|
David Mitchell
A few portions of my first few days in my new home in Vinh Long
-----------------------------
7 - FIRST NIGHT - FIRST WEEK
I was led to one of the hooches, just a short walk from the office. The hooches were all in rows - plywood cottages about 20 feet by 40 feet with corrugated aluminum roofing and a screen door at both ends. Mosquito netting wrapped the walls inside the louvered siding. They were divided into 8 cubicles, each with a mattress, sheets, and pillows, and a small open space where we gathered. (housing 8 of us - a mix of Officers (1st Lieutenants and Captains) and Warrant Officers - all pilots, between the ages of about 20 and 23.
By that night I had met a several of the guys in that hooch and we sat up and talked while they used a PRC-25 radio ("Prick-25") to listen to some local air traffic between some cross country flight of Hueys. They were talking to a voice at “Delta Center” - the air traffic control center for the entire 4th corps ("Delta") area of the country. As it approached midnight, the radio conversation began to get more curious. Some pilots were reporting an unidentified aircraft approaching from the north, bating the unsuspecting guy who was the radio voice of Delta Center. The conversation went something like this - I wish I could recall it in better detail - it was quite funny.
“Delta Center, this is Foxtrot Four-Five. We have an unidentified aircraft appears to be flying at very high speed, approaching from the north.”
“Roger Foxtrot, can you make out the type of aircraft?”
“Roger Delta Center. It appears to be a bright red aircraft with some type of creatures running ahead of it. The ship appears to have an open cockpit, and the pilot is wearing a bright red flight suit with long white facial hair.” Then silence - the guy at Delta Center knew he’d been had by the jokesters flying the Foxtrot aircraft.
----------
I spent a quiet night that Chrismas Eve, and woke up to begin to learn my way arounf the Troop (Company) area on a quiet, boring Chrismas Day.
I don't have a shot of the mess hall - a large half plywood - half tent sructure that seated a couple hundred guys at one sitting. But below are a few shots of the immediate area of the whole squadron (Three Troops, totaling about 600 men.). Our hooch was the first one.
Back door of my (Scout plattoon) hooch - the Engineers supply yard beyond (see stacks of lumber and steel). The wall of grey sandbags on right foreground were our "bunker" (Mortar shelter). A place to run in to in our underwear and bare feet) at night when "Charlie" sent his 2:00 am "greetings" a couple times a month. 
Front of the hooches. The hooches are in rows with tin roofs - the truck bringing the guys from the flight line at days end. My hooch was last one on the left. Our flight line was only a few hundred yards, but required a long trip around a 3,000 fixed-wing runway that we were not allowed to cross.
My favorite part of the Company area. We had 3 of us officers (and Warrant officers) and 3 enlisted guys who played all the time on days off or in the evening after dinner. The "full court" has another hoop at the other (left) end.
Looking down the Company "street". That little ditch on the left would later become "famous" for me after a night of too much alcohol at the "Officers-club".
Some flight-line photos later
TBC
|
