“Were you an MP?”
Yes, I was one of the lucky ones.
MP School Ft Gordon, Apr & May ‘69.
291st MP Company, Redstone Arsenal, AL. May ‘69 - Apr ‘70
MACV Team 14, May - Nov ‘70, MACV PMG, Dec ‘70 - May ‘71
41st MP Detachment, St Louis MO, Jun - Dec ‘71
and then 60 days Early Out.
You're being sarcastic, right? When I re-enlisted for Rota, Spain, I was assigned to Shore Patrol. I didn't consider it "lucky". When the base and town bars/clubs closed down there countless drunk sailors and Marines we had to wrestle down to handcuff. I remember one huge Marine that took 5 of us to bring down and cuff and then needed leg restraints.
Then there was all PT, PR-24 (baton) training. I thought I was going to easy duty. Had to go to sickbay twice with cuts, busted lip, swollen eye. Lucky? It was like a cage fight every Friday and Saturday night. As soon as a position opened for Military Customs, I volunteered, and easy peasy for the duration of my shore tour.
However, I'm very proud of the under-cover work I did for NIS (now NCIS) in busting up a heroin ring in Gibraltar. Yes, I volunteered for that after being asked directly from the Security Dept. Commander. It was interesting, exciting, and rewarding to keep those deadly drugs from our weak dumb asses. If you want to know how the operation went down, just ask. Although it was clandestine, it's not classified.