The Lyon County History Museum is sponsoring a Veterans Coffee, open to all veterans, at 1:30 p.m. on the 3rd Tuesday of each month, beginning Tuesday, Sept. 19. Please join us for coffee and camaraderie.

We have begun learning about Lynd’s Ron Jensen and his Vietnam service. Ron was born in Tyler in 1948 to Einer and Elva (James) Jensen, the third of four Jensen children. The family lived in Tyler during Ron’s early years before testing the California job market. They returned to live in Florence for a year before moving to Lynd for Ron’s 6th grade year. He graduated with the Lynd High School class of 1966.

Ron was drafted into the military in 1968 and the Army sent him to Fort Campbell, Kentucky for Army Basic Training. He chuckled, recalling his first days there.

“You got your shots; they gave you a haircut; they gave you your clothes; and away you go.”

Ron described their training.

“Normally we got up about five o’clock. Then we’d go to the mess hall for breakfast. Usually at 7:30 we’d start our day, which varied. Some days you would go on a long hike with your gear to get in shape. You’d have hand-to-hand combat. We would do range firing. It was a little bit of everything.”

Ron particularly remembered their mask training exercise when they entered a room with tear gas.

“We went to a block building and you’d have to step in there with your gas mask. If you didn’t have that mask right, it would leak and that’s something you will never forget. You couldn’t breathe. You couldn’t see. That was terrible.”

Ron described his Basic Training drill instructors.

“Some of the drill sergeants were pretty decent guys. And then there were some that I swear, if I ever got ahold of them to this day, I don’t know what I’d do. (Ron chuckled) But I never forgot them.”

He completed his two month Basic Training cycle and remembered their graduation day.

“Well, it was a happy day. (Ron chuckled) It was a beautiful day and they had the ceremony. I thought. ‘It can’t get worse. It’s got to get better now.'”

The Army bused Ron to Fort Knox, Kentucky for his Advanced Individual Training (AIT). Ron recalled that was very different than Basic Training.

“It was almost like having a job. Every day I went with civilian electricians. That was going to be my MOS (military operational specialty), to be an electrician. I was with them for two months. While we were doing our AIT, they were building a dam site on a river, so they took some of us and we’d go out there for maybe another two months and build this dam site. That was wonderful. You were outside out in the woods, so that was enjoyable.”

Once the dam project ended, the Army sent Ron in an unexpected direction.

“They sent a bunch of us to an armor unit. So, then I was a tank driver until I went to Vietnam.”

He explained what it was like to drive a tank.

“The tank had a T-bar that went from side to side. That was your steering. And it had a gas pedal. When you steered them, with a track, they were very touchy. You didn’t want to oversteer or it would really jerk you sideways. It was tricky to learn how to drive them. Once you got the hang of it, they weren’t that bad. At certain times you really got speed up. The tank could go 60 mph. If you are going that fast in a tank, it’s quite the ride.” (Ron chuckled)

Ron was with his tank company for seven months. During that time he experienced a special duty.

“They asked for volunteers to go on funeral detail. I was on a rifle squad. We went to Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania. Every day we’d go to a funeral; jump in a van; and go to the next funeral. I did that for a month. It was interesting. You got to meet some guys. In Vietnam they would put the body in body bags. Those guys would sign a paper for that body. They stayed with that body all the way until they put him in the ground.”

Ron’s time as a tank driver at Fort Knox came to an abrupt end.

“I came in from driving tank one day and the sergeant in charge came up and said, ‘They want to talk with you in the office.’ So, I went in the office and there was an E-8 sergeant in there. He said, ‘You are going to Vietnam.’ So, I came home on leave and had a month before I went.”

Ron visited his older brother in California, who then drove him to Fort Ord where Ron boarded a commercial flight to Vietnam. He recalled wondering during the flight what Vietnam would be like.

The flight landed at Bien Hoa Air Base in Vietnam. Ron’s voice tightened with emotion as he recalled his initial impression as he walked off the aircraft.

“It was hot. It was just the smell of death.”

Ron was at Bien Hoa a couple days before the Army sent him further north.

“I got sent up to Kontum and called into the office up there. He looked at my MOS and said, ‘You’ve been a tank driver. We don’t have any use for tank drivers here.’ (Ron chuckled) I said, ‘Well, can I go home then?’ He replied, “Nope!” I got sent from there to an outpost. We were called Engineer Hill”