We have begun learning about Porter’s Dan Dybsetter and his Vietnam service. Dan was born in 1945 to Paul and Adelia (Olson) Dybsetter, the middle of three siblings, and grew up on the family farm west of Porter.

Dan began farm chores early and continued helping on the farm while attending the Porter Public School through the 8th grade and then Canby High School, graduating with the Class of 1963. He graduated without ever hearing of Vietnam.

He attended college at South Dakota State University in Brookings where he pursued a major in animal science with additional course work in agronomy and agricultural economics. He also heard about Vietnam.

“Back in those days ROTC was mandatory in Brookings. I wasn’t interested in going into the military. So, I did my two years in Army ROTC and didn’t take the advanced (course). One of the first instructors we had in ROTC class in one of the very first classes stood in the front of the classroom and said, ‘How many of you have heard of Vietnam?’ I don’t think a single hand went up. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘you’re going to be hearing more about it.'”

Dan enjoyed his animal science and other ag-related instructors and invested time and energy in their courses.

“We had one guy. His name was Rocky Gilbert and he was a very good professor. It was in one of these auditorium-type classrooms and I sat towards the front. One day I was sitting there daydreaming and he saw that I wasn’t paying attention. He asked a question and pointed right at me. I didn’t even know what the question was. (Dan laughed) He had me, of course. I remember him and some of the animal science professors quite well.”

Dan explained he had another motivation for succeeding in college.

“I just slid through high school, (Dan chuckled) but in college I applied myself a lot more. My dad and his parents were great believers in education. I realized that I better not screw up and have to drop out. That wouldn’t have been well-received.” (Dan laughed)

Dan graduated from SDSU in 1968 with a bachelor of science in animal science. He explained why he took five years to complete his degree.

“I started in ’63. My dad’s health wasn’t good, so I stayed out and helped him on the farm one year and then went back and graduated in June of ’68.”

He was, of course, proud to have graduated, but it led to an immediate and unplanned, major change in his life.

“I’d had a student (draft) deferment until then. I graduated on I think it was the 6th of June. I packed up my apartment and moved home to my parents. If I remember correctly, my draft notice was in the mailbox on Monday. That was the time they were drafting a lot.”

He spent the summer and early fall at home before entering the Army.

“I think it was the 18th of October before I had to report. My parents took me to Granite Falls. A bus took us to the Federal Building in Minneapolis. There we had enough of a physical exam that if there were some obvious thing, they’d send you back home. Toward the end of the day they had us line up and count off by 10. I had number nine. Every 10th man went to the Marines that day.”

The Army flew him to Fort Campbell, Kentucky for Basic Training. Dan noticed that he was bit unusual among the other draftees and enlistees.

“I was 23 years old, so I was one of the older ones on the bus, riding the plane, and in our Basic Training company.”

Dan described his first experience at Fort Campbell’s reception station.

“When we got to the Reception Station they give you the spiel, trying to get you to sign up for a three-year enlistment. I had a degree in animal science — so I sat down and the guy said, ‘I think I could get you into an MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) for veterinary assistant.’ I didn’t want to spend three years because my dad’s health was precarious and I wanted to have a farm to come back to in two years.”

An older friend, an SDSU soils science major, had just returned from his two-year draft service and had advised Dan not to worry about his Army MOS assignment because he was smart and had a degree. Dan contrasted that with his own MOS selection process.

“Well, so much for good advice. (Dan laughed) I think you could have been a rocket scientist and have a high probability of ending up in the Infantry at that time. That’s what they needed.”

Dan described their Basic Training barracks.

“They were the old, WWII-type with the coal bins alongside the barracks. Two stories with wide open bays and you had to have a [night] fire guard. So, you had to take turns being fire guard and walk the floor. The center part of the floor was kept in a beautiful shine. You weren’t allowed to walk on that. You were only allowed to walk around the outside. And you had to roll your underwear and all that sort of stuff (for inspection).”

Dan and his fellow trainees were beginning a very different life.