We’ve begun learning about Lyle Moseng’s Vietnam service in the Navy to help us better understand the Vietnam War’s impact on our region.

Lyle was born in Smyrna, Tennessee in 1944, but his toddler years were in Minneota, his parents’ hometown. The family moved to Marshall when his dad took a position at Cargill’s Marshall plant.

Lyle grew up in Marshall hanging out with neighborhood kids; attending Marshall public schools; and working outside the home from an early age. He graduated with the Marshall High School Class of 1962 without post-graduation plans.

Motivated in part by his mom’s admonition to get a job, he enlisted in the Navy at seventeen. He explained his reasoning behind that decision.

“The recruiter told us that if we signed up for Boot Camp, we had our choice of Great Lakes or San Diego. If we went to San Diego, we’d probably get the Pacific Ocean. I really wanted to go to the Orient. I always wanted to travel.”

The Navy bused him to the Twin Cities the day after his June 1962 enlistment. Lyle told the Navy recruit processing clerk he was interested in working on airplanes and agreed to an aviation training designation. He explained he did not realize that could make him stand out.

“When I got to Boot Camp in aviation, they have green stripes and in engineering, red stripes, and Seabees get blue stripes. You don’t want to stand out, but I was the only guy with a green stripe in Boot Camp. But that got me into aviation.”

The flight to San Diego was Lyle’s first experience flying, but that thrill faded in the chaos and bustle of Boot Camp.

“There was a lot of yelling going on, but it wasn’t too bad because we were all together. They put us in a receiving area until we got a company. As soon as we got our company, they gave us clothes [and] our haircuts. [Y]ou sit in a receiving area and you’re with the college kids and the jocks and the long-haired guys. You’re with all these different people and then one day they shaved our hair off and gave us the same clothes and you couldn’t identify the people that you knew. We all looked alike. Then, when they’d get us in calisthenics, I realized I could do as much as anybody else. I think it changed me from being an insecure teenager.”

Although, Lyle was unsure what to expect, Boot Camp agreed with him.

“I kind of enjoyed Boot Camp. We were always in classes and they’d get you out on the grinder (a large paved area) and do calisthenics. We had shots. They told you not to move and we’d walk through the line and they’d give you probably eight-nine shots. Then they’d take you out on the grinder and make you do exercises, so you didn’t get stiffened up. After you go through your basic part — probably about four weeks — then you get into the training.”

That basic part involved lessons on how to conduct oneself aboard ship.

“In the Navy they stress cleanliness. We have what they call a white hat and skivvy inspection where you hold your t-shirt out and your white hat and they look for dirt. I think this is all part of the fact that you are going to live so close together on a ship. There may be six of you living in a seven-eight foot area.”

Lyle explained the lengths the Navy went training recruits about the importance of cleanliness.

“All of our clothes had to be scrubbed by hand. We had a concrete scrub board with a pail and soap. We’d scrub our whites and then hang them up with cord. It always had to be in a square knot and they had to be three fingers [apart]. Our clothesline always had somebody on watch.”

Lyle described the second, more specific training phase of Boot Camp that included swimming, water survival, and abandon ship drills.

“You do one week of firefighting. [Y]ou are the only firefighters on that ship, so you have to learn how to fight oil fires. They had parts of ships on the grinder. They’d light one room on fire and you’d be on the other side and you’d have to keep it cool. They’d make you stay in there a length of time, learning you can depend on each other. One guy could operate [the hose], but there were two or three holding onto the back end to control it. We did rifle training and we did the gas chamber [with tear gas]. They’d give us a gas mask and take us in there. Then we’d take the gas mask off and we’d have to give our general orders and they’d ask questions. After you got so many, you could put your mask back on. That was interesting.”

After graduating from Boot Camp the Navy wanted to send Lyle to technical school, but he had other ideas.

“I really wanted to go to Japan or Hong Kong when I joined the Navy, so I didn’t go to school. From Boot Camp I got orders to Midway Island. So, I got half-way overseas and they stopped and left me there for a year.”

Lyle began his Navy operational service at a remote naval air station in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

The Lyon County Museum is organizing an exhibit about the impact of the Vietnam War on Lyon County. If you would like to share Vietnam experiences or help with the exhibit, please contact me at prairieview pressllc@gmail.com or call the museum at 537-6580.