Vic was the band’s drummer during 1965 taking over from Paul Blakely playing with them locally as well as in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver and Hawaii.
Vic told the Radar Station :
I went on active duty on 28 December, 1965. When I was in ‘Nam, I was a Commissioned Officer, a Second Lieutenant, a Platoon Leader and Executive Officer of the 297 th. Transportation Company in Nha Trang in 1966.
He can be heard on the demo of Call On Me released on the Grow Fins compilation. Vic says he wrote the music for that song but didn’t get the credit when it was released on Safe As Milk (sounds familiar!).
On Call On Me, I wrote the melody the night my father died. Don wrote the words. On the album, he took credit for both. Don had changed the tempo, but the melody line and chord structure were mine … my claim would have held up in court … c’est la vie
Play both back to back and it’s obvious.
BTW: Frank was kind enough to list me on the now famous liner notes in the Freak Out album; he just mispelled my name.
My mom had sent me both albums while I was in ‘Nam, with a little note that said, “I just thought you’d like to see how the boys were doing”.
John French on Vic :
A lot of people thought he was “drafted,” but he just received orders to report for duty, as he was involved in ROTC in college. It was very important to his Father that he was involved in ROTC, which I know very little about. In my book, his interview explains it better than I could. This was the lineup I first met when observed a rehearsal — probably in early Spring before the [Teenage] Fair. Vic Mortensen was gone by the end of ’65, Alex switched to drums, and Rich Hepner took the guitar spot … [Vic] was proud of the fact that he “never lost a man” under his command.