22 June 1970

Monday
22 June 1970

I am now back in good Chu Lai!  Almost like coming home - but not quite!  I got in at 1700 yesterday and haven’t flown yet.  I might get a hop tonight - but I doubt it.  I applied for R&R for 1 Aug.  I should know by the 15th of July the exact date.  I also went to disbursing and got a little pay because I was broke!  I now have $935 saved - through the 15th of this month.  Add to that $160 for the rest of the month and I hope to save another $300 in July - adds up to about $1400 by R&R time!!  Not bad.  That’ll be enough to cover the cost of R&R.

I haven’t mentioned it, but Kurt Wilbrecht is dead.  He crashed on a mission and they think he was shot down.  The RIO got out O.K.  He ejected AFTER the plane hit the ground so he is very lucky!!  The RIO said he felt two “thuds” before hitting the ground and Kurt never said anything after that - so they figure he must have been hit by ground fire.  I’ll say - I was really depressed.  He is the second of my pilots to be killed - and also the second of my roommates.  I’m a jinx!!

Lex Mitchel, who was in 513 when I was there, crashed here at Chu Lai, but got out O.K.  This group has lost seven aircraft in the last two months - which is a startling figure.  So I don’t know if it’s safer to be back here!  Ha.

39 days ‘til R&R!  And 118 days ‘til RTD (return date).  My RTD is 19 Oct of course.

People have been getting orders to a lot of different places - but there is one - Yuma - that is new.  VMFAT-101 is at Yuma.  It’s the same as 201 at Cherry Point.  So it’s just possible I might get orders to there.  I hope not though because it’s not the best place in the world.

Well, I have to get to work on my NATOPS test.

Photo - flooded rice paddies