In 1971 Murrie Hubbard and I graduated from Stoneham High School. Among the 371 graduates only Murrie and I served during the Vietnam War.
Murrie went straight to the Marine Corps. After completely Basic and Infantry training he went to Vietnam, serving a year with a Marine Rifle Company. In 1973, Murrie came home. He was uninjured.
At the end of January 1972, I went to US Air Force Basic Training at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio. After basic, I went to an eight-month missile electronics school at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver. In October I went to Hill Air Force Base, Utah. That was the closest I ever got to Vietnam during the war.
For the next 13 months I worked as a live-fire missile technician. On November 9, 1973, after Murrie was home, I was blinded and had a couple of fingers hanging from my right hand after a missile test explosion. I came home several weeks later. My hand was still bandaged, my fingers in a cast and my right eye patched.
When we swear to support and defend the Constitution, we may come home unscathed, or injured or dead. There is no partial oath.
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