It was the last day of my R&R in Sydney,
Australia, in late 1969. I had been up all day and had
gone back to the hotel at about 3: 30 a.m. with the intent
of getting a little sleep before going to the R&R center
at 6: 00 a.m. to catch my flight back to Tan Son Nhut. I asked
the desk clerk to give me a wake up call at 5: 00 a.m.
I woke up at 10: 00 a.m. with the phone in my hand. I guess
I had answered the wake up call and gone right back to sleep
but I don't remember answering the phone. I got dressed and
grabbed my suitcase and rushed to the R&R center. Needless
to say I missed my flight and there were no other flights
that day going to Vietnam. The guy there told me that I could
get a flight the next day as long as I was there at 6: 00 a.m.
So I had another day in Sydney.
The next morning I got to the R&R center on time
but I was told there were no flights going to Tan Son Nhut
that day but I could get a flight to Phu Cat. Since I
was already a day late I figured I had better take the flight.
I arrived at Phu Cat, after a long flight from Sydney,
sometime in the late evening. I went to the "In Country"
flight counter in the terminal to find out about getting a
flight to Tan Son Nhut. I was told that there were no flights
until morning and that I would have to be in uniform.
The uniform thing presented a problem within itself. I had
gone on R&R without bringing a uniform with me. So, now
I'm back in Vietnam--a day late--and without a uniform
that was needed to be able to travel on an incountry military
flight. I stayed in the terminal area for the night trying
to get some sleep and trying to figure out a way to get a
uniform.
Sometime during the night
an Airman going home had taken off his fatigues and thrown
them into the trash can in the latrine. I took them from the
trash can. When my flight to Tan Son Nhut was called, in the
early hours of the morning, I took those fatigues and put
them on. Now, try and picture this: I was 6 feet and weighed
145 pounds. The guy who had these fatigues must have weighed
220 pounds because I was just swimming in them, they were
so big. The only shoes I had to wear were a pair of brown
Hush Puppies shoes and I had no hat to go with the fatigues,
not to mention that the name on the fatigues was not the same
as the one on my ID card. As sloppy and funny as I must have
looked I was allowed to board the flight and I made it back
to Tan Son Nhut safe and sound.
The day that I
was late getting back was my regularly scheduled day off so
I did not miss any work; therefore, I was not really missed by anyone except my cubie. That was a nice piece of
luck!! When I got off the flight at Tan Son Nhut I went
to the S. P. in the terminal and had him radio for a patrol
to take me to the Squadron area. I had enough time to get
unpacked and get ready to work my regular afternoon shift
and no one'but me was the wiser.
