Floating Village at Con Son

More comments later ... took photo though window from copilot's seat while our C-130 was in a 30 degree right turn getting in position to land at Con Son, South Vietnam - 1973. Con Son was a small island off the southern tip of Vietnam, and was noted for interment camps where NVA and Viet Cong POWs were detained. This was toward the end of US involvement in the war ... I think we were at Con Son to pick up a load of freed POWs whom we flew north to a remote airstrip near the DMZ where they deplaned and quickly disappeared into the jungle in less than a minute. Floating village pictured here sustained itself through fishing ... note the narrow, rickety docks leading out to fleet of sampans.

Phantoms at Ubon

F-4 Phantom Fighters at Ubon Airbase, in extremely hot and sweaty Thailand - 1972. This is the 100th post on blog. Still have a pile of 40 year old 35mm slides to process. Probably have another 200 or more keepers.

Taiwan Mountain Basin

Time permitting during an occasional home stand back in Taiwan, we would take a ride into the rugged, but beautiful mountain chain running north-south along the length of the island. Here one of the crewmembers in our squadron takes a refreshing dip into a crystal clear pool. The water collected in a natural rock basin with clean circulating water coming in and out via waterfalls. An incredible spot off the lone meandering road that crossed the mountains ... total isolation as the terrain was not suitable for habitation.

Hue Pax and Guns

Parked on ramp at Hue Airbase in the central part of Vietnam about 50 miles north of Da Nang - 1972. Hue was the cultural center of Vietnam and was somewhat spared until Tet Offensive in 1968. It was taken over by the Viet Cong and then retaken by the US during fierce house to house street fighting known as The Battle of Hue. Pictured are South Vietnamese soldiers mixed in with civilians crossing a damaged ramp to board a Vietnamese C-123 transport parked in front of our C-130. In the background are about a dozen new 105mm howitzers and other supplies.

Double Amp

Double amputee somewhere in SEA - 1972.

Ban Me Thout Bunker

This would be me hanging out in a tin roofed and concrete block bunker at Ban Me Thout Airbase, Vietnam -  1972. Bunker surrounded by sandbags spewing forth the red clay soil of this high altitude region of the Vietnam Central Highlands. Holding a small, dirty, tattered South Vietnamese flag found on the ground. The base was like a ghost town, but had all the earmarks of recent fighting. We were there in the C-130 for a short cargo drop-off and pickup sortie. Photo by Joe the Navigator.

A-1E at NKP

This photo had a “1972 NKP” label on it. It’s a close up view of an A-1E[H] at Nakom Phnom Airbase in Thailand on border with Laos. This WWII vintage Naval aircraft was used also by the USAF for Tactical Air support in Vietnam. The single seat, single piston engine machine flew relatively slow, but could absorb a lot of punishment, and carry very heavy loads. I don’t know much about ordinance, but I believe the A-1 in the photo has a mixed load of napalm and conventional weapons based on larger annotated photos of the A-1 seen on other Vietnam War web sites. The A-1s were often used to provide escort protection for rescue helicopters … NKP was important with respect to air rescue because of its proximity to North Vietnam and had Jolly Green and Pedro Air Rescue units.

DC-3 Phnom Penh

A GoonyBird Douglas C-47A (aka DC-3) commercial airliner at Phnom Penh Airport, Cambodia – 1972. Part of the Khmer Akas - Khmer Airlines fleet. This was C-47 city – many of these old birds lined the ramp. No sign of jet engine commercial aircraft at all. This was becoming a dangerous place as the Khmer Rouge were advancing toward the city, and I suspect major airlines avoided this place. The ramp area was also pretty rugged with lots of FOD (foreign object debris) … not friendly to jet engine intakes. The facilities here were generally primitive. I know the old passenger terminal was nothing but a bombed out shell at one of our visits here although not certain of its state when this photo was taken.