Udden - 21 Months, 24 Days: A blue-collar kids journey to the Vietnam War and back

In the late sixties, draft boards were gathering young men for the Vietnam War. High school kids who were not bound for college had to enlist or wait for a draft notice. The burden fell on the children of blue-collar families because college was not an easy option for them. Instead of starting a career, they had their lives put on hold.

I was one of those kids. Threatened by the draft, I enlisted in the Army. I expected an easy two years working in a trade. Instead, they assigned me to the infantry and sent me to Vietnam. There in the jungle, I hunted and fought the Vietcong along with other young kids. When my company was sent to Cambodia to disrupt enemy supply lines, I was wounded by shrapnel from a booby-trap. All of this happened before my twenty-first birthday. A year later, I was discharged from the Army and returned home. I did my best to forget about the Army.

So why have I written this book now? Well, it began as a way to organize and caption the pictures I brought back with me. I did not want to leave my kids with a bunch of pictures and no explanation for them. Then, I met a fellow Vietnam vet who had written his own book. He planted a seed in me. Before I knew it, I was off and running. I did not want to write one of those typical war stories about battles won and lost. After all, I took my pictures between firefights, not during them. So instead, this book focuses on what it felt like to pass through basic training, infantry training then on to Vietnam and Cambodia. I wrote about the day-to-day grind of the job between firefights including combat assaults, jungle patrols, and pulling guard on a firebase. I wrote about lighter moments on a firebase. Late in the day, when the sun disappeared, we sat in a circle and passed around a joint while listening to music on a cassette deck. There were so many unique experiences there; I had to get them all down on paper .

I made two chance decisions in the Army that contributed heavily to this book. First, every three days or so, I sent a letter home to my family. The letters focused on things like where I happened to be, the living conditions and the weather. I tried to avoid writing about anything that may worry them. My Mom saved those letters and gave them back to me years later when she discovered them in a bureau drawer. Without those letters, there is no way I could have pulled together the what, where, and when in such detail.

Second, I do not know why, but I decided to use slide film instead of pictures in my Kodak Instamatic camera. Using slide film was a great decision. When I finished a roll, I dropped it in the mailbag for shipment to Kodak. Kodak did the processing, then mailed the slides home. I took over two-hundred slides while in Vietnam and Cambodia. Those slides have held up unbelievably well over the years. If I had taken pictures, they would be curled, dog-eared and faded. By scanning the slides, I used many of them in this book as a visual way to tell the story and make it more real. If you want to see the pictures in color, visit my website at www.21months24days.com.

Well, I hope I have sparked an interest and you have a few questions for me. I guarantee you will find the answers to those questions by reading on. If you do not find an answer, email me at reudden@gmail.com with your question or comment. I have tried my best to give you an honest and complete account of what it felt like to serve in the infantry in Vietnam. You will not find any fish stories here. Those I served with will attest to it.

21 Months,

24 Days

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Chapter 1

Leading Up

I did not choose to serve in the Army Infantry; the infantry chose me. Something in my childhood I guess may have been attractive to them. Being the oldest in a poor, blue-collar family of six kids may have had something to do with it. It forced me to fend for myself at an early age. I think the infantry liked recruits who had the confidence to stand alone when necessary.

Let me tell you a bit about my brothers and sisters. From the youngest up, my brother, Andy, was in the second grade when I joined the Army. Andy had it the easiest, at least back when I lived at home. Why is it that the oldest in a large family always seems to have it the toughest and the youngest have it the easiest?