Well 51 years ago today---my ticket to VN

Posted on: May 29, 2023 at 09:14:18 CT

I was stationed at Ft Kamehameha in Oahu--we did crypto work working on equipment that encoded and decoded both voice and typewritten ./ Sort of computers before they existed in the public domain

Anyway the civilians got off for the holiday and the GIs didn't. I was assigned guard gate duty to check people coming and going. About an hour on the commanding officer USARHAW and his XO showed up. I didn't know where his badge was. Our facility was next to Pearl Harbor and on Hickham Field so didn't get may 'visitors' Anyway had to call in to my CO to ask where his badge was. The General wasn't pleased.

Anyway my CO came out --got it out of a closed box I didn't know existed. The Gen was not pleased. Anyway 2 days later got orders for VN . We were down to like 30,000 troops and were in the middle of trying to bomb the NVA to the Paris Peace talks. We would send messages as to the bombing result to the Navy ships offshore who would then relay to DC/Pentagon et al

Anyway got to spend about 6 months doing that before getting out ---2 year term as draftee--and going back to Mizzou complete with the GI Bill. They paid for school