I went to boot camp at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas in September 1968. After finishing basic training, I was assigned to go to munitions school in Denver. Both basic training and tech school were accelerated because of the war. I graduated from tech school and my whole class was assigned to Danang Air Base (AB) in Vietnam except me and one other were assigned to Phu Cat Air base, Vietnam. The bases weren’t ready to accept us because airmen assigned there had to depart before they could accept their replacements. I was told to go home for a month before reporting to my first permanent base. Usually, airmen from tech school worked at a base in the States for one year to get training before going to Vietnam, but my job was not needed in the States and was high priority in Nam.

After my one-month vacation, I flew to Travis AFB in California to head for Nam. The plane made several stops before we finally landed Cam Ranh Bay AB. My first big culture shock was seeing an old lady cleaning up around the base air terminal. She picked up partially eaten sandwiches from the trash to bring home to feed her family. The sandwiches were a slice of mystery meat between two slices of stale bread. That was why after one bite, the sandwiches were thrown into the trash. But, to the old lady, this would be food on the table. We had to stay at Danang for a couple of days waiting for transportation to Phu Cat. I will never forget my first night there. We were put up in tents. Danang is one big beach – sand everywhere. There were boardwalks everywhere. I had to walk about 100 meters to the latrine to shower etc. Some of us were sitting on the boardwalk when we saw some flares in the sky. I asked why they were dropping them and was told that there were enemy soldiers outside the base perimeter. That was when it finally hit me that I was in a war zone.