Saturday 03/16/2002 7:28:59pm

I just descovered this site a couple of days ago, and have been exploring it and other ASA links. Brings back so many memories.

I graduated as an 05H20 (ditty bopper)from the Ft. Devens school on February 15, 1966 and from the Tactical Training Course on Feb 25, 1966. My class consisted of around 34 or 35 students of which 29 were assigned to Vietnam. To my surprise I was assigned to the Philipines. Four other guys went to Germany.

Well needless to say, when I arrived at Clark Field in the PI, I was immediately told the station was being closed and that I had to select another station in the pacific area. Not having any great desire to go to Vietnam, I selected Japan, Okinawa and Korea. I got Okinawa, and after 2 months in the beatiful PI I was shipped off to Torii Station. I served 16 months at Torii in A Company 2nd Platoon.

After my tour in Okinawa I was rotated back to Vint Hill Farms in October of 1967. While at Vint Hill Farms, I had the privilege of working on a test program at Ft. Meade for which I received a letter of commendation. I had a very active social life at VHFS. We were in D.C. or Georgetown almost every night. I remember one night it snowed and they closed the station except to those who lived off post. Well, a little snow or closing the station never stopped us and slipped out the back gate. Great weekend! I met my future wife while there. Well, all good things must end, so in keeping with this, myself and around 40 others were shipped off to good o'le Nam in April of 1968.

I was married on April 9th (still married to the same girl) and shipped 11 days later. We were told that we were the first plane to land at Tan Son Nhat in the dark after the Tet offensive. I believe it. We attempted one landing but had to abort and go around. We could see flares all over the city. After a successful second attempt, the pilot told us that there were incomming on 3 sides of the airport and he had been instructed to go around. We spent about a week at tbe "beautiful" St. Georges Hotel in Saigon. I remember having to pay .25 cents a day for something (laundry, I think). After a week we were shipped off to Bien Hoa for a couple of days before a C-130 flight to Da Nang. We had to sit on the floor of the plane holding on to straps. The plane also carried some locals and their livestock. I remember having to spend our first night in Da Nang sleeping on flattened cardboard boxes outside in the mud because they didn't have room for us in the barracks. We spent about a week in Da Nang waiting for our personnel files to catch up with us. With nothing to do we spent a lot of time in the club. They eventually tired of us and shipped us up to Phu Bai, without our records.

I remember the first night at the 8th RRFS vividly. We were told that intelligence had picked up information that indicated the area was going to be hit and they wanted a minimum one-third of the troops to spend the night in the trenches. Having not been assigned to a platoon, myself and one of my buddies Wes Bailey, decided to oblige. It was possibly the most peaseful night I spent at the 8th. The next night nothing was said, so we slept in the trailer. Well, about 1am or 2am thuuummmp, thuuuuummmmp, whiiirrrrrr (siren). You know what they say about knowing incoming from outgoing? Well, when the first one hit there was no question whether it was incoming or friendly, we hit the deck and ran for the trenches. After this, we decided that they really did not know what was going to happen, so Wes and I spent the next 3 nights in the star bunkers until we finally said to hell with it and went back to sleeping in the trailers.

We finally got assigned and I worked days. I would have rather worked nights because we were always awakened in the middle of the night by rockets, etc. The club was closed when I first arrived, but opened up sometime later. At first it was opened until 7pm then I think 9pm then closed down again after things heated up a bit.

Things I remember: Liars dice and Salty Dogs in the club; room parties after the club closed; the lousy food (dried eggs, dried milk and cold cuts). I remember having steaks for a while and the rumor was that they needed room in the meat locker at the airport for KIA's from a big push in the A-Shau Valley. Rocket attacks in the middle of the night. One night all hell broke loose, I think it was when the ammo dump exploded the second time or one of the nearby units got hit. I can't remember except that I watched it from the trench and it was close and very scary. Firefights and gunships in the valley toward hill 180. The night RVNS got overrun down the road. Guard duty in the bunkers; flares at night, especially the flares. Cold showers (lucky we had showers at all); no ac. The night our trailer got hit by a rocket that exploded underneath it and destroyed a couple of rooms. I remember going back from the trenches and looking down the hallway at the bulging walls. We opened the door and there was a big hole where the floor used to be. The guys that occupied the room were pissed that their stereo equipement got destroyed! I remember some guy having a bad day and climbing on top of one of the trailers with his M-14. The MP's got him down without incident; I remember hearing of an MP getting wacked at the main gate, but can't remember if it happened while I was there or not.

The end came for me one August day. It happened to be the one day I had off that month. I was sleeping and it was around 9am when the company clerk came and woke me up. He told me that the CO wanted to see me. I dressed and went over to the HQ where the CO and chaplain were waiting for me. The CO told me that my father had had a heart attack (he was in the hospital) and asked if I wanted to take emergency leave and go home for 30 days. Needless to say, I was on a C-130 within an hour or so (sitting next to a hooded VC POW) on my way to Da Nang. By 1pm I was on a C-141 medi-vac with 30 or 40 survivors and 42 caskets (all unidentified) on my way to Japan and Travis. We were shadowed by a couple of Chinese Migs through the Taiwan Strait. Tokyo was fogged in so we had to land at a fighter base in norther Japan to refuel. Being a fighter base, they could not handle the larger aircraft (so they said) and had to bring in a fuel truck from somewhere else. We had to spend an extra day there. I remember landing at Travis and watching as they unloaded the caskets with a forklift. No flags, no honor guard, no nothing. This still bothers me.

When I arrived at Travis I was still in my jungle fatigues. I had to get a set of new khakis at the Oakland Army Depot. To make a long story short, my dad recovered and lived another 17 years. I never did go back to finish my tour. My father could not run his business with his disability, so I applied for a hardship discharge. Due to my sudden departure from Nam, all my belongings were left over there. I wrote a letter requesting the return of my things, but when I received them a lot was missing. I would have given everything I had over there just to have my photos. I only have 2 photos that I had sent home. I am posting these on this website because I believe every little bit helps. This is why I am so excited about this website. These are the first photos that I have seen from over there as I remember it and I hope that others will post pictures in the future. There has got to be more of us out there that have not found this site yet.

Some of the names I remember (from all stations that I served at): Wes Bailey, D.C.; Bernie Zimmer, Wash State (drove a TR-4); Fred ? (had a new Mustang); Rueben from Texas; S/SGT Stokes; SFC Altman; SP5 Kindred; D. A. Hutter; J. B. Biedwell; Tom Patrick; Andy Johnson and a guy with the last name of Cameron from PA. It's sad that after all these years, these are the only names I remember. I can see many faces, just cannot remember the names.

I worked at my father's business for one year, then he sold out and retired. I went on to earn a Commercial single/multiengine pilots license and instrument rating and aircraft mechanics license. I worked until 1977 for Hughes Aviation in Las Vegas as a field rep covering the southwestern states. In 1977 I went to work for Clark County, NV and will retire in a couple of years.

I apologize for rambling on, but finding this site was like finding an old friend. For all the bad memories there are many good ones. If anyone wants to contact me, my e-mail is: jabby199@cox.net

ASA All the way!