Involuntary Tour
by
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From Chapter 14, “Token Spook” (truncated) of the novel Involuntary Tour. (Scene set at Tan Son Nhut airbase, Viet Nam, Spring 1964.)
Whitfield Blanchard came in on the repo-depot truck from Bien Hoa the same afternoon Crazy Bruce and I returned from TDY in Thailand. Just another replacement, he would have been shuffled off north to Phu Bai, probably, and nobody would've noticed. Except for one thing—contrast!
Soldier-san, we had Vietnamese coming out our ears, and Koreans and Thais and Filipinos and I don't know what-all, and the whole roster of them the same yellowish-brown. Most of the rest were your so-called whites, being a misnomer.
But Whitfield Blanchard was coal tar black. Sort of shiny. And in a sea of pink and lemon and umber he stood out, a raisin in the flan. Sure, I know, there were lots of blacks in The ’Nam. But Blanchard was the first ever in the 3rd Radio Research Unit—another euphemism. The Third, like the rest of the Army Security Agency, had always been a bit on the elite side. Or they aspired to that, which meant the color bar stayed up.
Jews, A-rabs, New York Sicilians, California Zionists, New England Methodists, and Tennessee Fundamentalist rattlesnake kissers, truck drivers, college professors, crop dust pilots, and even a thin scattering of career Army: ASA took them all. But they didn’t favor anybody with a criminal record—not one that was known about or admitted to, anyhow— and no fags. No fags, period! And I have to tell you, James Meredith had a four-year lawn party at Ole Miss compared to the first black who tried to cross over into ASA, tried to pass in that cloistered service.
When Blanchard showed up in the Third, I think we all knew right off he was some kind of crazy. Some terminally stubborn bastard, considering what all he must have gone through to get there. Into ASA, to The ’Nam, to the Third. But, then, there were many who came to Viet Nam, lots of volunteers even, and they all came for different reasons.
I remember Ratty Mac at the time, smiling that be-evil, do-evil smile of his as we watched new kid offload the six-by. I was thinking what a tough time he was going to have, and wondering how they’d manage billeting without some Christian lad burning a cross on his footlocker. Mannie Barr twirled his finger in a circle alongside his head indicating that, in his opinion, the new black PFC was batshit. Mannie would know; his whole family was congenital silly putty.
“Spook don’t know what he’s got a-hold of,” Mannie said, “I don’t think. Look at him, starin’ around, hopin’ he’ll find some more of the same persuasion. Yep, guess he’s goin’ to be our token spook, I guess,” said Barr, turning to me.&nbs
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About the Book
Involuntary Tour is the author's first novel in print, but it is not a new novel, having sustained a 45-year gestation. "The End" was written to the story in autumn, 2007, in Salzburg, Austria, while the author and his wife were traveling in Europe. Because of the extensive manuscript, another two years was spent in restructuring the story into three books rather than one, and the necessary changes and additions to smooth the transition.
The book began with the author keeping a journal, notes, photos, and memorabilia in 1964 during his first Viet Nam "tour." That memorialization continued through a year in Russian language school in California, three years' duty in several locations in Germany, followed by his second tour in Viet Nam.
This novel, Book I of The ASA Trilogy--three linked, contiguous novels--is set in the times/places of the author's first Viet Nam assignment, and forward through mid-1968. The full trilogy, however, with the addition of back story and inserted vignettes, covers a period from the late 1940s through the autumn of 1969. The full story (the trilogy) employs two protagonists in the guises of a career Army warrant officer and a career Army sergeant, long-time friends and co-serving soldiers in a number of venues. More than a "war" story, though that also.
About the Author
The author is a retired Army chief warrant officer who served 16 years in Army Security Agency, and previously, seven years in the Marines. He served two tours in Viet Nam and served in all the locations appearing as settings in the book. He has lived/served in seven countries and traveled extensively in 44 others, as well as all 50 states. The two protagonists--though neither of them is the author, per se--do bear some family resemblance.
Following military retirement, he worked for a major electronics corporation, and returned to school to finish a bachelor's degree denied him by many transfers. He went on to earn two graduate degrees in English and Creative Writing.
In addition to his military career, he worked at a number of other "life experience" jobs, including steel-mill roustabout, insurance investigator, policeman, mid-level corporate manager, and technical consultant for a firm providing computer services to libraries. He taught college English, Lit, and Creative writing.
The author has two other books in print: a collection of short fiction, and a collection of short essays; and for ten years he has written a weekly newspaper column of eclectic subjects for the Hampshire Review.