Once Upon a Time in South Vietnam

In late July 1969, I was six months into a twelve-month tour in Vietnam as a lowly Airman 2nd Class with the USAF. My primary unit was the 15th Aerial Port Squadron in Danang. I was assigned to a small detachment of eight men located in Duc Pho, 100 miles south of Danang along Highway 1. One afternoon, I received word that I was to proceed immediately to 7th AF headquarters at Saigon’s Tan Son Nhut airbase. My orders read “Reason for Travel” was “By Order of Inspector General.” Wow, the first thought in my mind was "What had I done to draw this type of scrutiny on myself?

Anyway, I was able to catch a chopper into Chu Lai, where I then hitched a ride on a C-130 flying into Tan Son Nhut. As I stepped off my flight, a “full bird" Colonel met me and told me to follow him. Here again, I was wondering what on earth was going on here, who did these people think they had? The Colonel, whose name I’ll keep to myself, took me into his office and directed his driver to take me in the Colonel's car to an address in Saigon. Before the Colonel let me leave, he looked at me with a knowing slight smile and said, “Airman, do you have any idea what this is all about?” I answered as truthfully as I ever had any question, “No Sir, I sure don’t Sir.” The Colonel said nothing more.

Not a word was spoken between me and the driver during the whole 20-minute drive. It was almost dusk with a partial twilight when we pulled up to this French-style villa in a suburb of Saigon. The driver said to go up to the door and knock. I got out of the car, and he drove off. I was thinking, okay, so now what? Everybody seemed to have some inkling of what was on the other side of that villa's door, but I sure as Hell didn’t. I went up to the door, knocked on it, and suddenly the door opened. Lo and behold, who of all people in the entire world was there to greet me but my father, Philip “Doc” Carver. I couldn’t believe my eyes, and they were once again tear-filled with those same strong emotions from over 50 years ago as I pen this letter. I said, “What the heck are you doing here?” He answered, “Ha, you don’t know, do you?”

The backstory on this wonderful reunion was that President Nixon was going to make an “unannounced” brief stop in Saigon, and my father, who was in the US Secret Service, was in town with other agents conducting an “advance” in and around the Saigon area. My father happened to mention to one of the high-ranking Army EOD types that the Secret Service was working directly with at the time that he had a son up in I Corp. Strings were definitely pulled. So quite naturally, all communication regarding me and any reason for my travel was kept highly secretive. Bottom line, Nixon got in and out of Vietnam safely! My father worked with his team of agents during the day while I played basketball in a local Saigon park, and then in the evening, we would all get together and go out for dinner. I believe my story is unique in that out of over 2 million American servicemen and women who served in Vietnam over the 10 years our country was in Vietnam, probably less than a handful were able to “party” with their fathers in downtown Saigon!

Thank you, Pop!