Old flight school buddies tracked me down through DU posts! How cool is that?

Two of the best men I have ever known were in my US Army flight school class in the late 60s. Somehow one of them stumbled upon my tribute to our
classmate killed in Viet Nam, Bain Wiseman, posted on DU om Memorial Day last year and my current fire lookout dispatches on DU and tracked me down. Those two guys went to Korea out of flight school and flew missions there. Then they went to Viet Nam and flew missions there, too. Double jeopardy, as Alex Trebec would say.

G___ sent me three pool hall photos from flight school and I sent him back a couple of my Viet Nam pics. So I got some of my best Viet
Nam pics together for my two old buds. But why not share them with everyone, I thought. So here ya go! Something different for a change.


Me with the one of the Army SP-2E Neptunes at the 1st RRC (AVN) at NAF Cam Ranh Bay.


Another 15,000 pound bomb cooks off after the VC got the ammo dump at Cam Ranh in the wee hours of the morning in August 1971 (IIRC). I think a total of 25 of these exploded over a six hour period. When the first one blew, we thought it was a tactical nuke!


Ken shoots while Bain Wiseman watches. I think that's Larry W____ over Ken's shoulder. Bain was killed in Viet Nam in December 1970 (shot down by "friendly fire").


There should be a law about allowing children in a pool halls and combat zones: DemoTex in flight school 1969.


The Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos.


DemoTex, WHAT IS YOUR MAJOR MALFUNCTION? I WILL UNSCREW YOUR HEAD AND SHIT DOWN YOUR NECK! (actually a scene from "Full Metal Jacket," but all who did the US Army flight program will agree .. this could be a TAC officer).

p.s. the last three photo links don't seem to be working.

Try reloading.

There were some big thunderstorms over in the "gut" (the US-97 corridor and the eastern slopes of the Cascades) and another big one south of Ft. Rock. Those storms kept my temp down to 78 all day with great breezes!

No lightning in my A/O.

It was 106 here today. Again.

Cool story about your buds. :)

SERE school was fun.

Sea survival in Okinawa, jungle survival in the Philippines.

The desert was cold and the aggressors were apologetic when the course was done. But yea, learned what basic human rights are, what patriotism means for me. AW2 75-79 VP-1 USN Barbers Pt. Hawaii

I was US Army at NAF Cam Ranh Bay (SP-2Es) with VP-1 and VP-7 rotating deployment there.

I was deployed to Cam Ranh in a Navy VP squadron. We spent hours wondering what you guys were up to. I also encountered your squadron mates at Mama's Bar in Cavite City.

I'll bet you're getting plenty of excitement this week. It hit 109 today in Medford and my son was sent to the Williams Creek Fire near Steamboat. It was spotted yesterday by one of your colleagues.

Stay safe.

And I was at NAF Cam Ranh. Were you VP-1 or VP-7? P-3s? VP-1 and -7 rotated through while I was at NAF Cam Ranh. I heard all about Mama's Bar in Cavite City, but by the time I got to the 1st Radio Research Company (AVN) we were doing the NATOPS-required corrosion control at Subic Bay. Thus I got to visit the infamous Olongapo City a few times (and the great Cubi Point NAF O-club).

BTW: Did you ever visit the 1st RR's Sandman Lounge at NAF Cam Ranh? It was infamous!

Oh, and what we were up to: Long (18 hour total with a refuel at DaNang) Ho Chi Minh Trail and deep Laos ECW missions. I even saw Dien Bien Phu on one of those deep missions.

One more edit: Hope you son stays safe. Which lookout spotted the fire? How big is it? Know the legal or lat/lon?

For a kid of 18 years of age? Thought I died and went to heaven. Thailand was better, but not there very long and no in country for me. Just flew out of out of Utapao, triangulating GCI sites after everyone else had left Vietnam. Hunted cold war targets after that. My dd-214 says I am a Vietnam era vet by 1 month, but I feel that I do not deserve it, it's for guys like you and friends I know that where in country, I never got a ribbon, so not claiming anything. I am proud of my service.

We were there in 1970. We were deployed to Cubi the following year. I never visited the Sandman Lounge. When we weren't flying I was water skiing. I pretty much avoided Olangapo.

I came close to winding up in P-2s. I had a bad habit of showing up late for classes in North island and they threatened to reward me by assigning me to Project Trim. That was some genius's idea to drop sonobuoys in the jungle. They were only taking bachelor officers and I had a pretty good idea why.

I think that had something to do with the sonobouy HCM trail monitoring. And maybe we were doing the same bars near North Island. I had the same problem. But I already had orders to Viet Nam! What could they do?

Peace:thumbsup: