The colors of red, white, and blue run deep in the blood of U.S. Army veteran and Copperhill local Sonny Payne.
His love for the United States of America is easily noticeable by the hat he proudly wears on his head and the many decals on his truck.
Although he didn’t intend on serving when he received his draft notice in August of 1969, he knew what he needed to do, and if asked to do it again, he wouldn’t hesitate to do so.
“I was just thankful, after I got in there, that I accepted the call for my country,” he said. “I love America, and I was proud of my country. And, I was proud to serve in the Army, and it’s an experience that you’ll never forget.”
Shortly after receiving the notice, he loaded onto a bus in Murphy, North Carolina, and headed to Fort Jackson, South Carolina, for basic training.
“I was just young, not been out of school very long, and it was all new to me, you know, and I didn’t know what to expect or nothing like that,” Payne recalled. “We had a real tough drill sergeant. He was E7, just come back from Vietnam.”
One thing he said he remembers very well is when they got off the bus, and his drill sergeant met the cadets and told them to meet him on the other side of a building.
“He said, ‘By the time I walk around the building, I want yuns to crawl under the building and be on the other side information by the time I get there,’” Payne said with a laugh. “We found out right off that he was really tough.”
Another vivid memory he recalled was a time when the drill sergeant got onto him because he wasn’t doing push-ups to his satisfaction. As a result, the drill sergeant came over and pushed Payne back down with his foot.
“I mean he was tough,” Payne remembered laughing again. “You don’t know, you’re all new to this stuff, and you say, ‘Oh my God, he’s mean, boy.’ ... I know they do it for a purpose.”
Following basic and after a short two-week leave, Payne headed to Fort Devens, Massachusetts, for Supply Specialist Training in the summer of 1970.
After some time, he received orders to go to Fort Drum, New York, to open a two-week training camp for the National Guard.
Once that was over, he went back to Massachusetts briefly before being sent to Phan Thiết, Vietnam, in a jet with around 300 others on board.
“I’m no hero. I’m just one of many, you know, that was called to service,” Payne said.
On the contrary, while in Vietnam, his duties were to bring in the food, mail, and ammunition, on top of the required guard duty, with the 864th Combat Engineers who were building a highway.“I was there to help the rest of the soldiers,” he said.
Although thankful to have not had “more hard times” than others, there were times where his base had to take cover as a result of attacks, which always happened at night.
“One night, I can specifically remember, the next morning when I came back to where I slept, there were shrapnel (pieces of bombs, bullet shells, or other objects) holes ... in that tent where the shrapnel came through,” he remembered. “I said, ‘Thank God we were out there.’ We were trained to go out there and get out of the tents, you know, for protection.”
Of the country, he recalls the dry heat and seeing a lot of water buffalo.
Payne did not hesitate to say that his favorite part of service was being with his “brothers,” the other soldiers.
“We had a bond. We worked together, protected each other, and there was just a military bond there, you know. We were all there for the same purpose, for the same reason, to serve our country,” he said.
Another perk of the military, he said, was that he got a two-week leave to visit the Philippines.
Payne was discharged in August of 1971 with the rank of E4 Specialist, and for his service, he received the Vietnam Service Medal, National Service Defense Medal, Good Conduct Medal, Vietnam Campaign Ribbon, Good Conduct Ribbon, and the Rifle Marksmanship Medal.
To anyone considering joining the military, Payne said, “It’s great to go to the Army or go to the service. ... Most of all, it’s great to serve your country. ... Just need to learn to be as tough as they can be.”
Today, he is Junior Vice Commander of the local Disabled American Veterans chapter and a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the North Georgia Honor Guard.
Any veterans interested in joining a local veterans organization may contact Ray Aurthur at fanninveterans@yahoo.com.