Loomis, Steven, IC3

In the spring of 1970 I had orders to Viet-Nam. But, first I had to go through SERE school, Survival - Evasion - Resistance - Escape. What a trip. I was still 19. I trained with all sorts of junior and senior enlisted. I don't remember off hand if the officers went through with us. No matter, it was quite an experience, both the classroom and field laboratory. Our weapons training was at the Marine Corps base at Camp Pendelton (and Camp Horno). The "prisoner of war camp" was at Warner Springs. It was one of those experiences you had to undertake to appreciate.

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The missing "L" in "S.E.R.E."

I've waited nearly forty years to tell this story. If you weren't there, skip it. If you were I'm sure you will understand.

I never did sign the papers. Even after several additional trips into confinement and the interrogation, I refused to sign. Then something amazing happened, not at the end of the exercise, but after several trips to the lights I was dragged outside and in one quick movement I was shoved through an opening in the fence and told to call from the white house at the top of the hill as I scrambled up the slope and away from the encampment.

As quickly as I could I stumble up that dirt and gravel path to kind of a lean-to, a wooden three sided hut that was painted white. In it was a field phone.

I sat down on the floor and looked around through the trees at the camp below. I could hear my number being called over the loudspeaker and I laughed for the first time in a week. I remember saying out loud... "I'm sill in California" and laughed again. It had been an amazing time and I took a few minutes to catch my breath. But, I had to finish the game so I gave the crank on the phone a couple of turns and a voice said.. "Come on down". And I did.

It was another instructor, he met me near the bottom of the hill and took me to one of the trailers, mobile homes. We stepped inside and he motioned for me to sit at a small kitchen table. Then he offered me a sandwich, it was ham on white bread with mustard. As I wolfed it down I looked at him and said... "I'm not dressing up like a commie", "or reading any propaganda to the others". He asked me what I meant and I told him I wasn't going to pretend to switch sides like those other guys in the camp. And to my amazement he said... "No, you don't have to do anything, except you do have to go back in and finish the exercise".

I was stunned. Had those others broken that easily or soon (your choice). Either way, I was ready and was swiftly reinserted into the camp and almost immediately placed back to a black box. I never did sign anything.

When it all was over we assembled in a large tin building and drank black coffee for the first time since the exercises had begun. During, what could only be termed, the commencement ceremony... they spoke about the very few who had escaped and asked them to stand. I half crouched and sat back in my chair. I hadn't escaped... I'd been turned loose... and it hit me, it hit me so hard I almost reeled out of my chair. I had failed the escape portion of the exercise... I had knowledge of an opening and I didn't get anyone else out. I felt like a fool and realized that at that time, a 19 year old Seaman Apprentice, I didn't have the wits or LEADERSHIP skills to use the information I?d been given. That was the "L" that was missing from my SERE. Leadership.

I don't beat myself up with this very often. But I'd learned a lot about myself that day. I was young and inexperienced. But, that was what the training was for and in my mind I've played out the ending of that situation differently many times. Most of the sailors I went through SERE with headed down to Sea Float and Solid Anchor. Ironically, within a week of landing in Saigon I was assigned to the shipyard where I spent my entire year.

I left CONUS for Saigon on: 7th of June, 1970.
Returned on a MAC-V flight: 7th of June, 1971.