The Real war of a Vietnam 'warrior'

by Graeme Johnstone

Brian Wizard was born in a small town in Massachusetts and joined the army to escape from small-town philosophy.

"Factory life was being lined up for me," he said. "So I joined the army to see the world." This was the heady Vietnam days of 1968 and he realized he probably would be drafted anyway.

He grew up as the all-American kid with the metaphoric gun in his hand- watching the cowboy movies, Zorro, Superman, and all the heroes "getting the bad guys".

Only, in this case, of course, the communists were the bad guys.

It wasn't long before he was in Vietnam emulating his heroes.

The Viet Cong would plant flags to show what territory they held.

When a position was almost retaken, Wizard would hang from the skid-bar of a chopper, zoom down and pluck the flag, screaming "Eeee-aahhh" to show Uncle Sam had won.

He has now written a book about his experiences.

But Permission To Kill is not your gung-ho, hero, Hollywood Vietnam.

This is the sex and drugs and booze and rock'n'roll Vietnam.

The nitty gritty conflict where thousands of fresh-faced American kids battled the Viet Cong to the sounds of The Doors, and sat and watched the rockets flare in a dopey haze.

Wizard did not get involved in the whys.

'"It's not a very political book," he said. "At 18 or 19 years old, I was not really politically concerned."

"I was trained as a mechanic, not a killer."

Perhaps not a great mechanic, either. On his first mission, he was given a quick run through on how to assemble a machine gun.

He hastily bolted it together and set off in the helicopter.

The vibration of the chopper did wonders to his workmanship, and a key bolt slowly worked itself loose.

When his group arrived to do battle, Wizard's instrument of destruction was minus its barrel...

But he survived that skirmish and many more for the next 17 months.

"It was a big game of chess. And I had no intention of losing it," Wizard said.

"I had no feelings about shooting the Viet Cong.

I would have preferred to sit down and have a beer and smoke a joint and go chase women with them.

But you couldn't. It's an occupational hazard, on both sides.

"Each day you woke up thinking 'Hey, another day, and I'm still alive'."

Eventually Wizard returned to America and was shocked with the lack of rehabilitation.

"It's irresponsible of the army to spend hundreds of thousands to train you to be a killer, but nothing to bring you down from that level.

"For every dollar teaching you to kill, they should spend two dollars teaching you not to kill."

He sought his own rehabilitation by going on the road for nearly two years, and then went to Sonoma State University, graduating from the school of expressive art.

He creates stone and wood sculpture, and makes jewelry. He did this successfully in San Francisco before emigrating to Australia four years ago.

But writing a book about the sex and drugs side of Vietnam is not without its problems.

Thirty-six publishers rejected the manuscript.

So he set up his own operation in Port Douglas, Northern Queensland, and published it himself.

The aim is to get international sales.

And who knows, the movie?

"I was living a lifestyle in Vietnam that they made movies about," Wizard said.

"But John Wayne had nothing on me."

*Permission To Kill Brian Wizard Starquill $6.95