Names of Brothers and Officers Involved
3rd Recon Bn Chief Corpsman Robert "Doc" Brown
Corporal Cliff Schoeffler H&S Co, 3rd Recon, PhuBai
3rd Recon, H&S Co "Evil E-8"
Memories
Doc Brown story by S/Sgt. Cliff Schoeffler
"Doc" and I,
About mid January of 67, at Phu Bai I started to itch and scratch down around my groin. It was getting pretty bad so I decided a trip to the BAS was probably in order to see what was going on and to get some relief.
As I entered the hardback hooch that was the BAS I saw that Chief Doc Brown was alone and throwing something at the wall repeatedly. Chief and I had already met and we got along well, me being something of a smartass sometimes kinda appealed to him for some reason. As I got closer I saw Chief was throwing a hypodermic needle into a piece of plywood and I laughingly asked him what the hell he was doing that for. His reply brought me gusts of laughter when he said "The Evil E-8" is due his shots this afternoon and I am getting his needle ready for him".
"The Evil E-8" was in H&S Company and was pretty much despised by everyone. I had already had a major run-in with him that the Battalion Sgt Major had gotten involved in, but that is another story! We'll just say that "Evil" was not high on my personal favorite list! The idea that "Doc Brown" the Bn. Chief Corpsman was going to shoot him in the butt with a severely dulled and bent needle really appealed to my sense of justice!
Doc asked me what I was there for and I told him, he instructed me to "drop drawers" which I did by letting my jungle "utes" hit the floor, I wore no skivvies as many of us didn't because of heat rash problems acquired in that lovely climate we enjoyed. Doc took a close look and quickly said,"Crabs !, you got Crabs Corporal Schoeffler and a damn good case of em". He then told me to sit while he got me what I would need to get rid of them. Shortly after I sat he came over to me and handed me a tongue depressor and a small vial, then instructed me to scrape 4 or 5 of the little bastards off of me and get them into the vial.
Along the walls of the BAS were lots of jugs, bottles and such, containing snakes, spiders, centipedes and other vermin Doc had collected and pickled. Made sense to me to ask Doc if he was going to pickle my crabs and put them on the shelf as well.
"Nope" he replied, " I have to go to "Evil's" hooch as soon as I am done with you to update his Gamma Globulin shot you saw me preparing the needle for. When he bends over for me to poke his butt and he can't see what I am doing, I'm gonna turn those lovely crabs of yours loose in his rack!"......
He and I both had one helluva a laugh and I told him I was glad to be of service to him!
We "chewed the fat" for a few minutes and I left with my curative cream and orders to burn the bedding on my cot and have all my clothes washed well.
Within a week or two, Doc would be KIA on patrol with Alpha Company. I had gotten to see him the day before he mounted out, he was excited, the CO had always refused his request to go to the bush with one of the Teams saying he was too valuable as the Bn. Chief Corpsman to risk in the field. But the CO was away, the patrol was scheduled to be a short one and the XO gave his permission. Doc couldn't have been happier, he was already scheduled to go on R&R to Hawaii and meet his wife a week or so after this patrol was supposed to be over.
Doc Brown was the consummate Combat Corpsman, a Navy Career Man who stuck with his Marines by choice, felt compelled even as Senior Corpsman to go to the "bush". Perhaps the highest compliment one might use is "Doc was a pro", I doubt he actually used that dulled needle on "Old Evil", but the fact that his mind thought of it and he shared it with me was an indicator of his personality.
Suffice it to say that seeing "The Evil E-8" scratching his privates around the Bn. CP area, always made me grin, knowing that with Doc Brown's help and perverse personality I was the source of his torment.
After 40 years those memories bring a smile to my face, I have it now, it also brings back the heartache of 26 January 1967 when I lost my friend and co-conspirator.
Cliff Schoeffler
Corporal, '67, H&S Co, 3rd Reconnaissance Bn., Phu Bai
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