Joel Dinda's photos with the keyword: army

71st Evacuation Hospital, Pleiku, Republic of Vietnam, 1971. Many G.I.s died here. Many more survived because of the efforts of the medical staff.

Frankly, I've grown weary of Veterans Day photos featuring graveyards. So here's a Vietnam snap. Sergeant Burnis Johnson, of Muskegon (Heights?), Michigan, at rest in the former Ward 2 at the Pleiku Army Hospital (71st Evac), which served us as a Signal Corps barracks. Sometime in 1971. BJ always seemed like the most capable, sanest, and calmest, member of our little detachment. Can't find anyone I recognize as BJ in a quick web search, though I'd not be surprised if another SGT Burnis Johnson (who seems to be serving overseas), also a Michigan native, is a relative. Another, similar, photo I posted several years ago. It has a bit of background information.

My first sports photo , from the second roll of film taken with my then-new Minolta SR-T 101. Pleiku, Republic of Vietnam, 1971. If I'd got the focus right, this would have been a terrific picture.

A two and a half ton truck, parked by one of the quonset huts in the hospital complex; 71st Evacuation Hospital, Pleiku, Republic of Vietnam, 1971. The Army's deuce and a half trucks were (are?) somehow both ugly and attractive. Rather like the choppers....

The supply room for Signal Support Detachment Pleiku, Republic of Vietnam, 1971.

Vietnam in the morning, 1971. This is Ward One of the 71st Evacuation Hospital in Pleiku, RVN; home of Signal Support Detachment Pleiku at that time, but once a crucial part of a large hospital. In the background are the water tower and a corner of one of the large tropo antennas everyone associated with the Signal Corps in Pleiku. During my year in Nam, I first lived in Ward Two, then moved to Ward One when a less public room, suitable for NCOs (and real people, for that matter), became available there. Camera: Polaroid SX70

The Corps of Engineers has a large crane barge, called Paul Bunyan, at Sault Ste. Marie. Shown here in Davis Lock on Engineers Day, 2005.

That's Lt. Colonel Dickson (I think that name's right), my Commanding Offficer for my California stay. I'm getting a promotion; henceforth I'll be a Specialist 4. Fort Baker, California, sometime in 1970. There's some strange things about this pic. First, there's a light colonel involved; my other promotions were handled by Top Kicks (First Sergeants). Second, you'd have thought the photographer should have shown me with my new rank insignia; nope, Col. Dickson's removing my PFC badges here. Oh, well. Come to think of it, my Army reporting structures were a little odd. Most G.I.s report to Lieutenants or Captains; I reported to a LTC in California, then to a Warrant Officer in Nam. Colonel Dickson wore several hats; he directly supervised both the Headquarters and Headquarters Company and the San Francisco CommCenter in our command, and had command responsibilities for CommCenters in L.A. and Seattle. (Actually, the SF Signal Company was run by a Top Kick--but we reported to the colonel, not to one of the HHC lieutenants.) All four (and a half!--shared with AF staff) CommCenters in the command were staffed mainly by folks I'd known in Signal School. Worked with some of those folks yet again, in Pleiku. The Army's big, but high tech communications isn't.