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BN: So beyond that, you're also, have an Asian face, and you're being prepared to fight an Asian enemy. How does that impact your experience?

NN: Well, I was called every derogatory ethnic slur that was imaginable. But they kind of focused more on the Vietnamese thing. Because "Charlie," I guess, the enemy, Vietnamese were called "Charlie," "gook," called, "Ho Chi Minh," "slopehead." And within the, there's like three platoons in the company, and each platoon has, started off with something like ninety recruits. And so ninety times three, so that makes about two hundred and eighty of us Marines. And out of two hundred and eighty, I'm the only Asian face in the whole damn thing. So I was told to stand up, because, "This is what a gook looks like," that kind of bullshit. So some of that... I mean, actually, it wasn't only me that was, everyone else was called "niggahs" and "chief," "beaners," I mean, everybody was called out their name. But it was different because I didn't have any, really like any support, kind of thing. And the only actual support that I ever felt was with some of the inner city Blacks that were... and I guess maybe in terms of their experience, they're somewhat of an empathy that, they would have blanket parties, and blanket parties is that we're pitted against each other all day. And if you don't do something, that you don't get punished, but everyone else gets punished. So at the end, if you're the one that's making everyone get punished, that everyone's going to turn on you. And so what they do at night is that the ones that, what do they call it, what was the name? Like "shitbirds," they call them "shitbirds." The ones that were shitbirds at night, that they had these vigilante crews come throw a blanket over the shitbird and everyone fires on 'em and beats 'em. And then before they could gather their senses, everybody's back in their rack, kind of like that. And then unfortunately, it works. Because the next day, the former shitbirds are now keeping up with everything. So you could kind of see all this psychological, it's almost like warfare. So one day, I ended up a shirtbird, because we were doing exercises.

[Interruption]

NN: So anyway, I'm a shitbird. [Laughs] Because they were doing exercises, and I was trying to be slick, I was trying to be slick again, kind of looking around and trying to not do it, right? So I get called up to the front, and a couple other guys were going along with the routine, so all of us were standing out there, and then all the other fellow recruits were out there sweating, getting all dirty, and they tell us, "You know what? Smile at them." So we're in front of everybody that's being tortured, and showing 'em some teeth. So you could see all these guys doing all this stuff, they're looking at you like you're at fault. I'm thinking, "Oh, shit, be ready." So I guess that night when we get back to the billet, that one of the brothers named Hill, and he's from East St. Louis, East St. Louis, Illinois. So he said, "Hey, man, don't worry, the brother's got your back." So, cool, right. So I got a pass.

But overall, there were, at that time in the Vietnam conflict before the draft, that all my fellow recruits, I was nineteen at the time, yeah, I think it was nineteen. That I was actually a little bit over the norm in terms of age, that we were all kids, I mean, big kids, we're all kids out there. And then we were the ones that were expendable, like the ones that weren't going to school, that were fucking up, either like you want to go to jail or you want to join the Marines?" that kind of stuff. So we were expendable, like the at-risk kind of kids. And there were a lot of, we came from everywhere, like nationally. So there were a lot of white kids that had actually never seen, we were Orientals at that time, never seen an Oriental, maybe at a restaurant or something like that, they don't even have a clue. So when you have anything like this DI, the drill instructors would tell them about what a "gook" is, things like the women have their "vi-ginas are slanted like their eyes." I mean, you know, all kind of bullshit, right? And, "The goal of a 'gook' is to die and get reincarnated as a water buffalo." So everything's so dehumanized, that how it affected me was that, like a lot of these hillbilly types, that they would ask me, "Hey, is that true?" "Fuck you, motherfucker." So there was fights, actually, two fights that I got in, and it was always like with one of these white guys that would just cross the line. So you just got to fight.

Anyway, that was my experience in boot camp, but I made it out in one piece. And I actually gained weight and got a little bit healthier physically. But I guess when I came home, when I came home from boot camp, you get a little bit of leave before you have to go to the advanced infantry training. And I guess my mom was asking me why I'm so quiet, and I didn't know what to say.

BN: How long was your leave?

NN: It was maybe about two weeks. Two weeks and then you'd go to advanced military training and you learn how to kill, and then you come home. During that time, though, you're out of boot camp so you get weekend passes.

BN: When you came back, did you see your old friends again?

NN: No, not too much. Not too much, I just kind of wanted to chill. And then the other, out of the three other guys had also enlisted at the same time, like one of them got rejected because he had a juvenile, he had a juvenile record for glue sniffing. So they didn't want glue sniffers in the army, but you can be a rapist or a killer, but anyway, you can't be sniffing glue anyway. But the other two went in on the buddy system, and they went after me, because I went in first because I wanted to get over, I just wanted to get out of Dodge, I just didn't even wait for them, so I went in first. So when I was in, I actually tried to sneak out one night to make a phone call to tell them don't come. But I didn't get very far.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2023 Densho. All Rights Reserved.