We’ve begun learning about Ray Pederson’s Vietnam service in the Navy to help us better understand the Vietnam War’s impact on our region.

Ray Pederson was born in 1945 in Echo, Minnesota, but grew up on a farm in rural Belview. He graduated with the Belview High School class of 1963.

Ray enrolled in Mankato State College, but left school to help on the farm when his father injured his back. This made him eligible for the draft, but he elected to enlist in the Navy instead.

“I took my oath at the old Naval Air Station at what was called Wold-Chamberlain Field, what’s now Minneapolis-St. Paul International, and jumped on a plane to Chicago and was bused to Great Lakes, IL where I took eight weeks of Basic Training.”

Ray began Navy Boot Camp in September 1965. He explained some of his Boot Camp adjustments.

“The big adjustment was that none of your buddies were around, so the first thing you did was try and identify who came from your area.”

Ray found Tom Schottenbauer from Wabasso.

“We went through boot camp together and he was in my wedding,” Ray explained, “We became very close.”

He recalled another adjustment that irritated him.

“One of the biggest adjustments was learning to take stupid orders, as I called them at the time. I had guys half my size rip buttons off your shirt because you forgot to have them open. You wanted to hit them,” he remembered, laughing.

“But, looking back, there was a reason for that. It was to pay attention to details. It was the discipline thing.”

Boot Camp involved 6 a.m. wakeup calls and practicing shipboard skills like knot-tying, a skill he uses to this day. There was daily physical training, but that was not the only fitness training. If anyone was out of formation, the whole company dropped and did twenty pushups.

“When I got home from Boot Camp,” Ray recalled with a grin, “I could pump out pushups until you told me to stop.”

Boot Camp graduation in December 1965 was a defining moment.

“One of the proudest moments in my life,” Ray recalled, “because I was part of a big team and I knew that team was going to depend on me to do my job.”

Ray’s parents and his girlfriend, Nancy, traveled to Great Lakes Naval Training Center for his graduation. He remembered how it affected his dad, “It was one of the only times I [saw] my dad cry.”

Ray and Nancy were married five days later during the two weeks of Boot Camp leave. Wabasso’s Tom Schottenbauer, Ray’s friend from Boot Camp, was in the wedding party. Ray and Nancy had nine days to get used to being a married couple before the Navy separated them.

Ray left for San Diego on orders to join the ship’s company of the USS Floyd County, an LST (Landing Ship Tank). LSTs are designed to run up to a beach and load or unload tanks, trucks, and other vehicles through massive clamshell doors in the ship’s bow.

Ray did not know what his situation would be in San Diego, so Nancy did not make the trip with him. This turned out to be a wise choice.

Ray explained, “In a month we were on the high seas headed for Vietnam.”

But Ray had more training before his ship sailed.

“I got assigned to boat school in Coronado, where I ended up an assault boat Coxswain. A Coxswain is a driver of an assault boat. The boats on my ship were called LCVPs (Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel) and they’d carry thirty-six combat-equipped troops. They did the amphibious landings. [I learned] how to operate it and to work with your boat crew.”

The Floyd County’s pre-deployment preparations included loading cargo. Ray explained, “We took causeways, which are floating bridges that we tied to the side of the ship.”

They also loaded a Marine motor pool.

“[They had] heavy-duty tandem trucks, jeeps, camels (towed water tanks), and tankers back there. We called them 18-wheeler tankers and they had a tractor to pull them off.”

Loading the Marine vehicles involved more than simply driving them up the bow ramp and into the Well Deck.

“You had to try and get as much into that Well Deck as you could. The bow doors would open up; the ramp would come down; and you’d drive your equipment into that deck. Once the Well Deck was filled, then you’d drop another ramp so that you could go up to the Main Deck. They had clover leafs that they would tie you down to with locking chains. You had to tighten them during watches while you were at sea so the equipment wouldn’t fall off while you were taking a roll.”

They also hosted 40 Marines assigned to that motor pool. Ray recalled those Marines made the ship-board accommodations tight for their Pacific crossing.

“You have no idea! (Ray laughed) It was very cramped. Space was at a premium.”

The USS Floyd County departed San Diego on Feb. 1 1966 and sailed west. She was carrying her ship’s crew of one hundred and nine officers and enlisted; her cargo of causeways lashed to her side and the Marine vehicles secured in the Well Deck or on the Main Deck; and her forty Marine passengers.

The Lyon County Museum is organizing an exhibit about the impact of the Vietnam War on Lyon County. If you would like to share Vietnam experiences or help with the exhibit, please contact me at prairieviewpressllc@gmail.com or call the museum at 537-6580.