We have begun learning about Doug Hamilton, who grew up in Grove City and Atwater, before attending a residential high school in Hutchinson. He graduated from Maplewood Academy in 1966 and followed his mom’s wish for Doug becoming a missionary doctor by attending a denominational college in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Doug described his year attending Union College.

I went there a year and worked at a nursing home as an orderly. I’d walk a mile to work at 6. Then I’d walk home; change out of my whites; and go to school from 1 to 5. Then I’d walk back to the nursing home to work and get home about 8:30. After doing this all year, I’m going, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore!’ I gave two-week’s notice to the nursing home.”

Doug returned to his parents’ home in Atwater.

“Mother didn’t know I was coming home. She said, ‘What are ayou doing here?’ I said, ‘I quit. I’m not doing it anymore.’ She said, ‘They’re taking applications at the Junior College. You want to enroll there?’ I went there and they found the application I had sent the year before. (Doug chuckled) They said, ‘You’re in.'”

The Willmar Junior College occupied a former Air Force radar site on the edge of town.

“It had just changed over when we were going there. There were very few real buildings. It was mostly Quonsets. That was an adventure.”

The adventure included meeting Charis Olsen at college.

“We met in the Quonset where the cafeteria was at that time, playing cards, not going to classes. We were introduced there and things evolved.”

Doug laughed describing when he realized Chari may be “the one.”

“About three weeks after we met she came to our house and was washing dishes with my mom.”

Chari finished the story.

“She said to me, ‘So, you really like my boy?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’m going to marry him.’ That’s when she said, ‘Oh, you think so?'”

Life for the couple accelerated. They married in May 1968, six months later. They were soon preparing for their first baby. But Doug’s college career took a detour.

“I partied too much after that. (Doug laughed) They asked me to stay out for the year and grow up.”

But leaving college cost Doug his draft deferment.

“I got my draft notice on Saturday morning the 9th of November. Our daughter, Becky, was born the next day. The first thing my mother asked when I said I was going to get drafted was, ‘Do you want to go to Canada?’ I said, ‘No, I’d better do this.’

Doug reported to Minneapolis in early December and passed his entrance physical. The next day he was on a bus to Fort Campbell, Kentucky for Army Basic Training.

“The (training) company was Black people and white trash — a lot of them there because it was either that or jail. There were a few Northerners. The white trash hated the Black people and the Black people hated the white trash. But both hated the Northerners more because the South was going to rise again…”

The Basic Training cadre showed little concern for the trainees.

“We had Black platoon sergeants who were really mean. Despite all the times we got shot at in Vietnam, I never had a nightmare of Vietnam. For years I had nightmares that I’d get re-drafted and go back to Fort Campbell.”

Doug described what made Basic Training so awful.

“It was getting up at 4 o’clock in the morning and everything driving you crazy. The DI’s threw their cigarette butts on the ground. You’d have to low crawl on the ground to pick them up with your teeth and drop them in the butt bucket. One guy on the firing range was in the prone position. His ankles were supposed to be flat on the ground, but his toes were on the ground. (heels up) The Drill Sergeant stomped on the back of his foot and broke his leg. We never saw him again. They encouraged blanket parties. If somebody wasn’t doing their duty, you’d throw a blanket over them. Then a guy’d punch him to let him know he’d better square it away.

Doug survived his eight weeks of Basic Training and moved on.

“I went from there to AIT (Advanced Individual Training) in Fort Sill, Oklahoma. It was the difference between night and day. Chari and Becky joined me at Fort Sill and we rented a house with another couple. The Sergeants I worked under were lenient about time off. They knew I was going to Vietnam and said, ‘You need time with your family. Why don’t you go home early?'”

Doug outlined some of the artillery training at Fort Sill.

“Basically we were on 105’s. (105 millimeter field guns or howitzers) Toward the end of the cycle we got into 155’s. We were working with aiming stakes. That was the way you found your point of reference for firing. I’ve always had a good math background. Things worked in my head that way – the deflections and quadrants and leveling bubbles on the guns.”

Doug received deployment orders to Vietnam and pre-deployment leave, which he and Chari, spent in Willmar.

“We cried a lot. (Doug laughed) We were broke, so we couldn’t do much of anything other than just wait out my leave.”

The Lyon County Museum’s next Veterans Coffee is Tuesday, Jan. 9 at 1:30 p.m. for veterans of any armed service. Please join us for coffee, conversation, and camaraderie.