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Chapter 2. Professional Education
- University of North Texas Press
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Chapter 2 Professional Education MONDAY 29 AUGUST 1966-A NEW USE FOR A BARF BAG It seems that every Monday of this war I am rising at some ridiculous hour in order to catch a plane. Last Monday I went south. This Monday I'll go north, but not nearly as far as Okinawa. I swallow my two weekly Aralin pills to guard against malaria, and depart to meet Ted Fielding. It feels good to be wearing a pistol again. Ted drives aJeep he's picked up somewhere, and we brave the morning rush to Tan Son Nhut Air Base. At the airport we search for a check-in counter for Navy flights that he has learned about. We find that the Navy uses an exclusive part of the terminal for an operation called "Market Time." Market Time is the Navy's coastal interdiction effort, generally using Vietnamesejunks and Navy Swift Boats. (Coast Guard and Navy vessels take over in deep water, in an operation called Game Warden.) The Market Time administrative flights are daily milk runs between Saigon and Da Nang that stop at any intermediate points where there's a need and an airstrip. These silver and white C47s primarily serve Market Time interests, but they will take other passengers, a fact not generally known. 39 40. The Bridges ofVietnam Our plane is the first C-47 I've been aboard since I took one from the Big Island to Oahu in 1958. The C-47 is older than most of the pilots who fly it. During WWII it was called a "Gooney Bird." Under Navy terminology it was called an R4-D, "R" standing for transport, "4" meaning the fourth transport plane made for the Navy, and "D" indicating that it was the fourth major modification made to the R4. Mter we are airborne, the pilot, a medium-sized man with neatly combed brown hair, slightly protruding brown eyes, and a quiet smile, comes back to the cabin to ask each passenger how he's doing. He is wearing a tailored, starched Navy utility uniform. His short-sleeved shirt has "Hester" embroidered over one pocket and golden naval aviator wings over the other. His collars bear the gold leaves ofa lieutenant commander. Mter he is satisfied that everybody is relaxed, he returns to the cockpit. We make a stopover at Cam Ranh Bay.} The first Marine recon man ashore at Cam Ranh found nothing but a beautiful, large, sheltered bayand a few Vc. My friend Captain Ed Badolato participated in that operation , before the Marines made their "first" landing at Da Nang.2 Today Cam Ranh Bay is rapidly becoming the largest port and logistical area for American forces in Vietnam. Viewed from the air, the size is stupendous. Several stops later we lumber down to an unnamed landing strip cut into a level spot in the jungle. The strip is so short that landing is like trapping aboard an aircraft carrier. It's so narrow that this two-engine cargo plane's wings extend beyond the matting, and slice through the air, skimming over expanses ofgreen grass interspersed with bedraggled Army troops lounging around pup-tents, machine gun emplacements, and individual foxholes. The take-off is something else again. The troops have gathered to see if we will make it. We do. I learned during my tour on the Bon Homme Richard that naval aviators are probably the best pilots in the world. I begin to sense worrisome intestinal warnings. My BOQbreakfast has digested, so I figure that the local Chinese food I ate last night in Cholon must have given me a bit of a bug.3 When the pilot checks his passengers again, I ask if there is a head. He says, "No," and I ask when we will stop again. "Da Nang," he replies. "I don't know if I can wait that long." He smiles calmly and says, "If it gets seriousjust ask the plane captain for a barf bag and go back to the utility compartment aft." He points to [18.208.203.36] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 08:02 GMT) Professional Education • 41 what looks like a broom closet. ''You'll have privacy back there." By ten 0'clock we are two hours away from Da Nang Air Base. Suddenly I have to go. I mean now. I jump up and signal the plane captain, who hands me one of those little waterproof paper bags for airsickness. While two...