this is a story about dick swanson when he arrived in january of 1966. he says i got there at the age of 32, i was the quintessential abroad and absolutely clueless. i ended up staying five years and marrying jermaine who called me a hamlet boy. within three days of arriving, i became acquainted with the valley and the first air cav. i had also become acquainted with the jungle and countryside firsthand and alone. after unceremoniously being booted out of a helicopter from ten feet into a rice paddy, i suggested i wanted to step out on dry land, the door gunner suggested with his foot that i get out now. after a series of misfortunes, i found myself separated from the platoon with no cameras. ten hours later after wandering around from empty village to empty village actually too dumb to be scared, i was found and put on a helicopter for the air base. good riddance and don't come back was the message. i badly needed to hitch a ride to saigon and found a little two engine plane with two stars on the side. i tapped on the side of the plane and a face appear

in addition richard heil who will be speaking for "life" magazine's dick swanson who was going to come until last night but has been called away on an emergency. >> i'm wally terry from "time life." when you went into the field in vietnam, you wore fatigues so you looked like everyone else. plenty of us carried gun z because we knew if our choppers came down the they wouldn't yell out, would the black guy move over and we'll wear a fire fight. back in sigh gong you wore a walking suit. it was usually tan in color. well, in time to combat the boredom, we all had our little pick dill las about that. i had a blue one, green, gray, brown, even white when i showed up at ambassador bunker's house in the white one, they told me to come around to the back because they thought i was a waiter. we had different styles, no pockets, long sleeves, nehru color and the like. one day i dressed up in my black suit which my roommate, john cantwell, an australian told me i looked damn close to wearing black pajamas. i wanted to be cool because i was going out to meet my wife whom i had convinced to come i