James Thomas:  

ful girlfriend, Margaret Blubaugh, about 5 days before I left for Vietnam. In Vietnam I was assigned to The Americal Division. The complete unit was Company E, 3rd Battalion, 1st Infantry, 11th Light Infantry Brigade. South Vietnam was divided in 4 regions called Corps. I,II,III, IV Corps w/ I Corp being the farthest north starting at the (DMZ) Demilitarized Zone and II, III, and IV as you go south. My unit was in I Corp. My (AO) Area of Operation consisted of some open land, a river, some rice paddies, and several mountain ranges. I attended what was called a leadership school at the division headquarters in the rear where 50 soldiers were chosen from the 10-12 thousand in the entire division. A 2 week school on leading troops in combat plus an (EOD) Explosive Ordnance Disposal mini school and some sniper classes (which eventually became a completely separate sniper school). At the end of the school I was the top student and was promoted from SPC4 to SGT by Americal Division (CO) Commanding Officer, a 3 star general. Our unit made "contact" w/ the enemy (both NVA and VC) forces on a regular basis. On 2 attempts an NVA battalion sent a sapper squad breaching our perimeter to perform a human wave attack to overrun us by out numbering us 10 to 1. Only our sharp eye and quick ability to quell the sapper attack prevented the human wave attacks. I was wounded twice, neither time life threathening. Which was good since I was the squad leader and was needed...heck, everyone was needed-bullets,rockets, & mortars were coming in from everywhere. I extended my combat tour by 48 days, which no sane person in the infantry does. This allowed me to have 1 day less than 5 months left in the Army so I received an early out rather than be reassigned to a duty station in the U.S.".