Gregg Elwood:  

Since I left High School in June of '71, I stay the summer and played baseball with my friends before going off into the Navy on October 7th. Boot Camp was at Great Lakes, Illinois. I was assigned to CO. 359 and Chief Machinest Mate Paul Westphal was my Company Commander. I was part of his1st company he ever pushed through at Boot camp. we were nicknamed "Westphal's Wolves" and Boot Camp lasted until graduation on Dec 10th. However, since only 2 companies were allowed to leave per day, I wasn't able to leave until Dec 17th. I was able to come home for Christmas and New Year's before heading back to Great Lakes for Hospital Corpsman "A" School (HM-0000) on January 4th, '72. Corps School as it was commonly referred to lasted 16 weeks. Corpsman are the "medics" for the Navy and Marine Corps personnel; whether it be on land with the Marines, at sea onboard ship, or at shore duty here in the U.S. or in foreign countries in Naval Hospitals. I graduated with 'Honors" on May 4th, 1972. After taking another 2 weeks leave, I was transferred to the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, MD for General Duty as a "ward corpsman" on the Sick Officer Quarters (SOQ), Tower 11. SOQ is where any Naval or Marine Corp officer who needs medical treatment within the Washington, D.C. area is sent whether on active duty or retired, for his/her care. I served there until my training as an Advanced Medical Laboratory Technician (HM-8506) started in Sept '71. I learned quite a bit while working on the wards about patient care and the general workings of a military hospital. What a rude awakening it was. On my very first night of night rotation in Aug. '72, I had three sick gentleman have severe heart attacks within fifteen minutes of one another and I was the only medical person on the ward to do anything about it. At that time, nurses were so short staffed in the Navy, one nurse covered 3 floors on the night shift. So when all this happened, I was by myself. I couldn't wait for school to start.!! As a laboratory technician in the Navy one of our major ancillary duties is that of mortuary work, "Morgue Watch." Obviously never a fun job to perform, but a necessary one at best. Advanced Lab school is a 14 month long training school, 7 months didactic and 7 on-the-job training. I performed my 7 months didactic at Bethesda, and had wanted to perform my 7 month OJT with my brother at the Naval Hospital in Oakland, CA. However, the Navy in it's infinite wisdom sent me to the closest duty station assignment to my brother in Oakland. My next set of orders in Mar '73 were to the Air base in DaNang, South Viet Nam. My duties at DaNang were Graves Registration. That meant I was to help identify the remains of service members being sent home to the loved ones. My first experience with the war and I was just 19. While at DaNang, I was exposed to Agent Orange really unknown to me. From DaNang is were they initiated the flights to spray the jungle and stored the stuff. After a period of time, about 6 months my time was up at DaNang and so was my OJT for the school. I graduated and then was sent off with the Marines in the jungles of Viet Nam for a period (on&off) of 3 months. While in the jungle, I was also sprayed with the Agent Orange, as we tried to kill the foliage to find ...Expand for more