Writers - Longer Memoirs

• After over a half century it is important to look back and remember the events, friendships and adventure of that sometimes surreal time in our lives.
  
  You can read an individual's memoirs by clicking on one of the buttons on the left. The button contains the writer's name, unit and years in country.
  
  If this jogs some memories of your own we can post yours here too.

Bruce Hamilton - HHB - 65-66: Two memories while exiting thru Bien Hoa USAF Base.

Number 1- we were waiting to get on a flight manifest, so every day in the morning (roll) they would announce those names on the next manifest… and again at 12. So, we were milling around waiting for them to bring the group to order for our first 12pm… but the cadre there had a surprise….. just a few seconds before 12 they told everyone to get on a spot…. then just as everyone straightened up a little and were facing forward there was a HUGE explosion…. what the hey? We found out later the ammo dump at Bien Hoa had been hit a few weeks earlier and everyday at exactly 12pm a pile of unstable ammo was blown up. Of course, the permanent staff at Bien Hoa knew and had a great time with our wide eyed reactions.

Number 2 - I traveled down country with a group of 6 guys from the 6/71st to exit RVN. When we had finally got our flight number, etc.. I was so amped that I told everyone to go ahead and sleep and that I would stay awake and make sure everyone was up at 4:30 or whatever to board the plane home… so amped that I was dealing with irregular bowels, if you know what I mean.

Throughout the night I kept padding down to the latrine in my skivvies. On one of those trips which must have been about 2am, I was about midway across the 150 foot distance between the hutches and latrine when without warning someone (presumably on guard duty) opened up along the perimeter… probably 50 feet away from where I was. I froze! Tried to get my bearings and figure out what to do next…. no weapon, only skivvies, barefoot and only open ground around me. I crouched and waited and waited and waited some more… no all-clear, no continued firing either outbound or inbound… then I beat a hasty retreat back to the hutch… last trip to the latrine in the RVN. Figured if I had a problem going forward, I could wait and do that at 30,000 feet above the South China Sea headed eastward.

Kenneth Sutphin - A - 67-68

I was a Hawk missile crewman in Vietnam. I never went to school for it and I really sucked at it while getting OJT at a hawk base above Cam Rhan bay Vietnam. After I was illegally assigned to it, (The army broke my contract by sending me to Viet Nam). I was supposed to be guaranteed duty at a Nike site as a missile crewman at an ARADCOM site in Cleveland, Ohio. Eventually they reassigned my MOS to be a Military Policeman again with out any training. After a year they eventually sent me back To Cleveland where I served as an untrained MP on a Nike site at a missile base with the only real training I ever had was as an Airborne infantryman with the 101st airborne where I jumped out of perfectly good aircraft 9 times and 1 of those was a C 5A jet. Why am I telling you this? I just got to tell somebody. :)