While most people who didn't serve in Vietnam picture soldiers being dropped via helicopter and fighting their way through the jungle, the reality is that far more served in crucial roles that didn't take them into combat. Rotarian Jim Buck was among those who worked behind the lines, during his tour of duty from 1969 to 1970.
Jim joined the Army for two years to avoid being drafted into the Marines (he didn't think he'd get over the wall on the obstacle course); he was assigned to serve as a Preventive Medicine Specialist, and trained to help prevent the spread of disease by treating water and spraying for mosquitoes.
He was stationed at Camp Viking on the South China Sea, spending much of his tour checking water to make sure it was properly chlorinated. But in spite of his efforts, at least one soldier came down with hepatitis -- Jim himself.
He was sent to Cam Ranh Bay for recovery, but was well enough when he got there to be put on a work detail -- where he wound up working harder than he did with his own unit.
Jim says his tour in Vietnam was relatively pleasant and uneventful...and when he returned to the U.S.A. he didn't encounter the disrespect that so many other Vietnam veterans did.