âI volunteered to be drafted but I was a draftee,â he said. The Mobile native entered the Army on Jan. 5, 1967. That Dec. 31, on New Yearâs Eve, he arrived in Vietnam as a demolition specialist. âI got in at Tan Son Nhut Air Base. And for fireworks, people were firing rifles,â he said with a laugh. But on Jan. 31, 1968, the North Vietnamese launched the Tet Offensive, a major escalation and one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War. Markell experienced it firsthand. âKind of scary,â he said. âA lot of work. I mean I worked around the clock.â