Like I said, there were almost 200 people on that plane. Most of them were 18 and 19 years old and a few were in their late 20s and 30’s. From what I can tell, they were mostly Air Force and Army.

It still amazes me that no one talked for almost 13 hours. The only thing you heard were people saying was, “yes ma’am” and “thank you, ma’am” to the stewardesses who were passing out the dinners. Remember this was not a military jet, they were regular civilian transports such Northwest and Pan Am. Those companies were taking troops to and from Vietnam. (At least I think that’s who the airlines were.)

I can remember sitting there in my seat trying to sleep but could not and wondering what everyone else was thinking. All I could think about was how much money I was getting in military pay, hazard pay, and overseas pay. I had no clue as to  what I was getting into. After about nine hours the plane, it started to smell. My God did it get real bad. It seems the closer we got, the more people started sweating. I absolutely hated that flight with a passion. 

We landed in Cam Ranh-Bay. When the door opened, that unbelievable hot and humid temperature cut right through the air conditioning of the aircraft like a knife through butter. The temperature was 101°! I kept saying to myself that I’d much rather be in Siberia.    

We walked  into this big hangar and had our orders checked and we received more shots and got pills for malaria. We then waited for planes to take us to our bases. If there was one thing that I definitely remember about Cam Rahn-bay is how crystal white the beaches were!

In my entire life to that point, I have never seen a beach like this. My God, was it beautiful.  We waited for planes to go to our respective bases. Most of the people took a c- 47 aircraft, while others took helicopters and some went by jeeps. There were nine of us going to Tuy-wa. Jet engine people, instrumentation people, and two pilots. One pilot was on his second tour of duty. Never said one word to us the entire trip. What was this guy’s problem?   

The other pilot was a first Lieutenant who was on his first duty assignment. All this guy could talk about, was about the skiing in Colorado and how he couldn’t wait to get back.  

I find it funny that things like this pop up in my mind. I will always remember the plane ride to Tuy- wa. It scared they shit out of me. Remember,  this was a turboprop.  It made more noise than my mother’s blender in her kitchen.  We came in over the South China Sea and landed. We then got into jeeps and went to the  administration building and rechecked our orders again. They then sent us to where we are supposed to be staying for the next 12 months.  ( please remember I said this)

This was a small barracks. It was maybe 12′ x 40′ and was covered with aluminum siding. There were sandbags all around the building may be 5 feet high and we were not even one quarter-mile from the beach. No matter where we went, people would say under their breath (FU***** RAINBOW). It was easy to tell when you were new. You had NO TAN!  

It seemed everybody else had been stuck  in Aruba for 10 years. I hated those first five weeks. There were people who would just lay on the beach and really tried to get sunburned. Some of them were so bad they had to go to the infirmary. This got them into a lot of trouble and they were busted. They were given article 15 s  for the destruction of government property!  

I kept asking myself if we were on one team fighting the enemy,  or were we just   fighting ourselves.  This base was located on the South China Sea and 20 miles inland on all three sides of the base were mountain ranges. They were so majestic and huge.

I used to stare at them for hours.

Right next to the Air Force Base was an Army base and the city of Tuy-wa.  The Army base had huge howitzers pointed at the mountains. Now when these things started shooting you could hear the echo forever.  

On the beach, they had Oscar Towers. Any boat that came near the base was in big trouble. They had 50 mm guns at the top, not counting the m16s  that the air police had.   None of the maintenance people had any guns, they did not want us to shoot our own.

I worked at the trim pad.  Little did I know how much trouble this was going to get me into. I had a start up license for all the f- 100s, f-105 and helicopters (single bladed). Believe it or not, the Jets were easier to run than those f-ing helicopters. The trim pad was located out at the end of the runway by the mountains right next to a rice paddy. I had never seen Grass so Green as when I was there. 

I can remember flying over the country and thinking it should be a national park. Everything was gorgeous! The colors were fabulous, the mountains were astounding and for the most part it, was so gorgeous.        

I met many Lieutenants, Majors, and Captains at the trim pad. They would watch me as I ran their aircraft’s up to them through the paces and then shut them down.

A lot of them knew me by my first name and I thought that was great, but again I did not know what I was getting into.     

Our cafeteria sucked, ( we know they tried) seems like all we had was chicken, chicken, and more chicken. Bread was a joke.  Before you could eat the bread  you had to pick out all the bugs.  All the eggs were powdered along with the milk but we could eat all the potatoes we wanted.  

Now in my head, I had always thought about the enemy, not to get in trouble ,be good and go home.  I had forgotten about one thing; THE BUGS , snakes & lizards. Those things brought out all my worst fears. How I hated those things. They had 9 inch spiders thatwere transparent. You could see the blood flow throughout them.  Two-step snakes would bite you between the toes or the fingers  and kill you.   The gela monsters were about 3 foot tall and about six to 7 feet long, not counting its  tongue. One thing was for sure was that  if I did not try to calm all my fears, I would go crazy.  

I will talk about this tale of horror as I continue. I was supposed to be there for 12 months and stayed 18 months, I went to a lot of bases, and outposts saw plenty of people die, wounded and maimed.  I absolutely, and honestly hated this war.    

To be very honest with you, most of the military who were there did not care. As the song goes, “ And its 1, 2,3,  what are we fighting for?” 

Frankly, I don’t give a damn.