377th SPS, Tan Son Nhut, 1967-1968: On
February 17th, 1968, I reported for Guardmount with Charlie Flight/Charlie
Sector at the rear of the 1300 area. I had just got off of a day long
Reserve-QRT (Quick Response Team) assignment, housed at the Old French
Fort, and was not looking forward to humping the north revetments
for the next 12 hours.
My
only solace was the fact that I was going to be posted next to Chuck
Akins. He was also from Ohio and we could endure the long shift together.*
The Squadron had been placed on 12 hours shifts, since the
onset of the Tet Offensive assault on the perimeter. Up to this point
time off had been nonexistent.
MSgt Garcia surprised Charlie Sector
troops when he announced that a few of us were going to be laid-in
for the shift. My name wasn't called, but I knew we'd all get some
mental health time in the near future.
Posting went uneventful. I was dropped
off along the North Revetments, the old concrete revetments that paralleled
the MLR bunker line, at a one-man M16 bunker. There was a lot of activity
along the old concrete revetments that housed a variety of aircraft.
I recall that I was posted next to an RB-66 photo reconnaissance bombers,
and a few RF-101's, parked in the revetments that made up my post
area.
Across from the north revetments was
the RF-4C Phantom aircraft parking areas. This revetment area was
one of the newer reinforced steel structures. These were exposed revetments
with no Quonset -hut-type roofs. Air Force maintenance personnel appeared
to be as busy over there too! I quickly realized that with all the
light-all units and personnel around the revetments it was going to
be a noisy night.
Around midnight, the activity around
the north revetments declined. The RF-4C area was still pretty active
with the light-all units illuminating the area like an athletic field.
Tan Son Nhut Air Base was one of the
most active airports in the world. Rumor had it that it was as busy
as O'Hare in Chicago. Take-offs and landings were occurring around
the clock.
I took the opportunity to walk over
to Akins post area and shoot the bull for a while about Jan 31st Tet
1968 attack, and among other things, the AK47s we captured then. We
sort of met half way so we could hustle back to our bunkers if MSgt
Garcia or a Golf Unit drove out to the revetment area.
Akins and I had met half way so we
could watch our post area and look out for the man. Shortly
after we began to talk about home we saw a jeep crossing the high
speed taxi way to the western post on the north revetments. Time to
move back to our bunkers.
I was walking back to my M16 bunker
when I saw a huge fireball erupt in the C-130 parking ramp in Bravo
Sector. I was about 50 feet from the M16 bunker when incoming rounds
began impacting out on the C-130 parking ramp. For a millisecond I
thought there was a ground accident until I heard the ominous sound
of incoming fire. I could see the distant explosions by looking directly
down the high speed taxiway. In a matter of seconds, I heard incoming
rounds dropping towards the North Revetments and the RF4C revetment
area. The rounds began impacting all over Charlie Sector, and secondary
explosions began almost immediately.
I dove to the ground when the first
volley of 122mm rockets slammed into the aircraft parking areas. The
incoming rounds appeared to be walking across the revetment areas.
My first thought was that they were zeroing in on the light-all
units in the RF-4C area. I had to get to my bunker.
I began low-crawling across the asphalt
surface toward the M16 bunker, twenty yards away. A 122mm round suddenly
impacted directly in front of an RB-66, lifting me up off the ground.
The next series of incoming rounds impacted in the north revetment
area and MLR, and that was the last thing I remembered. I was knocked
unconscious and received shrapnel wounds from the round that must
have hit about 20-30 meters from me.
I recall awaking in an ambulance at
the Base Dispensary. Some medic was yelling in my ears and the entire
medical staff was scurrying around. There were wounded personnel everywhere.
I was treated for shrapnel wounds to the head, wrist and forearm.
The doctor told me most of the wounds were fragments of the aircraft
and bits of the asphalt ramp. I had been peppered with minute fragments
of asphalt similar to a bird shot round from a shotgun.
I was also experiencing severe back
pain. The doctors cut off my fatigue shirt and rolled me over to find
a large purplish softball-sized bruise on my lower backbruise near
my right kidney. They believed that I had been hit with a heavy, blunt
chunk of debris. I was held overnight and part of the next day. I
finally told one of the medics that the doctor told me to go back
to the 1300 area. I hadn't been cleared for release, but I had been
treated for the superficial wounds and wanted to get the hell out
of there. The medic cleared me to leave and I caught a ride back to
the Squadron Area.
MSgt Garcia turned my web gear and M16 over to me. I put my web gear
back on and was checking my magazine pouches when I lacerated my arm
on something. In checking my gear I found a loaded M16 magazine with
a quarter-sized chunk of shrapnel wedged into the magazine. The head
of the M16 rounds had been shaved off from the fragment, but the magazine
and rounds stopped the fragment. That magazine was on the back of my
web gear directly over my right kidney. The deep back bruise was the
result of the impact of the fragment into the magazine.
In the early hours of the night of 18
February 68, Tan Son Nhut Air Base was hit with over 100 rounds of 122mm
rockets and 75mm recoilless rifle fire in a twenty minutes period. Central
Security Control's (CSC) 
radio was knocked out and generators were turned on as auxiliary power.
TSgt Bloom can be heard calling for generator power and directing response
to the attack on a tape recording made by an unknown Airman during the
attack. Newspaper accounts later disclosed that 30 aircraft were damaged
or destroyed and over 40 military personnel were killed. This was the
first major shelling experienced at the Air Base since 1966.
I was scanning through
the 377th SPS web pages, earlier this week, when I saw that a Chuck
Akins had signed in on the guest book. I hadn't talked with Chuck since
1968 when I was wounded. Back then, I had been placed on light duty
and assigned to CSC. I was riding with an Army EOD team until I was
sent TDY to Vũng Tàu Air Field. Chuck DEROS'd out and we never saw each
other again.
I e-mailed Chuck last weekend and he
responded back. We talked on the phone for nearly 2 hours, a few days
ago, and he told me that during the shelling he moved over to my position
and found me unconscious and bleeding. Chuck grabbed me by my web gear
harness and dragged me to an impact crater. After the shelling he waved
down the ambulance and got me medical care. Chuck and I are going to
get together after the Holidays. I think I owe him a dinner.
I obtained an audio tape of the radio
traffic, taped by TSgt Bloom at CSC, from an Instructor at the Security
Forces School, in Lackland Air Force Base. I used to avoid going to
fireworks shows-right after Vietnam--but now I can tolerate both listening
to the audio tape and enjoying a fireworks show with my Grand Children.
I received the Purple Heart and the Air
Force Commendation Medal during my tour of duty with the 377th SPS. I look back on my year in Vietnam with much pride
in that I served with the best Air Force SPS in
Southeast Asia.
David M. Dowdell
377th SPS
11/67 to 11/68
*
I can recall when I was stationed with the 410th Bomb Wing, at K.I.
Sawyer Air Force Base, located in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan,
and we were pulling a midnight shift in the alert bomber area. Around
4: 00 a.m., the close-in sentries would walk out onto the middle of
the alert ramp and 'socialize' before the sector Sergeant would come
out of the crew billets to recheck posts. I think we all did it one
time or another. I was done mostly for the need to talk with someone
after countless hours humping a B-52 or a KC-135. Needless to say,
a lot of A3C Security Policemen didn't give such things, as leaving
your post, much thought. I remember one night at K.I. Sawyer everyone
in the B-52 alert area converged out in the middle of the aircraft
ramp area to shoot the bull. The Sector Sergeant was seen getting
in his truck at the alert billets. Someone on distant perimeter yelled
"here come the man," and we all hustled back to our aircraft. About
an hour later the sun slowly rose in the chilly winter morning. We
had experienced light snow off and on throughout the night. As the
sun rose and the darkness lifted you could see a series of footprints,
leading out from each aircraft to the center of the concrete parking
ramp, and back to the bombers. Busted! We all got a good ass chewing
from the Flight Chief after he drove out onto the alert area and saw
the evidence of our overnight rendezvous.
