Memories of 'Nam: Remembering a life in uniform as Soldier, State Trooper and Army civilian

By Yvonne Johnson, APG News

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md.-- Before he became an Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland police officer, Joseph Davis spent 27 years policing the meaner streets of Baltimore County as a Maryland State trooper.

In many ways, he says, he was primed for the demanding rigors of public service by the years he spent in uniform, most notably, the nine months he served in Vietnam.

A native Marylander, Davis grew up in Middle River in Baltimore County. He attended Overlea High School, but left before graduating and enlisted in the Army at age 17 in 1964.

“Due to some family turmoils, I thought it best if I get in the Army and try to make something of myself,” he said.

He attended basic training at Fort Gordon, Georgia, then Advanced Individual Training supply schools at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri and Fort Lee, Virginia. In 1966, he also attended a 19-week general automotives course with the U.S. Army Ordnance Center and Schools at APG and later a stevedore supervisor’s course at Fort Eustis, Virginia where he gained skills in the loading and unloading of cargo ships.

Davis served in France and Korea before heading to Vietnam. He said that while Vietnam was going on at the time it was “in the background.”

“It was low key when I went in; things started to escalate in 1967 and 1968,” he said.

He had about 10 months left in the Army when he was ordered to ‘Nam.

“They sent me anyway,” he said. “They were sending everybody.”

Despite being armed with his new stevedore skills, Davis never got to work his MOS. When he arrived in ‘Nam in November, 1968, American and allied forces were regrouping from the casualties suffered during the Tet Offensive – a series of simultaneous attacks that were launched by the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese throughout South Vietnam in three phases, lasting from January to September 1968.

From the replacement center, Davis was sent to the 1st Infantry Division headquarters in Qui Nhon. Davis insisted that he was supposed to be assigned to the Saigon docks and was returned to the personnel service center where an officer who noticed his supply MOS had him assigned to the Bien Hoa. He said work there was “pretty much around the clock.”

“You maybe had down time every seven days or so, but otherwise it was non-stop. Everything we did was geared toward supporting the guys in front. As a sergeant, I pulled my time on the perimeters as sergeant of the guard and every now and then a “zapper” [suicide bomber] would get in and we’d have to hunt then down. And we took our share of hits from air strikes.”

He said word about the anti-war climate in the states wasn’t a great concern to the guys with their boots on the ground.

“It was all about taking care of each other. Camaraderie was tight. It had to be. We had it easier than the guys in front but we had our moments.”

Davis returned home when his time was up to a period of adjustment. He lived near a volunteer fire company and he said for a while the sirens “really bothered me.” To this day, he doesn’t like people “tip-toeing around while I’m sleeping,” he said.

Davis joined the Maryland State Police shortly after returning home and eventually was able to complete school and attend Loyola University where he majored in sociology and police science and earned a bachelor’s degree.

He started his civilian law enforcement career at APG in 1996; two days after retiring from the state. Davis led the APG Directorate of Emergency Services traffic division for several years.

He said when he remembers ‘Nam, he thinks of the frustration he felt when U.S. forces “pulled out of there.”

“All I could think was what was it all for. We lost a lot of kids over there,” he said.

His personal feelings about the conflict notwithstanding, he concedes that “wartime service makes a different person out of you.”

“I definitely came back different,” he said. “It made me more appreciative of the life we have here in the states; our democracy, our standard of living; I stopped taking it for granted”

Davis retires at in March 2015 with a combined total of 51 years of service to the state and to the nation.

“I will miss the people I’ve worked with and I will look back on this as a past experience with many pleasant memories,” he said.

“Like anyone in law enforcement, my main objective was to come home every night to my family,” he added. “I like to think I helped a lot of people during that time. I always gave 110 percent so I think I did okay.”

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Like any other war, Vietnam produced an array of veterans. When the conflict ended, some veterans opted to continue service in the military while others returned to civilian life. Some returned with life altering wounds - physical and psychological - while too many others, who never came home at all, remain among the Missing in Action.

On the surface, the veterans of the Vietnam War faced the same challenges as veterans of other wars, except for one glaring difference: they were vilified by American society like no other generation before or since.

Today, nearly 50 years after the war’s end, the veterans of Vietnam are in their 60s and 70s. The passage of time has cooled the tempest of indignation that shrouded their homecoming and an ambiance of repentant thanks thrives in its wake. Many still do what they can to serve this nation.

This article originally appeared in the “APG News” as part of an ongoing, multi-year series hailing the service members and civilians who served the nation during the war in Vietnam. Giving a voice to local Vietnam veterans, it is through their stories that we honor their service and sacrifice, and offer a long-overdue “Welcome Home.”

The “APG News” is the weekly newspaper produced at Aberdeen Proving Ground, an Army installation located in southern Harford County, Maryland, nearly midway between Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. APG is recognized as one of the world's most important research and development, testing and evaluation facilities for military weapons and equipment, and supports the finest teams of military and civilian scientists, research engineers, technicians and administrators.

For more information about the series or the veterans featured, contact “APG News” Editor Amanda Rominiecki at amanda.r.rominiecki.civ@mail.mil.