Con Thien

Image by jcolman via Flickr

The climax of OTS in those days was a three day field exercise known as "Con Thien." Con Thien was actually a little known Marine base located near the DMZ in Quang Tri Province in South Viet Nam. It was known as the "Meat Grinder" and the DMZ in that area was called the "Dead Marine Zone." I'm sure there was a reason for our exercise to be called Con Thien, but I don't know what it was. I really don't think that any of the things we did there were classified - since none of us had clearances and I did not have a "briefing in" or "briefing out" at any time; but rumor was that we were not supposed to discuss it with anyone outside our group. Apparently the reason was that we would ruin the surprise for any trainees in the future.

I do know that I spent over 24 hours with a laundry bag over my head - tied around my neck - and I was subjected to what seemed like hours of interrogation, mild beatings and periods of standing in a hole where I was periodically doused with buckets of cold water. Apparently this was a "mini-SERE" to let us know what was coming and to bind us more closely together by letting us enjoy pain and misery together.

On the morning of the fourth day, when we began to "see" sunlight through our laundry bags, we were quietly herded together and found ourselves standing together in a barbed wire compound. People moved among us untying our laundry bags and whispering "keep it over your head until we tell you to remove it." Suddenly, someone gave the order to remove the bags, we were called to attention, given the order to "Present Arms" and the flag of the United States of America was raised to a recording of the Star Spangled Banner. I do not ever remember feeling chills or having tears come to my eyes during a flag raising before that; but I remember that I did then - and I have had the same reaction during every flag ceremony in the forty years since.

We were then marched away from the Con Thien camp and returned to where our tents had been located. The tents and cots were gone and there were only concrete block stepping stones left in the area. They told us to wait for trucks to move us back to the barracks and we settled down. I stretched out on the ground with my head on a concrete block and went to sleep - only to be awakened several hours later by rain falling in my face. The trucks never came and we finally formed up into flights and squadrons and started the ten mile march home in the pouring rain. We all still felt the awesome change that had taken place within us and we were ready to be commissioned and let loose upon the world. The Air Force had graduated another 800 steely-eyed killers, many of whom would take their last breath in Viet Nam before their 25th birthday.

Hanoi Jane Sucks.