Welcome to Eye in the Night, a personal narrative about my tour in the 25th Infantry Division as a battlefield ground surveillance radar operator. Our job was target acquisition near the Cambodian border. During my 12 month tour we detected, reported and adjusted artillery fire onto thousands of enemy infiltrators crossing the border during the hours of darkness. The enemy columns ranged in strength from 10 to 100 or more. The primary infiltration points were the Angel’s Wing and Parrot’s Beak; both names inspired by the shape of the border in that region. Both areas were major infiltration routes that branched off from the infamous Ho Chi Minh Trail.

In reading my website, you will find that my primary goal is to relate what’s it’s like to be a college student one day and a soldier the next, soon to be shipped to foreign and sometimes unfriendly lands. Such an adventure evokes many feelings: a sense of adventure, camaraderie, pride, loneliness, fear, apprehension, homesickness and even a little optimism to carry one through tough times. I was 21 years old when I shipped over to Vietnam and a very-much-older 22 when I returned home.

If I could sum up all of my experiences in the U.S. Army in just a few words, it would simply state that I came away with a genuine appreciation for our freedoms and what it continually costs to protect them. I hope that thought is contagious.

-David Stafford

“Take these men as your example.
Like them, remember that prosperity can
only be for the free; that freedom is the sure
possession of those alone who have the
courage to defend it.”
— PERICLES