• There seems to be an uptick in Political comments in recent months. Those of us who are long time members of the site know that Political and Religious content has been banned for years. Nothing has changed. Please leave all political and religious comments out of the forums.

    If you recently joined the forums you were not presented with this restriction in the terms of service. This was due to a conversion error when we went from vBulletin to Xenforo. We have updated our terms of service to reflect these corrections.

    Please note any post refering to a politician will be considered political even if it is intended to be humor. Our experience is these topics have a way of dividing the forums and causing deep resentment among members. It is a poison to the community. We appreciate compliance with the rules.

    The Staff of SOH

  • Server side Maintenance is done. We still have an update to the forum software to run but that one will have to wait for a better time.

How many of you are Vietnam vets?

ejoiner

ejoiner

Charter Member
my job calls for me to travel all over the world. For the first time next week, I will be going to Hanoi Vietnam. This immediately gave me thoughts of things like Linebacker 2, the Hanoi Hilton, etc. Will be a little weird.

My understanding is that the Vietnamese people refer to the war as the "American War" but are very welcoming to Americans nowadays. We shall see.

Eric
 
I've been up to Haipong Harbor but, I didn't land.. :running: .This was during the time we were flying flare drop missions on C-130s over North Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Our mission was called: "Blindbat." In the beginning, we operated out of DaNang, Vietnam. We moved to Ubon, Thailand, in 1966.

RD
 
Two cruises on USS Coral Sea (CVA-43) 1968-70, one on USS Midway (CVA-41) 1971. Photo interpreter with Light Photo Squadron 63 (VFP-63). Our squadron flew RF-8G Crusaders.
 
I got my draft notice in 1968, was classified 4F, I have and had many friends who served in Vietnam, a couple never returned, I am honored to know you gentlemen and I'm damn proud of every last one of you.
This is from a Canadian.
 
May 1971 to February 1972.. U.S. Army..

Flight Eng on CH-47 A's and B's, 132nd in Chu-Lai for 6 months then up to Marble Mountain with the 178th as Operations NCO

Bill
 
My Dad did two tours (64 & 68) as a Marine. I joined the Navy at 17 just as it was winding down.
 
thanks to all of you for what youve done.

my optomitrist has a cute lil gal workin for him who moved here with her family just over 8 years ago...she was born in Saigon and lived on a farm outside the city..atleast i think that was what she said...doesnt speak english well still..she did tell me she and her husband moved to auburn from the large vietnamese and hmong communities near and in stockton ca,she said she cried for a week to not have her family with her...sitting in my powerchair..she was still shorter than myself..lol...and when i got up to use the restroom..she was awestruck at my hight...then i informed her id lost 2 and 3/4s inch when i was hurt...lol..not to be dirty...but id love to have her on my lap....:adoration:
 
Jan66 - Jan67 Bein Hoa, 93rd Medical Detachment, 118th Assault Helicopter Co, Combat Medic on flight status.

Thanks for asking!

Lyn
 
rdaniell said:
I've been up to Haipong Harbor but, I didn't land.. :running: .This was during the time we were flying flare drop missions on C-130s over North Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Our mission was called: "Blindbat." In the beginning, we operated out of DaNang, Vietnam. We moved to Ubon, Thailand, in 1966.

RD
Click to expand...

You flew flare sorties over Haiphong?
 
There used to be a really good web site on the C-130 and Blind bat in particular.
I think all those 130 sites changed addresses and I missed the jump.
 
joe bob said:
There used to be a really good web site on the C-130 and Blind bat in particular.
I think all those 130 sites changed addresses and I missed the jump.
Click to expand...

Yes, there used to be an active discussion group which consisted of a bunch of us "ole blind bats." It was owned by Sam McGowan. We were pretty active on the board when it first got started but, then as we had pretty much all shared our memories, posts started dwindling down to none and the site was shut down. There were two reunions with good attendance at both back in the late 1990s.

I got reacquainted with one of the fellows that I flew with on several rotations. He and his wife have visited my wife and me several times. We still stay in touch with each other.

RD
 
Yeah, Sam Mcgowan sounds right.
That was back when I was researching a lot about the Herk in Viet Nam.
One of the lesser known rolls that had a web site were the ABCCC guys.
Not the most interesting roll one could imagine but It did give me a good laugh.
The toilet was a large garbage can with a plastic bag.
I don't remember how many crew there were but it was considerably larger than the average C-130 crew and these missions were pretty long.
The rule was the first one to use it was the one who emptied it on return to base, whether it was an airman basic or a full bird col.
I would imagine it was like the last scene in The Good The Bad And the Ugly.
Nervous eyes, clenched buttocks all to a dramatic spaghetti western sound track
 
joe bob said:
Yeah, Sam Mcgowan sounds right.
That was back when I was researching a lot about the Herk in Viet Nam....
Click to expand...

In my opinion, one of the best books on airlift activities in SEA is: Tactical Airlift: The United States Air Force in Southeast Asia by Ray L. Bowers. It was published by the Air Force History and Museums Program.

The Blind Bat Mission is summed up in one paragraph on page 388. Not much for a mission that flew one/third of the total flying done by C-130As in Vietnam.( Seventy-five hundred missions and almost eight hundred thousand flares were dropped. ) I was on 187 of those missions. Two airplanes and crews were lost to enemy fire.

At least us ole blind bats are more than a footnote.

RD
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top