Flying Tigers airline, what an outfit: Eight engines, four on each wing, room for over 400 passengers along with all of our military gear, very impressive. We flew from Ft. Ord, California to Anchorage, Alaska for a stopover. Rumor has it that about 30 soldiers went AWOL there. Not me, I'm ready; then another stop in Japan and on to Cam Rahn Bay, Republic of Vietnam. I remember disembarking from the plane, the toilet smell and the searing heat, not to mention the hustle and bustle of getting everyone and everything off that magnificent bird that we had flown in on! We spent a couple of days in barracks waiting to be assigned to a unit and then off to the 172nd Preventive Medicine Unit in An Khe, just down the road from Khe Sahn firebase. It was pretty routine, lots of lab work, mess hall and food inspections, trips to town to find the hookers who were spreading VD to our troops, the nightly rocket and mortar attacks from the VC camped out on the mountain. Why in the hell would you build a base near a mountain full of caves? An Khe was the home of the 173rd Airborne and I guess they were just looking for a fight!
In July, our unit moved to Red Beach in Danang. Yeah there we were, right out in the open near the South China Sea. the swimming was great but I never felt comfortable there. It was at this point that I volunteered to run courier missions. I would board a helicopter with documents and reports and go to our units in Phu Bai (I wrote a song titled "Phu Bai sucks"), Saigon (had some interesting experiences there), Ban Me Thuot ( they had an Agriculture Experiment Station there) and some other places that I can't recall.
In November, myself, four other specialists and an officer named Captain Alan Gillogly all volunteered to go to Quang Tri, up near the DMZ to start a unit there. Quang tri base was the home of the 5th Mechanized Division, a unit hated and targeted by both the NVA and the VC. What had we gotten ourselves into? We had a hooch (a place to live) right on the south perimeter of the base, had to build our own bunker (we named it "Ellsworth" after the US South Vietnam ambassador Ellsworth Bunker; Archie Bunker had not yet appeared on the scene). The other guys in the unit were: Bob Valdez, a Pima Indian (remember Ira Hayes?), Bob Sanchez and kid from New Jersey, complete with the accent, Leo Malysa. We did the normal lab work and inspections, but also went to town about once a week to inspect the local ice- making operations! It was a lot more relaxed there and we did lots of card playing and interacted well with the 495th Transportation Unit, a National Guard Unit from Lakeland, Florida. Our Captain was an entomologist and we did a lot insect collecting with him. In fact we listened to part of Super Bowl 4 while flying in a helicopter on an insect scouting mission! I also continued my courier missions, it was a good way to see the country and make time go faster. I tried to extend my tour for 6 additional months, and by doing so I could get out of the Army earlier. However, there was no need for the M.O.S. 91 Sierra so my request was turned down!
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