Charlie Petit
 

Those hazy lazy days in Phuoc Vinh:
In October 1969 JD’s spies at 1^st Cav in-processing plucked lucky me from 11-Bravo land while I was barely even in country, still at the First Team Academy and worried spitless. At the PIO I walked into the back hootch, saw “the wall,” felt Led Zeppelin shaking the rafters, and realized things were looking up. I knocked around Phuoc Vinh, Song Be, Quan Loi, Saigon, etc., and spent a long time walking back and forth from the DTOC and writing the daily war stories. I learned the bloody joys of jungle rules volleyball. A highlight was five or six weeks in Tokyo—with my very pregnant wife Barbara—on tdy putting out the Spring 1970 First Team and monitoring production of the year book. We all grieved when JD rotated out. I flew home myself in November 1970 with an early-out that discharged me after a mere 19 months in the army. I would like to have made SP/5 but truth be told I was a sorry soldier. It was an intense experience I’ll never regret and it will be sweet to see a few of the old faces.

Since then:
First, I got acquainted with our daughter Jessica. Barbara bore her just about eight months after I went to Vietnam and a few weeks after the Tokyo episode. Then I found a job. Science reporting has pretty much been my career. The first job was at a small California newspaper, the Livermore Herald and News, mainly covering the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. In 1972 the San Francisco Chronicle hired me as a backup science writer, a position I held for 26 years and that took me to the south pole, stratosphere, erupting volcanoes, Amazon jungle, and other great places (the Chronicle science editor, who seemed old when he took me on, is STILL there at age 87!) In 1998, I hooked up with USNews and World Report. I worked for it from home in Berkeley until the end of 2004. Then the editor called to suggest a buyout, or else. Staff had to be reduced, mumble mumble, and so into the chilly world of freelancing. I am fortunate to have had pieces this year in National Geographic, Smithsonian, and USNews (where I am still a “contributing editor” which means I can sell stuff at the door). We have three grown children, Jessica, Katherine, and Oliver, plus five grandchildren.

NEXT – More freelancing for another four or five years, then travel—I keep thinking those big motorhomes and travel trailers look pretty good—and a serious effort to get the yips out of my tennis forehand. Plus lots of time watching grandchildren grow up. But first – KALISPELL!