31 August 1970

Monday night
31 August 1970

48 MORE DAYS!  And August is over!!!

I got mail today.

I flew today - 191 missions - and 3 more days to go.

It just doesn’t seem possible that (barring any change) I’ll be leaving S. Vietnam for good in less than 2 weeks!!!  What a thing to look forward to - eh!!

30 August 1970

Sunday night
30 August 1970

7 MORE WEEKS!

No mail for two days.  I did get a box of bean dip and Fritos.  They were all in good condition thanks to good packing material.  I immediately sat down and ate one can of dip, by myself.

I’m on the all night duty right now.  I’m a very well paid telephone answerer!

I just now had to stop and rewrite part of tomorrow’s flight schedule.

Right now I’m reading a very good book, A Shade of Difference, by Allen Drury.  He also wrote Preserve and Protect, and Advise and Consent.  His books are very good reading about politics and politicians, and all their ways of doing or not doing things.  I really get worked up when I read his books.  If they are even half true, things are really a mess!

The show we were to have at the club tonight was cancelled, so I’m not missing a thing.  I’ll just read and sleep tonight.

Speaking of sleep.  I still have trouble getting to sleep at nights.  I just can’t seem to relax when I go to bed.  My mind keeps thinking about a million things.  When I finally do get to sleep, it’s so late that I then sleep late in the morning. 

Photo - Chapel and post office/PX at Chu Lai

29 August 1970

Saturday night
29 August 1970

50 MORE DAYS!  Which is half as long as I was FAC.  So - I should be able to make it!!!

I didn’t get any mail today.

I flew again today - believe it or not.  And I’m scheduled to fly again tomorrow!  Our airplane situation is still the same, but they’re giving us a few more missions.  These missions are spaced through out the day so that we can use two airplanes for them all.

The movie tonight - “Bullitt” was broken up pretty bad, but it was still good to see it again.

Tomorrow night we are to have a floor show for our evening’s entertainment - but I have the all night ODO.  I may or may not get off to go to the floor show.  Our last two shows have been very good - I wonder if we can get three in a row!!

The other F-4 squadron here, VMFA - 314,  is also leaving Chu Lai - the same time we are.  Only it is going to El Toro - those lucky guys.  Apparently some big shots at 1st MAW said either fly us - or get us out - so they are getting us out.

Photo - Navy Corpsman treating a Vietnamese woman.  Taken while I was with the infantry.

28 August 1970

Friday night
28 August 1970

51 MORE DAYS!

I flew a CAS mission today, finally, and I now have a total of 188 missions.  The squadron is flying a little more now - but not much.

Our target today was a “known enemy location” - - - almost any given spot in South Vietnam could be called that!  So you see - it was another routine mission.  I no longer get any feeling of satisfaction from flying.  I suppose that’s why I gave up trying to get 200 missions.

It’s only been 3 weeks since R&R - but it seems like forever.  Time is really passing slowly now - because we’re all looking forward to leaving!!

The movie tonight was one I’d already seen - so -

Tomorrow night we’re supposed to see “Bullit” - I’m looking forward to that!


Photo - another pic from my days as a forward air controller.

27 August 1970

Thursday night
27 August 1970

53 MORE DAYS!

Another day - another dollar - or so it goes!  My day of sleep and reading was “ruined” by a test hop I had to fly this afternoon.  I spent from noon on, waiting for them to get the plane ready and finally finished the hop at 1700.

We had Mexican food at the snack bar tonight - tostados - and they were delicious.  I ate five of them before I could quit!!

I’m scheduled to fly tomorrow.  It’ll be my first combat mission in four days.  The squadron now has seven more flying (combat) days.  After that we will be flying a lot of test and training hops.  We have to flight test every plane to see if they will all refuel airborne.  Also have to check cabin pressurization, automatic pilot system, etc, etc, etc.  All the things needed for high altitude, long distance flying.

We had another good movie tonight - “The Kremlin Letter”.  All the good movies, at least, are helping to keep people cheered up a little.

The P.X. had cokes for sale today, so John Haynes and I bought a case for my reefer.  Cokes are very hard to get in Chu Lai - so when they are available, we stock up.

26 August 1970

Wednesday night
26 August 1970

53 MORE DAYS!

I got two letters today. 

I haven’t flown for two days - and I’m not flying tomorrow.  We have 2 squadrons here at Chu Lai now - and both together are only flying 10 missions tomorrow.  Life here is twice as bad as when we were flying dangerous missions in LAOS.  This feeling of just wasting time is awful.   Both of these squadrons could leave Vietnam tomorrow and no one would even miss us.

I had ODO for 3 hours this morning - but I have absolutely nothing tomorrow.  So I suppose I’ll just read and sleep all day!  Sounds like a real rough life, eh?

We had grilled steaks for dinner this evening and they were just great.  I stuffed myself with two of them and was still hungry!

Last night John Haynes cooked up some refried beans and he, Lou de la Garza, Mike Franger and I ate them with crackers and sodas.  Lou had these beans in a can and all we had to do was heat them (in a popcorn popper).  We are all waiting eagerly for those Fritos and bean dip!!!!!

Photo - Lagoon at Chu Lai

25 August 1970

Tuesday night
25 August 1970

54 MORE DAYS!

We had a very unfortunate occurrence in one of our squadrons recently.  A young Marine got a letter from his wife asking for a divorce.  He was so upset that he shot himself in the head - and died.

Right now I have to say - I have no chance of coming home early.  Looks as though they’ll make us finish our tours in Hawaii so we can help get the squadron reorganized there.