Merlyn Buys Joined Army Reserves After High School
By Jill Fennema –
After high school, in August of 1965, Merlyn Buys, along with a few others from the Chandler/Leota area – including Gene Van Heuvelen and Harvey Van Ruler – enlisted in the United States Army Reserves. They signed on to an outfit in Worthington that was called the Winthrop/Worthington General Supply Company No. 452. Their term was to be six years.
They, like 90 percent of the boys in that unit, were raised on farms and their strong backs and midwestern work ethic would be appreciated in the military, but really missed back home. The Worthington Daily Globe featured a picture of them on the front page of their October 19, 1965, edition.
This photo of U.S. Army Reservists was featured in the Worthington Daily Globe in October 1965. Merlyn is in the back, center of the photo.
Being down in the south he found a different attitude than he had ever encountered in the north. They called him a Yankee and many of the southern white guys did not want to walk on the same side of the street as a black man.
After basic training, he was able to go home for a while and then in the summer he had more training and some meetings on weekends the rest of the year – like the members of National Guard do now. They often worked in various depots, loading and unloading supplies. One time they worked at a depot in Columbus, Ohio, where they unloaded quarters of beef. Merlyn was taller than average, so he was chosen to hook the quarters on the rail.
Merlyn served in the reserves in this manner for about two and a half years before he was told it was time for him to deploy to Vietnam.
The Vietnam War was still going on (the Tet Offensive began in January 1968).
Merlyn as a young army reservist.
In fact, about the same time that Merlyn was called up for duty in Vietnam, another group that was being called up protested and sued the government to try to not have to go to Vietnam.
Merlyn was sent to Fort Riley, Kansas, where he and his unit were trained to go to Vietnam. In September 1968 he left on an airplane for South Vietnam. His unit was attached to another company. At first he was stationed at Danang, but then he and about 40 others were sent to Phu Bai, which is about 50 miles from the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).
Merlyn worked in the food supply. He operated a forklift in and around the warehouses that stored dry goods – much of it canned food for the troops. There were several Vietnamese people who worked under him. Merlyn recalls that they always had a rat problem. He would often pick up the pallets of supplies with the forklift and the Vietnamese would clean under the pallets and kill the rats with their brooms.
The pallets often came wrapped in cardboard. While we might think of that as garbage – or even something to be recycled now – the Vietnamese people valued the cardboard and would stack it neatly and take it to their homes and neighbors to be used.
Meanwhile, while Merlyn and his unit were working to keep them well supplied, the 101st Airborne Division and the 1st Brigade, 5th Infantry Division and the 24th Corps were there fighting. The 452nd Supply Group made sure they had dry goods, cigarettes, and C-rations.
In the beginning of his service there, Merlyn remembered there was a refrigerated truck that was kept on the base. The trucks would come in for supplies for the troops and they would leave the dead bodies in the reefer trucks. “We knew, this is part of war,” Merlyn said. “People die.”
Some supplies had to be kept under lock and key so that the Vietnamese workers did not steal them. One thing that they especially liked was canned pineapple juice. Sometimes pallets of goods would get damaged while they were moving them. The troops would sometimes allow the locals to take these damaged items if they promised not to give them to the Viet Cong.
They had bakery near them, so every morning they could have fresh bread when they came to work. In the morning, the local people would line up outside the gate to wait for their credentials to be checked so they could come to work.
Some Vietnamese people would offer to do the soldiers’ laundry. This was a way for them to make money to support their families. Merlyn remembers that one time a marine got mad at the laundry people and he took a bulldozer to push over the laundry facility. Thankfully, some other soldiers stopped him before he hurt anyone.
Merlyn, like every soldier, had to do guard duty throughout the week. Towards the end of his tour, the only time their guns had ammunition was when they were on guard duty.
“They had problems with local GI’s that were disgusted with their commanding officers,” Merlyn said. “The powers that be were worried about retaliation, so they took the ammo away.”
