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Vietnam – April 1, 1970 – April 21, 1971
I was drafted into the Army in September, 1969
(before they had started the lottery number system). Did my basic
training at Fort Dix, N.J. and then on to Fort Gordon, Ga. for Signal
School.
Received orders for Vietnam, took my 30 day
leave and then left Maguire Air Force Base, N.J. to Seattle, Alaska,
Hawaii, Japan and then Vietnam. What a long ass trip that flight was, I
believe the airlines name was Flying Tiger Airlines. Notice the date
above. April Fool’s Day. I was thinking “what a joke”.
Processed thru Bien Hoa/Long Binh and then took
a C130 to Qui Nhon. I stayed there for about a month because they did
not have any openings in signal. I was a 72 Bravo Comcenter Operator. So
they put me in the post office sorting mail and selling money orders. So
I imagine that I probably handled some of your mail. I also took several
Huey trips to Tuy Hoa to set up a remote post office there. They had a
nice beach, but there were too many Huey mail drops/pickups out into
the bush. Names like LZ English and different hill numbers/locations
that I can’t remember after 38 years still remain in my memory. Some
were hot LZ’s, others were not.
I was finally assigned to a Signal Maintenance
Platoon for the 5th Maintenance Bn., Phu Tai. There, I at
least was in a signal platoon repairing radios and telephones. I spent a
lot of time on guard duty (day/ night) so I got to take some pictures of
the traffic on the road from the guard tower. I probably repaired some
of the radios on the gun trucks on this site. Usually a radio was
brought in and dropped off to be repaired, so it could have been off any
vehicle in the area.
I remember one time when some MP’s brought in a
radar detector to have repaired. I couldn’t believe it, radar detectors
in Vietnam, well we messed around with it in front of them for about ½
hour and then told them that we were going to deadline it as we couldn’t
find any parts for it. Ha, Ha, no way were we going to fix it so they
could give GI’s speeding tickets.
By October 1970 I was in Charang Valley off of
Hwy 19 in another maintenance company as the 5th had
disbanded, I believe it was the 86th Maintenance Bn. Again
more guard duty but this time I took a lot of pics of guntrucks passing
by on the way to An Khe or Pleiku or back to Quin Nhon from those
locations.
I also visited Phu Cat AFB while I was in
Charang Valley. Those Air Force dudes really had some nice facilities.
Their club looked like it came out of a NY bar. Many a weekend was spent
there (made friends with an Air Force Supply Sgt.) getting loaded. They
had vehicle radios like we repaired so the parts trading was the way to
go.
Left Charang Valley in 1971 to go to Cameron
Bay for out processing. ETS’d out of Ft. Lewis, Wa in April 1971.
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