employed for enlisting servicemen. Nha Trang. There, he lived in a disguised as a utility truck.
MASH-like tent with wooden floors.

44 Lubbock Senior Link