Going Native, the unsavory fate of a Minnesota farmboy.

Of my tech school class I think four or five of us were assigned to Ubon. The rest to bases in Vietnam. On their dream sheets of assignments bofore gaduating tech school they put Vietnam since they figured we were all going there anyway.  Not all of us figured that way.
We ended up in Thigh-land.  Of this gaggle G.S. went, as the British derisively say, native. All of us partied, caroused, and generally led a live of disputation.  G.S. went native. Some of us rented rooms in town for a while as a means of having a life away from the base. We avoided the water, the food, and occasionally the women. G.S. though,went native. Having known G.S. only in tech. school he seemed the shy reticent Minnesota farm boy . Shortly after arriving at Ubon and experiencing the wild excitement it offered he began living in town and indulging in it's gastronomic and fleshly fare. As Mick Jagger so knowingly exclaimed,"too much is never enough!". That in a phrase was the fate of G.S.. As the rest of us were counting the days until we left with our transfer orders in hand, G.S. was in quarantine with hepatitis and four varieties of VD.  We were not allowed to enter the room and could see nothing through the small window in the door. I have never heard of or from him again.  It has always been my hope he recovered.  There are more casualties than bullets bring.