Memories of Days Past

I started this narrative on Memorial Day which is a day of rememberance for many Americans. A day to give thanks to those who have gone before. For me it has always been a time to reflect back on all those I have known, and to remember shared experiences.

I was raised in California. I spent my teen-age years in Oroville, home of the Oroville Dam, but that was just a dream when we moved there in 1958. I graduated from the local high school in 1962 and enlisted in the Air Force because the Marine recruiter wasn't in his office at the time. At Lackland I was given the opportunity to volunteer for the communications intelligence field and was soon off to Goodfellow AFB for training as a Radio Intercept Analyst.

I guess I joined the service for similiar reasons that other have. I was bored and certainly not ready to settle down and go to college. I was working at a local newspaper and probably could have become a pressman in time, but I wanted to try something different. After completion of tech school I was assigned to the Republic of the Phillippines at Clark AB. Throw me into that briar patch.

Clark AB was the largest USAF base in the world at that time. My outfit was the 6925th Radio Squadron Mobile and we were called the Cobras because of the many snakes purported in that area. The only ones I ever met were the two legged kind.Most of my time at Clark was spent in the little village of Angeles located just outside the main gate. Most of the details are not for this site but I consumed quantities of San Miguel and did my best to keep local relations on a friendly basis. Most of the land that Clark sit upon was cleared jungle. Just outside the back gate the jungle was not cleared and was used for survival training which I was to experience at a later date. Our Flight Commander, Lt. Pacina took us on a field trip out into this area to look for WW2 evidence and just to get away and do something different for a while. We learned a lot about the jungle on that trip and gained new respect for the people of that country.

We carried .30 cal carbines on this trip because of the snakes and almost wild water buffalo. By the end most of us would have traded for extra water and food.

This antennae array is known as the FLR9 antennae system. It is composed of many elements which allow the operators to narrow down the azimuth they are looking at so that the signal is optimized. This allowed us to listen to relatively weak signals coming from mainland China. I was mostly working the Chinese Air Defense  Communication links. We were ascertaining how well the Chinese could identify threat aircraft and how accurately they could obtain tracking data. It was very interesting work. I actually enjoyed going into the office for work. I haven't experienced that feeling in years.

In August of 1964 with the attack on the USN Maddox and Turner Joy, the war in Vietnam escalated. We had a small detachment in Danang and it was staffed with a core group of permanent staff and augmented at that time by operations people from our outfit on a temporary basis. My close friend Louis Onohan was in the first group to go over. Louis was a Morse Intercept Operator and loved Canadian Club and 7-UP. He also was a Jazz fanatic and inroduced me to Ahmad Jamal. I have one CD and every time I listen to Poincianna I remember Louis and those days in '63 and early '64.

Louis died just a short time after his arrival in Danang, details were sketchy then, but I have recently learned from fellow USAFSS and Danang veterans that Louis died off of China Beach, he was caught in a rip tide and was unable to break free. I will miss him.

I arrived in Danang during the middle of October, 1964. We lived in a two winged barracks/quonsot hut just across a dirt road from the chow hall, which was a great benefit. The total American population in Danang at that time was about 800. When we weren't working we spent most of our time down town looking at all the sights and admiring the young Vietnamese girls wearing their AoDai's. There was a sizeable number of plantations in the area which were owned by French expatriates who used to bring their families into town on Sundays for church at the big Catholic Church and then for lunch along the waterfront at one of the fine hotels that lined the boulevard. It seemed peacheful at the time.

Time for a little editorializing. Another friend, his name doesn't matter, went over later with my group. He was a nice kid, loved to have fun and tried to appear mature and grown-up by smoking an old pipe which actually made him look a little ridiculous. But he wasn't, he was a man and may have saved my ass one night when we underwent a full scale alert due to a sapper attack, but thats not what I want to say. He was found in a compromising position with another man and months later was discharged for his affair. I was pissed then, and I still am pissed at those little minds who think a mans worthiness is measured by his sexual orientation. I'd rather have a gay man or woman guarding my back whom I could trust than any number of straight cowards who wouldn't put it on the line.

Our operations building was actually 6 40 foot comm vans joined together to form a single operations center. We were located on the edge of the base about four miles from the barracks area. It was extremely isolated out of neccessity for security. Our "property" was about ten acres or so which was mostly an antennae field We were responsible for our own security although we could summon base defense teams if necessary. We built a large sandbag barrier around the operations center, about 6 feet high and three feet thick, with firing openings built in at regular intervals. We were equipped with M16 rifles and some grenades. Each van was equipped with thermite bombs which, in case we were overrun, would allow us to destroy the facility and classified information. I think we were all pretty much scared shitless most of the time.

Some of our people, mostly Vietnamese and Chinese linguists were stationed on top of Monkey Mountain, about 20 miles from the main base. To get there we had to cross the harbor and hitch a ride up to top. At night the VC controlled the middle part of the mountain so travel was restricted during those hours. At the foot of the mountain the Navy had a small base where the kept PT boats that were painted solid black. I heard they were used for Psychological Warfare programs.

This concrete bunker was located at the base of Monkey Mountain and was probably used by both sides during the Vietnamese war for independance from the French in the early '50s.

Monkey Mountain was about 60 miles across the South China Sea from Hainan Island which was Communist China. It was referred to as a stationary aircraft carrier because of the 2500 Mig fighter aircraft usually stationed at multiple bases on the island, about 5 minutes flight time from us. Since we had only two F102's for air defense we kept a good look out on that place. We knew that Chairman Mao had given HoChiMinh an offer of 500,000 volunteers to assist in Ho's struggle for independance, and were grateful for Ho Chi Minh's steadfast refusal of this offer.

I am sitting next to the Anti Aircraft weapon, looking out over the South China Sea. The islands in the photo to the left are unknown to me.

This radar was used mostly for keeping track of the airfield activity at Danang, but was also depended on for early warnings in case of Chinese or North Vietnamese air strikes. This never happened since we maintained air superiority for the  duration of the conflict.

I remember a lot about the work we did. It was the most rewarding work I had ever done, and probably ever will. I had become quite knowledgeable about the North Vietnamese Air Defense systems and worked my tail off trying to stay current. The Security Service was rather unique in military commands in that virtually all the analysis was done by enlisted people vice officers. During this period I was an E-3 although when my TDY was over I was promoted to E-4 upon my return to the Phillippines. I returned to Clark and came back to the states in March of 1965, I was almost 21 yrs old.