Military unltd: The Uniformed Services, Their History & Traditions

When I was in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, I was assigned to the 106^th General Army Hospital, Kishine Barracks, Yokohama, Japan, 1967-1968. I was a Hospital Corpsman and assistant to the Chief Nurse. My nineteen month tour at the 106^th was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life, and I thoroughly enjoyed living in Japan – I lived off-post in a ten story Japanese apartment house in Hakuraku, which is a suburb of Yokohama. I would like to hear from other Soldiers, Airmen, Sailors, and Marines who were stationed in Japan during the Vietnam War, and what their experiences were, and how they liked their tours of duty. I would especially like to hear from the people that I knew and worked with at the 106^th, but I would also enjoy hearing of the experiences of men and women from other branches of the U.S. military, and also civilians from the Defense Dept, USO, and Red Cross. Please post your experiences below, and tell us a little bit about yourself: rank, branch of service, military occupation, your job, and etc., and what you thought about your tour of duty in Japan and the Japanese people.

 Hi Wally

I was stationed in Japan in 1967 to 1969, in Yokohama also.

It was a wonderful time. I was A Sp5 with the US Army and was a food inspector. I had a couple of stations. The first was at the Kanagawa Milk Plant run by a civilian company, Meadow Gold . My job was to do the quality control on the milk products and check the trucks, and general sanitation. My other job was at Center Pier, very close to Yamashita park and the Zebra Club. My Job at Center pier was multi-fold. I inspected vegetables and produce prior to the Government purchasing them and also inspecting eggs coming in from the states.

As I progressed up a little my job was to coordinate inspections by receiving the incoming orders from the procurement agency, making up the inspection sheets for the other inspectors and tabulating the results and calling in the results back to the procurement agency where they would decide if the produce was good enough to accept or make a price adjustment. All pretty routine stuff really. Off duty I travled extenively in Japan , learned as much of the language as I could and generally immersed myself in the culture. I was newly married and had a small Japanese-American style apartment. We had the unique experience of climbing Mt Fuji on the day of the moon landing , and tons of other wonderful times large and small.