Normally when someone asks, I just concentrate on the good times and there were good times. Since I don't know any of you from Adam and you seem to be interested, I'll tell you some things even my wife and kids don't know. I flew over on a Flying Tiger. The Flying Tigers are an interesting story on it's on. Pappy Boyington of the old TV show was an original Flying Tiger.
We landed at Camh Rahn Bay about 10 at night. They were in the midst of a rocket attack. They herded us into a huge gym like quonset hut. They said get comfortable, you will spend the night here. The attack went on all night. Sometimes the rockets would land every couple of seconds, sometimes every couple of minutes. There was no place to go, no place to hide. Those who just arrived had no weapons and didn't know where the rockets were coming from anyhow. After an hour or so, you got used to it. The booms and vibrations were just background noise. You didn't pay any attention to it. About daylight, the rockets stopped and the workers came out and processed us through.
I was at several different places. I was working night security at DaNang (aka Rocket City). One night I was head of a SAT team. We were told to investigate/help with a situation in the Korean marine sector of the perimeter. When we got there, we found they had caught a prostitute trying to sneak on base. They had taken a slap flare, stuck it up her female part and set it off. She was literally burning to death from inside her body. Her screams were primal sounds, not human. Sometimes at night if things are quiet, I can still hear them.
The rest of my tour was at Tan My LORAN station. It was a Coast Guard radar station near the DMZ. The CG had no security force, so we provided security. I was Asst NCOIC of security. There was no GPS back then, so we had state of the art radar to guide our ships and planes . Every bomb that was dropped or every big gun the Navy fired was guided by our radar. That in itself bothers me. Some civilians from the nearby village of Tan My worked on the station doing menial labor. One night the Viet Cong raided the village and killed everyone who worked for us. One was a sweet innocent teenage girl named Bien. Part of Bien's job was cleaning our security office, so I saw and spoke to her almost daily. Imagine going through life knowing someone was killed for cleaning your toilet. I think about that and Bien most everyday of my life. You wouldn't believe how difficult it is for me to ask someone for help.
They used to have this traveling wall. They would take it from city to city where the vets could see it. When it came to my area, my daughter wanted to take me. I didn't want to go, but she was excited to be doing something for me, so I went to please her. It's not something I care for.
