Vietnam Diary

25 May '67

Slept late - till 1100 after late TPQ made them run in the DMZ with KL "A" - [?] all the time a 1.5 of pure terror! - Cotton picker was on station but I feel better with an APR-23 aboard.

121 had the alet today - pretty good day - I wandered down about 1700 after opening the club or [sn???] another TPQ - this plus my scheduled [?] at 2145 - two hops a day of anything isn't bad

Electric power on & off all day [?] off -

LT Dick Bemis - Group Navy Supply - CAPT Jack Tiuke - Recent addition 121 to Japan - Sammy Vaughn LTCO J. McGee Jim Acken MAJ Anthony Denny Bower - MAJ Cowart.

311 - Don Berry -

LTCOL McGeeflew the first main combat strike hop yesterday - an AR on RT 101 to Dong Hoi - Let Sam Vaughn put sam lock on 3 times! - That's stretching it a bit!

26 May -

Slept late after the DEV "C" - uneventful - didn't even go far enough north to get into the Sam [c?]. - Slept till - 1000 - Listened to strike brief [?] any 6.2 this afternoon. - not bad - handy info [?] dubs and went a few words with to Hart. - [?] Lange is working steady on E-5 club - whose plan [?] completed today - all I have to do now is write up a [?] sys [?] them & turn over to S-4 -

Turn in master hour for O-club we see what happens -

LTCOL McGee & 4 other field grade & 1 CAPT lanched on an iron hand mission this afternoon. Skrike - 2 more - 500 L.T. - sounded lik a good hop.

Another TPQ tonite DO15 strike. Hope to get to [?Ian?] tomorrow as we're running out of beer & certain other supplies

29 May -

Lost an A/C & pilot - Mike [To???n] during a NAPALM run - 22 miles west of [C? b?] - just yesterday - Mike & I had a hop in the DMZ 15 orbit with a [?] in a free strike zone - [20?] miles from [Fru?] bridge - Took - 50 ft sneak in from sea - I dropped four Haps sticked with AURs continue look on - he couldn't drop 51 and made another attack & he [d?] off all [j?] - MAJ Centuary was loading today & he watched Mike's drop then looked up to see him roll uncontrollably & crash - Later cover flight reported heavy auto 50 cal fire. I was in Danang all day Shuttling suppliers - we've [?] low on beer - ship due in in about 4 days so just picked enough to last us.

That's sarn A/C and 3 Pcho in 6 months for UHA-121

Didn't fly today - I've got 31 sorties & 40 hours all ready - more than I ever had in [?] [?] when

I was in a squadren - Due largely to three operations. Khe San, Hickory Nut & Union . Out of those 30 probably 22 are nite hops DH2 is really getting hot - from AAA, Sams - all kinds of every radar tracking you - blah - 50 cal, 12.7, great fun. The nube of 'strike' hop has [?] tremondously

5/D is used as to whether [?] & [?] have [incendery?] [?] maybe they censored it because of ARR-23

Flew the C-117 yesterday for just time in a multi-engine - Hope to do more in future & really see what that kind of flying is like.

LTCOL McGee [ce?] to lanch with Shrikes & ARR-22 - Hoping to get himself a Sam site.

[letter] 4 June

Well - VHA-121 is gone to Japan - what's left of the original group anyway - Derry are shore patrol from 2200 to 0600 3 AirForce GV brought in 34 & took out 121 - It was a [lazy night & trying to complete a flight schedule was a bit rough.

311 is a little slow getting started - LTCOL [?] being relieved of duty [?ly] MAJOR Hichtlevaller - ex of H & CIS -12 3d has lost 6 pilots already to other squadrons & to group - down to 20 aviators so groupize ougt to do all right once they get rolling. All indicatons are that it will be a dry dummer as far as pilots are concerned.

I've spent last 3 days moving & getting resettled at opponte eval of hut - I delayed MAJOR Castincton intel save Dd be able to stay with 311 area - So far so good.

Still no cement.

5 June -

Slow day - no fly all is still hunting pretty bad for A/C

Spent morning helping guest with his books and arguing with MAJOR Lloyd about o-club plans.

Took most of afternoon off and worked on main living area -

Made a slow start on P.T. Program read & relaxed

Joe Miller left tonite for [?] for a bit of Marine Corps business - Hope he'll pick up & mail my shotgun here - a lot overdue on payments.

6 June -

Another slow day - Slept late - rode a few cmail - Tried to go to Danang in the afternoon but the R-Y was down so spent later part of day at the beach reading R-Y manual

Party tonight (going away type) for LTCOL Munis of 36 so I'm standing the all nite alert for them [-- --]

Just noticed I picked up a slight burn -

Seem to have made no time for thought and reading now that flying schedule isn't so heavy - hope I will [-- --].

New roomates - Doug Benton - 1/LT Dan J Beary 1/LT Bill Loftus [--] second class [-- --] volunteered & returned.

Air Force lost an F-100 inside our TAOR yesterday - not sure if it was hostile fire or whether It just blew up - pilot killed.

8 June 1967

Launched at 0500 another nite alert with Dan Keller - night DAS with napalm and HK81 in the side of a hill north of An Hoi - a bit heavy till it started to get light as peaks went up to 2000 ft and we had to run in from the valley floor - Spooky controlled us & ground troops marched with a spotlight.

All in all quite a night - stood alert while 311 had their going away party for LTCOL [illegible] - then close the bar - slept from 12:00 - 4:00 - Dan woke me up to stand the alert - They 'd run out of sober pilot - we launched soon after -

Slept most of the morning - went back to squadron about 4:00 - trying to [illegible] - let [illegible] they ran out of pilots & planes at the same time -

Good alert at 1100 - Sirens woke us up rapidly - seems they spotted a mortar platoon north of the field - on Ky-Anton-road - possibly fired 3rd rounds - all duds - they only scattered them.

10 June -

No fly day - slept late and made a supply trip to Danang for ice machine chairs & more soda & [illegible]

Flew off the alert Pad yesterday with Dick Jacobs - Cas north of AN Hoi HK - 79 & HK - 82's - Dick had HK-81 BDA - 12 structures destroyed - .? hop - [illegible] rim - Crammed a lot of flying into 45 minutes. -

R & R to Harry King still looks good for the c&d -

Show at E-club "Beauties & the Beasts" Tried to get some flash photos - dubious -

Hoping for a hop tomorrow -

Finished [illegible] back [illegible] for C-117 hope to start flying it soon - Cant ? - taking over for Jerry Cook - looks like another Mitch/Hunt -

Also think should look into flying HUIE's 34' steel slow and need more flying time. - Put off submitting resume to airlines until July - yearly flying time report is submitted