Arnold, CA…Just before we started the whole COVID-19 mess we had the pleasure to spend a few minutes speaking with an Ebbetts Pass Area fixture and icon Dick James. We had a compartment spill open in a backpack that we carry camera equipment and lost a memory card. We thankfully recently found the card that must have bounced in the pages of a notebook. So after a bit of delay we can finally post his interview. In the books he recounts a movie worthy life journey that has lessons for all of us and especially for those who have had a family member or friend who served and you want to see what their life and journey may have been like in the Vietnam Era. Below is our interview, links to his books and his bio. Thank You Dick James for the interview and sorry for the delay!!

Click Above to Purchase the “Slurp Sends” Books in paperback or Kindle format!

Richard “Dick” James has lived permanently in Arnold CA for 29 years, as a freelance photographer published world-wide, part owner of the Art-Op Gallery in Murphys, member of Arts of Bear Valley, feature article photo and writer contributor to many magazines, and an Alpine County commissioner representing Bear Valley.

Dick has been writing for several years, and is now a published author of two books, with a third about two months out. His “trilogy” is about his time becoming, and as, a Green Beret, including missions in Ethiopia and Vietnam. The three books all have the same beginning title, “SLURP SENDS!” The nickname came from his propensity to “slurp” his food down, as one teammate described it.

His first camp was small, with only twelve to fifteen Americans there at any one time, advising a couple hundred Vietnamese irregular soldiers and a team of Vietnamese Special Forces deep in enemy territory. Fresh food was in short supply, so the only way seconds were available was to be the first or second to finish the main meal, which “Slurp” always managed to down in record time.

The first book became available on Amazon.com in December 2019, followed by his second book in February. The first book is titled “SLURP SENDS! On Becoming a Green Beret – Book 1.” It describes his life and training to become an Army “Green Beret.” The second book is “SLURP SENDS! Experiences of an A-Team Green Beret – Book 2,” and describes three years of his life as a “Green Beret,” including a seven month mission in Ethiopia (1964) during their border war with Somalia. The third book will be “SLURP SENDS! A Green Beret in Vietnam – Book 3.” As the title suggests, it chronicles his 18 months in South Vietnam in 1966-67.

Dick was born on 7 October 1942, in Flushing, Long Island NY, but only spent the first year of his life there. Being an airline employee, his father worked on seaplane bases in South America and eastern Africa during World War II. When he departed for overseas, Dick and his mother moved in with his grandmother in her Bedford PA boarding house.

When the war ended, Mr. James was transferred to Limerick, Ireland, to work at nearby Shannon Airport. Dick and his mother soon followed. The James family remained there until his father was transferred to the Stockholm, Sweden airport two years later, and the family moved there. While in Sweden, Dick attended Swedish schools. Three years later the family moved back to the Bedford rooming house, where they remained until Mr. James found a job in the East San Francisco Bay Area, and they moved to Castro Valley CA. Dick began working at a young age, beginning as an Oakland Tribune newspaper boy at 12 years old. He has continued that work ethic ever since.

In 1958 Mr. James was transferred to the Monterey CA Airport, so it meant another family move, this time to Carmel-by-the-Sea. Dick graduated from Carmel High School in June 1960, after having attended ten different schools during his twelve years of basic education.

Dick was accepted into San Jose State College in San Jose CA, majoring in Aeronautical Operations. In late 1961, after his third semester of college, Dick went to the Army recruiter, wanting to enlist, and become a paratrooper, figuring that would be the toughest unit to be a part of. He also requested a Valentine’s Day enlistment, to get even with his girlfriend who had left him, LOL.

While in training at Fort Ord, his class was visited to two Green Beret recruiters. What they described was a unit that Dick decided he would dearly love to be a part of, so he volunteered for Special Forces. The rest is history. He graduated from Special Forces Training Group in April 1963, as a “Green Beret” explosives expert, after undergoing 14 months of Army training.

He underwent much more training while assigned to Special Forces A-teams, as well as spending 7 months in Ethiopia and 18 months in South Vietnam during their wars. Upon returning to the U.S. from Vietnam, Dick had two more Special Forces MOSs (Military Occupational Specialty) in his personnel folder. The MOSs of 05B4S (Radio Operator) and 11F4S (Intelligence Sergeant) were added to his already 11C4S (Heavy Weapons Leader) and 12B4S (Engineer/Demolition Sergeant) MOSs. He was also awarded the Bronze Star Medal for his service in Vietnam.

After reenlisting once, Dick decided, as a Staff Sergeant, to separate from the Army and use his GI Bill to become a civilian commercial pilot. After three years as a commercial pilot, his world came crashing down upon him, when he was put on a blood-thinning medication for a service-related ailment. That resulted in him no longer being able to fly as a pilot.

Seeing an advertisement that the U.S. Postal Service was hiring mail carriers, Dick took the test, and was hired as a mail carrier within two weeks of being tested. After retiring on disability (due to the same service-connected disability that caused him not to be able to be an aircraft pilot), Dick became a commercial freelance stock photographer of landscapes and scenic images, and moved to Arnold.

Since the late 1970s Dick has been a member of the Special Forces Association, serving in several positions, including President, of the central California Chapter XXIII. He was later named by Radix Press owner Steve Sherman as the “official historian” for two of the Vietnam Special Forces camps he served in, Cai Cai and Vinh Gia.

In mid-2019, Dick was asked to participate in the Special Forces Oral History Project of the University of South Carolina Veterans Oral History Project. He gave a 3 ½-hour videotaped oral history presentation of his life as a “Green Beret,” including describing his time in Ethiopia and South Vietnam. Parts of his military history have also been published in several books and magazines/newsletters.