Unexpected Adventure

For a young 20-year old Air Force guy (Airman 2nd class) I never thought I would be stuck in the central highlands of Vietnam (March of 1962) much less in harms way much of the time. But there we were on the other side of the world trying to do our jobs and make it home ok.

It was a 4-engine cargo plane and it un-insulated, un-pressurized and was indeed loud and shaky. Buy the time we came to a screeching halt, the nose wheel was just over the PCP. (Perforated Steel Planking.)

Once we off loaded our trucks and trailers, etc., we headed into Pleiku from the east and then north to our compound. We didn't know what to expect, so we had our old rusty M-1 Carbines ready to go. It turned out that many friendly people showed up to wave at us as we went by. "it was just like the 4th of July parade", I thought.  

Once we got to where we were suppose to go, we set up our equipment and settled in. At first, we ate from C-rations, dated 1946. Later we had a small mess hall where we ate a lot of powdered this and powdered that and lot's of SOS. But, we also had some local foods like Papaya, Tea and Bananas.   

We were housed in a mud hut with a tiled roof and a dirt floor. There were a couple of shutters with no glass, so we had plenty of mosquitos, bugs and snakes and rats everywhere to keep us company. We slept on cots with air mattresses with mosquito net on each cot. Didn't seem to help much because the rats would somehow get under the nets and of course scare the daylights our of us, not to mention the gunfire and explosions nearby. To this day, I often wake up thinking of those rats crawling on me. Can't get rid of that experience. I hate rats!!

Our two radio's were each inside a 6 foot square (about) aluminum cube called a TSC-15, made by Collins Radio. (Transportable Sideband Communication) For some reason they were painted in USMC colors and had USMC stenciled on them. 

At last, Rodney and I received notice that we were to be sent back to the PI. (Philippine Islands) We had short notice and we pilled on an old C-47 bound for Saigon. It was a rough ride because we flew in thunderstorms all the way down there. We were exhausted and ended up in tent city at Tan Son Nhut. No mosquito nets so our pillows and sheets and all our exposed skin were a bloody mess by morning. When we cleaned up we caught a C-130 back to Clark AFB.

I chose to go back home and got discharged at the end on March 1963.  Rodney stayed in for a little while but then got out too. We met again in 2016 and found out he re-enlisted the day Kennedy was shot, and made a career out of it. He now has some health problems as do I. Agent Orange??? 

Three years later I re-enlisted and went to Japan for two years. Couldn't seem to adjust to civilian life. Then I cross trained into Ground Search Radar and stationed in Waverly Iowa of all places? That place closed in the fall of 1969 and so I was sent to another RADAR site in New Jersey before being discharged once again in 1970.

Seven years later I guess I missed it all, so I joined the Minnesota Air National Guard for 5 years, then the Colorado Air National Guard for a year and a half, then the Air Force Reserve in Offutt AFB, then another Air Force Reserve unit at Kelly AFB Texas.. Finally, after 31 years total, I retired as a M/Sgt E-7 in 1991. Glad I stuck with it now!!