Ernest Govea:  

I don’t plan to attend the reunion. The truth is I never cared for high school. I was born in Utah and spent my childhood in remote areas of northern Utah and Nevada. Moving to LA was complete culture shock. I was pretty quiet and painfully shy in high school. I never went out for any sports and was not much of a joiner, so there are probably very few people who remember me. So for those who might remember me and who are interested, here is a brief summary of what I’ve been doing the last fifty years. Six months after high school graduation I went into the Air Force in December 1967, and as requested, I was assigned to the security police career field. I was stationed at Langley AFB in Virginia. At Langley, I and many others volunteered for Vietnam. We were young and aggressive and we hungered for high adventure. Volunteering just meant that we went a little sooner as security police were in great demand in Vietnam to protect the air bases against enemy ground attack. In September 1968 I was sent to San Antonio for combat training in preparation for going to Vietnam. While going through that training I turned nineteen on a Friday the 13th. Another guy turned 20 that same day. I was assigned to the 3rd Combat Security Police Squadron at Bien Hoa, Vietnam from Nov. ’68 to Nov. ’69. It was the toughest year of my life and a life changing experience. It is something that affects me even today. I’m not completely loco, but for those of us who served the bloody death of young men is no abstract notion, but rather a reality. On February 23rd, 1969 I was on the east perimeter of the base with a few hundred other young men facing some 300 enemy troops preparing to launch a ground assault against us. Their mission was to kill as many airmen and destroy as many aircraft and equipment as possible. Even though I knew I would do my duty, I thought to myself “I could be dead in the next few minutes.” But by the end of the day we had held the enemy Viet Cong at the perimeter and wasted 234 of them. Some 66 enemy troops surrendered and lived to see another sunrise. Us Air Force guys were on the ground slugging it out with the Viet Cong and US Army helicopters were flying over our heads firing rockets and machine guns at the enemy in front of us. Our roles were completely reversed. ...Expand for more