Vietnam voices: Jeff Davis

Jeff Davis, 62, Coram, retired New York State court officer and National Guardsman

I remember on June 8, 1969, President Nixon made a speech saying we were pulling troops out of Vietnam. I remember because that's the day I left the States for a year in Nam. During my tour, we dug foxholes every night in our night defensive positions, usually three men to a hole. In the jungle on those patrols, we had no real contact with the outside world. No television, newspapers, no AM/FM radios.

About once every seven days, we got a resupply drop of rations, ammo and mail. That's when we got news of what we called "The World."

One day, we got word that man had landed on the moon. I remember that night I was looking up at the moon. The sky was clear. I kept wondering what it must be like up there. I also wondered how, with all the progress in the world, I still had to be in that hellhole trying to survive a war.