Dave Ziemke generously agreed to interview in August 2009. He was born in the old Tracy Hospital in 1949. His Mom lived in Tracy her entire life and his Dad grew up on a farm near Tracy. As Dave explained, “The roots are all here.” The Ziemke family traces their roots through their home farm near Walnut Grove back to Germany in the late 1880’s.

Dave attended Tracy public schools, but as he entered the home stretch with the Tracy High School class of 1967, he decided to leave his roots and see what was out there.

“I had no goals here in a small town and when you’re eighteen years old, you want to leave town. You’re in a hurry to do something with your life, maybe become something besides the kid from down the block. I was a loner-type anyway, so I quit high school four months before graduation.”

He hired on with a construction crew and moved into an apartment in Marshall. But Dave soon realized this was not what he wanted.

“I was on a construction crew building the Swift building. We were pouring concrete and I said to myself, ‘This was too rough for a skinny kid anyway.’ It was a going nowhere deal, so I walked to the recruiter station.”

Dave explained his motivation for enlisting in the Army in July 1967 when the Vietnam War was in high gear.

“Growing up in a small town, there’s a lot of patriotism there with WWII vets. A lot of motivation came from one of my high school teachers, Mr. Marbin, who was a Marine. You hear, ‘The service will make a man out of you. Serve your country.’ I walked right in and signed up. The recruiter asked, ‘You know what you’re getting into?’ I said, ‘It doesn’t matter.'”

Dave described how life quickly accelerated.

“I signed up in Marshall and the next day he loaded me on a bus to the Sioux Falls YMCA for the induction.”

Dave was far from alone at that induction ceremony.

“There were probably 150-200 people there — about half and half draftees and enlistees. Then we loaded on the airplane and went to Washington. It was my first airplane ride.”

Dave shared his thoughts as he flew west toward Army Basic Training at Fort Lewis, Washington.

“I’m thinking I should’ve told my parents. I think they found out from a letter from the Army. It was all my world and I didn’t think.”

Dave had been a free spirit, so in-processing for Army Basic Training was a strange, new world. A drill sergeant singled him out at the barber. “He called me Marilyn and put me first,” Dave remembered with a laugh, “it was because I had long hair.”

Dave continued, “The barber grinned at me and said, ‘How would you like your hair?’ I said, ‘Just trim it.’ He said, ‘Well, hold out your hand. I’ll let you keep your hair. (Dave laughed) He started at the back and — schwoop — I had a handful. That was my first experience.”

The trainees moved into barracks and went through long lines to receive their uniforms. “Everything’s green,” Dave recalled laughing, “socks are green; your underwear is green; t-shirts are green.”

Dave recalled the disorienting first days of Basic Training, “You don’t know anyone you’re with.” They lived in World War II barracks which had open rooms with twenty, double bunks down either side. There was no privacy, not even in the latrine (bathroom). “You can’t come and go as you please and you are with a group everywhere you go,” he remembered.

Dave even had to change his personal hygiene habits. “I never shaved before I joined the Army and they insisted I shave every day,” he recalled. “I had a baby face,” he protested, laughing.

“He (the Drill Sergeant) would come in at four in the morning, banging on the trash can,” Dave recalled, the training day was underway. “You line up at the mess hall,” he explained, “inhale your food and the minute you get outside you go on a two or three mile hike which is running or walking and you’re carrying rifles.”

The trainees also attended classes and, during the first couple weeks, often ending their day on their knees polishing the barracks floor with toothbrushes.

Dave adjusted to this limited life and even completed his GED during the first weeks of Basic.

“I made it through Basic with no problems,” Dave said, “I was very proud of that — I felt like a man.” He continued, “In eight weeks you grow – you learn discipline and it straightens you out.”

Dave did well on electronics testing so the Army sent him to Fort Ord, California for Advanced Individual Training (AIT). “I became a field wireman,” he laughed, “that was my electronics.” The Army trained him to run two-strand wire for field telephones.

Fort Ord also taught other soldier skills. “They taught you hand-to-hand combat,” Dave remembered, “I thought– this is the modern Army — I’ll never use that.”

“After AIT you’re given thirty days leave with orders to Vietnam,” Dave said. “I didn’t even know where Vietnam was on the map,” he recalled. “I joined the Army in July of ’67 and December of ’67 I was standing in Vietnam,” he explained, “that’s how quick it was.”

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 prairieview pressllc@gmail.com or call the museum at 537-6580.