My Vietnam Saga
I served as an Officer with the USAFE for four years, from 1966 to 1970. I genuinely enjoyed my four years with the USAF. However, there was one day during that period when my life was put in jeopardy.
I was stationed in Okinawa, and due to my AFSC (job code) as the Officer's Club Manager, I knew all the junior officers. Six of my young fellow officers and I decided to visit Bangkok. With that in mind, we contacted Base Ops, who organized the trip.
The first leg of the trip was a pleasant surprise, at least at the outset. We flew from Okinawa on a large commercial airline. (Boeing 707) World Airways contracted with DoD to provide movement of troops in the Viet Nam theater of operations.
We enjoyed the first leg of the trip until we were about to land in Saigon. The flight captain got on the P.A. system and announced that we would land at Saigon International in about eight minutes. He explained that he would be making a very steep descent into the airfield in compliance with established protocols for landing at this airport. He assured us that this procedure was standard and that the plane was functioning correctly. This vast aircraft put its nose down at a frightening angle two seconds later. Every one of the one hundred or so passengers was white knuckled, grabbing the armrests during this. I could imagine the plane 'staling' out at such a steep descent.
After 5 minutes of terror, the plane leveled out, and one minute later, we landed at Saigon. We noticed as we walked to the terminal that there were many jeeps patrolling the airport's perimeter. They all had machine guns mounted on the back and a gunner riding in the back ready to fire at any sign of trouble. We learned later at Base Ops that the Viet Cong always hung out around the airport and tried to shoot down arriving planes. That explained the bizarre landing that we experienced.
The next leg of our trip was far less comfortable and far more dangerous. We were loaded onto a C130 USAF plane. The seating was a metal bar with plastic webbing, and the C130 is one incredibly noisy airplane. To make matters worse, they were two short of earplugs. Another Lieutenant and I volunteered to do without (what a mistake). We were also crowded around many wooden cases of supplies.
We were heading to Pleiku, the country's northernmost base. The DMZ was only a few miles away.
About halfway through the trip, the co-pilot came out where we were seated and threw open the plane's side door. That put us closer to the turboprop engines, and the sound went from bad to unbearable. He commenced firing a rifle down to the jungle. When he finally shut the door, someone asked him what that was all about. He explained the Viet Cong on the ground firing at our plane and using RPGs (rocket-powered grenades. He also explained why they were so determined to bring us down. He pointed to the crates and explained that was their real target. Upon closer examination of the crates, we could see the stenciled lettering. All those crates were ammunition. Yikes!
We finally landed at Pleiku Air Base. It was not much of a base. It was nearly all Quonset huts. We went into the Officer's Club, and we all got beers. To say the least, it was swelteringly hot.
We had not been there for ten minutes, and an air raid siren went off. Being 'city slickers', the local guys pulled us out of the 'O' Club and directed us into dirt trenches around the base's perimeter. To me, it was just like a WWII movie. I somehow imagined a much more sophisticated approach to bomb shelters. Fortunately, no one was killed by the enemy plane attack. However, one building was destroyed.
We finally arrived at our ultimate destination (Utapoe Air Base) outside Bangkok. All seven of us were exhausted and not in a party mood. Thus ends the saga of my first Vietnam adventure.