newsletter issue #18a - c-7a caribou

February 2003 C-7A Caribou Association Page RM

Charleston, Here We Come!This year we are holding our annual C-7A Caribou re-

union in the beautiful and historic city of Charleston,South Carolina. This should be a really great reunion. Agood many members have already signed up. And theweather in Charleston in November should be about per-fect.

Our fun officially starts on Wednes-day the 5th and ends with our banqueton Saturday night. Arrive early enoughWednesday to check in to the hotel, reg-ister and then join everyone in the warroom. But don’t stay up all nightWednesday night because the activitiesstart early Thursday morning.

Thursday starts with a grand tour ofCharleston AFB. We will have a mission briefing and atour of the C-17. This event should prove to be very in-teresting. We should learn what roll the 437th Airlift Wing,played in Operation Enduring Freedom. Hopefully we canclimb aboard the C-17 and possibly sit in the cockpit andtry to imagine landing or taking off from Bagdad Inter-national, making all of the zig-zaj turns while climbingout so as to avoid RPG’s. And there are some pretty har-rowing tales of the C-17 flying into Afghanistan.

And of course any grand tour of an Air Force Baseincludes a BX run.

The welcome reception is Thursday evening. Accord-ing to Wayne Delawter, there should be ample snacks andgoodies to suffice for dinner for most of us.

Guided bus tours start at 0945 Friday. You will be shownhistorical Charleston’s Battery, Slave Market, The Cita-del and beautiful old homes before being dropped-off

point for your choice of the Fort Sumtertour, Aquarium, IMAX or continue tothe market area for lunch, shopping, etc.Later everyone who desires will bebussed to The Citadel for their dressparade.

And of course Charleston is whereGeneral Beauregard’s army fired thefirst shot of the Civil War on FortSumter. If you have interest in the civilwar or Charleston, you might want to

search Google for some very handy and interesting in-formation on Charleston, Fort Sumter, GeneralBeauregard and the Civil War.

Friday evening is reserved for some story telling (anda lot or retelling!) of the many heroic acts and brave deedsso many of us performed while doing our duties to keepAmerica safe and comfortable for us to enjoy in our re-tirement years. And “show and tell” is a special event forthe evening. Be sure to bring your pictures, orders, orwhatever, to share with the rest of us.

Saturday morning there are more tours of MiddletonPlace Plantation or Charleston. There is the all importantbusiness meeting at 1400 hours. Then the banquet at 1830hours followed by more fun in the war room. It will be along and happy day.

Sunday morning we will awake and have our coffeeand say our goodbyes for yet another year. We should alllook forward to our 15th Annual Reunion in Midland-Odessa Texas, hosted by Tiny Malm. Tiny is billing the15th as a super reunion.

See you all in Charleston in a couple of months.

C-17s from Charleston AFB and McChord AFB are here ready todeploy in support of the war on terror. CAFB was established as thestage location in January for C-17 missions. The base is hosting moreC-17s than ever before, and at one point, more than 40 planes wereon the CAFB flightline. (Photo by Staff Sgt.Corey Clements)

Volume1, Issue 18 September 2003Newsletter

C-7AC-7ACaribou Association

Is This A Good Deal, Or What?!Value that you won’t find anywhere else!When an organization like ours books their event in a

city like Charleston, the planner is deluged with tour com-pany phone calls, broachers and letters seeking our busi-ness. Like all businesses they are attempting to be com-

See Good Deal on page 6

In This IssueAssociation Business ............... Page 2

Reunion News ........................... Page 5

Hutch on Intercom .................... Page 8

Mail Call .................................... Page 9

War Stories ................................ 3

C-7A Caribou Association September 2003

The C-7A Caribou Association Newsletter is the officialpublication of the C-7A Caribou Association.

C-7A Caribou Association Web Sitewww.C-7Acaribou.com

Officers, Board Members, Committee Members

Wayne Delawter - President/Board Member458th 66Peter Bird -Vice President/Board Member 535th 71Earl Reynolds - Treasurer/Board Member537th 66Jim Collier - Secretary/Board Member/Roster Chairman537th 67Bob Dugan - Chairman of Board537th 68Stoney Faubus - Board Member458th 68Rick Patterson - Board Member459th 69Bill Avon - Recruitment Chairman537th 68Dave Hutchens - Newsletter Editor459th 69Peter Bird - Webmaster535th 71 Bob Davis - Chaplain457th 69Bob Markham - Bereavement Chairman459th 69Wayne Delawter - Reunion Advisor458th 66Nick Evanish - President Emeritus457th 66Christine Phillips - Reunion Coordinator

Please advise the Association of any change ofaddress, phone number, or e-mail address. Send yourchanges to:

Jim Collier5607 Jolly Ct.Fair Oaks, CA 95628-2707

Dues are payable annually. Enclose your checkwith your registration form for the annual reunion orsend your check to Jim Collier.

I would like to encourage members who mighthave a humorous incident, interesting anecdote, or an ex-citing story, to share it with all members of our associa-tion. E-mail, snail mail, airmail, or pony express mail it tome, & I will see that it gets published. Pictures are wel-come. I will return the originals if specified.

Dave Hutchens (918) 272-351817916 E. 96th Street North [email protected] Owasso, OK 74055

Association BusinessProposed Agenda

2003 General Membership MeetingNovember 8, 2003

Assemble 1355 –1400Room: Ashley II

1400—1410 Call to OrderWelcome and Introductions (officers/board members)Collection of proxiesEstablishment of QuorumApproval of AgendaRules of order with defined limit ofspeaking duration

1410 – 1415 Old BusinessApproval of 2002 General Member

ship Meeting MinutesFollow-up of Action Items

1415 – 1425 Financial ReportResults of the audit. by Pat Dugan,

Norma Savage, Sherry AllisonTreasurer’s explanation of thefinancial reportFinancial Discussion

1425 — 1445 Review of Past Years Board IssuesFrequency of future reunionsBoardmember assignmentsImproving boardmember’s work

distributionSelection of Bereavement ChairmanSearch for a ChaplainAlcohol policyRFP criteriaMerchandise between reunionsBreak (only if deemed needed)

1445 – 1515 New BusinessMotions (TBD)Future reunionsNominating CommitteeElections

Announcements: Where, when & how we will takereunion pictures

During training exercises, the lieutenant who wasdriving down a muddy back road encountered anothercar stuck in the mud with a red-faced colonel at thewheel. “Your jeep stuck, sir?” asked the lieutenant ashe pulled alongside. “Nope,” replied the colonel, com-ing over and handing him the keys, “Yours is.”

September 2003 C-7A Caribou Association

From Our Vice President andWebMaster

As we approach four years with a web site, I note thatthe hit counter is approaching 50,000 or over 1,000 permonth. For those of you who haven’t been following

things too closely, there is now a Miss-ing Man page for our brothers whohave passed on. I have also added aRetiree Info page, mostly with infor-mation for retirees, but it also has gen-eral interest articles. Through a lot ofhard work on Dave Hutchens’ part, wenow have just about a completearchive of past newsletters. I haveremoved the open page with the com-

plete Roster as a precaution against web crawlers look-ing for email addresses. As usual, I am behind on gettingphotos posted due to my limited time. We continue toget a slow trickle of new members through the site, as a

I have had an interesting year as the Vice President ofthe C-7A Caribou Association. Other than the usual du-ties of working with Wayne Delawter and the rest of theBoard, I made one original contribution. I mailed outpostcards to members who had forgotten to pay their duesover the past several years. Much to my surprise, about50% of the dues collection to date was generated by thosecards. I will be following up with another mailing tomembers even further out of date. I am looking forwardto the best reunion yet for our Association. See you allin Charleston!

Peter Bird, Vice President

Vice PresidentPeter Bird

search on Google for “C-7A Caribou” comes up with oursite as the first hit. Any suggestions or corrections to theinformation on the site are always welcome.

Peter Bird, Webmaster

WORKERS REQUIRED!!

See WORKERS page 4

In the past, additional workerswere not required to run the CaribouAssociation because it was a one-manshow - Nick Evanish. He put out theNews Letter almost all by himself, hedid all the planning and execution ofthe reunions, and only when he gotto the reunions themselves did heneed a lot of extra help.

This all changed in 1997 at theBiloxi reunion, when it was votedthat Nick needed more help. Severalof us ‘old timers’ would help him invarious ways - we manned the signin and material sales tableswhen Nick needed a break. This ishistory...not the present. Our presentmethod of administration requiresthat we have more manpower re-sources to insure that when help isneeded, it will be available with justa click of the mouse. For about thepast five or so years, there has been amore or less ‘dedicated core’ of in-dividuals who have carried all theresponsibilit ies on theirbacks. Because most of them are theolder members, it is only to be ex-pected that some of them are ap-proaching what we call “burn

out”. Just like you experienced backin Vietnam, we need to import a con-stant number of “FNGs” to keepthings flowing smoothly, and wecould use ‘new blood’ and new ideasall the time. If we don’t get this, thealternative is surely going to be ourAssociation moving to the Every-Other-Year (EOY) method ofreunions. In fact, about 52% of themembership voted to have the EOYtype of reunion in both 1998 & 1999.

The officers and boardmembers have put their heads to-gether and have identified and re-aligned the duties we need help on. Amajor improvement will come withall future board members assumingmajor responsibilities, project and/orchairmanships.

One of the greatest reunionworkloads is borne by the ReunionPlanner. Wayne Delawter has agreedto be our reunion planner if we go toan EOY reunion. He will accept con-tinuation as President if the boardmembers share equally the major re-sponsibilit ies or chairmanshippositions. Pete Bird has agreed tocontinue as VP, with the additional

duties of being in charge of ourwebsite, as roster chairman, and asvice chairman of the BereavementCommittee. Bob Markham voluntar-ily accepted the Chairmanship of theBereavement Committee. Bob Duganis stepping down from his role andwill not run for any other position.Earl Reynolds has agreed toaccept our dues and take over thebanking duties, so he will henceforthbe known as the “Tax Collector” (injest), and as an attorney, he will alsoact in our behalf to keep us out oftrouble. In the loss column, DaveHutchens is giving up his position asEditor of the Newsletter. Jim Collieris shedding his duties ofSecretary. Bob Davis is steppingdown from his role as Chaplain, andBob Dugan is stepping down from hisrole and will not run for an otherposition. We have an ordained min-ister accepting the Chaplain dutiesfor this year, at least.

So when all is said and done, weneed working board members for thefollowing:


Hangar Flying With GrandpaCol Wilbert Turk, our third Commander of the 483rd

TAW, 30 September 1968 – 3 September 1969, has col-lected over twenty-nine years of Air Force memories inhis new book titled “Hangar Flying With Grandpa.” Hisassignments carried him to the WWII Pacific Theater,Europe, Middle East, Arctic, Antarctica, Vietnam, andother important areas of the world. Although it seems thatCol Turk’s first love was the C-130, he stresses that the483rd assignment and the C-7 Caribou were a very impor-tant part of his career. He uses a full chapter to describehis year in Vietnam.

Col Turk dedicated this book to his beloved wife andgrandchildren. He sent me a copy to first read and thenplace in the archives of the C-7A Caribou Association.He signed the book with the following comments: “Tothe brave men of the 483rd Wing and other USAF andSister forces, I say you fought one helliva war while po-litically restrained from destroying the enemy opposingus. Some call it war – I call it slaughter of 58,000 Ameri-cans who died in a hopeless cause. Signed: W.T. 12/19/2002.”

What a beautiful gift Wilbert leaves to his grandchil-dren, and to everyone else who picks up the book andfollows Wilbert through his long and distinguished ser-vice career. “Hanger Flying with Grandpa” is a very goodread.

The book may be purchased on the Internet at: 1st

books.com; amazon.com; your favorite bookstore, or fromthe author at [email protected].

Some of the Caribou Squadrons had historians ap-pointed to record their unit’s history or daily events. EarlReynolds was his squadron’s historian during his tour[537, 66]. Someone recorded the 459th history during the69-70 period. If anyone has any knowledge of the recordedhistories, or the people who recorded the histories, pleaseattempt to get the histories or information back to DaveHutchens. He will preserve them for our next historianwho should be appointed soon.

Squadron Historians

If you’r not attending the reunion and wish to al-low someone to represent you by proxy at the generalmembership meeting, fill-in your name and themember’s name that will hold your proxy.

I, ______________________________, herebydesignate one of the following members my proxy,with the power of substitution to vote for me at the2003 C7-A Caribou Association Membership Meet-ing, or at any adjournment thereof, with all powers Iwould possess if present.

If you wish, you may select by checking one of theboard members below or writing-in a person’s name.

___Wayne DeLawter ___Peter Bird___Jim Collier___Earl Reynolds

___Bob Dugan___Stoney Faubus___Rick Patterson___Write-in _____________________________Signed: ________________________________

e-mail this form to Christine [email protected] who will take it to the re-union. If you don’t have e-mail, you may mail it to:Christine Phillips, P.O. Box 143, Folcroft, PA 19032.

Workers from page 3

To continue with reunions every year after 2004 weneed another trained Reunion Planner able to plan andcoordinate the reunions every year.

Secretary - takes the minutes at business meetings,reports board votes, and is our official ‘letter writer’ whencalled upon.

Newsletter Editor - must have a working knowledgeabout putting together a good informative newsletter.

Election Chairman - must be willing to screen, in-terview and aid in selecting viable candidates for allelected positions.

Recruitment Chairman - must be willing to followup on all leads, regardless of their origins, in an attemptto build the membership of the organization.

Historian - a relatively new position. Must be will-ing to dig through “mountains’ of information and have afeeling for separating the wheat from the chaff and for-mat this into an interesting and informative format suit-able for inclusion in our newsletters and website.

Gentlemen, it’s time to take your turn and not justcome to the reunions and sit and drink with your old bud-dies. People like this abound, but I know there’s a lot ofmembers who would like to have a hand in our decisionsand in what’s going on.

Give yourselves and us a chance...volunteer for somesatisfying work.

Bob Dugan, Board Chairman

If you are planning to see the Charleston Aquariumwhile others do the Fort Sumter tour, please notifyme of this. We’ve just learned that we can get you adiscount rate of $10 only if we make your bookingin advance. Contact me about this via email or in-clude a note on your registration form along with the$10 for your ticket if you haven’t sent it in yet. Chris-tine

[email protected]

IMPORTANT!!


Reunion News

C-7A Caribou Association14th Annual Reunion

Radisson Hotel Charleston Airport591 Rivers Avenue

Charleston, SC 29406November 5 - 8 2003

Wednesday, November 5th

1400 – 2300 Registration and socializing in theWar Room

Thursday, November 6th

0945 – 1500 Charleston AFB Tour1700 - 2300 Welcome Reception in War Room

Friday, November 7th

0945 – 1730 Guided Tours around Charleston1700 – 2300 War Room Open (Be sure to bring

your show-and-tell stuff.)

Saturday, Sept 8th

0900 – 1300 Charleston Tours1400 – 1530 Business Meeting1630 Group Pictures1730 Cocktail Hour1830 Banquet2000 – ???? War Room Open

REGISTRATION & CANCELLA-TION INFORMATION FOR 2003REUNION

To keep the cost of everything at the lowest price weare providing tours, transportation and banquet meals atour cost. When a service is contracted they typically re-quire that 2 days before the event we give them the num-ber of attendees. They need this for their planning pur-poses and they will charge us for that number.

If you must cancel out from the reunion after pre-reg-istering we will refund any monies that were paid if youcall us with your cancellation before we are locked-in.

My home phone # is 610-522-5981. Please use thisnumber until Saturday, November 01, 2003.

From Sunday, November 02 – 08, 2003 you may call484-410-8035, which is my cell phone number. If youcall and leave a message on my cell phone and don’t hearfrom me within a day, please call the hotel and ask forChristine Phillips room. You need to speak directly tome about tours and banquet cancellations and you needto call the hotel to cancel your room reservation at 1-843-744-2501.

On the other hand, I am asking that all Registrationforms and Checks be received by me NLT October 15,2003. I believe that most mail is delivered in 5-7 busi-ness days so please allow enough time for your registra-tion to reach me in PA.

This is only 3 weeks before the reunion and we need itfor our planning.

If for some reason you must register after October15th please call me to register at 610-522-5981 as toursmay be limited. Christine Phillips

Friday Evening at 1700 hours is Show & Tell time in thewar room.This is the time to bring all of your oldpictures and memorabilia, articles and artifacts, maps,logs, orders, or what ever you have that you can sharewith the rest of us. Orders are interesting. Sometimesyou can find old buddies names on someone elsesorders. It could be a good place to start looking for newmembers. Squadron patches are hard to find as well assquadron articles. As a matter of fact we need goodcopies, scans or pictures of squadron patches to add toour collection on the web site. Remember that ourmembership represents a span of about six years in VietNam. A lot changed in those six years. It will be fun toshare our experiences.

Show and Tell...


Early Bird Registrations

Aubray & Judy AbramsMax & Shirley AllisonPeter & Pattie BirdJames & Barbara BisardBob & Eveyln BowersPat & Lesley BrooksArthur CandenquistWilliam ClarkeJim & Betty CollierTom & Chantel CollinsRobert Cooper & Mary FurrieAl & Shirley CunliffeDick & Maria DarvasWayne & Patty DelawterBob & Pat DuganRoy & Burma DunnStoney & Melva FaubusHuey & Mary FryeTom GastonDon & Sue GriffinJim HaglerGeorge & Rebekah HarmonBob & Eula Mae HopkinsDave & Jill HutchensRichard & Mary KentJim & Sandy LaneySteve & Sandy LentzBob MarkhamDave & Kaye MellertRobert & Janice Miller

Phil & Lynn MolohoskiJohn & Pat MoodRobert & Iola NeumayerTom & Cheryl NeutzlingHarry NortonArthur & Pat OxleyRick & Antionette PattersonBob & Yong PayneBill PerryPaul & Christine PhillipsTerrell & Mae Rene PresleyGery Putnam & Alta AndrewsRalph Renfro & GabrielleSwoffordHarry & Maggie RexroadEarl & Pam ReynoldsRussell & Sue RigglemanKeith & Opal RylandJohn SamsRex & Norma SanfordLarry & Lee SchiffAllen & Karen ShanahanBobby & Wynell SladeWilliam & Ann SmithDon SpanksBob & Sondra TaylorCurry TaylorJohn & Elaine TeskeLee WaiteClyde & Judy Wilson

As of this date the the followng members and wives and guests haveregistered for the reunion. It looks as though we are going to have a verygood turnout in Charleston this year. Remember, first timers will bewearing blue name tags. Let’s be sure to give them a hardy welcomeand show them that we are happy to have them aboard.

On some air bases the Air Force is on one side ofthe field and civilian aircraft use the other side of thefield, with the control tower in the middle. One daythe tower received a call from an aircraft asking, “Whattime is it?” The tower responded, “Who is calling?”The aircraft replied, “What difference does it make?”The tower replied, “It makes a lot of difference. If it isan American Airlines flight, it is 3 o’clock. If it is anAir Force plane, it is 1500 hours. If it is a Navy air-craft, it is 6 bells. If it is an Army aircraft, the big handis on the 12 and the little hand is on the 3. If it is aMarine Corps aircraft, it’s Thursday afternoon and 120minutes to “Happy Hour.”

Radisson Hotel ReservationsThe Radisson hotel will hold a block of rooms until

October 7, 2003 at 1500 hours. You are responsible formaking your room reservation as described on the regis-tration form. After this time any rooms remaining in theblock will be released for public sale. Individual callingafter the 30-day release date will be sold on a space avail-able basis at the group rate. The discounted group rate isvalid five days before and after the reunion dates. Check-in time is at 3:00 p.m. and check-out time is at noon.Extensions can be made in advance if available.

petitive but yet make a reasonableprofit. What our reunion’s plannerattempts to do is provide events thatduplicate and are as enjoyable asthose of large tour companies andconvention centers.

An example of the value of mak-ing the arrangements ourselves ismost apparent by looking at the costof our Friday transportation and tourguides. The commercial tour com-panies charge $42 per person for atour of historic Charleston and TheCitadel. We’ve been able to offer thesame tour that provides more flexibil-ity, options and events for $11. Isthat a great deal or not? The savingsper couple for the day would pay amember’s annual dues (Caribou Tax)for 6 years and still have change left-over.

Another way we’ve reduced thecost of a reunion is by intense nego-tiations with the hotels and caterers.It is difficult to reach agreementswith hotels that will let us bring inour own snacks and drinks. The costof snacks and drinks would again bemore than triple what our $1 perdrink will be if they were sold to usby the hotel. So when you pay your$1 for each individual drink, remem-ber that this is a heck of a deal.

Good Deal from page 1


Four retired Air Force vets were walking down thestreet window shopping. They turned a corner and sawa sign that said “Veterans Bar” over the door of an es-tablishment that didn’t look all that well kept. Theylooked at each other with much skepticism, but thenthey went in.

On the inside, they realized they did indeed “judgethe book by its cover.” Then the old bartender holleredacross the room, “Come on in, gents, and let me pouryou one! What’ll it be?”

There was a fully stocked bar and the men all askedfor a martini. In short time the bartender served up 4lovely iced martinis - shaken not stirred and said,“That’ll be 40 cents, please.” The four men stared atthe bartender for a moment then looked at each other -they could not believe their good luck. They paid the40 cents, finished their martinis and ordered anotherround. Again, four excellent martinis were set up andagain the bartender said, “That’s 40 more cents, please.”They paid the 40 cents but their curiosity was morethan they could stand. They each had two martinis andso far they’d spent less than a dollar.

Finally, one of the men said, “How can you affordto serve martinis as good as these for a dime a piece?”

The bartender replied, “No doubt you’ve noticed thedecor in here. And the outside ain’t nothin’ to writehome about either. I don’t waste money on that stuff.But, here’s my story. I’m a retired Master ChiefBoatswain’s Mate and I always wanted to own a bar.Last year I hit the lottery for $45 million and decidedto open this place for real veterans. Every drink costsa dime — wine, liquor, beer, all the same.”

”Wow! That’s quite a story” said one of the men.The four of them sipped at their martinis, but couldn’thelp noticing three other guys at the end of the barwho didn’t have a drink in front of them and hadn’tordered anything the whole time they were there. Oneman finished his martini and gestured at the three atthe end of the bar without drinks and asked the bar-tender, What’s with them?”

The bartender said, “Oh, those guys are retired Ma-rines. They’re waiting for happy hour!”

Veteran’s Bar

Bereavement CommitteeWe of the C-7A Caribou Association Bereavement

Committee would like to extend our thanks to those whohave notified of the loss of a loved one. It is our smallway to express our deepest sympathy and condolence fromthe Caribou association.

We would like to direct your attention to the web sitewww.c-7acaribou.com, missing man section. This sectionis in Honor of our recent lost comrades.Bob Markham, Chairman Bereavement committee838 Chestnut Ave., Redlands CA 92373 (909)[email protected]

From Our Reunion CoordinatorSo far we have 15 new reunion attendees this year that

will join us in Charleston, South Carolina November 5-8, 2003. The 537 Squadron has been working very hardwith 6 new attendees. It is early so I am sure we willhave a great group of first timers in South Carolina.

537 Squadron- Aubray and Judy Abrams537 Squadron- James and Barbara Bisard537 Squadron- Tom and Chantell Collins537 Squadron- Dave and Kaye Mellert537 Squadron- Gery Putnam and Alta Andrews537 Squadron- Keith and Opal Ryland536 Squadron- Jim Hagler535 Squadron- Arthur Candenquist535 Squadron- William Clark535 Squadron- William and Ann Smith483 Squadron- John Sams459 Squadron- Patrick and Lesley Brooks459 Squadron- Larry and Lee Schiff458 Squadron- Robert and Janice Miller458 Squadron- Harry Norton

We also have from the 457 Squadron John and PatMood coming all the way from Hawaii this year.

We have several first time attendees as well as some ofour very dedicated caribou members who have volun-teered to help.

Patrick and Lesley BrooksJohn and Kaye MellertRobert and Iola NeumayerWayne and Patty Delawter

I want to thank everyone who volunteers to help dur-ing the reunion. I enjoy working with all the CaribouFamily and I look forward to meeting our newest Cari-bou members. Christine Phillips


Hutch on IntercomWith this being my last issue of

editing the Newsletter I want to leteveryone know how much I have en-joyed my stint as editor.

When Jim Collier approached meduring the Tucson reunion in 1999and asked me if I would help out withthe newsletter I of course agreed tohelp. But I had no idea of what I wasgetting into. Jim evidently knew thatI had owned a printing business andhe obviously thought he saw a quickway to put to bed a burden (publish-ing the newsletter) which had beenborn by Nick Evanish for so manyyears. Wayne Delawter had publishedthe newsletter prior to the Tucson re-union, and Jim surely did not wantto shoulder the job himself. For mypart, I imagined that someone elsewould write the newsletter and that Iwould help in the way of maybe type-setting, printing and mailing it. Thatis the kind of stuff that we did in theprinting business. But I had never inmy life written an article for publi-cation, and creative writing was notmy forte. But I thank you Jim forthrusting me into the wonderful jobof editing the Caribou AssociationNewsletter.

Fast forward to September 2003,nine newsletters later. I want to trulythank each and every one of you whohave sent in articles, e-mails, letters,large envelopes full of good stuff,phone calls, and for the many con-versations and suggestions discussedduring our reunions and gettogethers. Those contributions are theonly things that keep a newsletteralive. One person runs out of ideas,things to write about, and stories toprint very soon after he starts.

I well remember the first articlesthat I received. Jerry Presley e-mailedme four stories, “Orders for Nam”(Issue 12); “Phase Dock Mainte-nance” (Issue 13); “KP at the Offic-ers’ Mess” (Issue 14); and“Augmentee Duty” (Issue 16). Thestories were truly funny and broughtback many, many memories, and I

was really anxious to share the sto-ries with all of you. I was so thrilledthat I would have some good storiesto place in the newsletter. Only afterI thought about it for a while did Iresist the temptation to place all fourstories in the next issue. I exercisedextreme discipline and printed onlyone story per newsletter issue. Ididn’t have any idea what would beavailable for the next issue so Ineeded to ration out the stories. Andabout that time a lot of you guysstarted sending in more of the goodstuff that is the real meat of a news-letter.

But now it is time for change.Change for the sake of change doeshave beneficial results. New formats,new content, and new input are allbeneficial. As of this writing we havenot identified a new editor. Hope-fully someone will step forward andaccept the challenges and responsi-bilities that this assignment offers.The rewards are gratifying in that youknow that you are providing a ser-vice for so many people. If one of youis moved by the call to duty, Wayneor I will gladly discuss the opportu-nity with you.

In order to provide continuity dur-ing a change of editors I will continueto act as a collector or receiver ofarticles and information until a neweditor is appointed. Continue to sendyour good stuff to me until we ad-vise further. I will offer all the assis-tance that I can to the new editor. Ihave a pretty extensive file systemboth on paper and in the computer tohand over to the next editor.

I can’t emphasize strongly enoughthe importance of continuing to feedthe newsletter your stories and anec-dotes. There must be a bazillion ofthem out there. Really, everyone hasone. And from the feedback I receiveall of our members are overly anx-ious to read them. A new editor willneed all the help you can give him.And most importantly, the newslet-ter is yours and will only be as goodas the input that all of you provide.

I am not a Charles Yeager,And I’m sure not Richard Bong;In fact most things that I attemptIn airplanes turn out wrong!

But I love the smell of ADI,And engines that are round.And I love to hear the big-bore bird.With it’s deep, unbridled sound.

And I love to go to Reno,And I love to watch them fly.Tho it breaks my heart to seeA fellow aviator die.

But I know they’ll go on flying.And I know that so will I.For nothing short of death will everKeep us from the sky.

And I’ll never know what makes us so,Were we just born to fly?Or did we get hooked the first time we

sawAn airplane in the sky’!Now some men feel a three piece suitIs proof they’ve passed the test,Or driving a Mercedes Benz,Or a Rolex on their wrist.

I shall be forever grateful.That He chose me from the rest,To spend my life in uniform,And brother to the best.

And when my life is over.And it’s time that I should die;I hope He’ll let me join the crowdIn His hangar in the sky.

And there, we’ll raise another glassAnd re-tell all those lies,About our mis-adventuresWay up yonder. in the skies,

By Michael J. Larkin

I have given the job my best shot.It has been my real pleasure to serve.Dave Hutchens, [459,69]Outgoing News-letter Editor

The Aviator


Mail CallMail CallMail CallMail CallMail CallDave,I went through some of my foot-

locker full of memories and collectedsome stuff you might be able to use(or get to someone that can. I don’tneed any of this back.)

1.The roster of Class 70C-52.Somebody sketched the “Cari-

bou Mafia” on a Dyess O’Club barnapkin. It didn’t copy very well so Iincluded the original. Dyess OfficersClub had a rule that they would notclose the club as long as a full colo-nel was present. (I think they changedthat after our class left.) Our classwas split into groups for flight train-ing in the Bou. Under the leadershipof Col. King all of us “Old Guys”flew in the afternoon so we slept-inin the morning. The “Old Guys” fre-quently gathered in the O’Clubaround the piano to sing hymns andother stuff to while away the eveninghours.

3.Enclosed is an original of the fulllyrics of Col. King’s favorite hymn,Rock of Ages (as handed out at ourgraduation gathering).

4.The color picture of the YellowTail on the ramp at Can Tho is fromthe Can Tho website http://www.cantho-rvn.org.

5.Two volumes of the series, “TheUnited States Air Force in SoutheastAsia: Tactical Airlift,” and “Develop-ment and Employment of Fixed WingGunships: 1962 – 1972.” offer someinteresting references (the officialversion and what happened!).

6.My only copy of the CaribouClarion is Vol. I No. 14. And I have aspare copy.

Of the members of 70C-5, JohnieJohnson, Jerry McCannon, John E.“Jack” Thorne and I all came out ofKC-135’s at Fairchild AFB.

Don “Tiny” Malm found out wehad met before when he was up inNorth Idaho visiting his sister backwhen I was still in high school. Onenight we had a big drag race and hestill can’t remember that I won.

I can remember all the faces but

not many of the names of the guys inthe 536th.

Along with the 536th’s “Ice-Ma-chine” saga I guess my only othernoteworthy accomplishment waswhen I was in the little “SpecialSnack Bar” at Bien Hoa (the one thathad all the goodies brought in by thecommercial airline crews from theStates: good bread, cold cuts, snacks,etc.) Anyway, we were getting a loadfrom Rocket Alley to haul to SongBe. But back to the snack bar. WhileI was in the snack bar I found outthere freezer was broken and theirsupply of stateside frozen Pizzaswere in jeopardy. I made them an of-fer they couldn’t refuse for a fewcases (all that they had). We tookthem up for the guys at Song Be (atcost) since I knew they had this greatelectric oven and nothing to cook init. I coulda run for mayor there. I alsodrew 2nd shift Santa Bou on the 24th,Christmas Eve, for the 536th. Thatwas a magical experience.

Nuff for now. Jerry Zierdt [536,70]Jerry, I have all of the goodies and will beholding them for the next historian. What’swith. the 536th’s “Ice-Machine” saga? Ed.

20 February 2003I am one of the four (4) founders

of the Army Otter & Caribou Asso-ciation that was founded here in Co-lumbus in 1985.

I was invited by Nick Evanish tocome over to Warner Robins, GAAFB to talk to your members duringyour second (2nd) annual reunion.Nick mentioned he wanted to hearabout some of the problems we en-countered when we were just gettingstarted in hopes you folks could avoidsome of these problems. I must say Ireally enjoyed the day with yourmembers at that reunion. The Presi-dent of our Association at that timeattended the reunion with me and

both of us joined your Associationthat day. Our President died a fewyears after we attended your reunion,but I have continued my membershipduring the ensuing years.

I want you to know that I havewatched your Association growthrough out the years since your 2ndreunion and I am so proud of whatyou folks have been able to accom-plish. I was so pleased to see that youhad finally got down to some seriousbusiness and started running it like abusiness by electing officers, gettingyour by-laws together and spreadingthe work load around to others whowere willing to help move your As-sociation forward.

One of the improvements I am sopleased about is your Newsletter. Itis obvious that your folks take timeto put this information together in aform that makes the members happy.I look back at some of the LOG-BOOKS our Association published inour early years and break out andlaugh. But, on the other hand it justshows how much our means of get-ting information has improved.

I’ve just read your February 2003Issue #17 and thoroughly enjoyedevery page of this Newsletter. I knowDave Hutchens must be very proudof what he is doing for his members.

I’m aware that my dues are paidfor 2003, but I want to stay aheadbecause at my age 76 I have a ten-dency to forget when some importantthings need to be paid, and I don’twant to miss a single issue of yourNewsletter. Enclosed please find mycheck #7328 in the amount of $30.00to cover an additional three (3) yearsof membership with you folks.

Sincerely, Bill G. Hooks

Some weeks prior to the seige ofDak Seang I was giving Msgt DaleChristensen a check ride. We weredelivering from Pleiku.


On landing at Dak Seang we brokea wheel on the right main landinggear. While waiting for a new wheelto arrive Chris and I had a grand tourof the camp. I could not believe whatI was seeing. The Grunts lived inholes in the ground, the walls weresupported by anything they couldscrounge. Some of them had aircraftaluminum pallets for walls that I wastold the Air Force wanted returned,but of course I never saw any of this.

During this tour Chris made onestatement that has been with me forwell over thirty years. “THISWOULD BE A HELL OF A PLACETO DIE FOR” and as most of usknow Chris, along with Lt Train andLt Suprenant, were the first to bedowned on April 2 -1970.

Ed Hardy537 Phu Cat 69 70

ARRIVALWe, (I say “we” because my

memory is not as good as it was thirtyplus years ago) about ten flight engi-neers from C-5’s and C-141’s, leftCalifornia on 1 July, 1969, thenstopped over at Clark A.B. for a weekor so for a little jungle survival. Wearrived at Saigon around the middleof July.

We were taken to a barracks thatseemed to be a hundred yards longwith double bunks about ten inchesin between. The place smelled likea dumpster. We decided this placewas below our standard of living sowe headed for Base O.P.S. As we en-tered ops, a captain was leaving andwanted to know what we were doing.

Well, he was a C-130 pilot leav-ing for Da-Nang and was glad to dropus at Vung Tau, Cam Ran, and PhuCat. I thanked the captain anddeplaned just as the sun was comingup over my new home, Phu Cat A.B.RVN.

DEPARTUREWe scheduled to leave exactly one

year after leaving California, so fiveair medals, one D.F.C. and manyclose calls later we boarded the 490Phu Cat to Cam Ran two days early.

Arriving at housing at Cam Ran,to my surprise the housing officerwas Lt. Col. Edward Kondziolka myold friend and boss as my crew com-mander of Titan II missile launchcrew. Col. Kondziolka evicted someguys not on flying status and gave usair conditioned quarters for twodays.

If I had learned one thing in thelast year it was that there are a lotworse smells than the barracks weavoided in Saigon.

GRENADEOn the seventh of April, 1970 we de-parted Phu Cat, picked up a load ofRVN troops (can’t rememberwhere). Before we reached their des-tination we were diverted to Plei Kuto take part in air drops into DakSeang.

After the RVNs deplaned I founda phosphorus grenade between thebuffer board and skin of the aircraft. The pin was pulled. I notified A.C.P.and E.O.D. arrived in less than fiveminutes. A C-130 was waiting to takethe R.V.N.s out but they had notboarded. I tried to get A.C.P. to havethem reboard the C-7, and take theirsame seats. I was told there was nottime. If I had not found the grenadethey would have surely downed oneC-7 and killed three people. If theyhad reboarded the C-7 I would havekilled three people (the one above thegrenade and one on each side).

I often wonder how many peopledied down the road because ofA.C.P.’s decision.

HOG WILDHank Bell came to our room and saidhe needed some help so I went withhim to the crew van which wasbacked up to a bunker. In the van “onfoot” was a hog weighing aroundthree hundred pounds. We were go-ing to roast a pig.

Hank Bell and a couple more guys

dressed with flack jackets, steel pots,M-16’s and side arms went to thesmall town of Phu Cat. For trade theycarried a 100k bag of rice. Most ofthe large bags of rice had Crowley,LA - Houston, TX stamped on thebag. They returned with half the crewvan full of charred wood (used ascharcoal).

A day or two later Lt. Grimes (nowLt. Col. Retired) butchered the hog. Lots of guys had a hand in the turn-ing the whole hog on a spit day andnight. After about three days theydecided that wasn’t going to work sothey cut the hog into several piecesand after a couple more days we hada party.WANT SUGAR WITH THATCOFFEE?The word was passed around onemorning before takeoff that we wererunning short on coffee and sugar. That evening after all flights were inwe divvied the loot consisting offorty “40” pounds of coffee and sixty“60” pounds of sugar. I didn’t askwhat was traded. I didn’t fly that dayso this did truly happen on my dayoff. TSgt. Edward Hardy, [537, 69]

Good Evening Jerry and Dave.....My name is George K. Turnes, sta-

tioned at CRB Nov 67 to Nov 68 withthe 458TAS. Worked their SquadronOps as an A2C. My Supervisor, whenhe finally arrived was Sgt JimLinstrom, OPs officer was LtColBascom P Smith followed by LtColLionel Fasolas (sp), LtCol Scudderwas commander. I believe his date ofrank for LC was 1955.

As I read Jerry’s Presley’s articlein the Feb 2003 Newsletter it broughtback many memories. Jerry, I thinkyou and I knew each other - Some-where.

A little of my history. Scott AFB(Base Ops) and Travis AFB (22nd AFCommand Post) before the 458th, and


then Mc Guire after that (Base Com-mand Post). Discharged in Feb’70.Joined NY Air National Guard in ’72(109th TAS...ski C130’s) transferredto 174th TFS (A-10’s then F 16’s) in’80. Retired in December ’96. Mobi-lized for Desert Storm and deployedto El Karge AB, Saudi Arabia. Thesand at CRB was a much better tex-ture. Time in the Air Guard was splitbetween Disaster Preparedness andbeing a First Shirt to a Logistics Sq.

Now some CRB memories. KP andcold showers were wonderful things.You mentioned the out houses - 6stallers as I remember. One day whenthe Vietnamese were not permitted onbase for whatever security reason Igot the pleasure of being picked toburn the end product of those facili-ties, a little JP4 and a lot of smoke.That was a very memorable experi-ence. I have four grown children nowbut when my oldest daughter, who isnow 25 and a teacher, came homewith a homework assignment aboutone of her parent’s most memorabletrips, my trip to Vietnam was it. Hernext question was what was my mostmemorable remembrance of that trip.Well guess what I told her. She andmy wife didn’t think that was appro-priate for her project. It sure was verymemorable to me.

Some other memories... Soon af-ter I arrived the wing lost a bird (#unknown to me now) and they werelooking for Search and Rescue vol-unteers. Well I spent a few hours ly-ing on my belly in a C-7 with a tiedown strap tied around my waistlooking out the rear end of a C-7. Myfirst Flight.

Visits to my squadrons missionsite at the 5th Special Forces site inNaTrang and visits to the city. Toldnot to get gas in the site Command-ers jeep at the AF Base there becausethe OD jeep with army numberswasn’t really an Army Jeep. The 5thhad a great club that all the 458th waswelcomed at.

Our Squadron Pilots Personal

Equipment guy, A1C Hokie Adams,had really good connections in thecity.

I Remember Bob Hopes visit -Rachel Welch - very nice memoriesof that show along with about a mil-lion others at the show. Bob Hope hada lot of bad sand trap jokes aboutCRB. I was also there for LBJs visit.I have some bad pictures from that.

We built the Red Tail Inn for some-thing to do. First Sgt Earl Churchillran that little project, I think. Built anice little bar between hoochs, about20 by 30 with porch, upper deck andlower deck. Think the materials camefrom the 5th SFG, with bar, bar stoolsand assorted black felt paintings fromthe Philippines, by way of planes re-turning from major maintenanceoverhaul. Wing Commander Masoncut the ribbon at the grand opening.

I also found out about the trips offthe base with Civic Actions groupand went along whenever I could. Wemostly helped deliver rice to those inneed.

A good article that talks about theCaribou mission is in the October ’68Airman magazine titled “VietnamAirlift” by Capt Robert P. Everett. Wewere Front Page on that issue.

Well enough for now...hoping tomake Charleston SC this NovemberWrite back if you get a chanceGeorge Tunes [458, 67]

Dave,I found newsletter #6. May have

some more – will keep looking.Your last newsletter was the best.

My wife and I read it from cover tocover. I learned that Dick Scobeeflew C-7’s in Vietnam the same timeas I did. I knew Dick here at EdwardsAFB. My son dated his daughter.Wish I had known he flew C-7’s, wecould have told each other some goodstories. Thanks, Dan Yost [537, 68]

Dear Dave,Responding to your call in the re-

cent Newsletter for amusing inci-dents, here is one you might findnews worthy.

I was Chief of Maintenance for thetwo C-7A squadrons at Vung Tau in66 – 67. We were tenants on the ArmyAir Base. The Army operated one ortwo companies of aircraft that had asecret mission of some sort. It waspretty hush-hush. Anyway, their air-craft (can’t remember the designa-tion) were twin-engined propellerdriven.

One day a company commanderwas demonstrating the capabilities ofthe aircraft, one of which was a safetyfeature that prevented retraction ofthe landing gear on the ground aslong as the weight of the aircraftcompressed the oleo struts suffi-ciently to keep the retract circuitopen.

The PSP taxiways and parking ar-eas were not all that smooth. As thepilot was taxing at a pretty good rateand bouncing along, he put the retractswitch in the “up” position (to dem-onstrate the safety feature) and sureenough, the system worked as adver-tised. The gear came up, the planewent down, on its belly, both propschewing up the PSP, etc, etc. Enoughsaid. Red-faced pilot?

On a personal note… during Tet Iwas driving through town en routefrom the base to my BOQ when a bratof a kid threw a lighted firecrackerinto my open jeep. It exploded andof course I thought I had beenbombed. But luckily, no harm done.No physical harm, that is, but it blewmy mind for a little bit. As I say now,that was the closet I came to enemyfire.

Anyway, the Newsletter is great.Keep up the good work. Fraternally,Gerald (Jerry) Ottem, [536, 66]


Subject: Info on 535th/536th TASDon’t know if this is any help, but during 1967-68, I

was a Tactical Airlift Laison Airman (TALA, the officerwas designated TALO) with the call sign of Tamale 09Alfa. My assignment was the 9th Infantry Division atBearcat, which was the Division basecamp during my tour(I understand Division Headquarters later mover to DongTam). I worked for the 834th Air Division, then locatedat Ton Son Nhut, coordinating the airlift requirementsbetween the Army and the ALCC. My “office” was a jeepwith a radio pallet, I believe it was a MRC-107, but notsure.

Either the 535th or 536th TAS at Vung Tau (or both)supplied an aircraft and crew everyday for our routine“milk runs” from Bearcat (Long Than), Dong Tam, TanAn, and return, making as many runs as they could be-tween sun up and sun down.

Activity increased during Tet 1968, requiring me torequest additional aircraft (or “scrounging” the BlackHorse bird from the 1st Calvary if they didn’t need it). Iremember one of the C7A crews telling me they had setan airlift record during this time for the Caribou, but Inever saw anything official on it.

Some other notes: We started a daily shuttle between Vung Tau and

Bearcat for short in country R&R (the planes always camein and left empty each day, so it followed naturally). Mycustomers included 9th Infantry Div. guys and the Thai“Queens Cobras” attached to the 9th Div. I seem to re-call it was a Thai Captain who first approached us aboutit. We could put a lot of Thais on the Caribou, “combatloaded”, using a cargo strap across their lap. Never didbreak them from “bribing” me with beer and Thai whis-key each time they flew to Vung Tau, although I did try. Even I could not go through a case of beer and a bottle ofwhiskey in three days (I would need at least four days!). Anyway, I just donated it to the hooch resources.

I remember one crew who went off the end of the run-way at Dong Tam on a rainy day (the runway was PSP). The Army used an APC with chains connected to the maingear to pull them back onto the runway. No harm done Iever heard of and they completed the day without inci-dent. (The problem was the prop reverse lever was stick-ing, so they said, so we squirted a little WD-40 on it andeverything was O.K. after that).

I started refueling operations with an Army fuel truckto increase the sortie rate, which worked fine except forone instance. My daily Caribou came back from DongTam/Tan An with Bingo fuel about sundown, planning torefuel at my site. Problem was, the Army had not told usthey were out of AVGAS. The crew did not have enoughfuel to go anywhere, so the Army organized an armored

column to escort the fuel truck to Long Binh and back,returning to the airfield about ten that night. This wasafter TET started, but before the Army upgraded the air-field, so we were hanging out in the dark. No one therebut the crew and us (myself and an Army SP4 assigned asmy assistant). We refueled without lights and the crewfired up and departed, using the landing lights on the Cari-bou.

Sorry I can’t help with any names of the crews, but Ihave trouble remembering some of the guys I bunked withduring that time from the ALO detachment (19th TASS,Bien Hoa).

(I finally managed to get on flying status, flying thelast thirteen years of my career as an Airborn Radio Op-erator. Started in the SAC/PACCS (EC-135L/C/G), mi-grated to NEACP (EC-135J, E4A/B), and ended up fly-ing VC-135 and C9A aircraft in the 1st MAS/89 MAWat Andrews AFB, Maryland).

Got to go for now. You have a really good site and Iwill be visiting you again.

Thanks, Melvin “Charlie” SteadmanUSAF, [email protected]

Larry Schiff is one of our proactive members whothought of a good idea for advertising our reunion.He placed an announcement in his local newspaper.If every one of our members who get the newsletterdid the same it would pretty well blanket the nation.It is possible that some unknown ex-Caribou typewho hasn’t heard about our crazy outfit might be outthere and see it. Please become proactive and followLarry’s lead with something like the following in yourlocal paper:

C-7A CARIBOU ASSOCIATION The USAF C-7A Caribou Association will hold a

reunion November 5th through November 8th, 2003,in Charleston, SC.

All Caribou squadron members, and/or anyonewho supported their mission, are invited.

For information, write our Reunion Coordina-tor, Christine Phillips at P.O. Box 143, Folcroft, PA19032 (610-522-5981) [email protected], including your unit anddates of assignment.

Let’s Tell The World . . .


War Stories! Dak Seang

Pleiku ALCE ‘sweats it out’Along With Caribou Crews

I was ferrying a Caribou to Viet-nam and when I contacted Cam RanhApproachControl (about 50 mi. off-shore), they asked me if I could au-thenticate (by giving the secret pass-word of the day). No, I couldn’t. Theythen scrambled the alert F-4s to comeout and identify us. I was on the sameradio frequency as the F-4s as theycame to intercept. They were test fir-

Editor’s note — The followingstory was written over a month agoduring the busiest part of the DakSeang airlift operation. The authorspent five days and nights livingwith the men at the Pleiku ALCEand so well described the moodduring that tense, difficult periodthat it is worth reading eventhought that moment has now be-come history.

By: Sgt. Richard P. LeiferPLEIKU AB — A studied calm

seems to settle over the U.S. AirForce airlift control element (ALCE)office at Pleiku AB with the approachof a new series of sorties.

Used as the command post in a re-supply operation to air-drop suppliesinto Dak Seang, a Republic of Viet-nam Civilian Irregular DefenseGroup camp 14 miles northwest ofDak To in Kontum Province, the of-fice has been the site of increasedactivity during the past week, a weekthat saw three C-7 Caribous downedby enemy ground fire.

But there is a feeling of almostenforced peacefulness as more sor-ties begin.

Strewn about is evidence of thelast eight days — an abundance ofused coffee cups, combat gear piledhere and there waiting for owners toreturn and newspapers left scatteredabout open, half-read, left for morepressing matters.

And people mill about quietlywearing signs of too little sleep, toomuch strain and coffee.

The pilots for the nex missionstalk animatedly trying to “psych”themselves for the job they willsoon have to do.

Lieutenant Colonel Loris L. Dorris

of Highland, Calif., the ALCE com-mander, takes time to read a letter andanswer it.

The man heading the operation,Colonel R. P. Larivee of Lafayette,La., is away getting a shave, a showerand a well deserved steak. He’ll beback.

U.S. Special Forces Warrant Of-ficer John Tatalajski — called Mr. T.to avoid tied tongues — is at his com-pound and will return later. He is incharge of rigging the supplies for theairdrop.

Those left in the ALCE makesmall talk, discussing the co-ordi-nation involved in making an air-drop and repeating the old sayingabout waiting being the worst partetc.

One mission monitor gets up fromhis desk muttering, “Why does yourpencil break in the middle of a war?”

Meanwhile, the first few aircraftare on their way to their target.Then the word comes, an excitedunprintable synonym for, “Righton target.” The pall of tension liftsand held breath is released.

Before long the plane is home, itsperformance to be repeated shortly ineight other sorties as C-7 crews place27 pallets into Dak Seang withoutserious incident.(The above piece is printed from THEVIETNAM AIRLIFTER dated May 1970)

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

ing their guns and whatever else theydo. My co-pilot just knew they weregoing to shoot us down. I knew theywouldn’t and tried to console him butto no avail.

Suddenly the two F-4s camescreaming by from our 6 o’clock po-sition and just above the cockpit.They got our attention. We were do-ing about 110 knots and they musthave been about 350 knots. The leadF-4 asked his wingman: “Did you gethis tail number?” Wingman replied:“No, he’s too slow.” Lead said “Well,let’s go around and try it again.” I justhad a great idea. I asked the co-pilotfor full flaps. I was going to slowdown to 55 knots and have some funwith the F-4s. The co-pilot beggedme not to. He is still terrified theywill shoot us down.

There goes the F-4s again. Theyhad flaps and everything hanging toslow down but they were still too fast.Same conversation between the F-4pilots.

I saw a small cumulus cloud aheadand decided to go into the cloud andorbit at 55 knots with full rudder. I’msure I appeared on their radar to behovering. Now they are really con-fused. I still had not said anything tothe F-4s. One of the F-4s said that hewas bingo (low) fuel and had to re-turn to base. The other F-4 said, “Wecan’t until we get his tail number. Idon’t know what to do. Nothing inthe book about this.” To ease theirpredicament, I asked them if theywanted me to give them my tail num-ber so they could go home. They saidyes and were ever so thankful. Asthey left us, they did aileron rolls astheir flaps came up. Approach Con-trol instructed us to land at Cam Ranhand report to the Base OperationsOfficer. We did and he read me theriot act. He informed me that he couldmake me pay for the fuel the F-4sused. All because I didn’t know thesecret password. I apologized pro-fusely and finally got out of there. Ilooked up the F-4 pilots later and wehad a good laugh over it all. Anothersuccessful mission. Larry J. Laverne [457, 66]


How It Was...Performing duty in a combat zone

caused a lot of changes to be madein the way jobs were accomplished.The working and living environmentchanged. No, not just the weather.Heat, rain, sand and dust did make areal difference. But there were nolonger the modern and orderly main-tenance buildings, offices and diningfacilities like back in the States. In acombat zone a lot of aircraft mainte-nance got performed under tents andout in the rain and with mud floorsto work on, and often performed atnight under the headlights of trucksand jeeps, or even flashlights. Main-tenance shops were set up under tentsand in metal roofed hoochs. Enginechanges were made out in the booniesat austere landing strips and ramps.Meals were prepared out of messtents and out in the open over gaso-line-fired grills. Dishes and mess kitswere washed by their owners in G.I.cans of hot water heated with gasburners. Some latrine facilities weremade out of 55-gallon drums. Thosewere all big changes in the workingenvironment. But yet the daily jobsall got done in outstanding ways thatkept the fighting machine in topform.

Perhaps that described the earlierdays of our tours in Vietnam. Afterabout 1966 engineering companiesconstructed many newer maintenancefacilities, office buildings, dining fa-cilities, living quarters and longer,dual runways. But not much changedin the sky. The flying environment,compared to the States, remainedsomewhat of a maze to negotiate eachday.

The following article written byPete Bird is a vivid description of theflying conditions in the airspace overVietnam. Hopefully many of you willhave stories or articles that you willshare with the rest of us on how youcoped with unique situations. In theJune 2001 issue of the Caribou News-letter Manson Polley [483,66] de-

scribed his first job working for the483rd Wing in Vietnam. “I becamepart of the initial cadre sitting onwood boxes, using wood boxes fordesks, etc., trying to write wing in-telligence regs for 6 squadrons that Icould only imagine what their re-quirements would be. VERY interest-ing year to say the least.”

(I know some of you can give us somegood stories. Ed.)

Flying In VietnamContrary to what I would have be-

lieved before arrival, the greatest dan-ger presented to the military aviatorin South Vietnam was not the enemy.He was always there and would nothesitate to shoot at you if you pro-vided the opportunity, but he was notthe biggest problem. The real issuewas the tremendous amount of airtraffic, the confused air traffic con-trol and communications system, andartillery and naval gunfire. The situ-ation changed minute by minute andit required a high degree of aware-ness to avoid disaster.

The Republic of Vietnam, claim-ing itself to be a sovereign state,chose to operate the civil air trafficcontrol system. When we flew underInstrument Flying Rules (IFR), wefiled a flight plan with the Vietnam-ese air traffic controllers. Unfortu-nately, they were not yet well enoughtrained to do the job. At the largerairfields, like Tan Son Nhut inSaigon, there was rarely a problem,while at places like Nha Trang, justnorth of Cam Ranh, you were liter-ally taking your life in your hands todepend fully on the controllers. Con-sequently, whenever we flew IFR, wewould use one radio to maintain con-tact with the air traffic controllers anda second to talk to the nearestGround-Controlled Intercept (GCI)site. GCI was normally used to pro-vide extremely accurate navigationfor aerial strikes (the B-52’s used it

to put their bombs exactly where theywere needed), but they had the bestradars in-country and took pity onfellow Americans at the mercy of thecivilian air traffic control system.They would follow our flights andadvise us of any nearby traffic so wecould take our own evasive action.

Most of the time we were VFR(Visual Flight Rules) or “SpecialVFR” (this tended to be a euphemismfor IFR without a flight plan andclearance) and we did not interact atall with the Vietnamese air trafficcontrollers. We depended on our eyesto avoid other aircraft. Rememberthat we had the civilian Vietnamesetraffic (mostly Air Vietnam), civilianinternational air carriers (all operat-ing IFR), the U.S. Air Force, the U.S.Army, the U.S. Marines, the U.S.Navy, the Australian Air Force, aswell as the VNAF (Vietnamese AirForce) all operating more or less in-dependently at the tactical level.Compartmentalization of informa-tion was routine and necessary in themilitary, so we had no idea what mis-sions the Army or the Navy might berunning and, likewise, they had noidea what we were doing. It paid tobe attentive.

Now add the grunts on the groundto the equation. They played withsome really nasty toys like howitzers.A howitzer is nothing more than alarge rifle, but it can chuck a highexplosive projectile over 10,000'high. Since 10,000' was our maxi-mum operational altitude, our onlychoice was to avoid the launch siteand impact site of those projectilesand all points on the line between.To facilitate this, the Army set up anetwork of “Arty” (short for artillery)command posts and sectioned off allof South Vietnam into regions. Be-fore entering a region we called upthe Army Arty site and asked for cur-rent firing information. To add to theconfusion, the Army used arcane FMradios which operated in the 30 - 50MHz range for these communica-


tions. That type of radio is unique tothe Army, so our aircraft were retro-fitted with them. They were amongthe least reliable communicationsdevices we had. The Army would alsochange their frequencies often so asto keep the enemy guessing, but italso quite often kept us guessing. Onelearned early in the game what a“marking round” looked like. Amarking round was a projectile thatproduced a thick column of whitesmoke on impact. This was to allowthe artillery spotters (sometimes inlight aircraft) to determine the exactimpact point and relay instructions tothe gun crew if adjustments were nec-essary. More than once we saw mark-ing round impacts in areas wethought were clear. One of the mostpainful photographs I have ever seenwas posted in all the Caribou opera-tions areas — it was a picture of a C-7A Caribou immediately after it hadbeen hit dead center by a 105mm HEround. The aircraft was still in the air— in two separate pieces. The pic-ture was a reminder to check for ar-tillery before entering a new sector.A further complication of the artil-lery problem was that the ARVN(Army of the Republic of Vietnam)rarely participated in warning peopleof their intentions. They just rolledout the guns and started shooting.

The U.S. Navy also got into thisgame, but they had even nastier toys.The Navy often set up their ships offthe coast and fired inland. A navalrifle, as it is properly called, canachieve a projectile altitude of over20,000' and their projectiles could beas big as a small car. Fortunately, theNavy was very efficient at informingus of its intended firing areas in ourpre-mission briefings every morning,so we could give these areas wideberth.

I guess the postscript is that youalso had to fly the airplane from timeto time. Without a doubt, the bestpart of flying the ‘Bou was the land-ing. The shorter the field and the

rougher was all the better, for thatwas what this aircraft was designedfor and thrived on. In a short fieldapproach, the Caribou had a decid-edly nose-low attitude. Those hugefull-span flaps saw to that. Airspeedover the runway threshold could beas low as 42-43 knots and a hugepitch change was necessary to ac-complish the flare preparatory to thetouchdown. When there is less than1,000 feet of dirt in front of you, youdon’t play around trying to get a“grease job” landing. You plant themains, reverse the props, lower thenose, and get the beast stopped withbrakes, reverse thrust, and always agreat cloud of red dust. Properlydone, this could be accomplished inunder 200 feet if you had the luck tohave any decent headwind, and nevermore than 500 feet in the worst ofconditions. I think everyone tookgreat pride in his ability to put 14 tonsof aircraft exactly on the money andget it stopped in the shortest possibledistance; I know I did!

The second best part of flying the‘Bou was cruise. Here, at 105 knotsand with no pressurization or air con-ditioning, we flew with the cockpitside windows open and the rear cargodoor open. That provided a greatbreeze and also allowed you to hangyour elbow (or your whole arm) outthe window. The view from the“greenhouse” cockpit was superb andwe were low enough to do a lot ofsightseeing in our scheduled rounds. From that vantage point, Vietnamwas a very beautiful country. On theground, the inside of the aircraft waslike a furnace, but as the aircraftclimbed, the temperature dropped at2 degrees C for every thousand feet. We welcomed the cool air at cruiseand the opportunity to get some re-lief from the heat and humidity andoften cruised at 9,000 or 10,000 feet(depending on our heading) just toget the maximum benefit from thatstandard atmospheric temperaturelapse rate.

The takeoffs were always the timefor extreme care. The Caribou, es-pecially at high gross weights and thehigh density altitudes typical of a hot,humid climate, had very marginalsingle-engine performance. In a fullSTOL takeoff configuration at maxweight, in fact, the best single enginerate of climb we could expect was -50 feet per minute! In these situa-tions, from the time you passed yourrefusal speed until you acceleratedand got the flaps retracted, you wereentirely at the mercy of Pratt &Whitney. The most likely time foran engine failure was at the initialpower reduction from Takeoff Powerto METO Power. Never has an en-gine been treated so gently as duringthose initial power reductions! For-tunately, both of my Caribou enginefailures occurred at cruise altitudeand presented no great problem.

Pete Bird, [535, 71]

On another sunny day in Viet-nam, I was enroute from aMontagnard area in the CentralHighlands (where we had justairdropped some pigs) to Pleiku. Adesperate English speaking voicecame up on 121.5(VHF guard).“Caribou over Kontum, Caribouover Kontum, do you read me?” Iimmediately answered as I wantedto help if I could. A thankful voicefrom an Army unit replied “We hadfour ‘ladies of the evening’ flown infrom Pleiku to spend a few dayswith us and we were just advisedby a friend at HQ that Gen. X isenroute to our location in a Hueyfor a no notice inspection. We haveto get these ladies out of here rightnow. Can you land and take them toPleiku? Please.” I told him that Iwas low on fuel and didn’t see howI could do it. He begged. Hepleaded. I landed.

See Laverne on page 16


“The Blue Baron” Does It Again.The following article is taken from “The Tiger Rag,”

the squadron newsletter published by the 535th TroopCarrier Squadron. It is Issue 8 dated 17 May 1967.

“The Blue Baron” has truly lived up to his name onceagain. His unusual knack of arriving at unforeseen cir-cumstances and overcoming them was proven again on 9May 1967.

Shortly after touch-down (approx 100 ft roll.) at DueHoa, a loud noise was heard. The “Baron” looked at hisco-pilot and said “My God, did I set her down that hard?”It was at this crucial point it was discovered that the rightlanding gear had struck a land mine planted on the run-way by Charlie (or maybe it was SNOOPY”.)

By sheer ability (and possibly some fright), the Baronkept the “Bou” rolling straight ahead and stopped it inthe minimum amount of feet. To keep the aircraft on therunway was imperative; parked adjacent to the runwayon the right side were several helicopters and disaster wasevident if the aircraft should veer toward them. TheBaron’s control of the damaged aircraft prevented this.

Upon inspection, the two right tires were found to beblown off, and the right wing and starboard engine wereriddled with shrapnel, aileron shot away and the starboardside of the fuselage completely peppered with shrapnel,all but two of the windows shot away and the cargo doorwas laying on the runway. Even the horizontal stabilizerwas hit. Of the ten barrels of fuel being transported, notone had a hole in it. The crew and passengers escapedinjury. The Baron’s comment:“Gimme another plane.”

On another occasion, the “Baron” was credited withoutstanding flying ability when he successfully landedhis aircraft which was fully loaded, after losing one en-gine immediately after take-off.

Of equal importance is the fact that on both of theseoccasions, no injuries were sustained, a definite result ofthe Baron’s flying ability.

To the Baron, we all say “Well Done.”(Reportedly the “Baron” is one Captain Harl V. Piety. There seemsto be no trace of the Baron, no records, and he is not a member ofour association. If anyone can identify him, or locate him, pleaseget him to our next reunion and I will personally buy him a drink.Ed.)

Dedicated to all who flew behind round engines!We gotta get rid of these turbines, they are ruiningaviation.We need to go back to big round engines. Any-body can start a turbine. You just need to move a switchfrom “OFF” to ”START”, and then remember to move itback to “ON” after a while. My PC is more difficult tostart. Cranking a round engine requires skill, finesse andstyle. On some planes, the pilots are not even allowed todo it. Turbines start by whining a while then give a smalllady-like “poot” and start whining louder. Jet engines?just light the fire and go. Round engines give a satisfyingrattle-rattle, click-click, BANG, more rattles, anotherBANG, a big macho puff of smoke or two, more clicks, alot more smoke and and finally a serious low-pitched roar.We like that - - it’s a guy thing. It’s kinda like starting abig ole Harley Davidson, or Indian of yesteryear.

When you start a round engine, your mind is engagedand you can concentrate on the flight ahead. Starting aturbine is like flicking on a ceiling fan; Useful, but hardlyexciting.

Turbines don’t break often enough, leading to aircrewboredom, complacency and inattention. A round engineat speed looks and sounds like it’s going to blow up atany minute. This helps to concentrate the mind. Turbinesdon’t have enough control levers to keep a pilot’s atten-tion. There’s nothing to fiddle with during long flights.

Turbines smell like a Boy Scout camp full of Colemanlanterns. Round engined planes smell like God intendedflying machines to smell. Big round engines require “magchecks.” The sound of a big round engine goosed up toabout 1800 rpm at the end of the runway and listeningvicariously to the pilot completing the “mag check,” andbeing able to tel, even from a half mile away that theengine is good to go, is a lost art.

We haven’t even explored the subject of “carb heat”!Gerald Garner 459th ‘bouman [459, 68](Gerald, can we count on another dissertation on “carb heat” inour next newsletter? Ed.)

Big Round EnginesWe made an engine running onload of the four

Vietnamese lovelies. They were smiling and happy butconfused as to why they were leaving early. As we weretaxing out, the General was landing. I took the ladies toPleiku. I’m sure the guys at Kontum were eternallygrateful and I hope they passed their inspection. An-other successful mission. Larry J. Laverne [457, 66]

Lavern from page 15

Can You Name This Place?


There is often a strange chemistryat work that alters events after theyhave happened, making them less ormore important than they had seemedat the time they occurred. As I thinkback and apply this concept to thatperiod of time some thirty-sevenyears ago I am remembering thebrave volunteer acts of some of thebest and most dedicated people withwhom I have ever served or known.

As the Caribou Line Chief in the61st Aviation Company and later the536th Tactical Airlift Squadron, I amspeaking of the aircraft crew chiefs,assistant crew chiefs and flight linemechanics. Also, the aircraftspecialists....engine, prop., aircraftelectric, fabrication, instrument andcommunication men.

In the fall of 1966, and during thetransition period of the CV-2, laterthe C-7A, our flight line people stoodready to deploy with little or no no-tice to jungle airstrips some withnothing but dirt or grass runways.They were called on to make repairsand recover caribou aircraft due tobreakdowns, ground accidents, ordamage from enemy fire. Most ofthese acts were volunteer deploy-ments into remote and isolated areasconsidered insecure and in very closeproximity to Viet Cong or North Viet-namese forces. It was necessary toairlift the maintenance troops backand forth from their home stationsdaily. Several of these flights becameinvolved with actual contact withenemy gunfire with resulting damageto the aircraft. Ban Me Thuat, Dian,Tay Ninh, Lai Khe, and Bear Cat inparticular were places to be avoidedat all costs at night time.

I recall one time when TSGT’sGoodfellow and Center, both cariboucrew chiefs, were dispatched out toseveral jungle air strips in the deltaarea. Their job was to search for ofall things, cargo tie down straps. They

were in short supply and criticallyneeded for successful air cargo han-dling and air drops. As the flight me-chanics and flying crew chiefs willattest, we went through thousands ofthese items. Goodfellow and Centerdidn’t have much luck in finding anybut as a last resort they wanted tocheck out a wrecked C-123 downedby ground fire in a jungle clearingnear Tay Ninh City War Zone “D”.In spite of U.S. Army warnings notto go into the crash area these guys,utilizing a “borrowed” weapons car-rier, managed to come away with atreasured batch of tie-down straps.They even arranged shipment of themto Vung Tau Army Airfield.

In order to meet the increasingdemands for operational aircraft ona seven day per week schedule mostof the aircraft flight line maintenancehad to be done at night. We had nolighting! During the Army-Air Forceconversion, the army had taken all ofthe portable lighting units. For us itwas flashlights and jeep headlamps.The rumor was there was availablemobile lighting in storage out be-tween the runways at T.S.N. inSaigon. Armed with a half dozen jugsof good whiskey we searched out apreviously identified U.S.Army Cor-poral who worked for an Army war-rant officer in charge of a huge stor-age yard. The yard was surroundedby a mine field at T.S.N. Acting un-officially and off the record, we “ne-gotiated” our needed lighting and inaddition to that, a twelve foot by sixfoot walk-in beverage cooler. Itweighted over 1200 pounds, and wehad it ear-marked for our sixty-five(65) man barracks in an old Frenchvilla, located off the beaten track inthe village of Vung Tau. The coolerwas delivered by a C-123 aircraft, atnight to the far end of the ramp atVung Tau Army Airfield. It was thenloaded onto a five ton Army truck

(personal vehicle of chief MasterSergeant George O. Crain, (my firstcousin). He was a W.W.II veteran,and better known by his friends asGo-Go. The vehicle was driven byTSGT Pete Petricci, 536TAS, andGo-Go’s personal driver.

In early 1967, we heard anotherrumor about a warehouse full of Cari-bou 780 equipment. It containedpieces, parts, and components, allneeded and useful for our caribouoperation. Apparently there had beenan Army CV-2 Aviation Companyoperating from Don Maung Air Basein Thailand. All that remained therewas an Army major, a caribou pilotwho was in charge of the warehouse.Equipped with a name and buildingnumber I arrived at Don Maung,which shared a portion of theBangkok International Airport. It wastruly a huge and sprawling facility.Within a few minutes after arrival Imet a couple of Air Force NCOSfrom the 834th Air Division, Saigon.Supply types, who had just missedtheir flight back to the T.S.N. A chiefMaster Sergeant and a Master ser-geant. They had a couple days to killso they offered me their assistance infinding the Army Major and his digs.We found him to be a very jovial fel-low (a pipe smoker) and eager to turnthe whole warehouse over to us so hecould go stateside and retire. My di-vision buddies, having some sourceof power and authority behind them,quickly and conveniently arrangedfor pick up and air delivery of all thecontents of the warehouse to VungTau Airfield. The needed items ar-rived there before I did proving goodthings can happen to good people.

A couple of our flight line super-visors, Gene Baxter and Master Sgt.Baniciki, both having personalfriends with the near-by U.S. Navy,heard of a couple of 1966 Ford pick-up trucks that had been fished out ofthe South China Sea. Apparently theyhad fallen in shallow water whilebeing unloaded from a ship. The

“A BOLT OF RIBBONS WINS MANY BATTLES”....Napoleon BonaparteBob Bowers


trucks were only slightly damagedand we desperately needed them forflight line expediter vehicles. TheNavy ship bound officers and chiefswould give anything to get souvenirsand collectibles that were native toViet Nam.. Items like blow guns,montanard cross-bows, K-bar andCamillus knives, M-1 carbines, andhand made items were all highlyprized. Our sources were of coursethe flight mechs, crew chiefs and the5th Special Forces troops. Our guyscame away with two good pick-upsplus mobile two way radios, all ofwhich so improved and modernizedour flight line operations we thoughtwe were back stateside.

My attempts at remembering andwriting these accounts are basicallyto show that all the pride, the kudos,even the bragging about how we hadoutdone the Army and set all thosenew airlift records (see box lowereright hand corner this page), (and wewere proud of that), was made pos-sible by the extra and volunteer ef-forts of our flight line troops. Menwho with very few exceptions dem-onstrated they were head and shoul-ders above “...the summer soldier andsunshine patriot who at times will trymen’s souls and will in crises shrinkfrom the services of their country.”(From the CRISIS - Dec.1776 Tho-mas Paine). I do not intend to demeanor put down anyone’s service duringour ten years of war in Viet Nam.However, it is my intent to show thevast difference between those whosafely served and those who reallyput their “hides on the line.” I canonly speak of those whom I observeddaily and our flight line people didjust that on a daily basis. Most air-craft maintenance is routine stuff.The aircrews would accept the air-plane with no reservations. Othertimes after major maintenance wasperformed, test flights or in-flightchecks were necessary following re-pairs or replacement of engines,

props, landing-gear or major flightcontrol maintenance. Several timesI observed a pilot expressing somedoubt or mild reservation about theair worthiness of the aircraft (evenafter being assured the aircraft wassafe). Some would challenge thecrew chief or even the specialistswho did the work on the plane to flywith them. Think about it cariboudriver——did anyone of these flightline troops ever refuse to go?

Crew chiefs didn’t have to fly, butthey did because in many cases themission required it, particularlyearly on and during the Army/AirForce transition period. SSGT TroyShankles didn’t have to fly, but hewas awarded the Purple Heart andAir Medal because he did fly. TSETBill DuVall didn’t have to fly, he wasan engine mechanic. However he didfly on every test flight after enginechange or major engine mainte-nance. Marshall Goodfellow andBud Center didn’t have to fly, butthey did. For a whole year anytimethey were needed they were onboard. They were always missionready and first in line.

Were any of them given specialrecognition? No, special recognitionwas in short supply. Troy Shankles’volunteer efforts wererecognized.. .but he had to bewounded first to receive it. He washit in the chest by ground fire whileassisting the loadmaster making anair cargo drop.

Goodfellow, Center and DeVallwere recommended for the AirMedal but thirty-five (35) years laterthey still don’t have them. The 7thAir Force approved the awards but

they were never presented to them. Ipersonally wrote up several flight-linetroops for the Air Force Commenda-tion Medal before I left South VietNam in December of 1967. I wonderif any of them received their medals?We as supervisors and superinten-dents, were not informed that thesecommendation medal recommenda-tions could have included the “V” forValor devise which several of theyoung guys would have qualified for,as they came under enemy fire. I amnot looking for an excuse for my ig-norance but supervisors during thosetimes didn’t know anything about a“V” devise. How sad and pathetic Ifeel now. Our guys deserved thoseawards at that time and still do.

Marshall Goodfellow wrote me af-ter 35 years, reflecting on his year inViet Nam, “I never received anyFRUIT SALAD at all.” I was crestfallen, I really was! I’ve wonderedever since, how many more can saythe same thing?

I picked up an unofficial documentat the St Louis reunion last year, giv-ing inclusive dates for the award ofthe outstanding unit with “V” deviseto our wing. Also the 483rd T.A.W.may have been awarded the Republicof Viet Nam Gallantry Cross. Doesanyone know, or care? I have inquiredabout these awards at the MilitaryRecords Section in St. Louis but havenot heard from them. Maybe our goodbrother in arms, Steve Kelly can goin there and face them down. He livesin St. Louis. Their shredder probablyworks overtime. Sorry to be sowindy...thanks for indulging me. Seeyou all in South Carolina in Novem-ber ’03. Bob Bowers, [536, 66]

Year Sorties Flying Hours Passengers Cargo Tons1966 128,545 83,715 718,027 90,4981967 155,825 99,863 1,075,196 95,5651968 176,394 120,809 1,303,142 105,8251969 177,524 125,037 1,076,075 100,9061970 144,748 111,187 597,873 84,9361971 107,046 88,147 595,148 43,372

From Tactical Airlift by Ray Bowers


Tom Thompson’s StoryDong Ba Thin, Army-Cam Rahn Bay, Air Force, and

the Caribou: 9/66-9/67I read the article in the Caribou News letter that was

written by Jerry Presley about his visit to Cam Rahn Bay,Viet Nam. While he arrived there about one year after Ileft he still described CRB pretty much as I rememberedit. There were a few notable changes for the better that heidentified. Good job Jerry.

My adventure with Viet Nam and the Caribou startedwhile I was stationed at Travis AFB, CA When I receiveda notice that I had been selected to join my comradessome where in Viet Nam. The location was not indicatedon my orders or any where else in the ensuing instruc-tions. However, I was instructed to report to Ft Benning,GA for counter insurgency training and training on theweapon system that I would be responsible for while incountry. This weapon turned out to be CV-2 Caribou whichwas owned and operated by The US Army at that time. Iwas a SMSgt.,and was destined to become the Propul-sion Branch Superintendent responsible for maintainingthe R 2000 reciprocating engine and related systems insupport of the mission of the caribou in Viet Nam. Anyhow as best as I remember I spent about a month in train-ing at Ft Benning, GA before getting my marching or-ders to proceed on to Saigon VN where I would receivefurther instructions concerning the exact location that Iwould be assigned to once I arrived in country. That wasabout Sept. of 1966 and at that time as far as I know therewas only one way in and out of VN and that was throughSaigon. On my arrival there I was required to do a certainamount of processing in country, such as personnelrecords, finance and yes the old shot of Gamma Goblinin the tush. I don’t remember where or who, but somewhere in my tour through Personnel I was directed towhere I would find out where my assignment in countrywould be. I located the little shack I had been referred todown by the flight line. The shack was manned by a Lt.Col. and Chief warrant officer that were waiting for peoplelike me. After a brief introduction they pulled out a listof bases where the Caribou was currently stationedthrough out the country and gave me a general idea wherethey were, and told me they had openings for my rank atjust about all of them and instructed me to select one. Idid not have any idea where or what any of them wereabout so I chose a place called Dong Ba Thin which turnedout to be in land from Cam Rahn Bay about 15 miles giveor take a few. I asked how do I get there and they told methat was not their problem. They did tell me that the onlyway any one traveled in VN was via a US Air Force planeand the closest place to my base of choice was CRB. Soarmed with that information I headed for the flight line

early the next AM where I found a lot of planes being preflighted for take off, so I went from one to another until Ifound a C-130 that was headed for CRB and they told meI was welcome to fly with them. I guess that was when Ifirst found out that the book sometimes rode in the backof the plane while being operated in a war zone. The starterwas apparently not working on number three engine be-cause they could not get it started. They told me not tofret, that they would start it by windmilling it as theyrace down the runway? Which they did and for what everreason the engine started and the next thing I knew wewere looking out the back of the plane as the run waydisappeared below and behind us. Either the back door ofthe C-130 would not close or they just like to fly with itopen. It was on that flight to CRB that I met Msgt.JackWimble who was going to the same Sqdn. that I was as-signed to, which turned out to be an Army Aviation unitdesignated F-Troop. As it turned out jack and I would behooch buddies for most of the year we were in country. Along with his professional talents Jack had exceptionalabilities in procurement of certain survival materials suchas food items, but that is another story for another time.

It was late in the day when we arrived at CRB so whenI called the Dong Ba Thin Army base to come pick meup, the First Sgt told me that I would have to hang out atCRB until the next day because the road out of the swampwas not safe at night. That made me feel warm and fuzzy.Any how after about an hour I found a transit hooch andtwo sheets and a sand laden G. I. issue bunk and aftervery little sleep for the last few days that bunk workedfine for me.

The next day about 10AM my ride showed up for mytrip inland to Dong Ba Thin where I was greeted by anArmy First Sgt who introduced me to my first home inVN. A Slab of cement with 4 foot high Plywood and screenwire about another 4 foot high for walls and a canvas coverbuilt up over the cement foundation. The GI bunks hadnetting over them and I found out why real soon. Theycaned the camp out of a swamp and the mosquitoes weredamned near big as the Caribou. Like most of the rest ofViet Nam I guess, the temperature at Dong Ba Thinseemed to average about 90 to 100 degrees day and nightwith a heavy humidity. I don’t know if there is a certaintime of the year that is established for the Monsoon sea-son but I think it was going on when I arrived there. Ifound out early on not to leave shoes or clothes on thecement floor of my hooch especially at night because theywould float off while you were attempting to sleep. Thatwas my first encounter with what it is like in a tropicalwar zone in a swamp to survive without any plumbingincluding water. Each hooch got a 5 gallon Jerry can fullof water a day which was used for drinking and shaving


and for hooch maids to store their lemons and oranges ineach day. I personally never could get into the hooch maidthing and they figured that out and decided is was best tostay away from me and the hooch while I was there. Iguess the first hurdle I had to over come at Dong Ba Thinwas the fact that the Army messing Facilities were onlycapable of feeding ranks up to E-5. Every one else gotpaid a little extra funny money (Script) which was notedible. This was a factor that E-6’s and above had to dealwith in a self imposed crash training program as foodwas still necessary for survival even in the war zone ofViet Nam. As the time went on I figured out that the artof scrounging food was a favorite pass time or even hobbyof just about every GI that passed through Viet Nam. Anyhow it did not take long to adjust to that art of survival.In the mean time, they did not waste any time putting meto work as it was rapidly approaching time for the AF toassume command of the Army C-V2 and redesignate themas the C-7A. The flight line, taxiway and run way wereall built out of Pierced Steal Planking (PSP) and I thinkthey forgot to drain the swamp before they laid the run-way. Every time a Caribou took off water squirted outboth sides of the runway. Each night an Army CH-46 he-licopter would hover slowly over the swamp area to dis-burse the mosquitoes. By the time I arrived at Dong BaThin the Air Force had just about fully staffed at least thepropulsion shop which was being managed by Msgt RogerLessin so at his request one of my first duties was to firethe Armies engine personnel which I did. By that timewe were only about 2 months away from taking the Cari-bous from the Army and relocating the entire squadronfrom the Swamp over to the Beach front base at Cam RahnBay. The Army was a proud bunch and I think they evenmade a few bets with us Fly Boys that we would fall onour tush trying to move the whole squadron and meet thedaily mission requirements all in the same day. I guessthose Army boys did not realize that the Air Force oftenmoved whole squadrons just on a whim on a regular ba-sis. Any how on 1 January 1967 the Air Force flew theCV2’s out of the Army base at Dong Ba Thin and landedat Cam Rahn Bay on completion of their mission thatsame day as Air Force C-7A’s and did not miss a stroke.That same day we assumed our own entity as the 483rdWing Propulsion Branch.

Now to the similarities that Jerry Presley alluded to atCRB. When the Air Force started preparations to move toCRB those plywood, screen wire living quarters were justa stack of do it your self building materials with a ham-mer, saw and sack of nails sitting on them. Sand bagscame later. I also witnessed the erection of the 12 holeout house that had the half barrels under the holes. Everymorning about the time that the day shift left for work

the Vietnamese workers would pull the half barrels outfrom under the holes and I might add they did not advisethose that may be making a deposit into the barrels thatthey were going to remove the barrel and if some airmanwas hanging a little low into the hole the jagged edge ofthe barrel was known to draw blood. Any how, with thehalf barrels removed the VN workers would pour some-thing like diesel fuel into the barrels and burn the con-

tents. This would result in a heavy layer of black smokelaced with the aromatic odor of human waste floating atbetween 4 and 10 feet above the entire base especially inthe living and administrative areas of the base. The Squad-ron urinals were a bit more sophisticated. Through someingenious effort someone figured out how to cut the bot-toms out of two 55 gallon barrels and weld them togetherwith one on top of the other. These barrels were buriedvertically in the sand with the top of the barrel being flushwith the surface level of the sand. Both barrels were filledwith rocks and covered with a metal grate. There was aprivacy fence built about three quarters of the way aroundthe urinal which allowed one or more to access the urinalat the same time. Over a period of time it became evident


by the discoloration of the sand that not every one madeit all the way to the barrels. This urinal was located rightin the middle of the squadron area between the rows ofhooches.

As for the mess halls they were a bit more primitiveduring my tenure. For the most part the mess attendantscooked the food out side of the mess hall on open airpropane ground level burners. Each and every person as-signed to CRB carried their own metal mess tray usuallyhanging off their belt by a welding rod which had themetal knife, fork, spoon and canteen cup hanging on thesame rod. After using the mess tray and utensils, we hadto exit to the back of the mess hall where there were five55 gallon barrels filled with water and each had a sub-merged hot water heater in the barrel. To operate this doit your self mess tray cleaning system one had to com-pletely lower their tray and utensils into each barrel. Thissuccessfully left a film of grease on the tray and utensilswhich immediately became covered with a fine layer ofsand which was an accepted aid to the digestive system.The clanging metal of the eating equipment bouncing offthe troops behind became an irritating but accepted noise.( I still have that metal mess tray hanging in the war roomof my house). Actually for us troops from Dong Ba Thinit was a nice improvement. As I mentioned earlier themess hall at the Army base at Dong Ba Thin would notfeed anyone with the rank above E-5 and no, there wasno other military eating facilities. That was where andwhen the word “scrounge” took on a whole new meaningand care packages from home became labeled “survivalpackages.”

Any how Jerry described the showers as they were whenI was there. Just a pipe sticking out of the wall with atemperature control that was designed for one tempera-ture that fits all. That varied some times depending onthe ambient conditions of the area. Like the out house itto was a community shower.

The electrical power for the living quarters was fur-nished by a portable generator sitting in the hooch area.If the care taker forgot to service the generator or thething broke down so went the lights and any other appli-ance that may have been operated by the generator. Theup side of this power source was when we went under anattack alert at night and lights out were ordered we didnot have to worry about someone not getting the lightsout message. We just turned off the generator. As for thebeach, I have never laid eyes on a prettier white sand beachthen the one at CRB on the China Sea. However, if I mayhad been tempted to wet my tush in the pretty waters thatrolled up on that white sand the temptation was totallyremoved when I head the horror stories about the poisonjelly fish that resided in the shallow waters of the beach.

Not to mention the first time I went to the beach therewas a helicopter circling about 50 yards off the coast overthe water with someone hanging out the door shooting amachine gun into the water. When I inquired as to whythe guy was wasting ammunition shooting into the water,it was explained to me that they were beating the sharksback from the swimmers? Enough said on that.

As for the R&R program, I had the pleasure of enjoy-ing the ultimate R&R. When the Air Force accepted theCaribou weapon system it did not come with a Tech Or-der library required by the Air Force. So the 483rd Wingorganized a crew that represented the various systems ofthe Caribou and sent the crew back to TAC HDQS. in theUSA to assist in writing the Tech Orders. I was selectedto represent the Propulsion aspect of the Caribou. Theplus of the TDY was about a two week R&R at homewith my family before I had to return to CRB.

Most of the entertainment to be had during my stay atCRB was created by the troops. They were America’s fin-est and could find humor in most all aspects of life thereincluding work activities as well as off duty activities.The amazing thing about all that was no matter how roughit got or how bad the conditions got the troops were al-ways able to maintain the highest degree of morale andprofessional service to the war effort in VN. And yes thehuge crude out door movie screen (board) in the sand lotwas built by those same troops and as time permitted thetroops could attend the nightly movie. You either broughtyour own chair or just flopped down in the sand and ei-ther enjoyed the movie or just killed an hour or two untilbedtime. For the regular attendees, when they left VNthey knew the movie theme song melody by heart as theyplayed the same one every night, “Down Town.”

As I said earlier on when I came in country every onecame in and left out of Saigon. Needless to say I wasvery pleased to monitor the progress of the terminal be-ing built at CRB while I was there and I was even morepleased when I saw the first Freedom (Bird) Jet land thereat CRB a short time before I was scheduled to bid fare-well to all my friends and all those outstanding facilitiesthere at CRB. One of the first things I did when I arrivedin country was initiate a Short Time calendar that I main-tained on the inside door of my locker. There was timesthat I knew I would never check off all the blocks on thecalendar until I woke one morning and there was no moreunchecked blocks left. With my bags in hand I bid fare-well to my friends and CRB and will never forget thefeeling that I experienced when I heard the loud cheerthat echoed throughout that freedom (Bird) plane as welifted off the runway at Cam Rahn Bay and Viet Namstarted to fade into a distant memory.

Troy (TOM) Thompson, 483 Propulsion Branch[483,66]


The USO in VietnamThe USO was created by President

Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941 tomeet the morale needs of the service-men and women during World WarII.

The USO was composed of sixmember agencies who gave financialand personnel support to assist therole of the USO. These agencies werethe YMCA, the YWCA, the JewishWelfare Board, the Salvation Army,Travelers’ Aid, and National Catho-lic Community Services.

To staff the clubs, run the canteens,sew the buttons on uniforms, bemother /girlfriend, women from allwalks of life signed up to be “VIC-TORY BELLES.”

Vietnam had its share of “VictoryBelles”, but they were called Asso-ciate Directors and Directors. Therole was the same: bring a touch ofhome to our soldiers wherever theygo, wherever they are. As the USOlogo says: “A Home Away FromHome.”

Vietnam may have been a differ-ent war, with all front and no rear,but the danger was the same. Not onlywas it a messy war and increasinglycontroversial, but it required theUSO’s civilian activities to becomea vital arm of the national organiza-tion.

General William C. Westmorelandrealized this way back in 1963 whenhe told the Department of Defensethat there was a need for USO Clubsin Vietnam.

The first club, the Saigon USO,opened in April of 1963. It was to bean alliance that stretched eleven yearsto 1974, when all the women withUSO Clubs left Vietnam. It is to benoted that USO shows and USOClubs were totally separate functionsof the national USO.

As the war escalated, so did theneed for USO Club staffers. Manyyoung women were recruited directlyfrom college campuses with degrees

in theatre, broadcasting, and recre-ation. Knowing the risk, these youngwomen signed up anyway and for thelongest tours in Vietnam, 18 months.

They were not required to wear auniform. Civilian clothes only. In thiscase, the mini dress. Many of thewomen ordered clothes from theSears Catalogue or purchased themon R&R’s in Bangkok. No slackswere allowed. Perfume a must.

They were told upon arrival inVietnam that the men were never tosee them cry. Sam Anderson, the Ex-ecutive Director of the USO in Viet-nam, told everyone the same thing:“Your job in Vietnam is to be happy.Never let the men see you cry.”

Maybe that’s why the USO gaveits USO Club staffers a week R&Revery three months. The stress couldget to you otherwise. The housing forthe women could be in a BOQ, a villaor a quonset hut.

Since the request for volunteerswas granted by the Department ofDefense, all orders were cut by saidagency. Each volunteer was given therank of GS-10 or Captain. Her air-fare was paid by the national USO.However, if the volunteer wanted outof her assignment earlier than hereighteen months tenure, she wouldhave to pay her own way home.

At the peak of the war, the USOhad 22 clubs in Vietnam. As the wardwindled, the clubs did likewise to17. Each club was self-supporting;snack bars, barbershops, gift shops,overseas telephone line, photo labs,and hot showers .

Many of the clubs were on thebeach as in the Da Nang and VungTau areas. The main clubs were thepreviously mentioned Saigon USO,the four in the vicinity of Da Nang:the China Beach USO, the FreedomHill USO, the Golden Gate USO, andthe Liberty Center, and three clubsat Cam Rahn Bay: the Cam Rahn Bay#1 USO, the Aloha USO and the Cof-fee Bar USO.

All clubs had three volunteers atall times for the duration of the war.To cheer military personnel in theremotest areas or on warships in theChina Sea, the USO Club womenbrought programs to them: a Christ-mas party, a rock group, a Texas-stylebarbecue. Since many civilian com-munities in ‘Nam were off limits touniformed personnel due to the dan-ger of terrorist attacks, the USOClubs offered the only safe and sanediversion.

The familiar red, white and blueUSO sign, with its six stars depict-ing the six agencies, marked the placewhere a fast-food snack and amilkshake, a chess game with abuddy, or just reading hometownnewspapers that were there for every-one.

Through all this and more, theUSO women stuck it out. Althoughmost civilians at home came to knowthe USO only through televised re-plays of the Bob Hope ChristmasShows, the real unsung heroes werethe staff people who put everythingthey had into the Vietnam effort,round the clock, month after month,year after year. The morale of theUSO Club women never wavered.

Sam Anderson says of thewomen who staffed USO Clubs:“All the women did a wonderful jobin Vietnam. By far the women werethe bulk of the USO staff. They didmarvelous work. Our role in Viet-nam could not have been accom-plished if not for these completelyunselfish women. They were alwaysin great danger.” Anderson said noUSO Club staffer was killed inVietnam. [email protected] .

Squadron CommandersWe are attempting to compose a list of

successive squadron commanders for eachof the six squadrons plus the 4449th.There will be a form available in the warroom to write down those that you remem-ber. Scratch your head a little before thereunion and let’s see how many we cancome up with.


KNOW YE BY THESE PRESENTS, THAT THE BEARER,AIRMAN FIRST CLASS GEORGE K. TURNES

Is a Charter Member of the Greater Cam Ranh Bay Chapter ofThe Royal Order of Redde Tailers, Four Hundred and FiftyEight Tactical Airlift Squadron, Light, (Troop F);

Dauntless Warriors who spritely arise in darkness toGreet the fog on upland slopes, unerringly and splendidlyManeuvering their humble craft to circumvent friendly artillery,Fighters and hostile fire, urging their unpredictable LittleBeasts around tortuous circuits, puckering conscientiously;

Further, who delight in performing rugged sport on short, Earthen strips adjoining Special Forces Camps in unlikelyPlaces, Proudly carrying ammunition, wire, cement, CIDGTroops, camp followers, fresh provisions on the hoof, CocaCola, and sundry things unheard of in the annals of tacticalAirlifting;

Moreover, who wear bibs to protect their flak vests fromC-Ration crumbs, who, on occasion, and on the slightestProvocation, will recount the most harrowing exploits, allTrue; Who measure their days in microseconds and nights inFifths, Their DEROSes in Digits that Fidget; a Daring BreedOf Aeronauts, loyal to a man, one and all;

Therefore, the Incumbent being a Gentleman Airman of said OrderWill be honored upon presentation of these credentials, and isEntitled to one cut-rate brew together with free employment ofHis Caribou Priority to interrupt any war story whatsoever, andTell his own, then dee-dee out at his convenience.

Given this 10th Day of November 1968

Number 016

CHIEF SCRIBE:

Truong Ban HoSo Van Phong

Typical MissionA typical misson(If there was such

a thing) was rice hauling. One fineday I was assigned to take 4 palletsof rice from Saigon to a Michelinrubber plantation north of Saigon.After landing at a nearby dirt strip Iwas met by a very polite but business-like Special Forces team. The NCOin charge asked what I was doing. Ididn’t feel like it was any of his busi-ness but I told him. He said “I can’tlet you offload that rice.” He ex-plained how the plantation workerswere rubber workers by day and VCby night and they had killed two ofhis men the previous night and hesure as hell wasn’t going to let theUS feed the bastards.

Since the French rubber planta-tions were off limitS to US people,he could not fire into them or givechase into them for fear of “upset-ting our diplomatic relations withFrance” (It didn’t matter that theFrench supported North Vietnam asevidenced by the French ships inHaiphong harbor.) I explained to theSgt. that I just had a mission to doand that I could not get involved inthe politics of the situation.(howeverI did agree with him).

I then told the loadmaster tooffload the rice. The Sgt. pulled his.45, placed it to my head and said hewould kill me first . I told theloadmaster not to unload the rice.What a mess. I got on the radio tothe office at Tan Son Nhut and ad-vised them of the situation. The Sgt.and I were ordered to off load thecargo and were told not to meddle inforeign policy. Since the Sgt. was ofthe persuasive type, I rightfullyagreed to leave with my rice. I tookit back to Tan Son Nhut and unloadedit on the ramp. As it was late in theday, not many people were aroundand didn’t care anyway. I didn’t careeither. I parked the airplane and wenthome. Never heard any more aboutit. Larry Laverne [457, 66]

Q: How do you know if there is a fighter pilot at your party?A: He’ll tell you.**************************************************Q: What’s the difference between God and fighter pilotsA: God doesn’t think he’s a fighter pilot.**************************************************Q: What’s the difference between a fighter pilot and a jetengine?A: A jet engine stops whining when the plane shuts down.


1.You’ve ever slept on the concrete under a wing2.You’ve ever said, “Oh yes sir, it’s supposed to look likethat.”3.You’ve ever sucked LOX to cure a hangover.4.You know what jet fuel tastes like.5.You’ve ever used a grease pencil to fix an overworn tire.6.You have a better bench stock in the pockets of yourcoveralls than the supply system.7.You’ve ever used a piece of safety wire as a toothpick.8.You’ve ever had to say, “My boots are still black!”9.You refer to a pilot as a “control stick actuator.”10.You’ve ever been told to go get “some engine wash anda yard of flight line.”11.You’ve ever worked a 14 hour shift on an aircraft thatisn’t flying the next day.12.You’ve ever said “as long as she starts every other tryyou’ll be fine sir.”13.You believe your aircraft has a soul.14.You talk to your aircraft. (In your head still counts.)15.You’ve ever said, “That nav light burned out afterlaunch.”16.You’ve ever used a wheel chock as a hammer.17.The only thing you know about any city is where thegood bars are.18.You know more about your coworkers than you doabout your own family.19.You’ve ever looked for pictures of “your” aircraft inaviation books.20.You can’t figure out why maintenance officers exist.21.You ever wished the pilot would just say, “Greataircraft!”22.You take it as a badge of honor to be just called “ aCrew Chief.”23.You relieve yourself more often outdoors than indoors.24.You can’t comprehend why everyone doesn’t want tobe a crew chief.25.You think everyone who isn’t a crew chief is a wimp....26.You can sleep anywhere, anytime, but as soon as theengines shut down you are wide awake.27.You’ve ever stood on wheel chocks to keep your feetdry.28.Used dykes to trim a fingernail29.Wiped leaks immediately prior to crew show30.Worn someone else’s cover to chow31.All you care about is the flying schedule and your daysoff32.Wondered where they keep finding the idiots that keepmaking up stupid rules33.You’ve ever had to defuel your aircraft an hour afterrefueling it34.You tell your peers you are getting divorced and thefirst thing they ask is, “selling anything?”

You Might Be a Crew Chief If.... When A Soldier DiesIt’s impossible to put a value on a human life, but fi-

nancial worries are a big issue for military families, es-pecially in wartime. What happens if a loved one is killed?His or her family receives $6000, plus rent-free housingor tax-free housing allowances for 180 days. Burial costsof up to $6900 are provided. In addition, a spouse gets$948 a month and $234 a month for each dependent childuntil age 18, plus Social Security benefits. (Service mem-bers also are eligible for $250,000 in life insurance if theyelect to pay the premiums.) Children and spouses alsomay qualify for education grants from the Department ofVeterans Affairs. Some benefits change or end if a sur-viving spouse remarries. Visit www.va.gov for more in-formation about benefits.From Parade Magazine, May 4, 2003.

Dave:I got back to Cam Ranh Bay on 20 November, after a

two week TDY to the mission site in Bangkok. (Toughduty, but someone had to do it) We were notified of anapproaching typhoon that night, and departed with all ofour flyable aircraft the next day for Long Thanh ArmyAirfield. We (the 457th and 458t) flew mission from therefor four days, working day and night under combat situ-ations

The Army base commander was not real happy with32 C-7s sitting on his ramp. We filled the ramp as well asparking nose to tail on the taxiway. He ordered outgoingartillery (105 & 155MM) as long as we were on his field.The takeoffs were made max effort with an immediateleft turn to avoid small arms fire at the end of the runway.We slept in our planes and ate C-rations. We also foundout that one 50 lb C02 fire extinguisher will cool down 2cases of beer. They did not have a good extinguisher lefton the base when we departed.

I brought the Squadron commander and his jeep in onmy aircraft 62-4160. We used the jeep to move the planesaround on the flight line. We were the first in and the lastout.

Stoney FaubusCrew Chief 62-4160, [458, 68]


Bob Dugan received the following letter from ColonelMascot about March of 2002. The letter was written inresponse to Bob’s request for a transcript of ColonelMascot’s talk at the 1998 Caribou Reunion at WrightPatterson AFB.

3/23/02Note: The following anecdote was obtained from Col

Paul J Mascot, who was the Com-mander of the 483rd Tactical AirliftWing in Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam on03 Aug 67, the date of the accident.

The tail number of this C-7A Cari-bou was 62-4161. The Aircraft Com-mander was Capt Alan E Hendrickson,Pilot was Capt John D Wiley and

Flight Engineer was TSgt Zane E Carter. They were mem-bers of the 459th Tactical Airlift Squadron based at PhuCat AB, Vietnam. All the names are real with the excep-tion of the Army officer, whose name was changed forpersonal privacy reasons…Nothing else was changed.This is an exact reproduction of Colonel Mascot’s letter.

A STRANGE EVENT AT THE BALCONESCOUNTRY CLUB

Every now and then a day comes along, in a person’slife, when something happens that reinforces his beliefin God’s mercy. The 20th of October, 1992 was such a dayfor me.

My golfing partners and I were getting ready to play around of golf, at the Balcones Course, of the BalconesCountry Club, in Austin, Texas and one of our usual four-some had been unable to join us that day.

Since we were one man short, at the first Tee, we in-vited a single player, who was there, to join us. He ac-cepted our invitation, and we played our round of golf.The golfer, who was completely unknown to any of us,rode with me in my golf cart. His name was MichaelHubbard.

Throughout the round, we had casual conversationabout the Military Service, and I learned that Michaelhad served in Vietnam, about the same time as I had. Hewas, it turned out, a Battery Commander of 155 Howit-zers, there.

As we drove up to the Pro Shop, and were about toseparate, I mentioned the words, “C-7A Caribou”. WhenI said those words, Michael looked at me with an oddexpression, on his face and said, “Paul, during my lastday’s of service in Vietnam, my 155 Howitzer Batteryshot down an Air Force Caribou. It happened at a FireBase at Ha Than, and I haven’t spoken about this to any-one, in more than twenty years”. When he said thosewords, the hair on the back of my neck literally stood up!

I looked at him and said, very quietly, “I know about thathappening, Michael, that was one of my Airplanes andone of my Crews. I was the Wing Commander of the 483rd

Tactical Airlift Wing when that happened, and that Crewand that Airplane belonged to my Wing”.

Michael stared at me with wide open eyes and a lookof complete disbelief on his face. Then he started to tellme the rest of the story. He said that he had received clear-ance to fire and had passed on the order to his Battery.At that moment, an Air Force Caribou appeared, fromjust over the hill, in the direction his Battery had aimed.He said he had watched, in horror, as a round from one ofhis guns struck the C-7A, blowing off the complete tailassembly. The Airplane crashed only a few hundred yardsfrom his Battery position, and he and a Corpsman, ran tothe wreckage, to try to help any survivors. He said, “Paul,both the Pilot and Co-Pilot had died, instantly, but a CrewMember in the Cabin was still alive, however he died, inmy arms, as I held him, while trying to give him mouthto mouth resuscitation”. Then Michael said, “When I wasback in the Base Area, later on, my Battalion Commanderran up to me and called me a murderer. He said that I hadmurdered that Air Force Crew”!

I looked at Michael and said, very quietly, “I knowabout that, Michael, Ron the Officer, who I had sent toinvestigate the accident, my Deputy Commander of Op-erations, Col Norm Lawrence, reported this, to me uponhis return to the Wing Headquarters, at Cam Ranh Bay.He happened to be there at the time and witnessed it.Norm Lawrence and I were both surprized, at the reac-tion of your CO. We both were shocked over the loss ofthe Crew and the Airplane, but we knew that it wasn’tcaused through a deliberate action, on anyone’s part, butwas a terrible accident. No one could fire a 155 Howit-zer, at an Airplane, in flight, with any serious hope ofhitting it. Such an event could only occur by accident”.

As we got out of the golf cart, I asked Michael to comewith me, to my house. I live only a half mile from the ProShop, so he followed me home in his Pick-Up Truck. Weboth entered the house and went to my Den. There on oneof my walls, next to my desk, is a framed picture of thatsame C-7A Caribou, falling from the sky, with it’s tailsection separated from the fuselage. I said, “Michael, isthat the Airplane”? Michael’s face paled and tears cameto his eyes, as he looked at the picture. Then he said “Yesit is Paul”, and asked, very quietly, whether he could bor-row the picture to have it reproduced. I told him it wasn’tnecessary, as I had a spare copy, and would be glad togive it to him. He thanked me with a low voice.

At this point, I was feeling very strange, indeed. Ilooked at Michael and told him that regardless of hisBattalion Commander’s remarks to him in Vietnam, nei-

Col. Mascott


ther I, my DCO, nor any of my Caribou Pilots or Crew-men, believed him to be a murderer. I told him that thesethings happen in war, in spite of all the precautions takento prevent them, by responsible people, when real fight-ing is going on. I said again, “Michael, I don’t think youare a murderer, you didn’t murder that crew! It was anaccident”! Michael answered me quite emotionally, withtears in his eyes, and said, “Thank you Paul, you havetaken a weight off of my heart, that has been there formore than twenty years. I don’t know what to say”. Thenhe headed for his Pick-Up and as he got into it to leave,he turned to me and said, “God Bless you Paul”. I re-plied, “God bless you Michael, He already has Blessedme”.

I retired that evening pondering over this strange turnof events, and I wondered if I would ever hear fromMichael Hubbard again. I found that I would, as I re-ceived a phone call from him early the next morning.Hesaid, “Paul, after I left your house yesterday, I went di-rectly to my home and called my Daughter, who lives inPhoenix. I told her what had happened, and how it seemedthat after all these years, a great weight had been removedfrom my heart. My Daughter was very quiet, then shesaid softly, to me, “Dad it was the hand of God thattouched you. He has decided that you have carried thatburden long enough.” I said, “Michael, your Daughter isright. I have no doubt, in my mind, that it was the handof God that touched us. What are the odds that you and Iwould meet, in Austin, Texas some twenty five years af-ter an event in Vietnam, where an Air Force Crew and aC-7A Caribou with which both of us were vitally con-nected, were lost? Your Daughter is a wise young Lady”.Then I thanked Michael for calling and asked him to keepin touch with me, if he could, the wished him well andsaid goodbye.

I saw Michael Hubbard a few more times. We playedsome golf together and had several more conversationsabout the war in Vietnam, then one day he was gone. LaterI learned that he had gone to Phoenix, to be near hisDaughter and to work as a Greens Keeper on one of themany Golf Courses there. One of the things I will alwaysremember, was the depth of feeling that Michael Hubbardexhibited in my house that day in October. Indeed, Goddoes work in strange ways!

After 3 months at Can-Tho I was transferred along withthe C-7A aircraft to the 457th TAS at Cam Rahn Bayabout 1 Jan 1967. This was at that time considered to bealmost as safe as in the States. I was assigned to the 483dConsolidated Aircraft Maintenance Squadron.

We turned in our weapons and settled down too a pretty

much routine life, working 12 hours on and 12 off 6 daysa week. I was a Maintenance Controller and worked inJob Control the same job I had at Can Tho except that atCan Tho it was a one or two man job but at Cam RahnBay there were 6 or more of us. We controlled and sched-uled all work on the C-7A aircraft. The C-7A aircraft cameto Cam Rahn Bay from other bases in Vietnam for majormaintenance and 2 Sqds, the 457th and 458th were as-signed there.

F-4s were also on the base. They were strafing andbombing lots of times within sight of the base so it wasnot uncommon for the same plane to fly several sorties inone day. Helicopters were constantly on the move and itwas not unusual to hear small arms fire at night and atfirst it made sleeping difficult but you got used to it.

We lived in plywood 8 man hooches with a canvas roofthat leaked every time it rained which was every day dur-ing the monsoon season, Sep. To Dec. But we got rain theyear round to some degree and since the daytime aver-age temp.at Cam Ranh Bay was in the high 80s duringthe summer the humidity was very high. Before we tiledthe roof we kept a poncho on our bed to keep it dry. Ev-erything made of leather and not and regularly cleanedand polished mildewed and turned green.

I think about April or May 1967 we replaced the can-vas roof with tile. Each man had a metal bunk, wall lockerand a foot locker there was a small refrigerator in eachhooch kept locked during the day with a chain and pad-lock, this was used mostly to keep beer and soda in. Wealso could buy booze at the BX very cheap which we keptin the hooch, we were all NCOs T/Sgts in my hooch,Samms, Thrasher, Patton, Larson, Rodgers, Banton, Calo,and Smith. I was the hooch chief I don't know if the lowerranking airman were allowed to live this way or not. Wewere the first occupants of these hooches, they didn't evenhave doors when we moved in, so we were required to domost if not all the improvements including putting on thetile roofs, in some cases and painting the hooch as wellas building the sand bag bunkers that were just outsideeach hooch. We also built a plywood deck out the backdoor that served as a place to relax and party. We had aBar-B-Que and often had steak that had been procuredin some fashion from someplace, I think the Navy. Muchof our off duty time was spent working on our hoochesand filling sand bags. Toward the end of summer in 1967there was much talk and rumors about a big V.C. pushcoming up, Most likely during Tet and the higher upswanted more sand bags around the hooches, so it was backto filling sand bags again.I don't remember going to aNCO Club or seeing a movie the whole time we werethere, if there was such a thing maybe I was just too tired

See Roy Sams page 27

Roy Sams


Engine Fire at Phu CatHi Dave -This is a re-type (by me) of a photo copy I obtained

from the Air Force History Support office at BollingAFB. It goes into fine detail of crew actions from the firstdetection of smoke to the wheels-up landing at Phu Cat.

Larry Schiff [459, 66]

At 0905 hours on 14 Mar 1967, Major Dubberly asInstructor Pilot, First Lieutenant Jach as Co-pilot and StaffSergeant Wolpert as Flight Engineer in a C-7A took offfrom Holloway Air Field, RVN, with seventeenpassengers. As the aircraft was climbing through 4500feet, approximately 1500 feet above the ground, a slightsmoke odor was noticed by the crew members. All in-strument and circuit breakers were monitored with noabnormal indication noted. The side cockpit windowswere closed and the smell diminished.

The climb was continued with level off and cruisepower established at 7500 feet. Approximately ten min-utes later an acrid smoke odor was again detected. Allinstruments and engines were scanned and MajorDubberly left his Co-pilot’s seat, he was acting as Instruc-tor Pilot, and tried to assist the flight engineer, SSgtWolpert, in locating the source of the smoke.

Smoke in the cabin was now affecting the passengerseyes, an all effort to locate the source wasineffective. Because the intensity of eye irritation wasincreasing, SSgt Wolpert opened the aft cargo door to helpalleviate the smoke. First Lieutenant Philip E. Jach, fly-ing from the left seat, had started a descent toward PhuCat Air Base, RVN, as Major Dubberly was strapping him-self into the right seat. While descending through 5,000feet and approximately 10 miles from Phu Cat Air Base,the number one engine fire light for zone two and threeilluminated. Engine inflight fire procedures were accom-plished but the propeller would not feather. Both fire ex-tinguisher bottles momentarily diminished the now blaz-ing fire. Fire was seen to be burning well aft of the firewalland back toward the left wing. Maximum power was ap-plied to number two engine and a three to four hundredfoot per minute descent was the best performance attain-able. Major Dubberly advised the Phu Cat tower of hisemergency, had the passengers briefed and continued hisdescent for a straight-in approach to Phu Cat Air Base. At1,000 feet, attempts to lower the landing gear proved un-successful, the gear controls had been burned away bythis time. Still with maximum power on number two en-gine, number one propeller windmilling and zero flaps,Major Dubberly and Lt Jach continued the approach. Bynow number one engine had burned many pieces off thenacelle and flames were engulfing part of the wing. Bring-

to go. We did go to the beach a few times but the Frenchhad used that area for a garbage dump so you had to becareful not to step on broken glass ect. I think some ofour people were detailed to clean it up when we first gotthere and think it was an on-going project. However thebeach at Cam Ranh Bay was much better than the Waikikibeach in Hawaii where you had the coral to contend with.

We were allowed a phone call home I think once aweek, it was like talking on the radio you had to say overafter every sentence then wait for a reply then the partyyou were talking to would say over and so on. The linesfor the phones were so long I think I only called home acouple of times. Im not much of a letter writer but I didmanage to get a few lines off to my wife each day.

A Mama San was assigned to each hooch to do laun-dry and clean up each morning we paid her a fee for thisservice. The mama-sans did the laundry in the showerroom by scrubbing by hand on the shower floor or out-side on the board walk-ways, we had to supply the soap,my T-shirts and shorts that had been white when I wentto Vietnam were so stained by the time I got home mywife said they were not worth saving. The shower roomwas a 16 X 16 ft. enclosure with wood slats on the floorwith 8 shower heads cold water only. The latrine was asimilar affair with 6 to 8 holes, 55 gal drums cut in halfwere used to contain the you-know-what and each morn-ing they would be removed through outside doors andthe you-know- what burned with the aid of diesel oil.

Continued on page 28

ing all his flying experience to bear, Major Dubberly tookcontrol of the aircraft from Lt Jach, crossed the end ofthe runway and touched the aircraft down on thefuselage. The aircraft slid 657 feet and came to a rest onthe center line of runway 01. All aircraft power was turnedoff and the 17 passengers and crew of three evacuated thestill burning aircraft. The base fire fighters quickly ex-tinguished the fire. Subsequent investigation cited enemyaction as the cause of the fire.

Because of both Major Dubberly’s and Lt Jach’s crewcoordination, pilots skill and professionalism during acritical emergency, and SSgt Wolpert’s outstanding abil-ity in rebriefing and controlling the passengers, all aboardescaped without injury. For their part in this harrowingemergency, all aircrew members were nominated for theAir Force Well Done Award.

“A True Copy”/s/Edward j. thielenEDWARD J. THIELEN, Lt Col, USAF, Commander /s/joseph r. brandJOSEPH R. BRAND, Captain, USAF, Historical Officer

Roy Sams from page 26


The chow hall was a large build-ing with louvers and screen on theupper sides like most of the buildingsthat were made of plywood. We car-ried our tray or mess kit and eatingutensils with us to and from work andthe hooch, we washed them in largecans that had a water heater in thecan the first can was the garbage canthen the scrub can it had a brushhanging on a string to use for thispurpose then there were 2 rinse cans,the water was near boiling so you had

to use extreme caution.We were given a R & R leave after

6 months in country. I elected to takemine in Hawaii where my wife joinedme for one great week. I arrived firstand Mary Le 4 hours later, afterchecking in at the hotel I spent about2 hours in the shower trying to getrid of Vietnam and just enjoying hotwater. The week was up all to soonand after tearful goodbys, butgreatfull for the time we had together,boarded the plane to return to Vietnam.

Thirty days prior to our tour being

complete we became what was calleda short timer and started a FIGMOchart, each day was crossed off withgreat joy and usually toasted with thebeverage of choice, by this time minewas scotch and water. About 1 Oct1957 my big plane to the land of thebig B.X. and round eyed women ar-rived. Just a few months before the68 Tet Offensive. My next duty as-signment was Dyess AFB Texas.Roy Sams [457, 66]

Continued from page 27

5607 Jolly Ct.Fair Oaks, CA [email protected]

Address Service Requested

VITAL STATISTICS:VITAL STATISTICS:VITAL STATISTICS:VITAL STATISTICS:VITAL STATISTICS: September 2003

Check your vital statistics and mail label to insurethat the information is correct. Send changes to:

C-7A Caribou AssociationAttn: Jim Collier5607 Jolly Ct. _____________________Fair Oaks, CA 95628-2707 TODAY’S DATE

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________TAX YEAR SQUADRON ARRIVAL YR. RANK AREA CODE TELEPHONE

________________________________________________________________________________LAST NAME FIRST NAME MIDDLE INITIAL

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September 2003

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Tulsa, OKPermit No. 1957

Important reminder: Please make sure you mail your reunionregistration forms to Christine NLT 10 October. We cannotguarantee transportation and tours for registration formsreceived after the 15th. Make hotel reservations by October 6.

newsletter issue #18a - c-7a caribou

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