My recollection of Viet Nam took place after I came home.

I served with the dental clinic in May 70 to April 71. My job was maxillo-facial surgery asst. at the 24th. I served with LTC. Ervin Hunsuck and Maj Bernard Balaban as the two max-face surgeons. Wolfgang Keller and myself (Steve Gillispie) were the assistants.

My story may shock some of you as it did me, or at least those of you that don't know.

Upon my release from the service in the spring of '71, I returned to my hometown in Huntington WV.

That summer I was at home reading the newspaper and came across a very sad story about a lonely elderly lady. She was very poor and was very distraught about not being able to visit the grave of her son who had recently passed away. It seemed she just didn't have the money to get there. She was also very concerned about her future and what she was going to do. She had been counting on her son to take care of her upon his discharge from the military. He was all the family she had left in the world. Unfortunately, it was not to be.

Her son had served with the 24th Evac while in Viet Nam. He worked in the OR but I don't recall just what his function was. While he was there he wrote to his mother and told her how sad he was that we were involved in the war. He wrote how our servicemen were coming into the OR either dead or horribly wounded. It was to much for him to bear she said and this was what caused his demise. It seemed he had turned to drugs and alcohol while in Nam to numb the pain of his experiences and what he was witnessing. She was certain this was what killed him.

It was one of the saddest stories I have ever read. Maybe because I knew him, I don't know. I didn't associate with him other than the OR but I thought he was a very pleasant guy to be around and I could tell a lot of other people thought so as well.

He was a casualty of war that many of you who worked with him didn't know about. Upon his return to the states he apparently died of some type of complications from the drugs or alcohol.

Who was he? He was SFC TOMMY DOUGLAS, VIET NAM '70-'71
Steve Gillispie
2/16/03