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Benett Rogers, Jacqueline Truong, and Minghao Zhang [Profiler bio] Randy Benson was born February 16, 1945 in Dallas, Texas. Growing up in 1950s Texas, he was a cowboys and Indians playing, cartoon loving, adored big brother to his little sister Ann. Randy made a few attempts at college in the 60s, but he “kept getting kicked out!” In 1966, when things didn’t work out at Rice University, he was drafted into the military to go to Vietnam. He decided at that point to join the Naval Reserve. A six year commitment. He was hired as part of the Aggressor Army for military training in Port Hueneme, California. Starting out as an Engineman 3 (E 3), Randy was quickly promoted to an E 5. He was then offered a position in the Mobile Construction Battalion 5, or MCB5, or more commonly the Seabees. The Seabees are part of the U.S. Navy who provide various construction services for the war effort. For Randy, it meant a longer commitment, but more importantly, a non-combative one. December 1968, Randy and the Seabees flew into Da Nang, Vietnam. The majority of his time served in country was as part of a Security Squad Paving Crew maintaining Route 1, which connected Da Nang and Hue. [Profile bio]
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