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Conversations with a Vet Wayne Sherry - Vietnam Air Force Veteran · Military Broadcast Radio | MBR Talk

1:07
Well, good evening everybody. Welcome to Conversations with
1:10
Yvette. My name is Carol Lee.
1:12
I have a wonderful guest waiting in the wings as always.
1:16
But before we get to my wonderful guest, I did want to
1:19
talk about one of my previous guests and he has written a book
1:24
called Unshaken Resolve and this is by Michael Alexander Payne, a
1:30
wonderful guest. So if you haven't seen that
1:33
interview, check it out on YouTube.
1:36
You can search by his name or conversations with Yvette and
1:40
you can bring that up. You can also purchase the book
1:42
on Amazon. So that is available for
1:46
everybody now. So go check it out.
1:48
It's a great read. A lot of information for
1:51
leadership. So if that's something that you
1:54
want to look into, a great resource for you.
1:58
So without further ado, please help me.
2:00
Welcome, Wayne Sherry. Good morning.
2:05
Good morning, good evening. How are you?
2:08
How are? You.
2:12
I'm doing really well, thank you.
2:15
So I want to say thank you again for taking the time to come on
2:20
the channel and have a conversation.
2:24
I do like to start by asking my guests a little bit about who
2:28
they were as a child. So who was Wayne as a kid?
2:36
Working on a farm, raising cattle, raising horses.
2:40
Of course you know chickens. Typical farm life.
2:46
We farmed oh down here we had about 600 of my acres.
2:51
I we array cotton, we used aloe corn, you know typical farming
2:58
in a small community. The only place that were we were
3:03
about oh 20 some odd miles kind of southwest of Taylor, TX in
3:12
the black land farmland. So growing up there, I started
3:16
school 1st grade in Thrall, Texas, which is a small, another
3:21
small farming community outside of Taylor.
3:25
And then my dad, he farmed, my uncle farmed with him and then
3:31
they both work for Tailing Taylor Bedding and Manufacturing
3:35
Company on the side. And that's where my childhood
3:39
started. And we moved to Florence where
3:45
we're at right now after the, the farm that we, we just leased
3:52
it. So the owner of to sell.
3:56
So we had to vacate the premises and we moved to Florence, TX.
4:01
My dad got a a job with Civil Service Fort Hood and my uncle
4:06
moved to Lando, Texas and he got home with the highway department
4:12
in Lando and that's we've been here ever since.
4:16
So wow. You know, just growing up.
4:19
Typical childhood. What was your teenage years
4:22
like? What was your teenage years like
4:25
before the military? Well, typical teenage years, I
4:33
played ball, played baseball, had a little bit of tennis.
4:39
I couldn't play football because I've got a ankle that has no
4:43
cartilage. So it would turn them pretty,
4:45
you know, pretty easy if I didn't watch my P's and Q's, but
4:49
mainly was baseball. And so, you know, grew up doing
4:54
that. I played outfield, played
4:58
shortstop and pitcher. So and then of course, you know,
5:04
run around with, you know, close friends and everything else.
5:09
All. The school activities so.
5:13
So. What was it?
5:16
Yeah. What was it that made you decide
5:18
that you were going to go into the military?
5:22
Were you drafted into into it or did you decide to enlist?
5:29
No, ma'am, I wasn't drafted. I enlisted.
5:33
Well, it's like most schools. Or rural schools, I should say.
5:40
All the recruiters would hit the senior class, you know, and
5:43
start trying to recruit inductees.
5:48
And I always loved aircraft, playing the big mechanics.
5:57
And whenever he showed up at our senior class, well, I talked
6:01
with him at length and I decided right then that I was going to,
6:05
you know, join the Air Force. And so we this was mid 67 and so
6:16
you know, I was said, but the only thing about it but did not
6:19
have a slot. Whenever I graduated Air Force
6:23
did not have a slot. So, so many, so many people
6:25
wanted to be in the Air Force instead of the Army.
6:28
They had joined the Air Force for their be drafted into the
6:31
Army. So what what they did close to
6:39
graduating, they my dad veteran. He was decorated in World War 2.
6:48
Wow. They kind of did a under a
6:53
little bit of underhanded deal, I guess you could say they wrote
6:56
me up as a sole surviving son of a war veteran or the draft doing
7:03
that. The draft board could not touch
7:04
me and because the the Air Force recruiter and the draft board
7:10
lady that ran the draft board, they were close friends.
7:12
So they knew what you know, they knew what they were doing and
7:16
they held a slot where they could not draft me until Air
7:22
Force had a slot to be slipped into which right after I
7:25
graduated in 67. So picked up and they sent me
7:31
down to to San Antonio, to Lackland for my end up Jason,
7:38
you know, and to the Air Force and or my PTI guess you could
7:44
look. That's about what it mounted.
7:45
So that's how I got in. But I wanted to I did not want
7:50
it. In fact, I got a draft in the
7:52
mail right before I left, but it was no good since I was already
7:57
enlisted in the Air Force. Right, so tell me what it was
8:01
like saying goodbye to your family and heading off to
8:05
training. I had two sisters.
8:13
It probably hurt them more than it did my parents because I was
8:20
real, you know, I was real close to them.
8:22
And well, I was looking, you know, close to my parents also.
8:26
But my two sisters, we, you know, we got along real well
8:29
together. And of course they cried so.
8:35
Right, right. Other than that, it was OK
8:39
because I can, you know, I communicated, I called every now
8:42
and then whenever I got a chance.
8:43
And San Antonio is not that far from home right here.
8:47
So whenever we had an open day, well, you know, they'd come down
8:50
and and visit the Mid Lackland or you know, I'd spend a couple
8:57
hours with them and then, you know, go from there.
9:00
Nice. So what was your specific?
9:02
Job. What was your specific job or
9:04
MOS? What did you do typically in a
9:07
day? Once I got out of basic, my
9:13
first duty station was Wichita Falls, TX.
9:19
I went into aircraft maintenance, which was my FC was
9:26
I went into a 43131 EA, which is a reset mechanic and of course
9:33
at their Wichita Falls. So they, you know, taught
9:39
everybody all the basics of an aircraft, everything from
9:42
electric to hydraulics to landing gears, flight controls,
9:45
you know, general maintenance. And so that's what I started out
9:49
as an, as an A and of course, my, my training was, I think it
10:00
was 4 weeks and you graduate out of that and then you go to your
10:05
first duty station, which was they sent me to Tinker Air Force
10:10
Base, Midwest City. OK, wow.
10:15
I started working on ma'am, I started working on C124 cargo
10:21
masters. That was the only the reset that
10:26
Tinker had. Everything else was jets, was
10:31
cargo planes and jets. So I spent more like 7 months I
10:39
think on working on the C 124's along with the three other guys
10:46
that I went through basic with SO.
10:49
What did you do after that? After that I got my notice that
10:58
I was going to to Vietnam. They sent me to Eglin Air Force
11:06
Base, Florida for three weeks to learn the aircraft that I was to
11:15
be working on when I was in Vietnam, which was the C123,
11:19
which was a small engine cargo plane.
11:25
That way back when it was basically a glider.
11:29
They put an external engines on it, beefed up the landing gear
11:32
and they use it for short take off, short landing cargo plane
11:37
because in and now I'm basically in this year at a base, you have
11:42
a lot of landing strips that's just cut out inside a hill or in
11:49
a, you know, valley or something other that's really not a real
11:53
it's a dirt strip. So they wanted somewhere that
11:55
could take it and and haul cargo or haul packs, which is troops
12:01
and stuff like that. Vietnamese troops.
12:04
So that's what I went to Vietnam on.
12:07
So do you remember stepping off the plane in Vietnam for the
12:11
first time and what was your first?
12:14
What was your first impression of that?
12:18
What did I get into? It was in Camron Bay, you know,
12:24
it was a dead of summer and hot humid course it wasn't a rainy
12:29
seasons yet, thank goodness. So yeah, it was very it was hot
12:34
and it's a different world. I guarantee anybody that's been
12:38
there we didn't know will testify.
12:39
It's definitely a different world.
12:42
Of course in Cameroon Bay, that's the main you got.
12:45
Cameroon Bay and Denang are the 2 main entry points into South
12:51
Vietnam. So that's where all the troops
12:53
basically come into and process out to their detachment or
12:57
their, you know, their wherever they're going to go in Vietnam.
13:02
So but yeah, it's it's, you know, I looked at a couple of
13:06
boys that I rode over the plane with and we just talking about
13:09
it and, you know, you know, it's going to be different, I
13:13
guarantee you. So.
13:16
Yeah. And you and you were right.
13:20
So Speaking of the people that you serve with, tell me a little
13:23
bit about them and how you relied on each other day-to-day.
13:31
Well, you were, you know, once you get signed into your, your
13:36
whatever flat squadron you're going to go to, we're kind of
13:41
guys that were there. They were basically all, if one
13:46
of them had a different AFSC, some of them were secure police,
13:51
some were protection, some of them were security police,
13:55
Biggest majority of them were aircraft maintenance
13:58
technicians, some of them were clerical.
14:02
So we just kind of split off and you know went our separate ways.
14:06
Once we got processed in the guys that that went into
14:13
aircraft maintenance, we had three, we had three 15th Air
14:17
Wing, which is Pack Ave. and we had the three O 9, three 10th
14:22
and 311th squadrons. I was in the three O 9th.
14:27
A couple of good friends of mine that I came over with, they were
14:30
in the 3/10, which was right next to our our revetments, our
14:35
comp shop. Been there.
14:38
You know, our headquarters, or if you want us to call it that
14:44
right there on, on our, on the flat line.
14:48
So I'd, you know, I'd see biggest majority of them every
14:50
day. And you know, you're that close
14:55
knit. So you, you develop a, a real
14:59
close camaraderie with the, the guys that's over there.
15:04
You watch their back and they watch yours, let's put it that
15:07
way. And we got hit all the time.
15:12
Really. So Oh yeah, well, while we are,
15:17
we was processing in and I found out I was going to the three O 9
15:24
one officer come up and we was, you know, standing there talking
15:28
before the flatline truck come and picked us up.
15:31
And he said he looked at, you know, 345, I think there was six
15:34
of us that was standing there talking and he looked at us and
15:38
he said, I told him I was in Texas.
15:43
One of them was out of South Carolina, North Carolina.
15:47
I think one of them was from your Tennessee.
15:50
And he said, can you guys shoot? And we kind of looked at him and
15:55
I said he said yes Sir. And he said good said we're
16:00
leading the security police. We're short.
16:02
So as of right now, y'all are augmented security police.
16:06
So every time you get hit, we went out with the regular
16:11
security police, you know, and plus we had a company of White
16:15
Tiger, which is South Korean troops on our base and they did
16:22
a lot of the strike missions and stuff.
16:25
If we had to get hit, they would go out and, you know, and help
16:29
the security police out, which great bunch of guys, great bunch
16:33
of guys. So yeah, if I was working on the
16:37
flat line and incoming was coming in, the sirens went off
16:41
or I'd go back to the our flat line couch and and grab my hard
16:51
hat, my flag vest and my M16 and wait for the bus to come pick us
16:55
up and that disperse us along the flat or along the perimeter.
16:59
So anyway, go to the tower or whatever, wherever they put.
17:03
Us, yeah. And so obviously, you know, you
17:11
guys become a close knit group and what was it like for you
17:17
when the, you know, the, I guess the first time that those sirens
17:23
went off? I mean, you're in a new country,
17:28
you, you know, you've not necessarily handled being shot
17:35
at, right? So what's going through your
17:38
head the first time that happened?
17:39
Obviously over time I'm assuming you get used to it.
17:43
Yes, ma'am. It just, you're right, you know,
17:48
even 1000 things going through your head, you know, am I going
17:51
to stand up to, you know, the assignment that they put me in
17:56
and do what I'm supposed to do? Or am I going to, you know, kind
18:02
of flinch and not do what I'm supposed to do?
18:05
But yeah, there's a there's 1000 things going through your head
18:07
the first time you go out and stand in a tower or in a ground
18:12
bunker or something other like that.
18:13
Most time we stood towers and you know, but it's kind of hard
18:20
to say what you know, it, it, it affects you, I guarantee you,
18:27
you know, but hopefully I think there's only like two or three
18:33
times that we actually had to stay in, in a tower any length
18:38
of time. Most time the white tigers, once
18:44
we knew we were getting sappers or whatever, trying to come in
18:47
on base. Well, they would take care of
18:49
the other problems or our own security police, along with the
18:54
white Tigers would take the problem and and you know, they
18:57
would call us to stand down and, you know, bring us back to
19:00
wherever they picked us up at. So there was a cut three times
19:04
that we actually went out and and stood tower.
19:07
And you know, you got to you're not by yourself.
19:10
You got a couple other guys that's there with you.
19:12
So, you know, you got a little bit of, you know, company with
19:17
you and you know, you can talk a little bit and, you know, kind
19:21
of soothe each other's nerves. I guess you could say.
19:24
So wasn't too bad once you got it, got used to it.
19:30
It's not like the Army, you know, where you're, you know,
19:33
where you're on the hill like that.
19:35
And you got, you know, VC surrounding.
19:39
I mean, we had, we were where our base was at.
19:41
We were sitting right down in the bottom in the basin of what
19:44
was called Charlie's Mountain. So we we took 80 ones, 81
19:49
millimeter mortars or one O 5 rockets a couple three times a
19:54
week. Oh goodness.
19:58
Throw one in. In fact, the day before I got in
20:02
country, they threw a one O 5 in on the three O 9 squadron and it
20:08
hit a one of our 120 threes and blew it up in the in the
20:13
Remedland. So you know, they're crap.
20:16
There's crappy dudes. Yeah, I would say.
20:21
And you know, war is never fun. So how did you stay in touch
20:27
with home? I know you said that you'd call
20:29
when you had the opportunity. And then how did your unit, you
20:34
and your unit pass the time during any downtime that you
20:40
had? Mostly time, unless it was an
20:45
emergency and the Red Cross got involved in it.
20:49
You didn't call when you was in Vietnam.
20:53
It was just by letter only. And I said unless the Red Cross
20:57
got involved and we had, you know, a lot of went past or
21:00
whatever. But most time you just write a
21:04
lot of letters. And of course you work.
21:06
We work at night because the planes flew all during the day
21:11
and then they come in late in the afternoon or whatever and
21:14
and then we will work on and put them to bed.
21:16
And then, you know, if it was still before breakfast time,
21:20
well, you know, which sat around and talk or, or, you know, there
21:24
was always a card game or poker game going someplace that, you
21:28
know, or you just got went back to your your barracks and, you
21:33
know, sit around and drank the cold beer or, you know,
21:35
whatever. So, yeah.
21:37
But yeah, there was, there was a lot of numbers going on.
21:41
So but you know, you know, you got real close to the guys that
21:46
work with us, put it that way. And and your supervisors also,
21:49
they watched out after the, you know, after the troops too.
21:53
Great bunch of guys. Did you ever feel like you
22:01
wanted some real American food while you were there?
22:06
Like was there every time you said I really feel like a
22:09
cheeseburger? Well, you think you could forget
22:14
about a cheeseburger over there, You know?
22:16
I know. Yeah.
22:19
Biggest majority of the time the eggs were out of a carton, you
22:22
know, And I ate with mom. Yeah, I ate with Mama son a lot.
22:28
We had a, a Vietnamese lady that cleaned our barracks for us and
22:32
everything, and she would always have rice and fish or every once
22:38
in a while she'd have kimchi. You know, I could tell when a, a
22:41
new kimchi pot was broken open because you could smell it all
22:44
the way across the base And I, I couldn't, I still can't go
22:49
kimchi. But yeah, the, the chow hall was
22:55
they, they cook pretty good. Like I said, you, you never saw
22:58
a regular egg. It was always powdered.
23:02
But everything else and you had rice.
23:05
I think we had rice 357 days a year for a long time after I got
23:11
home, I couldn't eat rice. So, but they, they, you know,
23:16
they cook for us pretty good. So but now I would, I would, I
23:20
would die for a cheeseburger instead of just a hard Patty
23:26
with a bun on it. But, you know, good McDonald's
23:30
cheeseburger or not a McDonald's, but a Whataburger
23:32
cheeseburger would've been good, good.
23:34
So. Right.
23:36
No, we had, we had some pretty good food over there, so.
23:41
Did you have an opportunity to mingle and get to know the
23:47
civilians in different areas there, or were you strictly
23:52
stuck to base? You did tell me about that.
23:56
No, we, there was a small province just right out of our
24:00
base called CHUM and a lot of the people though, especially
24:07
the women that worked in that lived in top CHUM.
24:12
They worked on base. They said they, they cleaned,
24:18
they did laundry, haircuts, you know, just general stuff like
24:24
that. We had a laundry there on base
24:27
that, you know, I could take my fatigues to where I was stickler
24:32
on my fatigues. They had to be starched and
24:34
pressed. I'm still like it.
24:38
My blue jeans had to be starched and dressed where they'll stand
24:40
up. You know, you just.
24:42
But yeah, it's if it was over, it wasn't our typical starch
24:45
here. It was that old rice starch and
24:47
you could smell it from here till tomorrow.
24:49
But there was a lot of you know, you got to know the the the
24:54
South Vietnamese troops or the South Vietnamese people pretty
24:56
good. And on occasion down into the
25:01
town of Top Chomp and looked at all the markets and stuff like
25:05
that. It wasn't a real, but yeah, the
25:10
people. Most of the time I say the the
25:15
people. Oh, it kind of froze up a little
25:22
there. I don't know if you can still
25:25
hear me. We might be experiencing a
25:33
little bit of technical difficulty here, people, but
25:36
that's OK. We'll make sure to get him back.
25:40
While we wait, let's talk a little bit about the book from
25:47
Michael or yeah, Michael Payne, Unshaken Resolve.
25:51
And I'm going to go ahead and we're going to see about booting
25:56
him for a minute and have him pop back in while we wait
26:00
because it looks like he might have had it in his Internet.
26:04
Yep, he's OK. So, so for unshaken resolve for
26:08
this book, he that we have two of these books that he has sent
26:13
as giveaways when we hit our thousand subscriber mark and
26:19
they are autographed by him, which is absolutely wonderful.
26:22
It's great that he did that. So appreciative.
26:26
And this book, as I said, I mean, it's a lot about
26:28
leadership and guidance and that, you know, you're not alone
26:37
when you're going through and leading.
26:43
It is what continues through the leaders that you develop to, you
26:49
know, it's just an ongoing thing.
26:51
It's a great read. And he is a retired U.S.
26:55
Army Lieutenant Colonel. So.
27:00
Oh, it looks like Mr. Wayne is back.
27:03
So give me just a moment and we'll bring him back on stage
27:07
and see if he is there. Oh, we're loading.
27:13
We are loading. Yeah.
27:17
It looks like maybe a little bit of slow Internet, which happens
27:21
to the best of us. So we'll put him backstage for a
27:24
minute here. But until he pops up, I do want
27:28
to say thank you though, for everybody who has subscribed up
27:31
to this point. It's been wonderful seeing those
27:34
pop up in emails. And for those of you who don't
27:39
necessarily comment in the chats or after the shows in the
27:43
comments, I do know that you're out there.
27:46
I do see those who actually you're watching and and I want
27:52
to say thank you for that because it it just helps to
27:55
reinforce for me that our veterans stories are getting out
28:00
there. So thank you.
28:01
I appreciate it. In addition to that, make sure
28:06
after the show that you like, comment and then hit the
28:12
subscribe button if you haven't already.
28:14
I know a lot of you are new viewers and so it's really
28:17
important to get notified and the only way to get notified, go
28:22
ahead and hit that subscribe button and hit the notification
28:25
bell as well. Let's see, are we up yet?
28:30
No, not quite yet. Wayne, I don't know if you can
28:34
hear me yet, but we have you haven't.
28:37
We might have to restart your computer.
28:43
OK, while we wait, some interesting things.
28:49
So I am on now Spotify, a Spotify podcast.
28:57
I'm also an Apple podcast. So you can go out there, search
29:01
conversations with a vet and there's a couple of shows out
29:05
there as well. So super excited for that.
29:09
We're going to be working on getting some other ones
29:13
incorporated too, so make sure to check those out.
29:16
Also check out if you haven't already, MB Radio and that's
29:22
military broadcast radio. So they have been hosting me
29:27
thankfully, and we've been out there on Facebook and of course,
29:33
Spotify under their umbrella and I think Roku TV and some others
29:41
as well. So make sure to check those out
29:43
too. Let's see.
29:55
OK. And then while we're waiting, I
30:04
think we're going to go, if this is works for everybody, go ahead
30:07
take a quick break. It might be a minute or two and
30:10
we will return. Okie Doke, most of the people
30:26
that did the cleaning and every in a Barber shop and the
30:31
laundry, we're all South Vietnamese civilians that lived
30:39
in Top Chomp. I had no problem with them
30:44
whatsoever. I mean, they were, you know,
30:46
they're always courteous as always nice.
30:49
They love for us being there because, you know, basically we
30:52
were finding the North be, you know, the VA which they the NBA.
30:59
They would come to the villages beyond the our base and you
31:07
know, a lot of times they would take their the older, the young
31:10
man and, you know, force them into, you know, fighting for the
31:14
NBA or the VC. So yeah, they they like to have
31:20
the base there to. Plus they made a little bit of
31:22
money off from us too, so. That's always A+, right?
31:27
Yes, ma'am. That's always A+.
31:28
Yeah, yeah, but but they did a lot of, you know, like I said, I
31:34
had, we had a Mama son that cleaned our barracks for us and
31:40
and she cooked every day. And if, you know, if you wanted
31:43
to eat with her, that would she'd like that too.
31:45
But of course, most time I slept during the day because I work at
31:50
night. So, but every once in a while I
31:53
get I wake up, maybe it's too hot to sleep a little.
31:56
You know, I get up and, and, you know, sit there and talk with
32:00
her, try to carry on a conversation in in Vietnamese,
32:06
which poorly, but you learn a little bit over there, so.
32:11
I bet you would. Any.
32:13
Yeah. They like having us there, I
32:17
think. Nice.
32:20
So how long were you there? 363 days I got an early out.
32:32
And were you just out of Vietnam or out of the Air Force after
32:37
that? Out of Vietnam, I went back to
32:40
the states on my I processed out two days early, so.
32:47
What was your homecoming experience like?
32:53
You don't want me to talk about that?
32:55
No, well, she probably heard about, you know, some of the
33:01
rumors that people encounter, especially coming in from
33:06
Vietnam as to how we were treated whenever we got off the
33:10
plane and, you know, they found out where we were from or
33:14
whatever. It really didn't matter if we
33:16
come in off of the basically where he's coming from.
33:22
We were, you know, custom. You know, we were spit at, you
33:25
know, we've called every name in the book, you know, so it it
33:34
wasn't like the Thai yellow ribbon around an old oak tree,
33:37
let's put it that way. And it didn't, you know, So it
33:44
was it wasn't nice. You know, that's one thing that
33:48
bothered, has bothered me from that The American people could
33:54
do that to the troops that were fighting for them to keep, you
34:00
know, NBA or not the NBA, but communism out of the United
34:07
States. And they do.
34:11
Of course, it wasn't everybody. You know, you got the older
34:15
generation of soldiers, Airmen, Marines, you know, Navy,
34:21
whatever. They understood combat, but it
34:25
was all your younger protesters that that was behind it all.
34:32
So then the shrink that I saw, we talked at length about that.
34:42
Because you know, it bothers you.
34:44
It bothers you all the time. So the whole time after I got
34:49
out, it was still, it was still in the back of my mind that, you
34:52
know, they would, that they would treat us this way.
34:55
Not only Air Force, but, you know, even the Army and the and
35:00
the Marines that were owned, you know, in Vietnam.
35:06
So it wasn't NASCAR live. I, I can, I mean, obviously I, I
35:14
can envision, but it's never going to be the same as going
35:19
through it myself. For anybody watching and who has
35:23
not did not go through it, that's all we can do.
35:28
And have you had that? Where I know nowadays a lot of
35:36
us when we see a Vietnam veteran and only because of a shirt or a
35:44
hat that they're wearing, right to say yes, ma'am, welcome home.
35:52
Because that's the that's we recognize that you were not
35:57
treated the way you should have been treated.
35:59
And we want you to to know that we are welcoming you and we're
36:05
happy that you're here and you've made it back however many
36:08
years later. What does that do for you?
36:12
Does that? It makes me feel better that
36:20
they recognize that you fall for them, you know, for the country.
36:28
But you see a lot of people just look at you and not say a word,
36:34
even though you've got a, a cap on that says, you know, Vietnam
36:39
veteran or Air Force veteran or Army veteran or whatever.
36:44
You know, they can probably care less.
36:50
We were at a a youth retreat in Burnett.
36:58
The guy that put it on, he was my one of my former pastors
37:01
pastor had a good friend and we went over to to visit with them
37:06
and wife and I was leaving and I had my Air Force cap on the, you
37:15
know, Vietnam veteran on it. And this young boy, he probably
37:19
was no more than then six or seven at the most.
37:23
And he said he come up to me was walking out the door and he come
37:27
up to me and he said, are you are you a veteran?
37:29
I said, yes, Sir. And he said he was in Vietnam.
37:34
I said yes, Sir. He said, you know, thank you for
37:38
your service. He said, I want to be an Air
37:41
Force. You know, what can you say?
37:46
You know, he said, I want to work on lands too.
37:49
I said study hard, do a good job and you'll get there, son, but
37:54
you know, six years old, but you'd really it's unreal that
38:02
the number of people that don't even know nothing about Vietnam.
38:05
You know, it's not as far as I know, it's not written in any of
38:08
the history books. You know, it's a war that nobody
38:11
wanted, you know, And so, you know, and we were the, we took
38:20
the blind end of it. It didn't matter what service
38:24
you were in over there. And we took.
38:26
Yeah, I'm so sorry that that happened.
38:29
And I know as as time goes on, you know, we're trying to help
38:37
make it right by saying welcome home when we when we see a
38:43
Vietnam veteran. And I myself for, you know, any
38:49
veteran for that matter, and my husband as well, we're out there
38:52
shaking the hand saying thank you very much, welcome home and
38:58
and just giving them the well deserved recognition.
39:07
So your time in in Vietnam, you've you come home, you're
39:14
dealing with all of that. What happens next for you once
39:17
you get stateside? Well, I had my next video
39:22
assignment already. They told me before I live
39:27
Vietnam, You know, when I processed out in personnel, the
39:32
old boy told me. He said, Oh yeah.
39:33
I said, you know, say you're from Texas.
39:36
And I said, yeah, he said, well, said 95% of the time you get, of
39:41
course, you put down your base as a preference.
39:43
And of course I put down forever base in Texas.
39:48
You know, as far as Air Force, it's 95% of the time said you
39:54
get the base of choice. Well, I got my orders and they
39:58
sent me to Loring Air Force Base on Maine, you know, 2888 miles
40:05
away from Texas, you know, So how can you figure, you know,
40:10
so. And a good friend of mine was
40:13
from New York and he got sent to Texas and we tried to swap
40:17
assignments, but the assignment that they me had, he wasn't
40:24
qualified for it. So I went to, went to lowering
40:27
Air Force limestone main. So in the winter time, it was 30
40:31
below 0 and you know, 80 inches of snow on the ground.
40:35
So, but it's a beautiful, beautiful state.
40:40
A good friend of mine that I went through basic with, he was
40:44
also up there. I didn't know it till I got on
40:46
base and I went to sign in and he's the one that signed me in.
40:53
So I knew I knew some people there.
40:55
So he wasn't, you know, wasn't that bad.
40:58
I had good people working with me, good supervisors.
41:03
And the only thing they took me off reset aircraft and put me on
41:09
B52 bombers and KC135 tankers. And I've never been on that
41:13
particular type of plane before. So a new learning experience all
41:17
the way. So went back to went back to
41:22
school on come out as an E, which is jet mechanics.
41:26
So and I was in the shop which I'd never been in shop, I'd
41:30
always been on Flatline but they had a need for there and I guess
41:34
that's where I was supposed to go.
41:37
So so I worked, worked air repair shop and made new friends
41:44
and learned 2 new aircraft and egress which is the ejection
41:50
systems on B52 bombers. You know that will blow the
41:54
pilot and copilot out of the aircraft in case of a merchant,
41:57
whatever he was the the egress technician was in our shop and
42:02
if I wasn't working on something else I'd go out.
42:05
He was the only one and I'd go out and help him pull hatches
42:08
off the B50 twos or pulling seats or changing catapults and
42:13
brush initiators out. And no, it's me.
42:18
He was fixing to get out. He was fixing to get out of the
42:20
airport. So the full Colonel, full bird
42:25
Colonel, that was our commander. He got wind that I've been
42:30
helping, helping the egress tech.
42:32
And he called me up one day and he said, I hear you've been
42:35
working egress. I said, yes, Sir.
42:38
I thought he was going to chew my pail up.
42:40
You know, good for, you know, not being to work egress.
42:45
He said, well, I tell you what, since you've been since you've
42:48
been working egress, I'm going to send you to California to
42:50
school. So here I go to California to,
42:54
to egress school for a month and, you know, send me back as
43:00
a, you know, egress technician, the only one on lowering main.
43:04
He told me he said anything you need, you let me know and I'll
43:07
make sure that you've got it. So he kept me covered.
43:10
So I worked egress the the rest of the time that I was there.
43:14
So I had a lot of training, but I'm afraid egress doesn't do me
43:20
anything in a in a civilian child though.
43:22
So, but it was fun. I enjoyed working on different
43:26
planes and stuff like that. So it wasn't, you know, I
43:30
didn't, I didn't regret it, let's put it that way.
43:34
It's also beautiful country in Maine.
43:36
Yeah, it's got to be gorgeous seafood.
43:39
Did you? Are you a seafood lover?
43:43
Oh, yes, ma'am. We were where Prescott was at.
43:48
They had fresh lobster every day.
43:51
And right beside the Bay, they had a little old little shacks
43:54
at a little trailer, you know, set up with, with fried clams
43:57
and oysters and just, you know, you could eat seafood, you know,
44:01
three times a day if you wanted it.
44:03
So it was good. It was good.
44:07
And during the spring out of the, you know, fall time, the
44:09
trees are turning colors. And it's just, you know, a
44:14
picture does not do it justice, let's put it that way.
44:16
You have to see it in person. But the only thing about it the,
44:22
the people there too, and, and Prescott where the base housing
44:26
was at and Caribou, they did not like servicemen at all.
44:33
There's a few families that I, that I met that, you know, kind
44:37
of took, took me in. But biggest majority of the time
44:40
they did not like, they'd, they'd tolerate you, but they
44:44
didn't go out of the way to be real pleasant with you.
44:48
So like I said, a few families did that I met over there.
44:52
And so it was the time I met. I saw a lot of country.
44:58
Nice. So from there, where did you go?
45:03
What did you do? So you were out at that?
45:08
Stage. What did I?
45:10
I went back. Well, yeah, I came.
45:11
I was discharged there in Maine, there at Loring.
45:15
That was my final duty station after four years.
45:19
So I came back to Texas. I drove up there.
45:22
It's from my front doorstep here.
45:25
It's 2888 miles to Loring Air Force Base.
45:29
So I drove it back. Took me a couple of days to get
45:34
back home and I saw some more country that I had what that I
45:38
would never seen, you know, kind of driving back.
45:41
Took a different route. I went back through Virginia's
45:45
South Virginia in the West Virginia, N Virginia S Virginia,
45:48
back down to through that route and saw some more country.
45:51
Just took my time, enjoyed it. But yeah, I took some time off
45:56
when I got home kind of recruit, you know, recuperate and, you
46:01
know, get adjusted to civilian life again.
46:04
And my dad was a builder, so I worked with him a lot on houses
46:09
and remodels and stuff like that till I found a, a regular job.
46:15
So that's what I did, reconnected with a lot of
46:19
friends of mine that I seen in, you know, four years so.
46:25
How did that your time in the service change your view of life
46:29
and shape the person that you became after?
46:39
You're in service for two years, three years, four years.
46:46
You got a structured life, I guess you could say, you know,
46:52
you used to they say following rules and you get back to the
46:56
states. There are no rules that I guess
47:00
you got rules. But you know, it's not like
47:02
living in in military life where everything is structured.
47:09
The main life is is kind of a whole lot easier or freedom,
47:16
let's put it that way. But you know, we still, I still
47:24
stand in attention to the flag, I still salute it even though
47:30
I'm billion where I don't have to.
47:32
You know, suppose I put my hand over my heart, but I still the
47:36
war, you know, Air Force, Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines,
47:41
whatever still would come out in, you know, a service man,
47:44
let's put it that way. Right.
47:46
And I still, I don't know, you might ask my wife if I'm more
47:53
structured. I do my own laundry, let's put
47:56
it that way. And I still cook a lot on the
47:59
grill. Nice.
48:03
Now, if you had an opportunity to talk directly to the younger
48:08
generation or even our listeners, what would you want
48:15
them to understand about your experience?
48:26
I really don't know if they could grasp what we went
48:28
through. But it's never, you know, the
48:32
history books doesn't say hardly anything about it.
48:34
The only way they take probably could see anything is if they
48:37
watch the documentary on Vietnam.
48:39
It's in the history books as to what, you know, what happened
48:43
over there. You probably could talk to them,
48:46
but I don't think it would do any good.
48:48
I don't think they would grasp anything.
48:52
I really don't. If you might, you know, they
48:57
may, may stop them and, you know, let them start thinking
49:01
about it a little bit. But, you know, how much does our
49:06
history books tell you about Vietnam?
49:08
It's a war that nobody wanted. And so if I'd had my way, the
49:17
correspondence over there will probably made it home because
49:20
they didn't, they didn't write about how everything was over
49:24
there. They wrote about what they
49:25
wanted to that, you know, that, you know, we shouldn't be there,
49:33
that it was a waste of time, waste of money, waste of life,
49:41
you know, that we weren't doing a bit of good.
49:43
But I really, I really don't know if it would do any good.
49:48
Carolyn, our personal opinion. Well, let's move forward.
49:53
And for the younger generations that are coming into adulthood
49:59
and are looking to join the military, regardless of branch,
50:04
what words of wisdom do you have for them?
50:10
Doing good make you grow up. We guarantee you learn some
50:15
respect on a lot of them. I saw a lot of guys come in and
50:21
basic training and they had no respect for authority
50:26
whatsoever, you know, until they got put in their place.
50:31
And then I don't know if it, you know, of course we never saw a
50:37
lot of them or I never saw a lot of them after we graduated from
50:40
basic training or tech school. You know, they went, they went
50:43
our merry way, our separate ways.
50:46
But yeah, I don't think a lot of them would make it pushed that
50:54
way. Do you have any funny stories
51:00
from your time in service that you can recall?
51:07
Oh yeah, If we were got, if we got bored, especially when I was
51:16
up in in Nam, we got bored. Well, there was always one of
51:22
the crew chiefs that needed to take their plane out for an
51:26
engine run or whatever or supposedly engine run kind of,
51:32
you know, feel the guys that kind of get together and would
51:35
load the cargo ramp with rocks and we'd go out and Chuck rocks
51:38
and rabbits on the flat lap just to break up the monotony of it.
51:45
You know, especially if you weren't good enough, you'd
51:47
already put your bird to bed. Some of them that found one of
51:56
the officers especially that was having a a Finney party that was
51:59
fixing to rotate out. They found a a couple of stashes
52:03
of lobster tails up in the at the back of the plane and
52:06
everybody enjoyed them besides who they're supposed to go to.
52:10
Definitely got in trouble over that.
52:12
But you know, they just are with standard tower one night and
52:20
somebody, somebody kept chunking rocks at them and I wasn't in in
52:26
this tower. They kept chunking rocks at them
52:28
and you know, the the boys that was in a tower requested
52:33
illumination of the area and there was about a A4 foot rock.
52:37
Ape had a pile of rocks as tall as he was.
52:40
He was chucking rocks at the tower because it was in his
52:43
territory. You know, just just stuff like
52:45
that. Something to break the monotony
52:48
of it all. You.
52:51
Know, but the Lieutenant that was with the White Tigers that
52:58
got the real close friends with me, he would go into the jungle
53:02
if they had a a strike mission or whatever or patrol in the
53:06
jungle. He'd bring back fresh fruit
53:07
stuff. He brought me back a a spider
53:10
monkey. Yeah, we had her in our two room
53:21
at the flat line and yeah, we'd bring her back food out of the
53:25
of the PA or out of the best hall or she loves chewing gum
53:31
and you know, she was just a friend of everybody's.
53:35
I mean, you walk in there and she was on your shoulder, you
53:37
know, taking your cap off and, you know, checking hair, see if
53:40
you had any, any lice or anything, you know, whatever,
53:43
you know, just stuff like that. But yeah, you know, just
53:47
sometimes the break monotony of it all.
53:51
Did you have to leave her there when you when you came home?
53:56
Yeah, we had to. Had to leave her there.
53:58
Yeah. Dang it.
54:00
A lot of the pilot over there, the sound Vietnamese troops,
54:04
they'd rather walk than fly. And our pilots.
54:08
Oh. We kind of froze up there.
54:24
OK, yeah, the yeah, troops, they had to if they loaded them up on
54:35
a cargo plane, first thing they do, they stick with stick 223
54:40
rounds in the ears because of the, you know, the droning of
54:43
the of the engines. And they just half the time they
54:49
get sick, they just, they just didn't like to fly.
54:53
We got, if we got sick, the plane connected would have to,
54:56
you know, wash everything out on the inside.
55:00
They did not want to fly for some reason, I don't know.
55:04
But especially, you know, if they was, you know, we were
55:07
taking them for any great distance.
55:08
Well, they had to fly, but we were.
55:13
And the pilots found out about that.
55:15
And a lot of them would just do their best, you know, to agitate
55:20
them. I guess you could say they
55:22
would, you know, take off and then just pull hard back as far
55:25
as they could. And you know, of course they
55:28
did. They sit on the floor, biggest
55:31
majority of them. They didn't have seatbelts on
55:33
the floor. So you know, they'd be rolling
55:35
around all over the place till they did that one time and a
55:40
frag grenade came off the one of the South Vietnamese troops
55:44
vest. So that kind of put it quiet as
55:48
the bass commander kind of put it quiet as to all the pilots
55:51
doing, you know, trying to shake them up as much as possible.
55:55
So after that, well, you know, pretty well, you know, it took
56:00
off normally and you know, made it a whole lot easier for the
56:05
South in the maze to fly or, you know, they enjoyed it a little
56:09
bit better. Because I bet they.
56:11
Did what they were doing. It scared everybody, but I know
56:16
my plane came in several times, a haul in, a haul in packs and
56:22
yeah, where they get sick on there, then I have to get the
56:24
water hook out and wash the back of it out and clean it all out
56:27
on the inside. But didn't bother me that much.
56:31
So it just made me pass the, you know, help me pass the time of
56:34
day or pass the time of night because we worked at night,
56:37
planes flew during the day. So any who.
56:42
Wow. Well, it, I have to say thank
56:46
you and welcome home. And I mean that from the bottom
56:50
of my heart, everything that you have done and to help protect
56:55
our country and it to me, it's it's just amazing that for one,
57:01
you volunteered. I mean, obviously, you knew the
57:04
draft was coming, but you stepped up to volunteer instead
57:08
of being forced to have to go. And so thank you for that.
57:14
And thank you so very much for taking the time today to come
57:18
out, tell your story. And again, it's been an absolute
57:24
pleasure. So if you want to hang tight for
57:26
me here for just a minute, I'm going to wrap up and and then
57:30
I'll get back with you. OK.
57:32
So if you want to hold tight for everybody watching, thank you so
57:35
much for joining. And we will see you again next
57:40
Sunday at 6:00 PM Central Time. Hi, I'm beaker with Military
57:51
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Download. Our Roku or mobile app today.
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Draw my beak. Got wisdom to share if you
58:11
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58:13
good stories dwell.