Do you remember?

Putting diesel on the plywood floor of the hootches to keep the dust down,

Moving all the cots to the center of the hootch during the blowing monsoon

rains to try and keep your gear dry, Wrapping your packages home at the post

office so they could check for contraband, Filling sandbags, Jungle rot, Buying

cold sodas from the liberty bus driver, The Bob Hope show, Getting your laundry

back with little colored pieces of yarn attached, Watching the grunts going out

on patrol, Watching the loads of bombs headed for the flight line, Yellow

alerts, Watching the movies on the side of the chowhall, Carrying the "Stars

and Stripes" newspaper to the crapper with you because there was never enough

toilet paper, The General's personal privy behind the HQ building, The constant

drone of the generators, Watching flame shoot out of the back of the jets as

they took off on their night missions, The "Dap", Short timer

calendars, "Grunt" magazine, Operation "Goldenflow", Raking the dust/mud

around  the outside of your hootch in the mornings, Riding the liberty bus back

from Udorn and being awakened from your drunken stupor by the MPs at the Nam

Phong gate checking your ID, "SAWADEE", Grilled "monkey balls" on a stick,

Paradise Hotel, Victory Hotel, Mekong (Thai whiskey), The row of vendors just

outside the front gate of the airbase at Udorn, Row of taxis outside same gate,

How nice and paved the base at Udorn was, Stuffed cobras and mongoose, Carved

wooden elephants, Raja tailors, Jun Pen Playboy club, Kobe steak brought to

your table on fire, Rose Garden Club, Thai band at the Rose Garden

playing "Smoke on the Water" and "We Gotta Get Outta This Place", and finally,

the great feeling you had when the C141 lifted off of the runway at Nam Phong to take you back to Japan for a week, then HOME! 

Submitted by Ron Warren