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MN: And that June you had a medical problem. What happened?

RW: This was while I was there, when I was in my sleeping bag and I woke up and it was morning, I started to get up out of my sleeping bag, but when I moved, my whole head just swirled, just a sudden violent dizziness. If I just moved my head just a quarter of an inch then it, boy, just set it off, and so I had to just lay still. And then a little later I tried to get up and it started swirling again, and it got so bad that I started vomiting, and finally one of the guys went over and got the Battalion Doctor to come and check me out. He came over and gave me what they call APC pills. They're all purpose aspirin pills, and if you have a sore throat they give it to you, if you have a headache they give it to, if you have a sore back, if your stomach's upset they give it to you, but anyway, it's kind of a joke, but it's called APC pills. He gave me that and he told me it was just overexertion, but I don't think it was that. But I didn't get it again 'til I came home. I got it pretty bad after I was first back for a while, for a few years, and I had to go to a doctor. And it was a situation where I could feel it coming. I would know just when I'd get anxiety. And so at that time they had a relaxant called Miltown, I had that. Then there was valium later. They were more or less relaxant medication.

MN: I think also you're on valium.

RW: Huh?

MN: You were on valium.

RW: Valium, yeah. That's the one I couldn't think of. I was taking valium, but I didn't want to get addicted to it, so I would just take it whenever I felt that it was coming.

MN: So the Battalion Doctor, I guess he just said you were suffering from overexertion. Were you reassigned as a result of this medical problem?

RW: No. I think it might be for that reason they kept me there in headquarters for a while. And then, of course, Bob Madrid was killed, I asked for a transfer to his company, but they wouldn't let me go to a line company. They wanted to keep me. They said I'd have to stay within the tanks. So I asked if I could get transferred to a tank. They would do that, so they transferred me to a tank with Bob Pike from San Leandro, California, who was my tank commander. He and I are still good friends to this day.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.