Vietnam veterans?

[Joneslab]

​What, in your opinion, began the downfall of America?

There has never been a downfall of America.

It may be yet to come, I don't know. But IMO the country is worse in some ways than it's always been, better in some ways, identical in most ways.

The myth that we're a flawed people heading toward a sort of reckoning is the stuff politicians tell to get themselves elected.

[Old School]

Actually, I was about to say that I didn't remember the VNAF pilots having a lot of problems, but I remembered that 1 pilot managed to forget to lower his landing gear before he landed--not once, but twice. If I remember correctly, his squadron commander shot him in the head while he sat in the ****************pit after the second time.

​I think the B-52s mostly came from Guam, but I'm not sure. That was a long way above my pay grade.

Braniff was one of the carriers. Others that I remember are Delta, Flying Tiger, Continental, Pan Am, & TWA. There were probably others that I've forgotten. I went to Viet Nam on Flying Tigers & came home on Continental. When I went over, I left from McChord AFB, Washington (Seattle). We stopped in Anchorage and
Tokyo. When I came home, we came direct to McChord and continued on to McGuire AFB, NJ. A lot of the flights going over left from Travis AFB, CA. Enroute stops were the Philippines, Japan, and Hawaii. Folks from Viet Nam went to Australia, Hawaii, Singapore, Bangkok, & Hong Kong on R & R. I never went. I was married & couldn't afford it.

Saigon was ok if you kind of forgot that the VC might be around somewhere. The taxicabs were called cyclos. They were motorcycles with a two-person seat on 2 wheels behind it. One thing I remember was having lunch at the Continental Hotel (if I remember the name correctly). I think it had been there since the French days. I had French onion soup. It was delicious.

One other thing about Saigon: The Air Base there was named Tan Son Nhut. It was 17 miles from Bien Hoa. Not long after I got there, a USAF pilot landed his airplane at Bien Hoa when he thought he was landing at Tan Son Nhut.

Shot him in the head in the ****************pit...wow.

Did you ever go to Tan Son Nhut?

Have you ever thought about going back to Vietnam to see it now?

[Old School]

I spent 6 months in VN in 1968. I was in the Army, stationed at Fort Bragg, NC. I worked in a supply warehouse for an artillery battalion, AKA battalion S-4. We moved as a battalion in April 68, and I was in what they call the advanced party. An artillery battalion has about 600 guys, and the advance party was about 120 - guys selected to fly over and set up our assigned area. The remainder came on a 22-day ship ride. The flight took 56 hours - on a C-130. 120 guys, mostly sitting on boxes of equipment that we would need to set up.

The reason I only spent 6 months is because when a battalion moves, it moves with everybody who has at least 90 days service remaining. Some guys got over there and soon were processing out to go home.

That area was at Bearcat. http://720mpreunion.org/history/proj...arcat_area.gif It was a fairly large outpost in the middle of the jungle. Another guy, a Georgia boy named SGT Sammy Smith, and I moved into an S-4 warehouse, a building about 20'x80' if I recall, and lived alone there for almost 3 weeks, until the rest of the troops arrived. That was the scariest time - all we had for power was a small generator, but we didn't run it at night because it was noisy and we couldn't hear! The two of us ended up building a room in the corner of the warehouse, and that's where we lived for the duration.

The S-4 job is to keep the battalion supplied. Among a lot of other things, this required a couple of us to drive a "deuce-and-a-half" (2 1/2 ton truck) out into the jungle, wherever our shooters were located.

Rocket and mortar attacks were fairly regular. Smitty and I had about a 100-yard dash to the nearest bunker. (I can't remember why we didn't build our own, or even why we chose not to sleep in an already-bunkered hooch with the other guys. Young and stupid, I guess.)

There was a tower with a rotating red light in the middle of Bearcat. When they knew enemy was in the area, all lights went off on the post including that red light. If I stood up in my cot, I could see it, so I was in the habit of doing that all through the night, just checking. What's funny about that is that I continued to stand up in the bed (half asleep) for about a year after I got home. My wife didn't know what was going on!

I didn't have a lot of negative fall-out after coming home. Except maybe the guy who I considered to be a close friend acting like it was no big deal, because I wasn't infantry and actually shooting at people. Trust me, it was a very big deal for everybody who went, no matter their role.

I also cut all ties to the many good friends I made while there. I really don't know why, other than I just wanted to put the whole thing behind me. I regret it now very much.

Great stuff, like samsdads' posts. Thank you, and thank you for sharing with us.

Did you get out to any other places, like Saigon, or the coast?

How were you transported into and out of Vietnam? Did you go through Tan Son Nhut, on a commercial airliner, or a military plane?

You probably could make contact with some of the people from your unit. I know someone who was at Phu Bai who managed to catch up with some people he served with there.

My two grandfathers fought in World War II. One had reunions with his unit every two years, then every year when they were older, continuing into when they were in their early 90s, just recently; he died last year and now there is only one surviving veteran from their battalion (or, at least, was at the time of his death last year; he was one of only two left). Most of the men from the unit made it every year to their reunion. My other grandfather had no contact with anyone from his unit after he got back to the United States. My grandmother told me he just wanted to put the whole thing out of mind and get on with his life. A few times, he received mail from soldiers he had served with, but she told me that he did not reply. That was very out of character for him, as he was a very outgoing and social person. But he was in the infantry, in a division that saw a lot of brutal action including in the Battle of the Bulge, and he was a very young man who saw some horrible things. I think maybe I can understand why he wasn't inclined to be reminded of it.

[samsdad]

Shot him in the head in the ****************pit...wow.

Did you ever go to Tan Son Nhut?

Have you ever thought about going back to Vietnam to see it now?

I probably went to Tan Son Nhut the day I went to Saigon, but only to change from the truck that I rode from Bien Hoa to a cyclo to go downtown. I don't have any memory of it.

I've never had any desire to go back.

I'll tell you a funny story about airplanes. The main fighter we had at Bien Hoa was the F-4 Phantom. When it took off, it was with a huge roar. There was another airplane there called an O-2. It had 2 propellers, one in the front, and one in the back. It flew low and slow. It was used for observation. It flew along low and slow looking at the ground to see what was down there. If the pilot saw any VC, he radioed somewhere to call a fighter in to take care of whatever was down there. It was also used for psychological warfare. It would drop leaflets to encourage the VC to give up or to the local friendly people to encourage them to let somebody on our side know if they saw anything suspicious. The airplane also had a sound system that was used to broadcast messages to the people below. Someone had gotten one of the audio tapes that were used and recorded the sound of an F-4 during its takeoff roll. Sometimes during the O-2's takeoff, the pilot would turn on that tape, so there was an O-2 rolling down the runway with just barely enough speed to get airborne sounding just like an F-4 taking off. That was always good for a smile. You can probably find a picture of the O-2 somewhere on the internet.

[J.Jennings]

There has never been a downfall of America.

It may be yet to come, I don't know. But IMO the country is worse in some ways than it's always been, better in some ways, identical in most ways.

The myth that we're a flawed people heading toward a sort of reckoning is the stuff politicians tell to get themselves elected.

Yes, i can't believe all this media selling "fear" to the public. As a veteran, i don't think some realize how good we have it here in America compared to 3rd world countries, really no comparison...

[Blue Heaven]

Yes, i can't believe all this media selling "fear" to the public. As a veteran, i don't think some realize how good we have it here in America compared to 3rd world countries, really no comparison...

We still have it better than 3rd world countries. Hell, we have it better than ANY country on Earth, but that doesn't mean that we are not in a downward slide. It's not selling fear. The fear is a reality and it has been for decades. Pidgeonholed on a daily basis because I believe the way I do. It's ok for some to have an opinion on a particular matter, but differing opinions are evil and just plain wrong. I really don't understand how someone can think the times are not changing. Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong generation.

[Joneslab]

Regarding Vietnam, it's probably good that those people had those differing opinions. At a certain point people have to stand up to their government when it's engaged in an unwinnable war.

I mean, we want to stand up to bureacracies and red tape and bloated spending and all that. War is the same on a much more massive scale.

There has to be a place where a person can be against the war but for the soldiers like those in this thread. I'll always respect veterans but I don't respect our government enough to be judicious and careful at all times with the lives of its citizens. Because they've shown that they will send people off to be killed for no reason.

The problem with Vietnam protests I think is the same problem we have with protests today: they went too far. But unlike the protests today, at a certain point the Vietnam protests were heard and the government began to see the error of how they'd fought the war--sadly we lost a lot of people before they figured it out.

[J.Jennings]

We still have it better than 3rd world countries. Hell, we have it better than ANY country on Earth, but that doesn't mean that we are not in a downward slide. It's not selling fear. The fear is a reality and it has been for decades. Pidgeonholed on a daily basis because I believe the way I do. It's ok for some to have an opinion on a particular matter, but differing opinions are evil and just plain wrong. I really don't understand how someone can think the times are not changing. Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong generation.

Well i agree, if things keep going the way they are then yes it creates a problem for our future, this isn't the same America i grew up in that's for sure. As matter of fact,seems like the working man is penalized while the "lazy generation" of Americans reap all the benefits and rewards. Hell, i feel like i pay for others to sit at home at draw a check most of the time. Regardless, i still think the media sells fear and if you watch and listen to all that stuff on a daily basis, it can poison the mind. Still, no other place in the world i would rather be than here.