Jim Dahl entered the Navy in July 1967. Rather than be drafted by the Army and serve as a rifleman in Vietnam, Dahl opted for four years in the Navy.
“I went to college for six months, quit, and the draft quickly caught up to me,” stated the Owatonna, Minnesota, native.
Most Midwesterners are assigned to Great Lakes Naval Station, near Chicago. However, Dahl was lucky enough to draw San Diego in sunny California.
“Basic wasn’t that bad,” he noted. “Certainly, my basic was better than my dad, who served in WWII. His Navy basic training was in Idaho.”
Dahl would spend almost a year in San Diego.
“After basic, I went to electronics and radio schools; both in San Diego,” he related. “In all, I spent ten months in the city.”
But then came the big hurdle. Where was his next duty station? The last thing the young seaman wanted was an assignment to an actual ship.
“Even though I volunteered for the Navy, I tend to get seasick,” he admitted.
The Navy passes out “dream sheets” where new sailors can ask where they want to serve. Most of Dahl’s classmates submitted places like Spain and the Mediterranean Sea. Jim understood that meant sea duty.
“So, I asked myself, ‘Where might the Navy not need ships?’ I put down Alaska and I got it,” he related.
Specifically, the new radioman drew Kodiak Island, 250 miles southwest of Anchorage. The island is the second largest in the US and 80th largest in the world.
Dahl admitted being shocked when he first got to the town near the base.
“The streets were all dirt with wooden sidewalks and everyone carried guns,” he explained.
Kodiak was Jim’s home for a year, but needing a double secret clearance to do his job, he couldn’t say much about what he did.
“I do remember the three sets of doors, all with combination locks and a Marine guard that we had to go through to get to work,” Dahl recollected. “We had to memorize each of the three combinations and they changed all combinations once a month.”
The biggest problem he experienced since he did a lot of typing with his hands was a very bad case of warts on his hands.
“I always thought the problem came from something in the environment but they sent me to a specialist on the mainland,” Dahl explained. “He wanted to do acid treatments on the hands for over a month. When I told him I was about to be transferred to a new assignment, he sent me back to Kodiak with the recommended treatment in my official record – ‘use witchcraft!’ That drew a big laugh from the doctor back on Kodiak.”
From Kodiak, it was back to San Diego, with hands in his pockets as much as possible, for processing for leave and a new assignment. While there, he spent a day on the beach.
“I sort of fell asleep and when I woke up, the warts were gone,” he remembered. “I guess I was right about the cause being environmental.”
After his leave, Dahl was off to his next station in Vietnam. However, before he could go he had to attend the six week jungle survival training course in Norfolk, Virginia.
“It was a tough course,” Dahl acknowledged. “We had to learn all kinds of survival techniques, learn how to operate various types of weapons, and so on. We even had to survive in the woods on our own for a week. I learned how to make lizard stew and other delicacies. And people got hurt. Some badly during the week.”
One of the highlights of the week was a trip to a concentration camp, where students received beatings and “mild” torture.
“A number of the younger officers were crying like babies. But despite what they did, all I gave them was name, rank, and serial number,” Dahl stated with pride.
In Vietnam, the lucky seaman didn’t draw either of the two Navy carrier fleets off the coast – he drew Saigon.
He worked for MSS (Military Sea Services), which six months later was renamed Military Sealift Command.
“We were in charge of all the water traffic along the Saigon River, and since it was one of the main ports in the country, there was a lot of it,” Dahl reported.
Besides the normal traffic in a major port and US ships supporting the major effort in country, SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Organization) sent troops from South Korea, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines to aid the American effort.
“The Korean LST’s were fun because they could get panicked rather quickly,” Dahl laughed. “However, the big merchant ships were always a pain because they still used Morse Code. Since they were used to it, they could tap out 30 words-per-minute. I hadn’t used the code since I was in radio school so about the best I could do was eight words-per-minute. For some reason, they were always upset – they thought I was too slow.
“Life in Saigon wasn’t too bad,” he added. “They didn’t have a barracks for us, so we stayed in hotels. Of course, I had to leave the first one after it got bombed.”
Eventually, the sailor settled into a hotel about 10 blocks from the upper floor of an old French villa that served as his work place.
“I could walk to work,” he reminisced. “Of course, you avoided the alleys because you never knew who was there, and if I saw an occasional body in the water, I’d have to report it.
“We usually took advantage of the local restaurants,” Jim continued. “I could go to a five star hotel like the Plaza which had a rooftop restaurant complete with a band, usually Filipino, that played a lot of American rock-and-roll with some unusual accents. But, they were good and I could order filet mignon, french fries or potato, with iced tea and pay all of $1.95.”
With his official duties, the sailor had to have a government issue driver’s license, which he still has in his collection. With that, he sampled a lot of eateries and the innumerable shops in Cholon, the Chinese District. He even went to the infamous Tu Do Street, home of the ultra busy black market and entertainment area.
“You could buy almost anything there, including US military equipment, cheap camera and stereo equipment, as well as other goods from many different countries,” Dahl recalled.
One big thing the ex-sailor remembers from Vietnamam was attending a Bob Hope Show.
“We had to go armed to get there, but officials wouldn’t allow firearms in the outdoor concert venue so we had to put them back in the van and hope no one would steal them,” Dahl chuckled. “Hope put on a good show and Cincinnati Reds catcher Johnny Bench and the Golddiggers were part of the act.”
In 1970, Dahl was slated to return stateside.
“They wanted me to extend my tour, and when they offered me a 30-day leave, free transportation to Minnesota, and a six months drop in my time of enlistment, I took them up on it,” recalled the former sailor. “After spending New Years in San Francisco and my leave, I returned to Nam for another six months.”
After his enlistment was over, because of his top secret clearances and radio background, Dahl was recruited by the CIA .
“I received some letters and even had an interview, but since it was the time of the Nixon cutbacks, they couldn’t make new hires,” he explained.
Instead, he used the GI Bill to study at Mankato State University. He would graduate with a double major sociology and corrections and a minor in psychology. His first job took him to a juvenile detention facility in Fort Dodge and the following year he became a probation officer working a six-county area, based in Decorah.
“Officially, the State of Iowa refers to the position as a ‘juvenile court officer,’ but we all just call it ‘probation officer,’” laughed the retired court officer.
Dahl would meet his wife, Debra, in the Fayette County Auditor’s Office in West Union, and the couple has been together for 42 years.
Looking back on his stint in the Navy, Jim called it, “A very worthwhile experience. I really enjoyed my duty stations and I learned an awful lot in the process.”
