Harry Brewer:
CLASS OF 1965
Binghamton Central High School (thru 1982)Class of 1965
Binghamton, NY
Rutgers University Class of 1976
New brunswick, NJ
West Junior High SchoolClass of 1962
Binghamton, NY
MacArthur Junior High SchoolClass of 1962
Binghamton, NY
Jefferson Elementary SchoolClass of 1959
Binghamton, NY
Harry's Story
Life
- Born October 7, 1946. U.S. Army 1965-1970. Republic of Vietnam 1967-1968. Graduated Rutger's University in 1976 with a BA in English, Philosophy and Psychology (Pre-Law) and in 1980 with a Master's Degree in Information Science. 5 years in the Army, 16 in the New York Metro Area, 7 years in Maine. Currently living in North Carolina but yearning for the northeast. Retired as of November 2011. Spending my time with hobbies, house and yard work, exercise, lots of reading and travel. Last trip; At the beginning of May, we flew to London and hired a car to Winchester and Southhampton. Toured Southhampton and Portsmouth before taking a cruise to Norway and Belgium. Returned to the UK where we spent a day at The British Library. Spent the evening attending a concert of Baroque music at St. Martin-in-the-fields. 'Interrupted my other reading with a vacation book; Daniel Silva's "A Death in Venice". Still reading Joyce's "Ulysses" and Atkinson's "The British are Coming": first in a trilogy of The American Revolution. Last year marked my 60th year since joining the US Army and my 58th year since serving in Vietnam. We continue to miss all our cats, Lola, Vittles, Lexi and Nicki all sharing their warmth with us in the past. Always in search of classmates from BCHS Class of 1965. Tempus Fugit. Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.
Military
Ft Dix,NJ:The Change of Pace Place. Basic Training. My DI, Sgt. Davis. Redstone Arsenal,Ala:Hawk Continuous Wave Radar Repair. The High Power Bldg. on the mountain. Games of Hearts on lunch break in the middle of the night. Bloody Mary; the Saturn V on its test stand over at Marshall Space Flight Center rockin' the whole base. Movies at the base theater. Watching football games at the enlisted men's club. Going into Huntsville to see the movie "Thunderball". Working out with Tim Moxie who went on to OCS. Walking all the way back to base from the airport in Huntsville after coming back from my Helicopter Pilot Test at Ft. Rucker. Vietnam Orientation in the swamp. Ft Monmouth,NJ:Digital Repair school. Cam Rahn Bay, Vietnam:THE HEAT! (performing PMs on trucks and simply lying under the trucks unable to move because of the AMAZING HEAT); the rain (watching the movie "Hawaii" in our open air theater in a downpour); the sand; my first night in country, spent on guard duty; the lizards in our tents when we first arrived (and the life long habit of shaking out my boots and shoes before I put them on, that has followed), the front desk at the comm center; the flight to NhaTrang and the flight back; getting drunk for the first time in my life on my 21st birthday. Saigon/Camp Davies:Quite a change from the sand...Expand for more
dunes of Cam Rahn Bay. Camp Davies was on the banks of the Saigon River several miles south of Saigon on the edge on the Mekong Delta. I remember looking out over the delta from the roof of the 'Fish Market', a French Colonial Building used as office space. 'Worked in Saigon across from the docks while I was stationed here. 'Was at Camp Davies when Tet began. 'Spent most of the week or so during the attack at our job site sleeping with our weapons and watching Puff gunships and fighter bombers attacking guerrilla forces in the city from our rooftop. Long Binh:Our facility was beyond the perimeter when we first went to Long Binh. We would truck out to the site every shift but during Tet we ate C Rations at the site instead of trucking back in to the post for meals. The Ant Hills that would eventually comprise the outer perimeter were still under construction. Not long after moving to the site, about 1:00 AM one night, the ammo dump that was about 300 yards away was attacked by sappers. The first explosion caught me, Jennings and Spider by surprise as we stood outside. The concussion flattened the three of us and jammed the doors to the facility so that we couldn't get back in to get our weapons. Other staff from inside had to kick the doors open to get out. All hell broke loose for the next 5 hours. Several helicopter gunships came in and rocketed and machine gunned the area outside the perimeter of the ammo dump. This was the heaviest firefight at Long Binh that I witnessed but not the only one. On another occasion several months later, I was acting as commander of the relief on guard on the south side of the base. Our guard relief station, where shifts of troops not actively standing guard on post at that time, rested, was immediately next to an NCO club. We could stand at the fence and hear and see entertainment that might be playing that night. As we watched we heard incoming very close. I looked to my left, towards the explosion and away from the outside stage at the NCO Club. A moment later I looked back at the stage. A couple of hundred GIs had completely disappeared from the club along with the Girl Band that had been on stage. The only sign of life was someone's foot disappearing behind a curtain as the person ran off the stage. Everyone had cleared out of that area humorously quickly. Of course we transported our guard members to their respective guard posts and stood to for the next several hours as Response Teams came in and cleared up the area outside our perimeter. Ft Monmouth, NJ:Paul and his Triumph, me and my MG. 'Worked as AUTODINE [world-wide digital communications network] repairman until I separated to go to Rutgers.
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