Based on his test scores in basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky after being drafted just before the lottery system kicked in, Michael Clark was sent to AIT at Fort Sam Houston, where he overcame his fear of needles as he trained for ten weeks to be a combat medic (MOS 91A10), and then for 12 weeks more to become an operating room technician. He arrived in Vietnam in 1970 and was sent to Camp Evans for in-country acclimation and further training, including how to recognize and avoid booby traps. He recalls pulling guard duty (“there were foxholes every 20 to 30 yards all the way around the perimeter. And every other foxhole had an M79 grenade launcher. And the ones in between had an M60 machine gun. So we had to qualify with both…”), and being impressed by the Cobra gunships operating at night. He was later sent to a battalion aid station, 326th Medical Battalion at the 101st Airborne Division at Camp Eagle, and recalls getting out in sweeps, riding as a medic on the occasional convoy, and participating in MEDCAPs. “But most of the time, they put me to work in the motor pool.” Finally, he was assigned to an OR at the 85th EVAC, where he finished up his tour. He describes some awful memories of mass casualties, frightful amputations, and screams of terror, but he also remembers the extraordinarily close bonds that he forged with his brothers-in-arms. “We became connected at the soul.”