Jimmy Ferrier was just 20 when he received his debut call-up to the New Zealand team.
It was not anywhere at home, but a tournament in Vietnam, which was then engulfed in war.
This crazy adventure in November 1967 was at the eight-nation Vietnam National Day Cup in Saigon.
The South Vietnam government wanted something to show the world the country was open for business.
Nothing to see here, as it were.
Ferrier said he and his team-mates gave little thought to any potential dangers in Vietnam, and with so few opportunities to play at the highest level, they were not in a position to refuse any offers.
"There were virtually no international games at that time, the last ones were three years before, so it was a bit of surprise that the first one since then was to Vietnam," Ferrier said.
"I had played in the inter-island match beforehand which we knew was pretty much a trial match and I obviously did enough that night to get a call-up.
"It was more a case of `damn the torpedoes, we're going', so we had to prepare for the environment."
The red-haired winger was one of two Otago representative footballers in the 18-man squad, relative veteran Alec Caldwell, of St Kilda FC, being the other.
In Saigon, New Zealand captain Tom McNab proudly led out the Kiwis in his dark blazer at the opening ceremony ahead of their first game, against Australia.
As well as the hosts, the tournament included South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Thailand, all of whom offered some support to the host nation in its war effort.
The obvious absentee was the United States but they would have proved an irresistible target for the Viet Cong.
While the Australian team was warned before travelling about dangers, such as befriending Americans, as they could become potential targets, the only warning the Kiwis received was about sexually transmitted diseases.
That warning was given partly because Ferrier had contracted a dose of gonorrhea before he left Auckland, and it became unbearable by the time he reached Vietnam.
"I approached some American soldiers thinking that they would've had some experience of it, and a few of them had," he said from his home in Whakatāne.
"They gave me eight pills. I took them all at once and that blew it out of the water."
As well as his issue in a delicate area, Ferrier suffered a brief dose of food poisoning that left him vomiting at the side of the training pitch, forcing him to miss the second game, against Singapore.
It was not his only problem at the training camp.
One day he trod on a snake, which he was later told was a highly poisonous tiger snake.
"It shot forward about four to six feet, and that's when I saw it.
"I must have jumped a metre into the air. It went right through my legs and somehow missed me.
"I was lucky. We got a soldier to deal with it."
Ferrier had moved to New Zealand with his family as a 2-year-old from Scotland in the early 1950s.
He began his football career with Technical College Old Boys in Dunedin before signing with Northern.
Left back Caldwell captained St Kilda for many years, leading the team to the Chatham Cup final of 1965, springing something of an upset in the semifinals with a 1-0 win over Christchurch City.
There was no fairy-tale ending for St Kilda, however, as they lost 4-1 to Eastern Suburbs in Wellington.
War was not unfamiliar to the 27-year-old as he had served with the British Army in Cyprus during conflict on the island.
Ferrier and Caldwell had played several times together in the Otago provincial side that year, and Ferrier said his team-mate had his back on the Vietnam tour.
"I was very young on that trip and was travelling in distant lands for the first time, so Alec made sure I didn't have anything stolen or suffered any mishaps.
"He was a solid guy, a few years older than me and had travelled a fair bit including to Cyprus so he was quite a bit wiser than me.
"All of us young players, and there were a few, needed the older ones, not to hold our hands, but to provide some sanity and calm in an insane situation.
"You didn't feel safe at all. There were shots going off all the time."
The squad featured three teenagers, including Brian Turner, who would play in the 1982 World Cup in Spain for the All Whites.
The tournament was an adventure from the start.
Approaching Saigon, the team's passenger jet was suddenly flanked either side by American fighter planes.
Without any warning from the captain, the plane plummeted downwards with the fighter planes by their side should the Viet Cong attempt to blow them out of the sky.
There was an extremely bumpy landing and a lot of upturned stomachs.
As well as Ferrier, several players fell ill and one, 17-year-old Dave Taylor, had become so ill with a gastro bug he was rushed to hospital.
He described the symptoms as akin to the infamous scene out of The Exorcist.
Team coach Juan Schwanner told team-mates to say their goodbyes as Taylor would not be returning home. He had been literally left to die.
But Taylor did survive and he did return home, by himself.
For six months, he could barely work or play football. But once he made a full recovery, he turned out for the national team more than 50 times over the next 14 years.
Each night, the players would go to the top of the hotel roof to watch American planes taking off to drop their bombs on the Viet Cong on the outskirts of the city.
Before each game, the pitch at the Cong Hua Stadium was swept for mines.
If the Kiwi players walked through the streets, they strolled past pillboxes with gun-toting soldiers and would be moved quickly on if they were seen to be "loitering". No-one was viewed as an innocent.
It was later revealed by the Australians that there was an attempt to blow up the hotel at which all eight teams were staying. However, soldiers intercepted the would-be bombers as they attempted to make their way inside.
The New Zealand government had been assured by the South Vietnamese administration of the players' safety.
Amid all this, there was football to be played.
In their opening game in Saigon, the New Zealanders fell 2-0 behind to Australia. But a goal by Ray Mears, an English striker who was playing for Auckland side Eastern Suburbs, which the Aussies claimed had not gone over the line, pulled them back into it and they equalised before halftime.
The Australians upped a gear in the second half to win 5-3.
New Zealand bounced back to defeat Singapore 3-1 a few days later but were comprehensively beaten by South Vietnam in the third and final game 5-1 and exited the tournament.
The Australians, led by the great Johnny Warren, went on to win the tournament by beating South Korea in the final.
Both Ferrier and Caldwell gained selection to play in Vietnam through their performances in the North-South interisland match in Christchurch in September 1967.
The South Island won 2-0 and one match observer felt Ferrier had earned selection by his "surprisingly aggressive play" and was the most dangerous of the South Island forwards.
When the teams were announced 24 hours later, Ferrier was on the plane, ahead of the talented Hungarian Imre Kiss and Scotland's George Lamont, who had scored against Manchester United in May for Auckland.
After the tour, Ferrier effectively retired as he was disillusioned with the way the tour was run.
"We didn't play particularly well but we weren't particularly looked after," he said.
"The management did their best, they used everything they had, but that wasn't much.
"There was very little money around at that time and they didn't even bring along a doctor, which was a big mistake."
