________________________________________________________________________Richard S. Kem
So, I jumped in a jeep and drove to Long Binh. I got the headquarters to get me a supply
sergeant, and I pushed to him all the gear I'd been issued and said, "It's all there because I
haven't done anything with it."
I went to the laundry and got my clothes out, wet. Got my uniforms back from the tailor shop
where they were sewing 20th Brigade patches on it. The only thing that saved me was that I
brought a parachute kit bag with me. So, I just opened it and crammed everything in it and
jumped back in the jeep and drove back to the airstrip. Then General Roper landed and said,
"I've got you. Where have you been?" Well, he didn't really want to hear the story. He just
knew I was in his possession.
He turned me over to Colonel [Douglas K.] Blue, his deputy brigade commander, and we
flew north to Pleiku, thence to Tuy Hoa. I was dropped off at the headquarters of the 577th
Engineer Battalion at Tuy Hoa. Lieutenant Colonel Bob McDonald was the commander.
He'd been trying to get home, and they'd kept him there until his replacement arrived. He
had his goodbye thing with the battalion officers that night, and the next day we had the
change of command, with General Roper flying in to preside along with the 35th Engineer
Group commander, Colonel Del Fowler. Then they flew off with Bob McDonald, and I was
the 577th Engineer Battalion commander.
Lieutenant Colonel Kem commanded the 577th Engineer
Battalion from July 1968 to July 1969.
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