Chapter TEN - 1973 - 1975
Vietnam Evacuations - Once upon a See-Saw
The Interview
The assignment to Guam and Andersen Air Force Base on the northeast end of the island, was a two year, accompanied tour. There was however about a five month wait for base housing. after I left the Defense Information School, my radar technician days behind me forever, I drove the wife back to her parents home in Mississippi for the wait for base housing, the car to New Orleans for shipment and in short order I was on a plane for California and Travis Air Force Basef for a flight to Guam. It was on a brief change of planes stop in Dallas that I got the news. I had about three hours at Love Field in Dallas and still has a number of acquaintes there. One of those calls produced the very devestating news I alluded to earlier in a previous chapter. I reached the mother of a good friend in Garland, Texas. She said after perhaps one minute of my asking who was still around and how was everyone was saying, „Oh my God you haven't heard have you", I said „heard what?" My former fiancee, Barbara had gotten married which was good news to another young military man.
Then lightning struck.
She said he had returned home one evening after work to find that Barbara had taken her own life. Shock, and tears welled up immediately. I was speechless. I think it best to leave it there.
It was a fairly uneventful flight and when I arrived I found the temperature at about 84 degrees, a fair amount of humidity on this small island in the middle of this huge ocean called the Pacific Ocean.
Hawaii was like 3,000 plus miles to the east northeast and the Philippines were 1,500 miles to the west.
I thought to myself, I'm not going to be fond of the weather, but with a beautiful beach, a great new career field and job I'd been trying years to secure, what could possibly go awry on an island in the middle of nowhere, just 26 miles long and 4 miles wide.
I thought, this should be a little like two years of essential rest and relaxation. Well, I was about to find out like never before. This in a nutshell was the most exciting tour in my 24 years in the Air Force.
We were basically in the last two years of the Vietnam War and the rooms initially designed for two or three people were un-designed for as many as six of us. That didn't last however for which we were all thankful.
I reported to the radio station and got the assignment of the afternoon show from 2:00 – 5:00 PM every day. I also got a double duty as the radio station News Director.
Among other things we'd put together one live newscast a day with local base happenings, general news on the Vietnam war mostly as reported by the major radio networks, and also an interview show concerning base events or the units assigned there. That last show was once a week for 30 minutes.
One of the military D.J.'s there was believe it or not, a gentleman who with the military prefix, became Sargeant Sargeant, a most affable and consumate professional morning show host.
Of all the military D.J.'s I was friends and worked with in roughly 20 years, Sargeant Sargeant as he was known on air, was by far the best of them all, with a mellow but deep voice. He was an absolute joy to know and work with and we did that together many times on the tour.
I have a couple of other notables I feel I absolutely have to mention because they are all people that I will never forget.
One was our enlisted chief at the time a Senior Master Sargeant who did a Saturday morning country show that none of us will ever forget either.
The other was a Master Sargeant who was the station program director and I am using his full name out of appreciation and respect for a decision he HAD to make that I believe saved my life.
Master Sargeant George Biren a friendly, happy go lucky, well most of the time, person who actually saved my life, without knowing it, at least at the time anyway.
But make no mistake, when the events of that one evening and night unfolded, I believe he did and for that I am and will always be, eternally greatful..
My pilot flying was taking a hit as there was no flying club on the base and the airport was near the Navy station way at the other end of the island.
But I was doing the job I loved and it was permanent, so at that point I had decided that perhaps I should make the Air Force a career. By the time I left this little Pacific Island I'd be a little more that halfway to retirement, I was finally where I wanted to be career wise so I thought, why not..
My interest in weather was getting peaked because in the summer and fall months tropical storms and typhoons were floating around the Pacific many of the more serious ones, taking aim at Okinawa or the Philippines but occassionally gracing close enough to us to get some of the welcome rain and wind. That would lower the daily temperatures about eight to ten degrees and it was very welcome.
If you remember, I mentioned that on arrival it was a humid 84 degrees. Turns out it was close to that day and night and the only real change was when it rained and there was wind.
Four months into the tour we were notified we had a base residence. Plumeria Drive at Andersen in one of many housing section was now to be called home.
It was a nice, relatively new and well kept two bedroom, one bath, dining room, living room, even a laundry room, a carport and lanai with window air conditioners that were never off. Next door another nice family. He worked in the military communications section on the base, important to remember a little later on.
Being in radio news and reporting on base activities sometimes became very interesting, especially when the military inspectors came to town. My wife got a job as a cashier at the Air Force Exchange.
She was opening a shipment, one of many that would arrive regularly, I believe from the main warehouse in Dallas.
It was a shipment of winter parkas that were marked bathing suits and beach attire. You'll never guess who got the bathing suits marked parkas.
The local commisary, (grocery store) would send a plane every week. This was a C-54 military plane comperable to the Douglas DC-4 to the civilian populated island of Tinian.
It was here we would get the fresh fruits grown there and a few vegetables that grew there. As I remember it was kind of like a runway in the middle of a tropical jungle. But think about it. It was from this same island, where the B-29 Enola Gay launched in 1945 dropping the first atomic bomb in
WW-Two. I was actually there some 29 years later. The locals many of whom grew the produce came to the plane, got the manifest from a commissary officer and help load up the aircraft with a lot of everything. Our total time on the ground was under two hours and then we'd be on our way, back to the main island of Guam, a pretty short flight. Among the reasons we'd volunteer to go on this flight was because we were told to help ourselves to anything we wanted as a little thank you for the help. My one trip was to get a news story, but I also got a lot of produce, fruits and even a few veggies as a result.
The wife got a few bags of bananas, peaches, plums, apples, oranges strawberries, all sorts of things. I don't do veggies, if I can avoid it.
Along comes an annual charity event for the Navy and Air Force assistance funds once a year. For what ever reason, Sargeant Sargeant and I got together and planned a most unusual event that we believed might land both of us in the Guinnes Book of World Records if we were successful.
We talked about it for days on end and then we contacted the base woodworking shop to see if they would be willing to help us out. As it turned out they loved the idea and built Carl and I a SEE - SAW, yes that's correct, a SEE – SAW.
For the combined charities, we decided to set what we thought would be the world record, 50 straight hours
see – sawing non stop to raise money for the fund. We'd broadcast fromn the see-saw for our shows, eat on the see-saw, there was to be no sleeping, you name it.
We were allowed one at a time off only when absolutely necessary for rest room breaks but the see saw had to be kept in motion constantly by the other person.
We started at high noon on I believe a Wednesday and the goal was to make it non-stop up and down until Friday at 2:00 PM 50 hours later. Our goal was to raise $2,000.00 US Dollars for the combined charities. We did make it, we raised nearly $4,000.00 and for hours after we got off the boards, we paid the price, temporarily. But it was all in good fun.
I have never checked the „book" to see if indeed we were listed. I still haven't.
I received word from the Public Affairs office that It was possible that Air Force Two, the Vice President of the United States might be stopping in Guam for refueling enroute to Da Nang in Vietnam.
As time went on the speculation became reality.
As the station News Director, I was to be given the honor of interviewing the Vice President of the United States, at the time, Nelson Rockefeller in what was to be the two hour stop. The day arrived, I was of course all decked out in my Air Force Blue uniform and there were mostly Guamanian representatives from the radio stations downtown, the newspapers and the one television station KUAM-TV. I had a written and I might add, a pre-approved series of eight or nine questions to ask the Vice President.
The plane landed and the security team, AKA, Secret Service and FBI no doubt deplaned waiting for the Vice President. We were all in base operations center in a little room ready to do the interview. About 10 minutes went by and then we got the word that the Vice President was NOT going to get off the plane at all. Talk about a disappointment, deep inside, but in his place I would get to interview Senator Barry Goldwater also traveling with he V ice President on this trip,
He was as you know, a very well known senator from Arizona, a bit unpredictable sometimes and apt to say most anything. I wasn't sure what to expect but I thought pretty much ready for anything. He came in, sat down and the first thing he said was, "I hope I will make a suitable replacement." Of course I thought, but who knew what might come next.
I introduced myself as about a dozen microphones suddenly appeared to either side of me. I said sir, I have a few questions here and brought out the list.
He said „Oh, throw that thing away, those were for the Vice President, clearly that's not me and ask anything you want."
While he was behind me, I could almost see the Public Affairs officers face go ashen. But the interview was a success, and very easy to put together in the studio later.
Air Force two left the island and you could hear the sighs of relief everywhere.
This was turning out to be one amazing tour on this little island in the middle of nowhere. What I didn't know was, the best was yet to come.
However, to give that part of the story, the space and descriptions it deserves and needs, We must step forward just a bit for a moment now to 1975 and give yet another major event the proper mention as well. I am approaching the end of my tour in about five months. We are also approaching the end of the Vietnam War, the evacuation of thousands and thousands of South Vietnameese to either the Phillipines or our little island in the Pacific
Guam was no exception. In the beginning we were told we would temporarily harbor about 2,000 of these refugees, but no more than 2,500 on our tiny island base.
At the height of the evacuation, it climbed to just over 20,000. I was of course doing stories almost every day on the arrivals at Andersen and the people coordinating everything at the base.
All in all it was handled incredibly well, but one person I met stood out among them all. He was the pilot of the charter Trans International Airlines, whose crew was one of the most dedicated airline representatives I had ever met. They flew a DC-8-62, and extended version of the DC-8 from Andersen to Saigon and back, more times than I can count. They were tireless stopping for only the minimum mandated crew rest and then were right back in the cockpit and cabin and off again and again. Each of the flights they did brought over 250 South Vietnamese to assured saftey. To that crew of Trans International; Thanks, a superior job, well done.