Page 91 - Stand Down Vietnam

My family was against the war in Vietnam; my dad
especially, he’d often ask: “What the hell are we doing
over there?” The waterways between Vietnam and the
Philippines were open, there was no reason for us to be
there. What did we need to be over there for?

I volunteered to go to Vietnam just to see what it was
like. My family history of serving and all, I thought

I needed to go. My job was aircraft maintenance. I
had excellent training and there was a need.

The living conditions in Vietnam were not all that bad.
They were two-story wood-frame buildings with window
screens to keep the bugs out. In all most every dorm
there was a little bar set-up, complete with air
conditioning.

TV wasn’t good, we had the Air Force Times newspaper.
I didn’t believe the stories being printed, not at all.
Common sense being applied to what we were reading, it
just didn’t make sense.

When I arrived at Bien Hoa, and the aircraft doors
opened, the stench was horrid. You just almost wanted
to vomit right there. That is what you breathe for the
rest of the year there. Even our freshly cleaned
clothes smelled the same way.

An announcement just before landing told us that if we
hear a siren going off to get on the ground. Well, how
are two hundred men going to safely get on the ground?
So, I just said: “If I don’t make it, then, I don’t
make it.”