Richard Adams describes getting into West Point, training for field artillery, and arriving at Phuoc Vinh in Vietnam four months after receiving his commission in 1967. He talks about life as a freshly-minted second lieutenant supporting an infantry (air assault) battalion, and learning quickly “that we were not airborne, we were airmobile.” He recalls that the Battle of Song Be, during which his hooch mate was killed in action, “was our true baptism for Delta Company of the 1st of the 506th.” After his Vietnam tour, Mr. Adams made a branch transfer from field artillery to Corps of Engineers, and then fell in with some “aviation types” and transferred again, this time to the Army's fixed wing aviation. After being trained on the U-8 Seminole, he was sent to Saudi Arabia, where “my real responsibility as an aviation officer there … was to fly the tea shipment, the liquor ration.” Mr. Adams resigned his Army commission after stationed seven months in Kaiserslautern, Germany, where he was assigned as the race relations, alcohol and drug control, equal opportunity officer in the Modern Volunteer Army (VOLAR), 1974.