Paul Leslie Dickson

I was born in Atlanta Georgia in 1949, and lived most of my youth in East Atlanta, graduating from East Atlanta High School in 1967. I worked as an electrician's helper for the next several months and decided to forego the start of college instead I joined the U.S. Navy instead. I left for USN Recruit Training Center in San Diego California on September 20, 1967, coincidentally the same date that I was supposed to start Emory university at Oxford. This was a decision my parents did not approve of as they had lived through WWII and the loss of many of their friends and some relatives.
I was assigned to Company 535-67 along with my best friend Samuel A. Best, Jr. (RIP) and began 10 weeks of Naval training, which can be described as Behavioral Modifications changing young boys into Sailors! From there, I was assigned to the US Naval Hospital San Diego Hospital Corps School Class A school after Boot camp beginning in January 1968, where we spent 8 hours a day in classes studying Anatomy and Physiology, Bacteriology, Pharmacopoeia and its unique math and language, nursing and surgical care, combat first aid and lifesaving over a 14-week period. From there, most of my classmates were assigned to Field Medical Service School at Camp Delmar in Camp Pendleton California for our Marine training, where we went through a Mini-Marine Boot camp and continued our combat medical training and first aid for potential use in the Republic of Vietnam. The one thing that made it tolerable was that we had Liberty cards and an Enlisted Man's club across the street from our Barracks. We spent a lot of time there being the recipients of a lot of free beer, as most of the Marines who were at Camp Delmar had been to Vietnam already and showed their appreciation for us, by buying us beer.
My first duty station after the past six months of intensive training was at the United States Naval Hospital at Corpus Christi Texas Naval Air Station! There was a group of 23 of my fellow Corpsman from Company 27 and 28 at Balboa that arrived in June 1968 for a minimum of 6 months of On-the-Job Training on the wards of the hospital, where I spent time on Orthopedics, Surgical ICU, General Surgery and General Medicine, eventually being assigned to General Medicine rotating with Sick Officer's Quarter/Ward. Our primary patients were young Marines who had been injured in Vietnam and transferred there for further surgery or medical care and rehabilitation. It was our first taste of actual treatment of wounded Marines and their disabilities. I think until that time knowing that we would probably spend time in Vietnam, we were more worried about being killed, than seriously injured or maimed and now we also faced this working with these patients. It was a good duty overall, as I had a car and there was Padre Island, where we spent a lot of off duty time!
Soon the six months was nearly up, and my friend Rick Van Dyke from Kansas City MS and I were the first to receive our orders to the 1st Marine Division RVN. We received 30 days leave and were supposed to report to Travis Air Force base on the first week of March 1969. Rick and I were supposed to fly together but my Sea Bag did not arrive from Delta Airlines in San Francisco and I was held back for the 2 days it took to get it delivered. Weeks later I found out Rick had been assigned to Delta Company 1st Battalion 1st Marine Division (RVN) a rifle company, I eventually arrived in Vietnam on March 13, 1969, assigned to initially assigned to Headquarters Co. 1st Combat Engineer Battalion 1st Marine Division (RVN) in Danang Vietnam. We were based at Camp Faulkner which was next door to the Naval Support Hospital Danang and across the street from MAG 16 a large Marine Air Wing Base near Marble Mountain.
Spent a week there in Sick Bay during the day and in the trenches at night as it was the end of Tet '69, most of the incoming fire was directed at Mag 16. On my last night there I was in the command bunker at the top of the compound were The C.O. and I watched 122 mm rockets lite up in the valley and trace overhead like meteorites, but sounding like box cars traveling 20 feet overhead, several fight fights in the valley, it was surreal, observing war at a distant. It was also the funniest moment I experienced in the Nam, while the C.O. and I was standing in the entrance of the Bunker, he began to give me the first re-enlistment talk of my Navy career, telling me how good the service was, how much I was need as a Corpsman, and how much excitement I would have during my time in the service, as I am watching 122 mm rockets fly into Mag -16 while he is talking and he finally said Doc, you know it would be a great life, as a short round 122 impacted about 75 feet from the bunker and he said, didn't I tell you your service will be "pure excitement" and laughed his butt off!!
After that first week in Danang, I was transferred to Bravo Company 1st Combat Engineers at the An Hoa Combat Base about 17 mile southwest of Danang because of the urgency they loaded me on a CH-46 helicopter along with only the Crew Chief and the pilots, my first helicopter ride!
Our primary duties were road sweeps every morning toward Danang about 10 k to sweep for mines and other explosives, where we would meet the opposing unit return to base and hold sick call, or perform perimeter sweeps and a occasional Med Cap into the surrounding villages to provide some medical care and good will!
Around the end of the sixth week there, I was again transferred back to Danang over night via a long duty convoy and sent back almost down the same way to Hill 55 and beyond into "Dodge city" about 3 k where Alpha Co was Bivouacked while doing a land clear operation, After spending the night in a scooped out trench watching a "Spooky" or "Puff" work out in area surrounding us, they were so close that their flare cannisters floated into our company area.
The next morning, we headed out to our AO and about 50 meters from our compound I tripped a Booby trap, which utilized one of our own grenades which had been abandoned, fortunately their were only minor wounds for my two Marine brothers, my was more serious, we called them the "MILLION DOLLAR" wound. I was headed home slowly. Spent a week on the USS Repose (AH-16) the only ship I ever set foot on, had two operations there then transferred to Yokosuka Naval Hospital in Japan for a month, had another corrective surgery to close the wounds, started rehabilitation which was going to be a long slow process and was then transferred to US Naval Hospital Charleston South Carolina arriving Memorial Day Weekend 1969, for my remaining care and rehabilitation. I was in the Neurosurgical Ward, H-9 for about 2 months, and then on to a convalescent ward until December 1969 where I had a medical board and medically retired, of course paperwork doesn't travel that fast, so they put me on permanent leave until the date of my retirement January 28, 1970. I had been in the Navy for 2 years 4 months and 8 days!
I was fortunate enough to be able to travel home to Atlanta quite a few times while in the hospital and during my month of Convalescent leave, my fiancée, soon to be my wife spent a lot of time in the mountains, I didn't like be around crowds, lines, or noise, so we spent pretty much every weekend either traveling through Habersham county on old 441 and across Hwy 76 returning back though Blairsville or vice versa, but fell in love with Habersham i.e., Clarkesville and Demorest and Piedmont College. We talked about returning to live here soon as I had planned on going to college after my discharge and thought about going to Piedmont until I found out it was a Liberal arts College, and I was interested in a bachelor science degree/pre- medicine. Plans are wonderful, but life changes them many times. Over the years we still spent a lot of time in White County, Helen and Unicoi state park and always went home through Habersham, still thinking about settling here. One of fondest memories of Clarkesville was the weekend, My wife and I got married, I only had a 72 hour pass, so we decided to go to Gatlinburg overnight, never made it, stayed in Smiths Hotel in Franklin and came home Sunday via Hwy 441, and coming into the Square in Clarksville, one of the service clubs were selling fried chicken dinner plates at 444 and 17, and it was the best cold chicken, we had ever had!
That plan came to fruition in 1988, almost 20 years later, my wife, Sherry, and I, and our son moved here. We have grown older, been married for 51 years, and still love this area even though it has grown much larger. I thank God every day that I was given a second chance at life that fateful day, April 25, 1969, as I should have died, if the Booby Trap had been set probably, like more than 58,000 brothers and sisters of mine. I appreciate their sacrifice as well as all the men and women of this country that have sacrificed the ultimate in all our wars. Semper Fi and Fair Winds and Following Seas to all my Marine brothers and Navy Shipmates.