Page 59 - Stand Down Vietnam

Everything went pretty good for about six months then
we started having a conflict with the Haitian military.
They would stop our cars and make us get out while they
searched the cars.

That three-year tour was cut to eleven months. The
United States and Port-au-Prince broke relations. They
gave us a letter that said we were “personae non-

gratae”, or “person not appreciated”. They gave us
forty-eight hours to get out of the country.

My wife and children got out of the country during the
forty-eight hours. I had to stay five extra days. We
had crashed a helicopter a few days before getting that
letter, we had to repair that helicopter. The USS
Boxer was sitting offshore at the time.

The next day, I went to work and as I was going through
the gate, my boss was trailing behind me about fifty
yards. When he got to the gate, the Haitians wouldn’t
let him in. They told him he had to go to the Embassy
to do his work. I ask them what about me, and they
said: “you’re ok, we don’t have any problems with you.”
So, for about a week I did my paperwork and it was
taken back and forth to the Embassy.

The last month or two, of that tour, they had the Bay
of Pigs Standby Watch. We had to go on Standby Watch

for the American Embassy for three days. We were on
standby to go to Cuba.

As it worked out, I didn’t have to go to Cuba. On the
way out, headed for Miami, a couple of newspaper
reporters walked up to me with some reels of film.
They knew they would not be allowed to take them out of
Haiti. But they said because I was with the Embassy,
and had diplomatic immunity, I could walk through
customs with no problem. So, I took the film with me
and boarded the airplane for Miami.