We have been learning about Mike Davis and his Vietnam service. Mike graduated from Sanborn High School in 1967 and was drafted in 1969. The Army deployed him to Vietnam in April 1970.

Mike began his tour at Phu Bai Air Base in the north before reassignment to the 4th Infantry Division and, later, the Americal Division, both operating in Vietnam’s Central Highlands. He spent months living and patrolling under miserable conditions, fighting against an enemy that seldom revealed itself.

He reached the end of his year-long combat tour and Mike took his last helicopter ride back to rear base. He recalled the long flight back across the Pacific.

“It was a commercial plane. There was a lot of chatter when we first took off and then it was pretty quiet. It was another long, boring ride. But when they said we were getting close to the States, you could feel everyone’s adrenaline pick up. When we started descending, you could feel excitement build. Once we hit the runway, guys started cheering and jumping up and down.”

Mike’s flight landed in Washington State, where the returning troops processed through Fort Lewis. He remembered his feelings upon returning stateside.

“I felt like I was getting out of prison. I felt like I was going to be a free man because I didn’t have to pull stateside duty. I was getting out of the Army. I knew I could do whatever I wanted.”

The Army discharged Mike and issued him a travel allotment to return to Minnesota by train, but he had other ideas.

“I had a friend who was stationed in Fort Lewis, a kid I grew up with. I stayed a couple days with him. Then I came home by plane.”

But Mike soon found he was not the same person who had left for Vietnam.

“It only took me a couple days to realize I had changed. I was home a couple days when my little brother snuck up behind me and gave me a finger on each side of my ribs. I turned on him and I beat him fast and beat him hard. It was just instinctive. When I was done I felt real guilty because I realized that my little brother just wanted to play like we used to play. I couldn’t play like that anymore. So, I knew right away that I had changed. I realized I was dangerous.”

Mike catalogued other changes he noticed and the long journey he took toward rebuilding the Mike Davis he wanted to be.

“You didn’t dare come around me when I’m sleeping. You had to be careful how you woke me or you’re better off just leaving me alone. It took a while to readjust. The first two years were really tough because I was still living Vietnam every day. It took about five years before I could start to be somewhat normal.”

He felt pretty alone during that long-term recovery project.

“We didn’t get the support in Vietnam, nor did we get the support back here at home. We were on our own. Vietnam was on the six o’clock news every night and people turned their TVs off. They didn’t want to hear it any more. They didn’t want to see it. So, we were like ghosts. They didn’t want anything to do with us.”

But Vietnam reached out to him in an unexpected way.

“I was home four months before I came down with malaria and nearly died. I was in the VA Hospital in Minneapolis. I ran a temperature of 101 or better for eight days. I peaked at 108 and was comatose for four days. When I came-to the doctor was standing there, shaking his head, saying, ‘We didn’t think you were going to pull through.'”

Mike felt alone even in the halls of the VA hospital while recovering from the malaria he contracted in Vietnam.

“Once I was up, walking around the halls, some little old lady stopped me and said, ‘Sonny, what are you doing here? You’re much too young to have been in the war.’ I looked at her and asked, ‘Lady, haven’t you even heard of Vietnam?’ So, it was more like indifference with the people back here. Most people didn’t want to hear what I had to say.”

Mike made a career with the U.S. Postal Service and a life for the changed Mike who had returned from Vietnam. He considered what he had learned from his Vietnam service.

“From the Army’s point of view, people were just dispensable. That’s a pretty lonely feeling; to know that you’re just a number and nobody cared except your immediate family, if you were to die. But I can survive anything. There was a saying over there; ‘When I die, I’m going to heaven because I’ve already been to hell.'”

Despite his many difficult experiences in Vietnam and after returning home, Mike finds pride in his service and in the man who emerged from that service.

“I accomplished something. I did something and made it through. I don’t think of Vietnam, every day. I don’t think about what happened in Vietnam. But I think I am me today because I was in Vietnam.”

Thank you for your service, Mike. Welcome home!

The Lyon County Museum is hosting a panel discussion with five Vietnam veterans on Saturday, Nov. 4 at 2 p.m. Please join us to learn more about the experiences of our area Vietnam veterans. Contact the museum at 537-6580 for more information.