Graduation/ Inspection and Departure

In the late 60's, there was something about muscle cars. I had an SS396 when I was a senior in high school and that one ruined me as nothing short of great performance in a car, was acceptable. Mr. Diable's Mustang was a hot rod and it was beyond cool that he let me use it to drive to Love Field to pick up my date.

I recall walking through Love Field on the way to the gate to pick up Joyce and noticing those looks one gets when a soldier who is really "decked out" walks by. I passed a long, tall Texan who was waiting for a flight and as I did, he tipped his cowboy hat to me. I thought that was pretty cool.

At that time, I hadn't had a date or even been around a girl in roughly 7 months. When Joyce walked off the plane and through the hall way between deplaning and tickets, I was knocked out. She looked like a million dollars and I was glad that she had accepted my invitation. I'll never forget that she smiled and said: "Hello, little brother". She lived in the same apartment building as my sister Linda and her husband Malcolm when they were at Louisiana Tech and often times referred to me as little brother.

Joyce wanted to know all about flying and I'm sure that I never shut up during the drive back to Ft. Wolters. Despite that, when we checked into the Holiday Inn, time was drawing near to the dance and we hurriedly prepared for the big night. I wish I had some dramatic story to tell you but the bottom line is that I don't. We went to the party and I showed her off to all my buddies who were impressed with the "Good Looking Blond" that Butler brought.

When all the festivities were over, we went to sleep and the next day, retraced my steps back to Love Field and that was it. I drove back to Mr. Diable's quarters and prepared to continue with my Super Senior duties, a job that was later described as "an assistant tac officer". I didn't see Joyce again for many, many years.

When I returned Diable went back to his mentoring and taught me something that would save my ass in Vietnam. I'll get into the specifics of that later when I write about Vietnam but I will give you an example of it now.

He explained that we would be given a "code book" and that when he received his, he put it on a string and wore it around his neck. The code book contained specific radio frequencies that we would use during combat operations and that it was super important that we guarded it with our lives. Not doing so would allow the NVA or the VC to get it, tune in to the frequencies and find out what we were going to do before we did it.

He also explained that we would be given an ROE book which covered the "Rules of Engagement". He advised that I memorize the rules and not just wear it around my neck. I paid close attention to that and, when I made it to Vietnam, I studied it and could quote all kinds of MACV (Military Assistance Command Vietnam) directives from memory.

To illustrate that, we went over the incoming information booklet that we'd given to the incoming students and went over the section regarding "security". It had in it a mandate that "no money" was to be left out or in the open.

After the lesson was complete, he told me to get in the car and we would go to the reception area where the new students were. When we arrived at the company area, it was late and all the new Candidates were asleep. He walked into the barracks, turned on the lights and screamed "Off your ass and on your feet". That was term that I use to this day. IT reminded me of the first day we met Diable, the one where I couldn't figure out if he was General Patton's kid or a Chuck Norris kinda guy.

When the inspection started, Diable found a roll of cash and immediately brought the guilty Candidate to a stiffer degree of attention. He yelled something like "Candidate, is it that you CAN'T read or YOU CAN and just don't think you need to comply with the regulation regarding cash?".

After a few seconds of stuttering on the part of the guilty party, Diable yelled, "Check out regulation A6, Section 1, Paragraph 2" or something like that. In any event, he quoted it from memory and the Candidate was flipping through the rules and regulations as fast as he could. From someplace unknown, Diable pulled out the Regulation booklet and opened it to the page where the regs about leaving cash out in the open, was posted.

I don't know if it's important to recall what his punishment was but I definitely remember the impact Diable had on me that night. I swore that I would memorize the ROE book when it was given to me and the vow I made to myself that night, would eventually save me from going to LBJ which was the nick name of Long Binh Jail. '

I will have one more post about my last day at Wolters before I move out and head to Ft. Rucker but I wanted to put as much emphasis on Diable's mentoring as I could. I think this particular example of his mentoring style is very important because the guys I flew with when the 11th Cav invaded Cambodia, still talk about it to this day. Stand by, I wont' forget it because it was the 3rd most impactful event that I had during my entire tour of duty in Vietnam and Cambodia.