Vietnam is not a popular item of interest but I thought it was interesting how I got around in Vietnam after reaching Saigon. Other than giving me quarters with another NCO in a hotel built to house troops coming and going, I was left alone for a couple of weeks. I therefore became a tourist until I went upcountry! At the end, awaiting orders for home in Saigon, I again became a tourist for about a month.
In Saigon I ran into a guy I went through basic training with. He had a military job in Saigon but also ran a bar and restaurant he had bought with money from his dad. Thus I never again ate at the greasy spoon mess hall on top of a military hotel. My friend rode around in an antique British car with lots of chrome and leather seats. I ate supper at his place, which was managed by a middle age lady whose husband had been killed by the Communists. I enjoyed breakfast and lunch at a small restaurant on a side street run by a retired American navy guy and his Vietnamese wife.
Near the end of my one year tour, after getting out of a hospital in Japan I returned to Saigon for about six weeks waiting for orders and a flight to the USA. I was unattached and had no duties so I became a tourist. I ate good meals at my friend’s bar and restaurant and at a Vietnamese tourist restaurant on top of a hotel. Sometimes as we ate on the roof we heard the rumble of bombs and saw far off tracers.
It is interesting how I got around Vietnam while at II Corps. In going up to the Central Highlands near Pleiku the first time I rode a beat up C-47 loaded with RVN soldiers. We stopped at a landing field to let the soldiers off and went on to the airfield near Pleiku. A couple of months after arrival at Pleiku I was told to report to Saigon to receive an award granted at my last assignment in the USA. So I climbed on a C-130, my favorite transport plane, and in landing at Tan Son Nhut airfield a C-47 blew a tire in front of us and we had to power up and come around to land again. A C-130 is rugged!
After a few months I was ordered to fly down to Nha Trang for a weekend of meetings and rest. I hitched a ride on a trusty C-130. While at Nha Trang I ate lobsters at a French restaurant. The NCO in charge of our post office in Cam Rhan Bay was said to be sick and I had time to go check on him. With my M-16, which I carried everywhere, I caught a ride on an Army Carabao – light US Army two-engine transport. I enjoyed looking at the coastline, jungle, bays and streams on the way down.
I found Cam Rhan Bay to be hot, stinking and unhealthy. The Army mess was in a hot tent with screen sides, with flies buzzing about. A huge pile of ruined sacks of cement sat on the wharf. Someone said it came in but no one came for it. The sick post office sergeant was lying on a bunk in a storage room behind the post office slots where units picked up mail. He needed a doctor! It was hot and dust lay on everything. I thought of our cool Central Highlands and was glad I served up there.
I took the first ride out which was by the coastal highway. A sergeant was delivering a small convoy of supply vehicles to Nha Trang. He told me I could ride “Shotgun” with my M-16 and 45 Army Colt automatic pistol, which I toted all over Vietnam. In reply to my question, he said there had been a few ambushes and roadside bombs along the highway. It was a lovely, sunny day with colorful scenery along the road. We crossed a river on a flat barge pushed by a big outboard motor. We passed a section where a South Korean division operated in and the sergeant said if the Koreans wanted info from a captured enemy, they took him up on a C-130, lowered the rear ramp and give him a choice of talking or jumping. They usually talked!
Such was life in 1965 in Nam.
