Allan Cruz, son of immigrants from Guam, enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1966. After boot camp, infantry training, and MOS school, he went to Fort Sill Artillery School to learn artillery survey. He arrived in Vietnam in 1967 and was assigned to Mike Battery, 4th Battalion, 12th Marines as a fire direction control man. He remembers getting “very, very good” at doing math in his head. He remembers the 155 howitzer, and the wooden crates the ammo came in; stringing barbed wire, filling 100-pound sandbags; a lot of chess games, a lot of checker games, and a lot of cards in between things. Cruz describes loyalties, political dancing, and beer call; supporting reconnaissance teams, harassment and interdiction fires, leaning over charts, and plotting targets. And he remembers losing friends. Cruz served in the Marine Corps for 40 years.
Key Words: Guam, MCRD San Diego, Camp Pendleton, MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) school, Camp Lejeune, Fort Sill, Oklahoma, survey school, fire direction control (FDC), Arty survey, 2d Marine Division, WESTPAC, USNS General Gordon, Saigon, Cam Ranh Bay, Qui Nhon, Quang Ngai, Da Nang, fire direction center (FDC), graphical firing tables, tabular firing tables, DMZ, I Corps, Leatherneck Square, Gio Linh, Con Thien, Cam Lo, Dong Ha, Quang Tri, Camp Carroll (Artillery Plateau), Ca Lu, Khe Sanh, 55 SP (M55 self-propelled howitzer), 155 battery, Seabees, North Vietnamese Army, Cambodia, Laos, Ho Chi Minh Trail, Cochinchina, Annam, Indochine, harassment and interdiction (H&I), Army Duster (M42), Mutter's Ridge, Cua Viet, DS (direct support), GSR (General Support-Reinforcing), FO (forward observer), PAO (public affairs officer), San Francisco State, VISTA volunteers, ANGLICO, Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company, I MACE (I Marine Expeditionary Force Augmentation Command Element), OIF (Operation Iraqi Freedom)
Key Names: General Conway, Maya Lin