________________________________________________________________________Richard S. Kem
Kong, and Bangkok with her for about three weeks. She had come in advance, so I'd flown
down, and then we spent one or two nights in Saigon before we caught the rest of the party in
the Philippines. So, there were other opportunities to get to see things.
I did manage to get around in the II Corps area. Nha Trang was certainly a lovely town with a
great bay. I always thought that our hotel corporations would make that a great resort after
the war because you could wake up in the morning and there was the beautiful lagoon and the
islands off to the side. Of course, I was often at Nha Trang Airport too, flying out. I
mentioned I flew the shuttle, but also I would fly the Air Vietnam commercial plane from
Nha Trang to Pleiku. Often we'd be sitting on the runway, or in the terminal up on the second
floor having an orange drink, and we could watch T28s strafing Vietcong positions on a
hillside down at the end of the runway. The T28s were probably piloted by Vietnamese with
American advisers. There were a lot of interesting things so early in this phase of the war.
We could go on an operations sweep out of Tuy Hoa, going out into the rice paddies
southwest of the city, and we could see the columns of smoke rising from village to village
announcing that we were approaching. We would get into the thicker jungle and come on a
Vietcong training facility, a rather well-developed training facility.
Now, all this was additionally interesting because years later, when I went back to Vietnam, I
went back to Phu Yen Province and back to Tuy Hoa. So, when we get to that point there'll
be references back to these same kind of things.
It was a very interesting tour of duty. Many things I had to develop on my own initiative. I
learned a lot about people and myself. I also just about had to arrange flights myself on my
own initiative to get from one place to another to make things happen.
I remember our dismay at the Air Force at that time because as C123s would come in to
Pleiku, although we badly needed to hitch rides someplace, we couldn't fly on a C123
unless they had parachutes. They invariably didn't have extra parachutes. When the Army
Caribou came in, we could hook a ride anywhere they were going and they'd be happy to
take us without a parachute. So, my way of life really depended on deciding where I was
going, and then trying to figure out what flights were going and when, and then hitching a
ride and making it happen. I would hitch around the area of operation so that I could be at the
right place to influence and make an action happen.
Q:
When you left there, were you optimistic about the situation in Vietnam? Did you think
things were looking pretty good?
A:
Yes, I'd been involved personally in one of the clear and hold operations that was being
touted as the way the new pacification program was to work--more strategic hamlets. That's
what we were doing, establishing strategic hamlets in Phu Yen. We felt that we were seeing
the effort expand. After all, we turned on the lights in Tuy Hoa and we were turning on the
lights in the villages, and people seemed to be responding. We knew there were still
Vietcong around because of the columns of smoke out on the fringe, but we were pushing
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