JHB at Tan Son Nhut
In late January 1967, I arrived
in Saigon after completing Jungle Survival School at Clark AB, Philippine
Islands. This was my 8th visit to Tan Son Nhut. My seven previous
visits had been for an hour or two as a crew member on Military Airlift
Command jet transports.
When I posed for this picture, I
had never heard of NKP (Nakhon Phanom RTAFB), and I fully expected to be
assigned as a Bird Dog pilot to a squadron in South Vietnam.
After checking in at the headquarters of the 504th Tactical
Air Support Group at Bien Hoa AB, a few miles up the road from Saigon, I was
told I was being assigned to the 23rd TASS in Thailand.
Like most of the American servicemen and women who served in Thailand,
I went where I was sent because someone had determined that Thailand was where
my country needed me. Case
closed.
