After reading the following, over on Competition Plus, I'll NEVER utter another bad word about Paul Page.
PAUL PAGE: BEFORE HE WAS A PROFESSIONAL VOICE
Written by Bobby Bennett Monday, 31 May 2010 08:50
Paul Page has been long known as the voice of the Indianapolis 500 and now calls the NHRA Drag Races for ESPN2.
What is not largely known is the iconic voice served his country in a different capacity during the Vietnam War from 1965 – 1971.
“I still argue with the government that I had twenty years of service as a military brat,” Page joked. ‘I grew up around the military and my stepfather was in the Army … infantry. I grew up on military bases but the government won’t count that. I changed schools twelve times from the first grade and graduation.”
The military rearing only inspired Page to become a member of the National Guard assigned to the 38th infantry before going full-time with the Army.
Page did two tours in Vietnam where his primary assignment was “trail watching”.
“We would go as deep as we could within enemy territory and set up near a choke point, or regular point they’d be passing like a bridge, where they’d be passing material and manpower through,” Page explained.
There was no middle ground for Page’s assignment.
“There were times of sheer terror and there were others where you were just counting things and taking an occasional picture. You’d report what you see and stuff like that. Our job was to be there without being seen.”
The scary moments for Page, came when his unit would go in support of someone else carrying out a mission.
“If you had a pilot who punched out, we had to go find him and drag him out,” Page said. “Some of those put us in contact. But, I was really good at running.”
Page wasn’t a track star but his motto was always, “I only had to be faster than the guy behind me. We were also running in full gear. We were trained to do it, it was our job.”
Page was assigned to Second Field Force and to Thompson Airbase. His unit also did time in Hue during the Tet Offensive in 1968. They also worked the rivers in the northern part of South Vietnam.
The river assignment revealed to Page his deathly fear of snakes.
“I was scared to death of snakes,” Page admitted. “There were a lot of them too. I’m still scared of snakes. Back in my training, everywhere we went we had to deal with snakes and even the worst, when I was in jungle warfare training in Panama, we had to eat one.”
Of his six years in serving his country, Page believes the best part of his service was his fellow soldiers.
“I really enjoyed those who I served with,” Page said. “You really always remember the fun stuff. I told a friend I believed basic training was fun, so I guess I’m really screwed up.”
