Where do I start?  At the beginning, I guess.  Joined the Air Force in Jan 67 after flunking out of the Univ. of Maryland after 3 years.  Just too much partying!   Probably shouldn't have been there to begin with.  It was mostly my dad's idea, but since he was paying, I went.  Anyway, after I flunked out, the draft was breathing down my neck.  They were drafting 21 year olds, married with no children, and here I was 21 and single.  Being an AF brat to start with, and having Mom working at Bolling AFB, DC helped me get in contact with an AF recruiter who paved the way into the delayed enlistment program and a guaranteed job in electronics.

In Basic, I selected Automatic Flight Control Systems and got it.  Went to Chanute AFB for Tech School and on to Nellis AFB, NV for my first assignment.  After 3 years, finally received orders for SEA.  I was really surprised that it took so long, but happy to find I was going to Udorn RTAFB, Thailand instead of Vietnam.  Not that it would of mattered that much, but it definitely promised to be a bit safer environment.

After the fun and games of getting manifested and loaded out of Travis AFB, CA, finally arrived at Don Muang International Airport, Bangkok, Thailand.  Processed in, spent a very eventful day and night in downtown Bangkok and then boarded the 'klong' (C-130) for the flight up to Udorn.  Even though we were still at war, the tempo didn't seem much different than I was used to in the states.  We worked 8 hours shifts, but 6 days a week.  After about 3 months, though, things accelerated. Big Push '71 was starting, and for the next 9 months of my tour we were working 12 hour shifts, 6 days a week.   Other than the hours, life wasn't that much different from in the states.   Played softball on the squadron team, pinochle at the orderly room bar, hit the midnight movie at the outdoor theatre after work, and went downtown chasing the puyings as much as possible.

I didn't get into the 'teelock' thing and 'butterflied' my whole year there, except for about one month when I latched onto a gal that had just been left by her GI going back to the 'Land of the Big BX'.  She still had a month or so left on the lease of her apartment and was trying to get me to be her next support check, and I guess I took advantage of it for a month until she realized that I wasn't going to foot the bill and take her as a teelock.

Being young and single I wasted a lot of time and money.  Only thing I had to show for the year there was a pretty good stereo system, a good camera, and 2.4 billion units of penicillin!!!  Oftentimes I wished I had a girl or wife in the states to have bought some great teak furniture or jewelry for, but as it was there were just my folks.   Mom did get a real nice brassware set and Dad a carved desk name thingamajiggy with elephants on both ends.  But no baht chains or rings or stuff like that.   Because of the camera I did get quite a few slides to remember the time I spent there.  I guess all that is part of being young and stupid.... hehehe.

As far as the war, even though we were working 12 hour shifts, I didn't get any real feeling of urgency while we were there.  Probably because at that time things were starting to wind down.  While we pushing quite a lot of sorties, I don't recall having but one F-4 come back with major ground/air artillery damage, and I don't believe we lost anyone between Nov 70 and Nov 71.  If we did, it was insulated from us on the flightline.  We did have the 56 SOS and some Air America flights out of Udorn at the time, but unless you were directly supporting those units, you didn't hear anything about their missions or results of their missions, at least I didn't.  Then again, I was there to do my job, was VERY apolitical, and really didn't pay much attention to more than doing my job and enjoying my time there as much as possible.

Not to say that we/I didn't have some exciting times on the flightline!  Once, when working an F-4 in a revetment, we thought we had a big problem when all of a sudden, in the revetment directly across from us, a missile fell off the wing of the F-4 there.   Those of us across from it just stood there, staring, waiting for it to fire. It was aimed right at us, of course, but fortunately nothing happened.

In retrospect, I realize that what we were doing there was important and had an effect on what was happening in Vietnam.  I never really felt as if I wasn't doing my part or that others were doing more than me.  I guess I've always had the feeling that we are all here for a reason, and that whatever we do is part of that reason, and that we all need to do the best we can at whatever it is we do.  Regardless of whether it has a direct relationship to what is happening around us at the time.

Copyright February, 1999 by Robert Norway.  All rights reserved.