Michael Musso was drafted into the U.S. Marine Corps in 1966. He likens boot camp to high school football practice, and recalls being disliked by the drill instructor because he had grown up in Los Angeles, and had completed two years of junior college. He also remembers a young recruit killing himself at Camp Pendleton. Musso was set to be a Marine Aviator Cadet, but Congress cut off funds for flight training for two-year college men, so he instead went to avionics school at Naval Air Tactical Training Center in Memphis, Tennessee, where he studied electronics and radar repair. He specialized in Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) boxes and radar altimeters. Musso deployed to Vietnam in June of 1967, and was assigned to Marine Air Group 16, 1st Marine Air Wing at Da Nang. He describes guard duty and illumination flares and the boredom of fixing electronics equipment all day long in a small van. He volunteered to be a door gunner on helicopters when he wasn’t doing his main job as a technician. Musso tells stories involving race relations, MEDCAPs, Koreans, and Agent Orange, among many others.