Bill Ferguson:
CLASS OF 1967
Monroe High SchoolClass of 1967
Monroe, IA
Bill's Story
Referencing the photo above, how many of you have ever caught a 14lb. Smallmouth Bass ? ....me, neither.
After graduating with top honors from Monroe ( yea, right ! I passed. ), I graduated from Marshalltown Jr. College and had my girlfriend of 3+ years break up with me to be with a rich man's son while she was headed for college.
I had given her my heart and a promise ring to marry, but she ripped out my heart and left me to bleed to death. Promises are only as good as the one person's commitment to another. She trashed me and the ring for material things he could offer. May she be held accountable for her actions in this life.
I volunteered for the draft the next day and then volunteered for Vietnam. I was with the First Infantry Division and later with the Americal Division up north. I feel I died in Vietnam, but my body has not yet fallen over. I could have sent her a dozen heads from North Vietnam Soldiers to be used as center pieces at her wedding. The third day with our squad an NVA sniper put my head in the cross hairs of his scope and he got off one round before my brothers killed him. He put his AK47 round so close to my right ear that I felt the swish and the splat as it hit a sandbag beide me. I dug out the round the next morning and still have it. I was later medivaced to two different base camp hospitals where they cleaned out my wounds, stuffed the bones and muscles back inside, stitched me up while I was awake and then sent me back to my unit to do what we had been trained to do. Agent Orange came down like rain from the sky and I am among the ones facing the end results it delivers.
I extended for an early out and after 14 months in Vietnam, I was on my way back to the US...Expand for more
A, but not I was not the same person I was when I went there.
I met a Nurse in Pella ( my wife - to - be ) on a blind date and we married and worked for a year before returning to college. I graduated from U.N.I. in Jan 1974 and worked for Hawkeye Steel for a year before joining John Deere. I spent 30 years with Deere in Management and was into year 31 when I started having panic attacks at night about being back in combat in Vietnam. The Medical Staff diagnosed it as unresolved PTSD from Vietnam that I had surpressed to stay alive. The VA has granted me a 60% Service Connected PTSD disability and free counseling for the rest of my life. I also was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer in 2011 and in recovery.
So I'm on some heavy medication and continuing to face each day with some unhealthy baggage. Lin and I were blessed with two children and now four grand children. My interests are collecting old fishing tackle, designing Smallmouth Bass lures and tying deer hair top water poppers.
When I was in Army basic training in Fort Polk, Louisana, John Fales '68, Don Burkhardt '68, Arlan Cunningham '68 , Alan Cunningham '68 and Bob Gildersleeve ' 67 were all in the company next to me.
All except Alan headed to Vietnam. I again met up with Arlan in Sydney, Australia on R&R. John Fales, Don Burkhardt and Arlan Cunningham are dead. May they rest in peace and finally be able to forget the living Hell we went thru.
One guy from my squad has been back to Vietnam three times for closure. He asked if I wanted to go with him and I declined. I went there once and did was I was trained to do and I AIN'T a going back again. You can bet your shiny boots and your starched uniforms on that.
Bill Ferguson / Omaha, NE
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