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We have been learning about Lynd's Ron Jensen and his Vietnam service. Ron was born in Tyler in 1948 and graduated with the Lynd High School class of 1966.
Ron was drafted in 1968 and deployed to Vietnam in July 1969. The Army assigned him to a Signal unit on Engineer Hill near Pleiku in Vietnam's Central Highlands. He maintained generators for his unit's radar systems. His additional duty on an armored gun truck on truck convoy runs regularly exposed him to danger.
"We had so many (gun truck runs), you got to the point where you didn't think you were going home."
Ron described how mortar or rocket fire was another, regular danger.
"It varied. Sometimes we'd get hit every night for two weeks and then we might go a month and a half of nothing. I think it depended on what the North Vietnamese were doing. They weren't necessarily trying to kill you. It was to remind you, 'We're still out here.'"
Ron explained that although life at Engineer Hill was better than a gun truck run, it had plenty hardships, especially during the wet monsoon.
"It was miserable during monsoon season. During the day it would be terribly hot and at the same time every day it would rain. It'd come down so hard that water would be running everywhere like a river four inches deep. It was miserable when it was raining."
Ron recalled the dangers and hardships at Engineer Hill were aggravated by another danger; cheap and plentiful illegal drugs.
"Something that surprised me about Vietnam was the drugs in my unit. I'll admit that we drank; me, my friend, and the Sarge. The rest of them would shoot up. When they first got there they'd shoot up and it'd last 12 hours. After two months, they'd take a shot every three hours. Some of them lost it and had to ship out. Once in a while we'd get hit with incoming rounds. There were times that I, Sarge, and my friend pulled guys from their bunks to get them in the bunker, they were so out of it. You learned to live with it, but you could never depend on them."
Another unnatural hardship emerged after dark.
"The rats there were huge. We used mosquito netting to keep them from you. One guy got drunk and high. His hand was hanging out of the mosquito netting and a rat ate the meat off his middle finger all the way to the joints. The next morning we took him to the hospital in Pleiku where they amputated his finger at the joint."
But serving in a Signal unit offered a benefit.
"Because we were a Signal unit they hooked up a dial phone system in our bunker. You could dial out on that phone to San Francisco and an operator would answer. You'd tell her the number you wanted to call and she would connect you. I'd call home probably every two months, which was amazing."
Ron reduced his time in-country by turning down his R&R.
"My orders came and they drove me to the Pleiku Air Force base. They put seven of us on an old, two-engine plane. I was as scared in that as I was in a gun truck. They didn't have long airstrips. They sat at the end of it and wound up. That plane shook, rattled, and then 'Zhroom!'"
The Army flew Ron to Bien Hoa Airfield and from there to Japan. A commercial flight took him to Fort Lewis, Washington.
"We got there about four in the morning. They gave you a steak supper and two beers. Then it was get cleaned up and ready for out-processing."
Ron was in no mood for Army personal appearance standards in his last hours of active duty.
"I hadn't shaved in a week. My hair was long. Young soldiers who had been in the military maybe three months told me, 'Soldier, go and shave and get a haircut or you aren't going home!' I never did. I got my final pay and walked out. They had a bus to the airport. A guy standing there said, 'You aren't getting on until you shave and get a haircut.' I took a cab. You're coming back from a war and they are treating you like a kid. I felt you deserved more respect."
Ron did not know what to expect when he returned, but most people were not interested in talking about Vietnam.
"You really didn't know how people were going to accept you. It was different. (Ron's voice shook) You heard the, 'Gee, were you stationed on the beach?' and 'How many women and kids did you kill?' Since I've come back, I think there's been one guy who said, 'Thank you.'"
He reflected on how his Vietnam service affected him.
"You went into the Army a boy. When you came out, you were different. You learned that if you set your mind to it, you can get through about anything. You were proud that you went to Vietnam, but you accomplished nothing and that was hard. A lot of people died on both sides for no reason. I don't think there are many guys who came back from Vietnam who weren't bitter."
Ron still thinks about his Vietnam service.
"It's pretty regular. You don't have nightmares, but you dream about it."
Thank you for your Vietnam service, Ron. Welcome home!
Please visit the Lyon County Museum's new exhibit about the Vietnam War and Lyon County to learn more about our regional friends' and neighbors' Vietnam service.