Vietnam 2nd battalion
Rick Swing
D Company 1968 – 1969
I was drafted May 29, 1968. I had Basic Training at Ft. Campbell, Ky. AIT was at Ft. Lewis, Wash.
I landed in Vietnam in Oct. 68. I was assigned to the 101st Abn. Div. I was sent to Camp Eagle and assigned to D-2/327 Inf. I was then taken to Los Banos where I met LTC Charles Beckwith who told me not to do anything stupid to get my nose bloodied and to pay attention to what was going on and to listen to those who had been there longer than me. Then I was sent to Hill 88 to join the Company. I was an RTO for a day. Then to the Rifle Team. I walked “Point” for about 8 months. I was a Rifle Team Leader for a while. I interviewed for Sniper School but must not have had the right attitude.
After Vietnam I was sent to Ft. Riley, Kan. We Vietnam Vets were not well liked by the Major, Capt. and the 1Sgt. They thought we were arrogant and had discipline problems. We were called out earlier than the rest of the company to go through an extra “inspection”. A friend helped do an end-around and got me to Jump School. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to graduate because I was called back to Ft. Riley to participate in the Big Red One’s return home. There were several of us that had gone to different schools and we were all brought back.
After the service I came back to Kokomo, In. I had a job waiting with GM.
In 1982, I joined the Howard County Vietnam Veterans’ Organization who were trying raise funds for a memorial for our fallen brothers. After we built the memorial we had a little money left over so we decided to have a hog roast for all the vet’s in the county. We had about 1500 show up, ended up with more money because of donations, so we just kept putting on the reunion. I’ve been associated with the Vietnam Veterans Reunion for the past 20 years.
I finally “came home” a couple of years ago. That is when I found the 327th web site.
