We have been learning about Minneota’s Royal Hettling, who grew up on the family farm and graduated with the Minneota High School class of 1969. He enlisted in the Air Force, rather than taking his chances with the military draft.

Royal arrived at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, in January 1970 with a busload of recruits in the middle of the night. They hurriedly disembarked under the lash of a sergeant’s barked orders and scrambled to form ranks outside the bus.

“They called our names and we had to yell out, “Yes, sir!” He must have been a deaf because he kept yelling, “I can’t hear you!” We got back on the bus and they dropped us at our barracks. About six in the morning, you met your drill sergeant. You heard him with cleats on his shoes, walking up and down the aisle.”

Royal described their first day of in-processing.

“At uniform issue you stripped and walked through a line. They threw everything at you to catch on the fly. You’d take one and put it on like socks, underwear, and a T-shirt. You put everything else in a duffel bag and kept walking. Then they’d throw you a shirt to put on and two more for your duffel bag.”

Pants and boots were similarly flung at them before they moved on to a different location.

“They took you to the dispensary where you took your shirt off for shots in both arms as you walked down the line. Occasionally the air gun would not inject, so they kept jabbing you until it did.”

Royal described their barracks life in basic training.

“They were two-story barracks. If the weather was rainy, we had a covered drill pad underneath. We’d get up about six in the morning and each day the bunk would be made in a different way. That bed had to be so tight that a quarter tossed on it bounced. The floor had to be shiny and perfectly spotless. You had half an hour to get all that done.”

He outlined their daily training schedule for the six weeks of basic training.

“Around 6:30 you’d fall in and march to the mess hall. After breakfast it was calisthenics for an hour and then drilling on the drill pad. There was usually a class or two and more calisthenics and more physical training. Later on we got into running confidence courses and firearms training.”

Royal graduated basic training. The Air Force next assigned him to Security Police School at Lackland. This was a refreshing change.

“You didn’t have a drill sergeant standing over you. You appointed your squad leaders and it was their responsibility to march you to classes. As long as you were there, did your classroom work, and whatever else they asked of you, that was it.”

One day the school recruited for Dog Handlers School.

“They gathered us in a large room and talked about Dog School. It was 12 weeks at Lackland. They also said it was probable you were going to ‘Nam because that was where the demand was. They said, ‘Until we get 25 volunteers, you will all stay here. How many people want to volunteer?’ A few hands went up and they said, ‘Go into the next room. The rest of you sit here and think about this.'”

The Dog School recruiters returned every 45 minutes for volunteers while the rest of the trainees stayed in the room. Royal was with a guy he knew from the barracks. The two young men decided to volunteer together.

Royal outlined their Dog School training.

“The first week was classroom — how to handle a dog, care for a dog, and groom a dog. The second week we were assigned a dog. The next couple days we took them on long walks in the woods. Then we started basic obedience. We did the basic training commands; down, sit, heel, and stay, while walking in a circle with a drill sergeant in the middle. He’d yell, ‘Make that dog heel! He heels to you, not the other way around!’ From there we trained in scouting and detection. Once we mastered that, we got into tracking. We started working with them off-leash in advanced obedience.”

When Royal’s assigned dog became ill the kennel master assigned Royal a re-trained dog, Mickey, so he could graduate with the class.

The Dog School leadership announced the trainees’ assignments in May. Royal was assigned to the 483rd Security Police Squadron at Cam Ranh Air Base in Vietnam.

Royal’s class graduated in July 1970 and had thirty days leave before reporting to McChord Air Force Base, Washington for their flight to Vietnam. The new dog handlers reunited at the McChord terminal’s snack bar.

“We gathered there and had what we later called our “Last Supper.” (Royal chuckled) We went outside afterward and watched the sun set. About midnight we were taxiing down the runway for takeoff.”

Royal remembered his thoughts on that long flight to Vietnam.

“I looked at the stars, trying to pick out the constellations I could see at home. I kept thinking the longer I was on this plane, the further away from home I’m getting, but those would be the same stars. I was trying to reduce that distance. You do a lot of reflection. It dawned on me that not everyone on the airplane was coming home. You ask yourself, ‘Have I lived my life? Is this the final chapter or is it the beginning?'”

©2024 William D. Palmer Contact me at prairieviewpressllc@gmail.com with any comments about or story suggestions for “Prairie Lives.”