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...was at fire base Gladiator in the Thua Thien Province, South Viet Nam, waiting for my three day r&r down to Eagle Beach...don't remember too much about those three days...
I would have reported to the stat chemistry lab for the 3-11 shift at Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland AFB. I was USAF.
We had a small team of four people on the 3-11 chemistry lab. Two on the routine side, two on the stat chemistry side. As the shift progressed, we'd let one person go around 6 pm as things slowed down. Once we stopped processing the routine chemistry tests at 8 pm, someone else would take off. Once the big chemistry machine was properly cleaned and readied for the next day, one more person would leave around 9 to 10 pm. The last person was on-station until 11 when the 11-7 guy came in. If it was a slow night, the last person would prepare the night person's standards for him. It was a small favor to the night guy. Every shift, each machine had to be tested with these known samples to insure the machines were operating and reporting the proper values.
Knowing the team that I worked with, they might have insisted that I leave early. But I didn't. I had left early the night before to go to the Spurs playoff game the night before. I took that as my birthday early release and we let someone else leave early on Tuesday night. I worked my shift and likely went back to my barracks room after work.
Turning 21 and being able to drink wasn't a big deal - we already had those privileges on-base!
I, too was working at Wilford Hall on my 21st birthday-but in the OJT office in the modular building.
I celebrated by going out to dinner with my then husband. The drinking age in Texas at the time was 19 so I had already been "legal" for a few years so it was old hat.
You might win "most unusual" prize. I guess I'm glad I live on the Pacific, after hearing that.
Yikes.
I never drank before age 21, so I dimly recall being thrilled to imbibe at some fancy-shmancy restaurant with ex #1.
Yeah, it was interesting. We had a cage on deck with four rabbits in it. They were the "canary in the coal mine" for the nerve gas getting to us. After we got back into port, I had to take the rabbits to the airport for their trip back to the Navy. I can only imagine what their fate was.
Everyone was issued an atropine injector and we were instructed on how to use it. I kept that for years as a souvenir; it may still be around somewhere.
It was actually a nice trip; calm seas and lots of sunshine. And I didn't have to inject myself.
I spent it driving a Plymouth trunk-ful from Kentucky to Louisiana to start a new job. Long, long time ago -- 1959.. Didn't think too much about it being my birthday.
I turned 21 in July 1958, in South Korea courtesy of the US Army. I was probably out on some mountain top, setting up an antenna and preparing to stay for a week.
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