rbtvgo
Member
- Location
- Absecon, new jersey
discharged at Mchord air base in Wash. Paid my own fare home. I was done except for the 2 years of inactive service.
If you were in the service, do you consider yourself a "Vet"?
- Thread starter fuzzybuddy
- Start date
rbtvgo
Member
- Location
- Absecon, new jersey
ashamed of what? you severed your country. You gave your life to your country to use it it as they saw fit. Were they wrong, idiots, misguided.....absolutely. BUT you served your country. Very few did or do. Be proud of your service.
squatting dog
We don't have as far to go, as we've already been
- Location
- Arkansas, and also Florida
squatting dog
We don't have as far to go, as we've already been
- Location
- Arkansas, and also Florida
Our AO was mostly from the fish hook to the Iron triangle.
With a few excursion's around Binh Long, An Loc, Phuoc Long, and Xuan Loc.
With a few excursion's around Binh Long, An Loc, Phuoc Long, and Xuan Loc.
You had to pay for your own way home? Even though you were discharged .... it still seems unfair. But I'm trying to think if I had to pay my own way home when I got discharged. Yeah, I guess I did.
Feelslikefar
Senior Member
- Location
- Nashville, TN
When I put in my paperwork to retire, the USAF informed me I would have 3 months 'Transition/House Hunting' time.
This meant I would receive my Active duty pay for this time, before my retirement payments kicked in.
So, I took a 3-month vacation from doing any work.
Just hiking and fishing.
This meant I would receive my Active duty pay for this time, before my retirement payments kicked in.
So, I took a 3-month vacation from doing any work.
Just hiking and fishing.
rbtvgo
Member
- Location
- Absecon, new jersey
no big deal. I was out. That's all that mattered at the time. We were young, what did we know?
4 years active, 2 1/2 years in japan, direct to vietnam. Left the states in 1967, didn't come back till 1970. Don't regret any of it. I grew up.
Where were you stationed?
rbtvgo
Member
- Location
- Absecon, new jersey
he served..................he is a vet.................period!
PeppermintPatty
🐢. 🐳. 🐢
- Location
- Canada
I agree that he IS a retired vet. I know he is but he doesn’t think so. He says he only served for 7 to 8 years and never had to go to war.
Nothing.
Air Force did you say?
Yes, I understand.
I was in the Army, 3 years. I went in 1965. Fort Leonard Wood (Missouri), Fort Sam Houston (San Antonio, Texas), Vietnam (Central Highlands), Sandia Base (Albuquerque, NM). Twice R&R in Tokyo so I probably passed through your duty station. There was a transit stop in Okinawa where an airman ripped the film out of my camera because I took a picture of a "flying wing" taking off. Then on to Tokyo for one week, both times. I don't rememeber the air base outside of Tokyo but I'm sure you remember the name of it. Discharged in 1968. Left the US in 1975. I never went back.
rbtvgo
Member
- Location
- Absecon, new jersey
you probably landed at Yokota, Japan. All flights from the states landed there first.
Where were you in the central Highlands? I was at Pleiku.
Went from Japan, Misawa direct to Ton Son Nhut, Vietnam and then in country flight to Pleiku. Air America, by the way.
End of my year Air America took me to Cam Ranh Bay and after a 24 hour wait I was in Tacoma Wash. 24 hours between a war zone and the world. Wasn't prepared. Took two baths and a shower before the water came clear. Scared sh__less of the world. Spent two weeks sucking beer and trying to go out and buy some jeans. Just remembering that time and how disturbing everything was. Just talking.
Where were you in the central Highlands? I was at Pleiku.
Went from Japan, Misawa direct to Ton Son Nhut, Vietnam and then in country flight to Pleiku. Air America, by the way.
End of my year Air America took me to Cam Ranh Bay and after a 24 hour wait I was in Tacoma Wash. 24 hours between a war zone and the world. Wasn't prepared. Took two baths and a shower before the water came clear. Scared sh__less of the world. Spent two weeks sucking beer and trying to go out and buy some jeans. Just remembering that time and how disturbing everything was. Just talking.
I'm talking about the flight from Vietnam to Japan and back again. It was a military flight. Was it to Yokota? Could be. Strange I don't remember the name of it. I was given a piece of paper with instructions on how to get into the citry and back again. Subway (I think it was a subway) to Ginza and a taxi to some hotel. The electric doors on the taxis freaked me out. I kept pulling them shut and they'd pop open and then close again! You know what I mean. To this day I've never seen that in any other country. Tokyo! It was like Disneyland!
I was at Phu Hiep. It was a tiny, tiny fishing villiage with few inhabitants and then there was us ..... lots of us. Good luck trying to find it on a map today. It was on the coast, not very far south of Tuy Hoa. I think there was another Phu Hiep near the Cambodian border but that wasn't mine.
I also went from the States to Ton Son Nhut, Saigon. Then a C-130 flight to Cam Ranh Bay. Then an LST to Vung Ro. And finally ground transport to Phu Hiep. There we pitched tents and filled sandbags. Lot of sandbags! Me, back then:
That's a stone-cold fact. People back in the world were concerned with so many stupid things. But eventually we learned how to see those stupid things to be important things. Here we are.
Trade
Well-known Member
Just now remembered it!Tachikawa.
We had a stop over there on the way to Vietnam. Our flight left McCord and went to somewhere in Alaska then to Tachikawa, and then into Cam Rahn. When we got to Tachikawa we had a short layover for refueling and I headed straight to the rest rooms. I was having diarreah because I was scared shitleess about going to Vietnam.
I was there for a while, sitting on the camode trying to empty out my bowels when these guys started banging on the door. They kept banging and I finally got up off the camode and opened the door and there were a whole bunch of Army dudes in worn out jungle fatigues standing there. Obviously seasoned veterans on their way home, or back to the world as it was called. I felt pretty silly having to walk by them in my clean spotless Air Force dress blues with the bus driver hat and one lonely stripe on my sleeve.
That's my memory of Tachikawa.
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rbtvgo
Member
- Location
- Absecon, new jersey
I have to laugh. Such was the times. We made it however so........
I spent the first day in Ton Sun Nhut incountry terminal dressed in my regular greens. Not dressed like everyone else in their jungle fatigues. Totally out of place. Guy I am sitting next to is a civilian contractor going someplace in country. We talk, he produces a bottle. Tells me to get two colas. I end up with two raspberry coolaids. Which is fine as far as he is concerned and end up semi sober by 3 am. Have no idea what the heck is going on around me. In country, war zone. Guns all over the terminal. Don't have a clue whether I will make it till the sun comes up.
I did, but such were the times. Gotta laugh now.
rbtvgo
Member
- Location
- Absecon, new jersey
Was in Tachikawa briefly. Spent two and a half years in Misawa, Japan, up north and then flew direct to Ton Son Nhut and then Pleiku, Vietnam. Left the US in 1967 and didn't come back till 1970.Just now remembered it!
rbtvgo
Member
- Location
- Absecon, new jersey
filled the sandbags, built the bunkers
Attachments
I forgot all about my first day in-country until now. I honestly don't remember spending even one night in Saigon. I think I was flown up-country on the same day of my arrival. I just don't remember. What I do remember was waiting at an outdoor transit center and eating in the mess hall there. It was June and it was so hot! We had what was called re-combined milk. I didn't know what "re-combined" meant but hey it was milk so I took a gulp ..... yuck! I spent 367 days (yes, two days late leaving Vietnam) and that was the first and only time I drank that crap. Luckily there was one alternative ... re-combined chocolate milk.
Yes, lots of that. When we arrived at Phu Hiep the artillery, transportation, and White Horse ROKs were already there but we had to start from scratch - up with our tents, filling sandbags, perimeter, and bunkers. Oh yeah, the upright barrels that served as cold-water showers seen in the background of my post #187. The only hot water showers I had in that whole year was in Tokyo (on R&R) and whenever I could sneak away to a "massage parlour" in Nha Trang.
Were you a "lifer"?
Trade
Well-known Member
We had to fill sandbags at Cam Rahn once. And put them on top of our hooches supposedly to keep the roofs from blowing off because we had a Typhoon forecasted to hit us. You can see them in this photo. But the Typhoon just brushed us and there was almost no damage on base.
Typhoon Kate - Wikipedia
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Three months for me after retirement as well, but I spent it looking for, and getting, a start on my 2nd career. I was getting paid active duty and my salary (which wasn't much), for a little over two months when I had to trade in my active duty ID card for a retiree card. Worked out fine.
squatting dog
We don't have as far to go, as we've already been
- Location
- Arkansas, and also Florida
Those were pretty fancy showers.
All I ever saw were the occasional one at some fire base. crude with a bucket overhead.
Hooches! You guys were lucky. Living high on the hog!
I bet you had hot running water too. I guess I was lucky after all.Those were pretty fancy showers.
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