Glenn Campbell During Vietnam

Glenn Campbell’s songs will be forever etched into my memories. When I was about to join the army during the Vietnam war, I remember the troop train dropped us new recruits in North Carolina at the station where we were picked up by a bus. On the bus ride from the train station to fort Bragg the bus driver had a portable radio playing country music. Coming from Philadelphia I had never heard Glenn Campbell or any of his music. But every song I heard on the bus ride to ft Bragg got my attention in such a strange way. The music was soft nice sounding and very relevant at that time in my life. Going in the Army I was leaving a very special person behind. A girl I really loved. His songs, when I herd them made me reflect so deeply about the loved ones I was leaving behind and that girl I loved so much I couldn’t bear to hear those songs sometimes. Like Wichita lineman, By the time I get to Phoenix, Honey come back and others. Even when I was deployed to Korea, Armed Forces Radio played his music the whole time I was there. We had a large speaker in our Battalion Electronics Maintenance Shop (BEMS). Glenn Campbell’s songs could be heard all over the shop. to this day brings back such strong memories, so sad to hear he has passed on…
The happy ending is, I still have that girl I loved so much back then, my wife…