We have been learning about Mike Lamfers, who grew up on a farm east of Amiret and served with the Marines in Vietnam. He enlisted in the Marine Corps in July 1965 after graduating from Tracy High School.

Mike graduated from boot camp in San Diego in October 1965, but his training was not over.

“We went to Camp Pendleton by Oceanside, California. There we went to what was called ITR, Individual Training Regiment, where we received our infantry training. We were there a week early so we caught guard duty until enough people came from boot camp and they started a training regiment. Since I made PFC out of boot camp, I was one of the squad leaders for training. It included all the weapons and squad tactics. It was preparation for Vietnam, but at that time I wasn’t going to Vietnam.”

He remembered differences from life in boot camp.

“The first thing we noticed at Pendleton was that we had some evenings to ourselves. We could go to the Enlisted Men’s Club and drink a few beers. After the first week we could get liberty and go off-post. The training was just short of four weeks. At that time I got leave and came home.”

The Marine Corps then sent Mike to additional schools.

“I returned to Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego (MCRD) again, but this time I went to Basic Electronics School. I always liked math, but I had a problem with dyslexia. I have no idea how I got selected for this. They took you from adding through higher algebra and into some trig. You’d walk through the barracks at night and people would be laying in their racks, shouting out formulas. It was crazy. That was a fifteen week program.”

The training schools did not align, so Mike again caught guard duty in the interim. Then he entered his final, training courses.

“The second course was Radio Fundamentals, a six-week course. The last course was Ground Radio Repair, a 12-week course. My MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) ended up being a Ground Radio Repairman.”

The Marine Corps promoted Mike not once, but twice during his final training.

“We’d go visit our old drill instructors. They were giving us crap that we didn’t get promoted. I got promoted to lance corporal just two weeks before I was to graduate from the Ground Radio School as I was in the top 10% of Radio Fundamentals. Two weeks later we received a meritorious promotion to corporal for graduating in the top 10% of Ground Radio Repair. We went back to our drill instructors and one of them, who had been in I don’t know how many years, was a corporal. He took his drill instructor hat; threw it on the floor; (Mike chuckled) and stomped on it, he was so upset.”

Mike received deployment orders for Vietnam and the Marine Corps sent him for pre-deployment training.

“I went through Individual Infantry Training again. It was intense training. One segment had three days of escape and evasion. I ended up a squad leader again and we made it three days without being caught. You started the morning with nothing but rice. If you made it through the day and didn’t get caught, you got an orange at night. Then you had macaroni. (Mike chuckled) The squad killed a rabbit one day and they let us cook that rabbit that night, so we had rabbit in the evening. The next day one of the guys killed a big rattlesnake, so we had rattlesnake the second night with our orange. (Mike laughed) Those were our training treats.”

He described his deployment to Vietnam.

“I had 30 days leave before deploying. I went from home and then flew out of northern California on a commercial airline. We stopped in Hawaii and unloaded from the plane. It was night. We stood in formation and then loaded after the plane was refueled. Then we flew to Okinawa. It was really quiet. It took forever to get there. One of the guys I had gone through training with at the end, Sergeant James, was on the plane. We flew into Okinawa for a couple days and left our dress uniforms. From there I flew into Danang, landing early in the morning.”

Mike recalled deplaning and what followed.

“It was hot and humid with a totally different smell. We got out and they started calling out names and whatever unit they were assigned. It ended with just two of us left, this Sergeant James and me. They finally came and said, ‘You are going to 1st Battalion, 4th Marines. They are up at Dong Ha.’ This was a combat base about 10 miles below the DMZ.” (Demilitarized Zone between North and South Vietnam)

Mike explained how the two newcomers got to Dong Ha and their reception.

“Sergeant James and I boarded a C-130 and headed to Dong Ha. We landed and they picked us up with a Jeep at the airstrip. They brought us to 1st Battalion, 4th Marines. He gave us a little tour. I don’t know it if was to impress us or what, but he walked us by Graves Registration. There were five Marines there in their ponchos who had been hit by our own napalm that day. That was on our way to the mess tent. We didn’t eat a lot that night.”

Welcome to the “Nam.

Please visit our new exhibit at the Lyon County Museum, The Vietnam War and Lyon County, to learn more about the experiences of our area Vietnam veterans.