We have been learning about Minneota’s Royal Hettling, who grew up on the family farm and graduated from Minneota High School in 1969. He enlisted in the Air Force and trained as a Security Police dog handler at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, before deploying to Vietnam in August 1970. Royal deployed with ten other dog handlers with whom he had trained.

Royal’s flight landed at Cam Ranh Bay Air Base, Vietnam. Royal and the other dog handlers boarded a truck to their unit.

The truck stopped as they passed the Naval Air Facility on base where the driver pointed out a damaged guard tower. He told them a group of enemy sappers (trained to infiltrate and set explosive charges) had entered in June and blew up the guard tower, killing one guard and injuring a second. Security Police killed four of the sappers as they tried to escape. He said, “Take a good look and remember this. Welcome to Vietnam!”

The new dog handlers in-processed their unit, the 483rd Security Police Squadron, where Royal learned their mission.

“Cam Ranh Bay Air Base was a main entry point of material and men into the country. Our objective was to protect military resources, so we’d be assigned to secure high priority targets such as the POL (fuels) dump, the bomb dumps, the landing strip, and the base perimeter. They took us out to familiarize us with the layout of the base and our posts. You get a good view during the day, but they said, ‘It’s all going to look different at night.'”

Royal described their permanent billets.

“Everyone was housed by duty section. K-9 Row was the row of hootches where we lived. They were 24 feet by 36 feet long, divided into separate rooms. The front room was a public area. A narrow hallway ran down the center with a room on each side. There was another room in back. There were two people in each room. Each had a set of bunks, a little wall locker, and that was it.”

The new dog handlers were assigned their dogs after four days in country. Royal’s dog, Pepper, did not work out.

“I went to his kennel and tried to open up the gate. All I could see was a pair of teeth coming at me. He’d let me in and take him out one time and the next time he wouldn’t let me in. When he’d let me take him out I’d take him to an obstacle course. I’d take the muzzle off and we’d run the course. Then I’d hear this faint growl. If the dog turns on you, pull him up right away. So, I’d do that, but he’d do that two or three times every time.”

Things went very wrong during Royal’s next visit when he worked with Pepper off-leash in the kennel.

“He let me in his kennel right away. I’m at the far end of the kennel when I heard this faint growl and thought, “Oh, oh.” I was reaching for the gate when I saw those teeth coming at me. The only thing I could think of was to get my arm in his mouth beyond those four canine teeth in front. Once he clamped down, I shoved down behind them. I got the gate open; got out; and shut the gate. By that time every dog in the kennel was up and yapping away.”

The kennel master had a driver take Royal to the dispensary. The duty medic gave Royal tetanus shots; wrapped up the wound; and offered to write up his injury as “enemy-related,” qualifying him for a Purple Heart. Royal declined, already embarrassed to be a dog handler bitten by his own dog. When they dropped Royal off at K-9 Row, he learned that he was Pepper’s eighth bite victim.

Pepper’s attack ultimately led to a good outcome for Royal.

“That’s when they assigned me to Thunder. Thunder wound up being a good match.”

The next evening Royal was recovering from Pepper’s bite while riding the posting truck that dropped off the handler and dog teams at their posting sites for the night. The truck then dropped him at his hootch and he turned in for the night.

“I had just dozed off when I heard a big bang. Thirty seconds later I heard another bang. I got up and started dressing. One of the guys who was off that night came in and said, ‘Your country sent you here to fight a war. It’s time for you to start fighting. They blew up part of the POL.’ I stepped out and looked toward the POL site. It looked like a big glow, like when the sun is coming up. The alarm was sounding. The other handler said, ‘Since you don’t have a dog yet, report to the Conex at the end of the row. They’ll be issuing rifles. Get a gun and follow what they say.’ I went there. They issued me a rifle and ammunition pack and loaded us up. We went outside the main gate as a blocking force. We laid in a ditch for the rest of the night, trying to keep our eyes peeled. Around sunrise we did a sweep around (the POL site), so we got a first-hand view of the destroyed fuel tanks. At about 10 or 11 o’clock I turned the rifle in and went back to bed.”

Royal had been in Vietnam almost a week.

©2024 William D. Palmer Contact me at prairieviewpressllc@gmail.com with any comments about or story suggestions for “Prairie Lives.”