Garrison recalls Vietnam

Bob Garrison holds a picture of the plane in which he flew during a typhoon. The picture was taken by a friend of his on a sister plane that lost power so they could not continue flight. He is also holding a Mother's Day card he sent his mother from Perth, Australia, when he had five days of liberty to sightsee there. There is also a stack of letters he mailed to his mom while he was in Vietnam. She never liked to get the ones marked "free" because she knew he was in a combat zone.

Bob Garrison spent a lot of time in Vernon County as a child visiting his grandmother, Dorothy Phipps, in Nevada and other relatives.

He served in the US Navy from 1963-1969 after graduation from Turner High School in Kansas City, Kan.. Boot camp was in Great Lakes, Ill., outside of Chicago.

From boot camp he went to Aerographer's Mate School, in Lake Hurst, N. J. , where he was still attending when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Garrison and four friends traveled to Washington, D.C., in their dress blues and stood along Pennsylvania Avenue when Kennedy's casket went by and saluted it.

From Lakehurst, N. J., he was sent to serve on the USS Ranger CVA61 Aircraft Carrier as a Forecast Duty Officer for 14 months. The nose of the airplane on which he was part of the crew served a dual purpose. During typhoon season, they flew in typhoons at 500 feet above the water to track the storm. He was designated "First Weather," which meant he was responsible for the weather observations while flying in the typhoon. The observers flew 25 miles off North Vietnam, and with the radar capabilities on board, they could discover events that happened in this area. In this capacity, he served as a combat information control to direct military planes in and out of assigned areas.

After that, he was sent back to Lakehurst, N.J., for advanced weather training. Following that training I was sent to VW1 Squadron located in Agana, Guam.

Before he started flying, there were several training situations he had to attend. One was located at Kadena Air Force Base in Japan, where he attended jump school. He had to make five qualifying jumps out of an airplane. The first jump was made with a static line which automatically opened your parachute for you.

The cue to go was when you got a pat on the back from the jump master. After three pats, if you didn't go, the jump master placed his boot in your posterior and he pushed you out.

Another school he had to attend was deep water survival training located in San Diego, Calif. Nine other guys and Garrison were loaded on to a helicopter before sunlight. They flew out several miles and the door was opened. All he could see was water in every direction. They jumped out -- and a 20-man life raft was kicked out after them that they had to inflate and live in for the rest of the week. They'd had a couple days of classroom training prior to this. They would check on them every morning, talk to them on a hand cranked transponder that told the circling aircraft that they were OK -- and the instructors would fly off and come back the next day.

His last school was SERE school -- Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape. While in this school, he was treated as a POW. They could do anything to them except permanent injury. The purpose was to prepare them for worst case scenario of capture by North Vietnam.

After his time in the service, Bob returned to Vernon County and married Phyllis Overton of Schell City. They graduated from college at Southwest Baptist University and taught school at Schell City. They moved to Bolivar and raised their sons, Tyler and Shawn, there and he taught school at Pleasant Hope from which he will retire this spring.