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Heppner starts big street rehab project 50¢ VOL. 140 NO. 12 10 Pages Wednesday, March 24, 2021 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Survival training and life in a POW camp Local man recalls Vietnam S.E.R.E.* Editor’s note: In 1969 sent out for a week of train- before his first tour in Viet- ing in “the field.” In the nam, Gazette-Times Pub- nearby swamps and forests lisher David Sykes was of Virginia we would learn sent to S.E.R.E training to live off the land, evade (*Survival, Evasion, Resis- the enemy and survive if tance, Escape). Following captured. Little did I know is an article he wrote for the disparate experience a University of Oregon that awaited me. On the morning of de- Journalism class in 1975 telling of that experience. parture, the company was We are reprinting it here up before dawn, loaded into in recognition of National Army trucks and driven out Vietnam War Veterans Day to the forest. We were divid- March 29. Hope you think ed into seven-man platoons of the Vietnam Veterans with each group given salt on Monday and enjoy this tablets, a compass, canteens article about one person’s of water, knives for each man and one live chicken. training for that war. That was it. By David Sykes We spent the first day Prior to going to Viet- nam in 1969 I was sent to learning how to make traps, catch small animals three weeks of spe- and build shelters. cialized training on None of us caught survival, evasion, re- any of the rabbits sistance, and escape, or squirrels the in- or S.E.R.E. This structors said were preparation was for running around the people headed “in woods, although a country” who might someday find them- David Sykes couple of guys did manage to catch a selves in a survival or capture situation. Both fish or two out of a lake. physically and mentally Using safety pins and it would prove to be the grasshoppers they got fish toughest experience of my hooked, however mine kept slipping off because of no life. I was 18 years old. While in the military I barbs on the safety pins. had always enjoyed being One guy got so hungry in new places and see- I watched him eat a raw ing new things and going frog. Just popped it in his to Little Creek, Virginia, mouth, chewed it up and where SERE training was swallowed. Not me! That night we built a held, was no different. The weather and people were lean-to, and all piled in to different and interesting, get some sleep. I found and I had never been to the it too crowded and ended southern part of the United up sleeping outside on the States before. Little did I ground. It would be the last know just how “new and rest any of us got for quite different” this experience some time. In the morn- ing we awoke to find our would prove to be. The school was three chicken, which we tied to a weeks long with the first tree with string, had laid an two spent mostly in class- egg. We proceeded to kill, rooms and on weapons pluck, and boil that scraw- training. I was taught how ny little bird along with its to load, breakdown, clean, egg, and throwing in a few and reassemble the 50 cali- salt tablets for seasoning, ber and M60 machine guns, seven hungry guys divided and of course the ubiquitous up one rubbery chicken for breakfast. We were all still Vietnam era M16 rifle. My days were also hungry, but it was time to spent in the classroom move on. Getting hungrier, we learning about the terrible things waiting for me in learned later that day to eat the war zone. In very mat- a plant resembling spinach, ter of fact ways, much like which wasn’t too bad. Years taking classes back at Reed- later when I heard a song sport High School, I learned called “Poke Salad Annie” through pictures, movies, about a poor girl in the and mockups, of the nasty south who gathered the wild booby traps, snakes and poke weed for her family to diseases awaiting me. I was eat, I realized that’s what also given graphic descrip- we had been eating. We were not just out tions of the torture and hu- miliation the enemy would there to find stuff to eat, inflict upon me if captured. however, we were there to Looking back, I should “evade the enemy.” Given have been questioning my checkpoints across the Vir- sanity for volunteering to ginia forests and swamps go there, after all, everyone we were ordered to march, I knew was trying to stay and with our compass we out of Vietnam. I, on the headed off to the first check- other hand, had resigned point. We were also told to my secure position as a watch out for the enemy, nuclear weapons technician who would be out looking student at Sandia Labs in for us. Our platoon, and the Albuquerque, NM, and volunteered. But I just had others too, set off with a to find out what was going point man looking at his on and see for myself what compass, guiding the rest everyone was talking about. of the team, and keeping them all on course. A lieu- Out to The Field After two weeks of tenant was in command, classroom and weapons and during the day he led instruction, we were then us across the countryside. When the sun went down however, he relinquished the point, giving it to me that first night. It was very dark, so I had the illuminat- ed compass in front of me guiding the men through the pitch-black forest on a course to the next check- point. I was worried about falling into a ditch or bog, so I got a long pole and poking it out in front of me felt for sinkholes and drop offs in the dark. In the pitch blackness each man at times placed his hand on the shoulder of the one in front, and we marched through the woods that way. A scary incident oc- curred the next day when our platoon ran across a nest of copperheads, and for some reason ordered not to avoid, but to kill them. We threw all our knives at the four snakes without harm- ing or killing one. When all the knives were in the nest and we could not get them back, everyone wondered what to do. We found a long branch with a forked end, and reaching into the nest, put the fork on each snake’s neck, killing them one by one. I had been catching snakes this way since I was young, but just garter snakes around my home in Gardiner. Anyway, that simple forked stick tech- nique from the backyards of Gardiner came in handy 3,000 miles away in the swamps of Virginia. We marched night and day going from one check- point to the next without sleep. When arriving at a checkpoint we were given sugar cubes and water to fill our canteens. We had no food or sleep during this whole time marching and evading the enemy forces, which I learned later were Navy SEALs. In one encounter, our company had to cross from one wooded area to another across a dirt road. Not want- ing to get caught by the en- emy patrolling in jeeps, we waited until a jeep went by then one man at a time ran across the road. Just then another jeep came down the road and caught one guy out in the open. “One caught all caught” was the rule, so our whole platoon was brought out of hiding onto the road. As punishment for getting caught the enemy had us take off our clothes and roll around in the muddy, sandy roadway. We put everything back on and I remember how the sand and dirt irri- tated me when hiking. That discomfort made me not want to get caught again. Lesson learned in hiding from the enemy ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M. Backhoes began tearing up and removing the pavement on Chase Street last week in preparation for the new street to be put in. -Photo by Tripp Finch Later, after we had made all our checkpoints, we moved on, still without sleep and now on our third day, for training in “cam- ouflage and hiding from the enemy.” We were taken to a large tract of land which I remember had lots of wild turkeys running around. We were told to camouflage ourselves and hide from the advancing enemy forces. Going into the wooded area I watched guys climb trees, get behind stumps and all kinds of stuff. I found a patch of thorny nasty bush- es and thinking that the enemy would not want to come in there looking for anyone, I decided to hide in there. It was a good idea, but later because of my stu- pid curiosity, I blew it. Crawling into the mid- dle of the briar patch I dug a shallow hole in the ground the length of my body. Then I lay down on my stomach and reaching around to throw branches and leaves up over my back, camou- flaged myself. I lay there with my face in the dirt and waited. I heard the en- emy advancing through the woods. They were shoot- ing guns and I heard guys running, yelling, and get- ting captured. The enemy was speaking some sort of strange dialect, which later I learned was made up by the SEALs just to be in- timidating. They also spoke English and were cursing and beating the captured men. In an attempt to throw off the enemy soldiers, one enlisted man offered to be a decoy for our lieutenant, but to no avail; they caught both quickly. How was I doing in my little briar patch hideout? Just fine. That is until I got stupid. Soldiers were walk- ing close by and had no idea I was inside that prickly patch. So of course, I had to go and make a big mis- take, and one I will always remember. I heard all the action going on around me. The shooting. The yelling. Things will be a little rough on some streets in Heppner for the next several weeks as the city completes a badly needed rehabilitation project. -Photo by David Sykes City residents who use Gale and Church Streets often will be finding their route a little rougher for the next few weeks as the City of Heppner completes a re- habilitation project that will see these streets and several others in the area complete- ly torn up and redone with new asphalt, curbs, gutters and sidewalks. Church, Center and May streets will also be done. The project is expected to be completed by November. Premiere Ex- cavation is the lead contrac- tor on the project. “Please have patience and feel free to contact me at city hall, 541-676-9618, with ques- tions,” City Manager Kraig Cutsforth said. Heppner cemetery before and after In keeping with the historical news items recently published in the G-T, a historic photo of the Heppner cemetery was sub- mitted by a reader. G-T employee, Giselle Moses was able to reproduce the same section in a current photo to show how it looks now compared to way back then. Pastors invited to submit Easter messages Area pastors are invit- ed to submit Easter mes- sages to the Heppner Ga- zette-Times for publication in the March 31 newspaper. Deadline for submission is 5 p.m. Monday, March 29. Messages may be -See POW CAMP/PAGE emailed to editor@rapid- serve.net, mailed to Ga- zette-Times at P.O. Box 337, Heppner, OR 97836, faxed to 541-676-9211, uploaded to the website, Heppner.net or brought into the Gazette-Times office, 188 W. Willow in Heppner. EIGHT Going On Now! 30% off Select UTV/ATV Winches Contact Lexington Parts Department 350 Main Street Lexington, Oregon 97839 541-989-8221 mcgg.net
