Bobby Keeland

I enjoyed reading this book. My draft number was high enough that I missed this war. However I did learn a lot about how my cousin, son of my aunt, died in Vietnam. Richard C Garcia did not enlist. He had plans to complete college and then find a job teaching sports to high school students. Although he thought about joining the Navy to avoid Vietnam his fiancé talked him out of it. He was drafted and sent directly to Vietnam. According to ‘Charlie Company, What Vietnam did to us’ Richard was walking behind an American tank when his company was attacked. The gunner atop the tank was shot so Richard run up onto the tank to take over the machine gun. The track of the tank was hit and disabled, and Richard was knocked to the ground. Before he could get up the tank circled around and run over him. Some years ago while on a forum for military soldiers I mentioned that I had been a ‘Fogbuster’ military motorcycle club member while stationed at Fort Ord. A man from Missouri contacted me to say that he had been a ‘Fogbuster’ many years ago. In addition he said that he had been a member of Charlie Company while in Vietnam. He also had been injured when Richard was, and they laid on the ground talking. Richard was hurting so bad that he rolled over, hoping to ease the pain. That movement caught the attention of the Viet Cong. One shot ended Richard’s life. A year later my brother graduated from high school, joined the Navy and did avoid Vietnam.