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Desert Lightning News November 2017 5
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Vietnam vet continues 50-year journey of discoveryFacebook.com/DesertLightningNews
by STEPHEN DELGADO was the main supply line for the North Vietnamese Army
and the Viet Cong, was very close to where we were located.â€
Thunderbolt staff writer In January 1969, it was time for Prentice to go home on
The summer of 1967 can be remembered as a time of leave. When he arrived at the Seattle airport, it was not a
profound change. Many cities in America were aflame, the welcoming homecoming.
airwaves were full of music that a few years earlier wasn’t “I was in uniform and there were a number of groups pro-
thought of, and the Vietnam War was raging a world away. testing,†he said.“I was called all kinds of names, none of them
In a small town that summer — Blanchard, Washington nice, so I ducked into a restroom to change into civilian clothes.
— 18-year-old Jerry Prentice was drafted by the Army and It was surprising and disappointing to see this reaction.â€
responded by giving his country an effort beyond the call of His next assignment was an 18-month tour at Fort Benning,
duty. He was following in the footsteps of his father and uncle Georgia, working on airplanes and helicopters.
who both served in World War II. His uncle was awarded the Political figures and high-ranking military officers used
Bronze Star in the 1980s. many of the aircraft there.
While today we think of many 18-year-olds having as their However, a temporary duty assignment at Homestead AFB,
biggest worry whether they should go to college or get a job, a Florida, brought him close to the Cold War.
young Jerry Prentice, as well as thousands of other Vietnam “A Cuban pilot landed at the base flying a Soviet MiG,†he
veterans, faced life and death decisions and peril minute by said. “I had never seen a MiG. The aircraft was covered with
minute. a tarp, and the base was shut down.â€
He did his basic training a short distance from his home When his Army tour completed, Prentice began a long
at Fort Lewis, Washington, and then it was on to Fort Eustis, journey, which included a variety of jobs, and resulted in him
Virginia, for advanced infantry training in sheet metal repair. discovering himself and coming to grips with his demons.
After finishing his AIT, he took leave and then left for Phu Prentice tried his hand at halibut and salmon commercial
Loi Base Camp, South Vietnam, which was north of Saigon fishing off the coast of Alaska, and had a short stint at Boe-
near the Cambodian border. ing, but he said he got tired of the rain and took a job with
He arrived in Vietnam, Jan. 12, 1968, and didn’t have a TIMEC of Texas working on oil refineries, a job he stayed with
minute to settle in as the Tet Offensive was beginning. It was for almost three decades.
the largest military operation up to that point of the war, as In 2008, Veterans Affairs granted him a 100-percent dis-
every city and military base in South Vietnam was attacked. ability. Agent Orange had been dropped in the area where he
The next three months would be harrowing and downright had worked in Vietnam, so he was medically retired. He has
scary. suffered through five strokes and total bypass surgery since
V“IIwNaNs t-r6ai9n3ed3a-sCaOshReePt-mVeEtaTl -rAepZai-r1m11a7n,NbuetwwhsepnaIpweasr Ahde left the Army, as well as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
cgnoueO1nen0sdncte.ea2tdrn,,5â€2tIâ€rP3worx,ceek2nn6ett0ti.scw51ea7â€ints,hda4itmdh/.oe0“rWCtaherisln.ivoToehkde helicopter crew as a door Prentice said he had blotted out most of what had gone on Courtesy photo
in a bunker to avoid the See Journey, Page 15
Ho Chi Minh Trail, which Jerry Prentice in front of the Vietnam War Memorial
Moving Wall.
THIS VETERANS DAY
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