Steve thanks, but I was not a Viet Nam Vet. I joined up in 1965 for a three year hitch. Was schedule with my combat engineer company to ship to Nam in late 1966 with the 60th. Infantry brigade. At the last minute, our company was pulled from the unit and we remained in Alaska. It seems that some Alaskan Senators had our orders cancelled to remain in Alaska as our unit was used to blow ice jams on the many rivers to prevent native villages from being flooded.
I also blew up many approaches to bridges on roadways that were being built in a state park just below Anchorage Alaska. We did some of the first experiments using ammonia nitrate fertilizer as a blasting agent for blowing ice jams. Boy was it fun to watch a quarter mile section of six foot thick ice raise up 6-7 feet in the air after setting off 3 tons of ammonia nitrate. we used 50 gal. drums and would have up to 27-30 drums under the ice linked up to blow with det cord. I bet we killed a lot of fish also.
RELH