It was 50 years ago this week when Southport’s Jim Singer, then a brand-new U.S. Marine second lieutenant, got in a plane and flew from Okinawa to Vietnam.

“I was with a planeload of “butter bars” (second lieutenants). We were dropped off in Danang and driven to a processing center where we lined up in front of some senior NCOs (non-commissioned officers).”

“Where do you want to go, lieutenant,” one said to Singer. Then he rattled off a litany of numbers signifying a half dozen infantry outfits.

Singer picked one and was told to grab his gear. A short time later he was shuttled into a C-130 and flown to Dong Ha, the forward Marine Division headquarters base not far from the line separating North Vietnam and South Vietnam.

A Jeep met him at the airport and drove him to the hut serving as headquarters for his new outfit.

It was hot, and a senior NCO welcomed him aboard and offered him a cold beer. It tasted good. Real good.

As the cool amber liquid inched down his throat, he heard some deep sounds that seemed to be getting closer. “Pop. Bang, Crunch.”

“Don’t worry,” said the senior NCO. “They are a bit early today. It is NVA (North Vietnamese Army) artillery. They are not shooting at us. They just try to shake us up every day.”

Seconds later, he heard a loud roar that sounded like a freight train passing overhead.

“Lieutenant, you might want to come with me to a bunker. They are shooting at headquarters down the way and might land one short,” said the NCO.

The next day, he was sent to command a platoon of Marine “grunts,” spending the next few months in “the boonies,” trading bullets with the crack North Vietnamese Army, the PLA.

The other day, Singer related his story to me as we sat on a sofa in his picturesque cottage on the banks of Decker Cove, about a short wedge shot from Robinson’s Wharf.

As his two huge, and still growing dogs, one a golden, the other a Newfie, begged for our attention, I listened as he told tales that were still vivid in his memory, like the story of the two Marine reservists who missed two mandatory weekend  meetings. “They were Wall Street brokers and they didn’t think it would mean much if they missed a couple of mandatory meetings,” he said.

Wrong. They missed a meeting on Sunday and on Monday, the MPs (military police) picked them up. Two days later they were in Vietnam. One was killed a day or so later,” he said.

After he told a few more stories, I asked Singer if he learned any lessons from his time in uniform.

“I sure did,” he said. “I learned there are lots of smart people out there from all walks of life. They are from different races, economic, social and educational classes. I learned that if you treated them fairly and were transparent and didn’t try to BS them, they would do anything for you. It was a lesson that has helped me for my entire life.”

Like many Marines, and I suspect sailors and soldiers, he believed the low-ranking troops suffered because of the silly whims of the politicians and top brass.

As an example, he talked about the decision to replace the reliable M-14 rifle with the smaller and lighter M-16.

“We got in a firefight armed with the M-16. After shooting a couple of magazines, it jammed. Sometimes, we had only one or two of them that worked. We complained and were told it was our fault, that we didn’t keep the M-16 clean. For Pete’s sake, we were living in dirt and mud. Even when you kept it spotless, the M-16 still jammed, while the M-14 didn’t. Later they redesigned it. ” he said.

The other lesson he says he took from his experience in Vietnam was that we need to know history.

“Look at what we did in Vietnam. We keep doing the same stupid things. I was all for hitting Afghanistan after the attacks of 9/11, but then we went into Iraq and tried nation-building, look at what happened there,” he said.

He shook his head and we moved on to another topic, veterans medical care.

“I think they do a great job at Togus (the VA hospital in Augusta),” he said praising the medical staff. However, he said he is still waiting for the VA bureaucrats to acknowledge his chronic pulmonary problems he believes were caused by Agent Orange.

For Jim Singer, it was just another example of the worker bees doing a great job despite the whims of the top brass, he said.