Ed Horm "These Boots Are Made For Walkin" by Nancy Sinatra was one of the first songs that I really liked and was one of the first records I ever bought.  I still have it today.  I also bought every single and album, except one, that she ever put out.  Upon graduation, I went to work for a railroad, which was my childhood dream.  But after a few months I was getting somewhat afraid of being drafted and was told that those who enlisted at least got to choose what they did and could avoid infantry.  So I enlisted in the Army Corps of Engineers as a heavy equipment operator for three years.  Went to basic training at Fort Jackson, SC in October of 1968.  After basic was finished, I was sent to A.I.T. at Fort Leonard, Missouri.  After completion of that I was ordered for a one year tour of duty in Vietnam, arriving there in May of '69.  I was assigned to the 299th Engineer Company at Dak To.  About two weeks into my visit there our base camp came under attack on the night of June 7th.  At the time I was on guard duty, on a sandbag bunker located on the perimeter of the base.  We noticed a flash outside in the woods and immediately I opened fire on the spot with my 50-calibre machine gun while the person on duty radioed the report in.  And to tell you the truth, that was the last thing I knew.  I saw nothing, heard nothing and felt nothing.  I do have a faint recollection of being in a helicopter though.  The next thing I knew, I was lying in a bed with my wrists tied to the railings and someone held up a crudely lettered sign saying "You're are at 71st Evac Hospital" which was in Pleiku.  At that time I had no recollection of anything - not the army, not even that I was married or what I was doing there.  I complained to them of a toothache!  After a while I noticed one of those little round mechanical bells sitting by my bed.  I rang it- nothing.  Rang it again - still nothing.  Hit it a little harder - but still nothing but the nurse did come.  That was the first sign that something was wrong with my hearing.  I was totally deaf in both ears.  It turned out that the bunker I was on took a direct hit from a 122mm rocket with the explosion right in front of me.  If you accept the deafness, I was a very, very lucky young man.

In October of 1969, just one year after reporting for duty, I was retired for medical reasons at the age of twenty.  And with absolutely no hope of returning to railroad work.  The VA sent me to drafting school, which is the work I have been doing ever since.  Then in about 1995, for some reason I could no longer use a hearing aid.  The VA informed me of a still somewhat experimental procedure called a Cochlear Implant, which might help me regain some hearing.  The decision was made to go through with the operation.  The actual operation took about 10 hours and I wound up with 22 staples in my head, not to mention a major headache that night!  After a few days I was released to go home, but had to come back in a month to have the system activated.  After the doctors programmed the processor and showed me it's features, I was sent home and to use it and come back for reprogramming and adjustment in a month.

When I got home, "Boots" was tested - it was the first song I wanted to hear again.  However, all was not successful at that time.  Turned out my brain had to be retrained to hear again after a 30 year drought. My progress has exceeded everyone's hopes and since the system has been activated not one person has had to write ANYTHING down for me.  Sometimes I might say "What?" or "Say again?" but that is not very often.

Nowadays I listen to Nancy almost constantly.  Although I'm glad that I still had all my records, it was time to look into that new mode of music (to me) - CD's.  As I type this, I am listening to her newest CD "You Go-Go Girl".  There's a nice rendition of "Love Is Strange" on it.  And if nothing else, being able to hear her songs again has made the operation well worth it.

P.S.  I was in Vietnam of ONLY two weeks.  Didn't even get my clothes dirty!