Having served in the U.S. Army from 1962-89, including for a voluntarily extended 18-monthlong tour in Vietnam, White’s combat experience from 1966-68 is only a snapshot of a 26-yearlong career in the service, which included roles as an Army sergeant, member of the Old Guard at Arlington National Cemetery and officer at the Berlin Consulate.

White recalled first wanting to get into the service in the early 1960s after graduating from high school, choosing to forego college, much to the chagrin of his mother at the time. He explained his youthful state of mind: wanting to serve his country but also do it soon in order not to worry about the draft interrupting life in later years.

Deployed in the Vietnam jungles, White said he became used to soldiering on with brothers in arms of different skin colors. Acclimating to Vietnamese culture, White settled in for the long year and a half of a diet mainly consisting of boiled rice, chicken and tea.

Fortunately, White was learning German and Vietnamese from the Defense Language Institute’s Foreign Language Center during his service. Another plus was having a thorough understanding for Latin-based German through his family, but Vietnamese offered some culture shock.

White, pictured here after his first conflict with Viet Cong soldiers and the North Vietnamese Army, grew older to experience a long U.S. Army career around the world.

“I’ve forgotten 95% of it,” White admitted, saying the Vietnamese language slipped from his mind in the decades that followed.

The disillusionment of war had set in briefly as well. A superior in his unit scolded him for not wearing his helmet when they were out in the field. White said that same man later took his off for a moment, and when the bullet pierced his compatriot’s skull, White witnessed first-hand the danger of the Vietnam War.

Shock later led to less urgency, White said, “because it becomes second nature.” He said he first felt it hard to wrap his head around having to avoid gunfire, but eventually, a feeling of invincibility began to set in at times. White remarked that those who went back to the war for multiple tours had an increased risk of death due to the desensitization to violence and chaos.

While White professed not to have lingering post-traumatic stress disorder, a psychological disorder affecting veterans from all eras of war, he shared his memories that started to feel more fresh with each active effort to reflect.

He received an award recognizing valor after he saved two Vietnamese soldiers after they were shot in an ambush. Despite the active conflict, White said he didn’t think when he made the decision to rush out to them; the sights of seeing people in danger, he said, was enough for a compulsory reaction.

“You don’t even think about it,” White said. “They’re comrades in arms.”

White remembered how his frustration with racist behavior began after serving and living with Vietnamese during his tour. He would ask: “How can you be racist?”

“This guy’s blood is the same color as mine,” White said.

He said Vietnamese he fought alongside were strong soldiers and not the “cowards” he said many war-time stereotypes and caricatures begot.

“Not the ones I was with,” White said. “I wouldn’t leave them.”

After his sergeant was shot in the head, he was told by his superiors that he had to be pulled out of the Vietnamese unit, but White said he risked getting court-martialed since he wanted to stay and fight with his Vietnamese comrades.

White would continue serving with them, and braved monsoons — constant rain for more than 24 hours at a time — and a rainbow of pesticides used by the U.S. Army to destroy the jungles’ foliage. Agents Orange, Purple, Blue, White and Green would cause some veterans to develop cancer in later years. White counted himself lucky that he never did.

“She didn’t recognize me,” White said after he lost 45 pounds and returned home to his mother in 1968.

His U.S. Army career was far from over. Prior to his service in the Vietnam War, he served as a member of the third infantry regiment, Old Guard in the Arlington National Cemetery.

The 1970s found White stationed at the consulate in Berlin, Germany, during the middle years of the Berlin Wall’s reign. At the U.S. base, White recalled how west Berlin citizens feared President John F. Kennedy’s assassination has been orchestrated by the Soviet government.

White and his European compatriots would later overcome the atmosphere of fear as the Cold War continued. He received his Bachelors of Science in accounting from the University of Maryland in Heidelberg. He later became a recruiter for the U.S. Army in the Dunkirk area.

The former soldier now lives happily retired with his wife in the town of Sheridan.

Follow Eric Zavinski at twitter.com/EZavinski