May 21st, 2012

Jerry Wesland 's Story

Birth Year: 1949




Table of Contents





    Chapter 1: I'm A Vietnam Vet

    My name is Jerry Ray Wesland it’s a Norwegian name. I was born on Dec. 20,1949 in Billings Montana and raised by my Granddad on a ranch in Red Lodge, MT. That’s a little over a hundred miles south west of Billings. It was the 3rd largest ranch in Montana.

     

    I was raised by my Grandma and Granddad who went to court when I was 9 years old to take me away. They took me away from my mom because she was mentally abusive to me. She was a deputy sheriff at 19 that did not know how to treat a kid. When I was born my mom and dad split and she was left to take care of me. But she would not leave me alone.

     

    Where I was raised was a cattle ranch with all kinds of animals. On the ranch we raised over 2000 head of cattle, I broke and raised horses and we had over 16 horses. We had over 150 head of hogs. When my grandpa died there was nobody that wanted the ranch. So the family lost it. He had nine daughters and one son and the son didn’t like the ranch. He died before I could get back. So they sold it off over 10,000 acres. As well we had leased land that we used. We raised wheat and silage. We used to plow the fields with this old tractor. Now the poorer farmers back then used to still use the horse and plow. But we had the tractor.

     

    This ranch had been pasted down through the family and my mothers generation lost it all due to lack of interest. It started out as a homestead by my great, great granddad. He was the one that started homesteading it.

     

    There was a time when we could walk in the bank and tell them we needed money any without a fuss we had it. We had all the assets we needed the equipment the cattle and of course the land.

     

    Now every Sunday my granddad would head down to the Grand Hotel and walk into the bar and sit down. He would enjoy his Jack Daniel’s Whiskey. He would get his 2 shots of whiskey and a bottle of beer. Now I was the one that got the beer. I was about 12-14 years old back then. I would work there at the bar making money polishing shoes for the people.

     

    There were not a lot of people around; I bet there are more people here in Aurora, Colorado than there are in the whole state of Montana. Every time when we might go in to town on Sunday he might throw me five bucks.

     

    Now back when I was a boy we went hunting elk right there in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. I mean we were right there. When we went we would go for a week on horseback.  We didn’t have the wood stoves in the tent. My granddad attitude was if you can’t stay warm get out of here. We did some goose hunting though I never did get a goose. I did get a few elk and deer. My granddad was not big on bird hunting or in fact just killing an animal. We had all the cattle so it wasn’t like we needed the meat. He pretty much hunted because that was the way he was raised.

     

    It was my grandma that wanted the elk and deer meat. But what he would do with the meat we didn’t use was give it away to the Indians because there was a reservation right next to us. So if like one of the cattle would die he would get word to them and they would come and get it.

     

    Now he would shot the deer because they would get into the haystacks. He was more of the mind that if you going to shot at something shoot at something that can shoot back. These animals don’t stand a chance. I am well aware though that the lessons I learned up there were the basics that allowed me to survive the time I spent at war.

     

    Red Rock Creek used to run right through our property so I also did a lot of fishing. One day he asked me were was my fishing pole. I told him I left it down there at the river. He knew why, but asked anyway, “why did you do that?” Because I’m going back!

     

    On the evenings when the weather was good I would go and sit down there on the river and run things through my mind. How stupid I am or how smart I am and you know, come up with different conclusions.

     

    We did a lot of hiking. We used to hike roam the lines the edge of the property checking fences. That we used to do on horseback with a tent. Some of those nights let me tell you it was cold!

     

    I remember the time my granddad made me get this skunk out from under one of the houses.

     

    He said, “take this flashlight and get that skunk out of there.

     

    Well I got up under that and that skunk turned towards me and he nailed me.

    When my grandma came home she said “what is that smell?”

     

    Granddaddy looked at her and said “that’s him!”

     

    She then told my granddaddy. “you go to the store and buy me every can of tomato juice and vinegar you can get. And then she said, you boy get right there in that tub.”

     

    I mean when he got back they scrubbed me with a brush cause it soaks into your skin.

     

    I told my granddad after that, that I hate skunks too!

     

    I used to read a lot. Anywhere up to 3 books a week back then. 

    I graduated High School but I did it in the service. I spent 2 years in College. I went to Rocky Mountain College in Bozeman, Montana. I was trying to become a Forest Ranger. I studied things like animal husbandry, botany and a few classes in psychology.  Now that didn’t do me much good! I had to stop that because I then had a family. The wife Jamie and the kids came along and such, it just wasn’t working.

    Chapter 2: I Went to War

    When I was 16 I robbed a Gas Station. I got into some real trouble and the judge gave me a choice go in the military or go to jail for 20 years. I went in the military. I was under age at the time but they all lied for me. I went to Vietnam when I was just 17 years old. It was January 20th 1968. You know what that was? The Tet offensive. I was there! I was in the Army in the Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol.

     

    My patrol was behind the lines. Not on the lines. Your job was to take care of your ass and your brother’s ass so you can all get out.

     

    I have seen a lot of stuff happen. I saw a lot of people killed and killed a lot of people. I didn’t like any of it but I had to do what they taught me to do so I could still be here today. It they hadn’t taught me to do what they taught me I wouldn’t be here.

     

    They would drop us in behind the lines and we would do sabotage, set up ambushes, harass, blow up bridges and active sniper shoots. We would be out for 6-8 days and they would come and get us. Now if they missed us we had to hump our way out. We would run our way out to save our ass. There were 5 people in our patrol and we lost just one. We got him out and got him home to Chicago. He got out, just in a box.

     

    I was wounded a few times. I have 3 purple hearts, two bronze stars and a silver star for metals. I was put in for the congressional metal of honor. But never got that. I have been shot through both arms and other wounds. Even with all the metals I got I come in here to McDonald’s and I still have to pay 54 cents for a cup of coffee. They are worthless to me; my son has them now.

     

    I figure I took a couple of hundred people out of this life. I burned some villages. We would clean out the people first then burn it to the ground. We knew the enemy was there and the villagers were harboring them. But they were good at hiding.

     

    We found the tunnels. But I never went down into them. I was too big. I am still here probably because of my size. I was there for 2 years and whether it was desperation or determination. Either way I’m here today. I didn’t want to be there but I did two tours and I went back the second time by choice.

     

    I was planning to marry my girlfriend when I got done and back. But shortly before I finished the first tour I got the letter with a picture of her new boyfriend.

     

    So I called my brother who was a lieutenant Seal in the navy and said “Hey bro, I’m coming home.”

     

    Well he went over to her house and gave her two thousand dollars and told her to, “get out of town. Jerry’s coming home.”

    So when I came off my 30 day leave I signed up for another tour. I was 19 years old and a Staff Sergeant with my 3 chevrons on the arm. Guys would ask me how I got to be staff sergeant at the age of 19 when they were 23. I told them to shut up and sit down! That was my final rank.

    Chapter 3: After the War

    I have never had the idea to go back to see that country again. I hold no animosity towards the people there because they were defending their land. Let me tell you, they were very good at it.

     

    You know that the war in Iraq and Afghanistan should be over now. I don’t think the kids should be signing up for that any longer. It should be over. Today I don’t feel any reason to be there any longer. They already took out the “dick head” (Sadam Hussein), they’ve killed him. I believe that the seal’s as well as the green barrettes were already in there before the war started. They could have taken care of business and kept the mess to a minimum.

     

    I had a lot of money when I came out of Vietnam. I had over a $169,000. Now I am not going to tell you how I got that! So when I came home I ran around for 6 months in my cousins Winnebago. I was trying to figure out what I was going to do.

     

    Then my mother committed me to a VA Hospital for insanity. They put me in the Flight ward. On the inside they called it the “Flight Deck”. They incapacitated me for 9 months. They called me difficult. My money was almost gone. I had enough left. But they were trying to calm me down. I was mad at everything and mad at everybody! I was carrying a 357 on my leg and a 9mm in a holster everywhere I went. I was very paranoid! If you ran into me then I would have scared you.

     

    I guess you could say my Mom was looking out for me. She did the right thing now that I am looking back on it. But at the time you could say I was very unhappy about what she had done.

     

    They had drugged me with 700 mg’s of thorizine every day. That was a drug that became very addictive to me. It is powerful stuff and boy does it slow things down. It used to take me about a half hour just to get to lunch.

     

    Now there were about 18 of us and they would take us and put us in physical therapy everyday. They got us to divide up with 9 guys and we had a volleyball team. It took 3 minutes just to teach a guy how to serve the ball and when it did go over the net you would see 9 heads turn and watch it go by. Nobody was active on that drug. You just don’t care!

     

    After that it was my fishing uncle, the one that I go fishing with, that got me out of the VA Hospital in Sheridan, Wyoming. He was there to visit me and didn’t like what he saw.

     

    He told me, “you meet me at the wall over there at noon tomorrow”.

     

    I asked him, “why?”

     

    And he said. “Your Mom and Dad were here for 4 hours with you yesterday. Do you remember that?”

     

    So the next day I was there ran around the corner to the wall when I heard the truck horn honk and he was there. I jumped up over the tall wall and got in his truck. He took me back to his ranch and I stayed there for a while.

    Chapter 4: Driving For a Living

    So I had some of that money still in the bank and when I started to get off the drugs. He asked me what I wanted to do and I said I guess I could drive a truck.

     

    This is what my real daddy did. So my uncle helped me go and get this truck and a trailer. He then helped me get a contract hauling for this other company. So I drove the truck for 3 years before I bought another truck, a brand new one. Then I traded in the first and bought another one. At the time I wound up with 3 semi’s running over the road.

    Chapter 5: My Wife and Kids

    So I had me my lady. Her name was Jamie and we had my 2 children. Well an over the road driver, well that ain’t no good!

     

    Their names were Steven, he was adopted when he was just 9 months old. He knows who his daddy is. And then came Amber. Amber was born my child on my birthday back in 1979! She was my birthday present!

     

    I am done with raising and taking care of my kids. I paid all my child support and I am free and clear of that. But a true Blue daddy I’m not I just wasn’t there for them.

     

    When we got a divorce she told the judge that I had no legal right to our company. So she got the company and then ran it into the ground. Now neither one of us has that income any longer. I told the judge to give it to her and she will be broke in 9 months. Six months later she filed bankruptcy and lost the trucks and the contract for the company we had.

     

    I told her she should have let me have it and I could have built it up for my son and daughter. I used that company to buy her her house and all her belongings. Now she doesn’t have any of it.

    I still see them every year. They live in a house next to her. It is a house I bought for them. She is not allowed there. They can go to talk to her but she is not allowed in their door.

    Chapter 6: I Live on the Streets

    I have this lady named Sunny. She is 63 years old and she looks like a fox! When she is sober she is one of the nicest people you could want to know. It’s at that time she treats me really, really good. But when she gets drunk she is just the opposite! We have a name for that I will not use it here.

     

    She has a limited income and when I am working I go by to make sure she is all right. I make sure she has something to eat and cigarettes. When she gets drunk though she goes off on me and I know it is time to leave again for a while. I don’t want to do anything stupid on my part so I take a walk for about a week.

     

    She is very, very intelligent and one of the most amazing people I know today. At one time she was Ms Virginia. She has a large collection of movies that we watch together. It is like a library. We can watch the same movie over and over again. Like “Quigley Down Under”  with Tom Selleck we watched twice this last week.

     

    Now if I was to pass on some little wisdom to a young man this is what I would tell him. “Don’t get married! Think about yourself, work hard and respect everybody. If people don’t show respect to you, you don’t have to show it back. But never get violent. Just walk away!”

    Chapter 7: A Funny Story and Unsusual One

    I shot myself!

     

    Yah, I shot myself right between the toes. You know how everybody will tell you they shot themselves while cleaning the gun. But what I don’t understand is how do you clean a loaded gun?

     

    Now what I was doing was I was playing with the trigger on this little 22 pistol. But I forgot it was loaded and the dam thing went off! Now I had to drive myself to the hospital.

     

    When I got there the woman behind the counter asked me “how the hell did you shoot yourself in the foot? Then she asked me “You weren’t trying to commit suicide were you?”

     

    I told her “NO!”

     

    That bullet went right through the web of my toes. Now I was a small arms specialist in Vietnam. You would think after all I had been through I would have known better!

     

    So now when I hear the story about the guy who was cleaning his gun and it went off. Well now I know!

     

    I wanted the trigger to be a hair trigger. So I was just trying to loosen it up a bit. It was a good thing I was not pointing it at someone or my head.

     

    Now with all my experiences with death. I have an experience with the paranormal about every week. My X girl friend Jeanie keeps coming back to me. She has been dead for 4 years now. She was at times a street person also. She comes back to me at night when I am laying down on the river and she says my name.

     

    All she says is “Jerry”

     

    I sometimes reach out and say “what are you doing.” It is defiantly her voice. And sometimes I can see her walking away. It scares me!

     

    The other one is the first man I ever killed in Vietnam. He comes running at me and I can’t see his face. He has no face! Now in the morning you can see his footprints in the sand. My friend asks me where did those footprints come from, who left those footprints and I tell him that they were from the first man I ever killed who comes here looking for me.

    So I live down here under a bridge on the South Platte River. My friend woke up one morning and asked me who had bare feet waking in the sand down here at the waters edge?  They were coming toward us. I told him if they were mine they would be going the other direction. Some times he comes even when I am awake. He comes every few weeks and I don’t actually see him. But I see his image. I don’t know why his is still looking for me. I mean, I am sorry I did what I did, but it was either him or me. Sometimes I think better him. I believe he had a family too and I had to take him away.

    Chapter 8: Today

    I gave up being a truck driver. When I lost it all with my divorce I didn’t want to do that any longer. Today I do apartment maintenance. And warehouse maintenance. Once I dropped the trucking I dropped it. Same with the ranching, I’m done with that. Now I can do what ever you want to teach me to do. It might take a minute or two. But once I am given the chance I can do just about anything. There was a time I worked in a machine shop making wheels. But they did not pay me the going wage and I just did not like the work.

     

    What makes my day is working in a job that is satisfying to me. Something that I can say hey look at what I did today.