From Bruce Withers, on Sun, 09 Feb 2003 23:20:03 GMT (in response to: Phan Rang Air Base)
I was with the Aircraft Radio Repair shop, part of comm/nav from March 69 to early 1970. I remember that hole blown in the wall by the comm/nav area from the overnight rocket attack, that guy in the Nav. shop that got his arm blown off and died after a weapons loader forgot to put the firing safety pin in, that guy in ECM who sucked up and got to ride the Goony Bird to Hong Kong monthly, that skinny staff sgt. that shaved his head and ran up the hill (past the nco club) every day and challenged anybody to beat him to the top, those trips behind the barracks to get "dew-wacka-dew" high and worrying about "how you gonna act" when you got back to the squadron bar amongst the lifers, the powdered eggs and sos in the chow hall, when the base water supply was turned off and shit started piling up in the toilets, lots of hops on C123's to Nha Trang or Saigon to relieve the boredom, that little strip outside the base gate where all the "fucky/sucky bars" were (at least until they put it off limits because they got tired of treating us for the clap), riding the bus out to the perimeter to watch the purple tracers going out, that cool light show on new years eve '69 when the AC 47's and 119's sent there minigun tracers out in every direction, that little roach-coach trailer by the flight line where mama-son would make you a hamburger in lieu of riding the bus back to the chow hall, hating the overnight shift because we had to lift the heavy electronics bay cover on the F-100's to punch in the days code for KY-28 encryption, old friends fruom Luke AFB who got assigned to Tuy Hoa or Ben Hoa coming down to hang out with us (also from Luke AFB}, that airman named Cain from San Diego who preferred to hang out with Army guys so he could wander the countryside (relieve the boredom)and eventually left his regular aircraft radio repair job to fill sandbags or lay concrete at the barracks so he could get high anytime he wanted, going out to the flightline one morning and checking out that F-100 that took a direct hit in the cockpit, getting high while off duty at night and then hopping a ride on the squadron maintenance step van to the flightline and getting a full dose of F-100 rev-up thunder, servicing that OV-1 Bird-dog and inadvertently leaving the mic keyed up while yelling out a string of obscenities on air because we couln't figure out were all the radio/intercom gear was located, yelling short as loud as you could the day before you go back to the world (just to make the newer guys feel bad) and finally that last day at Thon Son Nhut Air Base(spelling?) where they searched all your gear before putting you on the commercial airline to the world. Have I missed anything?
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