Marines Faced Other Enemies In Vietnam

In Viet Nam in 1969 marines had other problems than just the enemy, guys would smoke dope provided by our Vietnamese friends, stuff that was laced with who-knows-what, go berserk and start shooting at shadows. When bullets are flying in a friendly zone is when friendly fire will rear it's ugly head. If there are deaths, when and if the perpetrators are apprehended and locked up they will say anything to save themselves.

The stories you hear about the abuse of drugs was no exaggeration. My buddies and I were "juicers", drank our fair share of Pabst and raised some hell in an attempt to temporarily put aside our fears. But we did nothing more than get loud and obnoxious.

Unlike the "heads" (dope smokers) most of the guys in my unit did not do drugs and go around shooting people. We knew who these druggies were and to a one, they were a bunch of pathetic slackers. The Marines have been known to work miracles at molding character out of total meatheads but even they can't do the impossible. If you have nothing to work with, a personality that only shows meanness and stupidity even a platoon of Marine Corps Drill Instructors can't help you. Just give em all machine guns and hope for the best.

It was always those guys, the ones who got caught doing something illegal who whined about how the stress of combat made them do it. Mostly it was the REMF's who couldn't face the consequences of their actions and fortunately for them grenades were in ready supply. After all, dead men tell no tales. 

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