VaMark; I did write a book

Acey

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Been many years since I made a post on the board. My first post is on page 104 and I think I joined the board back in 2014. I think that first post has many hits since then; over 12,000 I think. One of the post on that thread was made by VaMark and he asked me if I ever wrote a book. I never replied to VaMark and at that time I had not written a published book. Let me tell you all a little story. I had joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1963. In 1965 I was stationed in Atsugi Japan when the Gulf of Tonkin occurred. My Unit was ordered down to Vietnam and we arrived in I think June 1965. I returned to the States in the spring of 1966. In 1967 I was working for Lee Carpet Co. and because I was the only off line data processing clerk who had his military service completed I was promoted over the other 13 clerks to a computer operator on a 360 IBM system. After some schooling I was assigned to the night shift where I soon found out consisted of running long, long programs on the 12 tape drives. Very little actual work but change out tapes about one every hour. It didn't take me long to figure out I needed to do something while sitting at my desk at night so I would not go to sleep. So I began writing a book based on the stories I was told from the front line Marines while over in Vietnam. I finished the book in 1968 and asked my brother; who is a graduate of the Naval Academy if he would edit the book for me. I sent it to him; which was the only typed copy of the book, and right after he received it his wife came down with cancer. She passed away about a year later and my brother sold his house and moved. In the time lapse my book was lost. Well at the end of last year Jim had gone up into the attic over his garage and found some old boxes. In one of the boxes he found my book!!! Not saying a word to me Jim edited the book, his new wife typed the book; my daughter came home for Christmas last year and went into my box of photo's from Vietnam and sent him pictures of me at that time. Jim put every thing together and designed a book cover and got it copy-righted. He sent it off to Amazon and in May of this year Amazon printed what is called the "Author's Copy". It was now time for any finial changes to the book before it would be placed onto the market. It was at this time I was told by Jim what was going on and that he was sending me the copy for my finial review. That has all been done and the book; which is Titled; "We Will Hit"is available on Amazon Book Store. Author: Andrew Carl Clayton How's about that. I wrote the book when I was 23 years old and it is just now published and I'm 76 right now. So my answer to VaMark is; Yes Mark I have wrote a book.Acey
 
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And yes, I also received a copy of Andy’s book on DaNang and I am reading it now. It is bringing back many memories. DaNang was my home base in 1968 and 69. I was in Air Rescue, 37th ARRS Jolly Green Giants. Most of our activity centered around rescuing shot down pilots and extracting deeply inserted teams – usually Marine Recon. The landmarks he describes are very familiar turf for me.

Thank you so much.



Edgar



Dr. Edgar B. Hardesty, Th.M., Ph.D.

A little more about this story. The same day I made this post I received an email from my Mother who is 100 years old. She also has written a book at the age of 94 and is now in the process of reviewing the book she wrote. She has a friend who is a Professor at a small College in Pa. She sent him copy of my book and what you read above is his comments on my book in an email he sent to my Mother on the 30th of Sept.. Thought you all might like seeing it. Acey
 
I had a job in college and was the night operator on a Honeywell main frame with 5 -6 tape drives. Yeah, long hours of nothing but loading in new tapes when you needed to. Very difficult to keep away. But at least it wasn't guard duty like I had at times in the Army. Sleeping on guard duty is a very serious offense that can lead to at the least a loss of a stripe and the pay that goes with it. I drank lots of cokes and coffee to stay awake and studied. Not a bad job for a college student.

and yeah, you were in some hairy stuff over there doing what you were doing. Never got assigned to Vietnam, and that was just fine with me. From 64-67 Vietnam was a dangerous place to be and it got even more so. Our government lied to us abut us always winning the war. I had a top secret crypto clearance at the time and knew exactly what was really happening in Vietnam. General Westmoreland and LBJ were lying through their teeth resulting in way too many of our men and women getting killed and wounded and messed up in the head from their time in Vietnam.
 
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Interesting post Acey, welcome back to the forum! Have you done any detecting lately?
Guys like you helped make it a safer place for some us who showed up a little late.

1971-72 Phu Quoc
 
Acey; have you been relic hunting lately???

John Madill; John in the last 5 years I have been out only a few times with one of my old hunting buddies. He has had 4 light strokes over the years but he still gets the gut feeling to put on his gear and go swing his machine at least for a few hours. We have only gone to places nearby here in South eastern Va. and I have only found a couple drop mini balls. Wayne took a friend of his who is much younger then we are and went to an area where General Pickett and his Division crossed the Blackwater River on their way to the Siege of Suffolk in 1863. This was last early spring of 2021. They only hunted a few hours but the both of them found a N/C Sun Burst button. Know Pickett's Div was all Virginia Reg's but the crossing was guarded by other units prior to the Siege in 63. Acey
 
maxxkatt; you mentioned in your post you had a top secret crypto clearance. I also had a top secret clearance but not with a crypto clearance. If I remember right; crypto clearance was as high as classified material went in those days. I got my clearance while in the USMC Admin School, Cherry Point, NC right after boot camp at Paris Island. After graduation from the Admin School I received orders to Atsugi Japan. Upon arriving there: I had just been promoted to the rank of PFC and was assigned into the Command as the NCOIC OF CLASSIFIED FILES even though I was just a PFC. I was a E-3 when I left Vietnam and was ordered to the Landing Force Training Command, Little Creek NAB, Va. Beach, Va. When I reported into the Command I was assigned as the NCOIC of Classified Files for the Command and maintained that position till my Discharge in 1967. When I was discharged I was a Sgt. E-5 with 6 mo in grade. Acey
 
Oh, by the way. Wayne called me last night and he and John are going down to the river today; to the same place they found the two N.C. Sun Burst's last year. He is going to call me later today and let me know how they do. I'll make a post when I know. acey
 
Wayne called me a little earlier this evening and gave me a report on their hunt today. The area immediately in back of the trenches and where the pontoon bridge was located is a cut over and it is now very heavily over grown with a thick briar thicket. Wayne said they tried 4 areas they felt might give up something from the troops sitting around on the ground waiting for their turn to cross over the river. No luck what so ever. Found nothing which would be from the Civil War time period. Wayne did find a 1914 Canada penny and that was about it. Acey
 
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