Our charter flight touched down on Vietnamese soil at 16:30 hours on the afternoon of October 6,1965. Tan Son Nhut Air Base was a huge military installation located on the outskirts of Saigon. It was also the airport for the city capable of accommodating our largest aircraft. The 7th Air Force Command Headquarters and the Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV) headquarters were located on the base. The 7th AF oversaw all the air bases in Vietnam, while MACV provided military assistance in the form of training and military supplies to the South Vietnamese military.

Because of the rapid troop buildup, billeting on base was limited. New arrivals were transported to U.S. government contract hotels near the center of Saigon. The route into the city was teeming with military tracts, taxis, motorbikes, bicycles, cyclos and pushcart vendors; all weaving amoeba-like through the streets. Crowded shops lined the sidewalks. At the intersections pedestrians crossed in all directions seemingly oblivious to the loud cacophony of engines, horns and bells. The stringent blend of motor fumes, exotic cooking scents and untreated septic waste that filled the air is still embedded in my memory. 

Our hotel was located on a cup-de-sac off the main boulevard. In the morning we hopped into a covered pickup truck for the return trip to the base. That is when I learned just days earlier a Viet Cong on a passing bicycle had thrown a grenade, wrapped with plastic, into the back of the same vehicle. It bounced off the leg of one of my former flight school classmates and rolled across the bed of the truck. The airmen jumped out and raced down the blind alley as far as they could, waving frantically and shouting warnings to the Lt. Col. and Vietnamese driver in the cab. Unaware of the danger, the driver misinterpreted their gestures and started backing towards them. Fortunately the grenade failed to explode.

Back at Tan Son Nhut we spent the better part of three days processing into the country completing paperwork, receiving immunizations and attending orientation lectures. I also met with the 7th Air Force Command Surgeon, Colonel Hugh W. Randel for a briefing before reporting to my next duty station.  My assignment was with 14th Air Commando Wing which provided combat support for the 5th Special Forces group headquartered in Nha Trang on the central coast.

Under French Colonial rule Nha Trang had been transformed from a small fishing village into a pristine seaside resort with a population of 200,000. It was tied to its diverse past by ancient temples, Buddhist pagodas and a small Gothic cathedral. The French influence was clearly visible in the local architecture including the villa built as a retreat for Bau Dai who had been the last reigning emperor of Viet Nam from 1924 until 1945. Nha Trang was also home to the Pasteur Institute founded in 1895 by Dr. Alexandre Yerson, a French bacteriologist who was the first to identify the organism that caused bubonic plague.

The air base at Nha Trang was constructed by the colonial French government for its fledgling air force during the Indochina War. When the French departed Viet Nam after their defeat by the Communist Viet Minh at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, the country was divided at the 17th parallel and the base at Nha Trang became the headquarters of the South Vietnamese Air Force Academy. During the Viet Nam War that followed, the facility continued to be used as a training center as well as a joint operational and tactical airbase by both the USAF and VNAF. Our activities included direct air support, combat airlift, aerial resupply, visual and photographic reconnaissance, unconventional warfare, counterinsurgency operations, psychological warfare, forward air control, search and rescue, defoliation operations and flare drops.

The shortest route to Colonel Randel’s office was through a maze of temporary buildings and past the morgue, where I tried to redirect my gaze from the body bags resting atop stretchers along the outer wall. Once again I was exposed to the reality of war. When I returned to Tan Son Nhut several months later, the number of deceased soldiers awaiting their final disposition had doubled. Clearly the conflict was accelerating.

The Colonel informed me that during the first few months I would be the only air force physician for over a thousand troops. A flight line dispensary was under construction but initially I would work out of a temporary facility in a contract hotel near the center of town where three corpsmen were anxiously awaiting my arrival. My primary responsibilities would include routine sick call, preventive medicine and air crew support. Backup for more serious medical conditions was available at the 8th Field Hospital, a 100 bed army facility across the runway from the air base.

At the time our medical team had no form of transportation because the only ambulance had been removed from service following a flight line collision with a fire truck several months earlier. The damage was repairable but despite our obvious need the motor pool refused, citing regulations against returning vehicles to service that were more than ten years old. This was a sore point for Colonel Randel who vowed to personally resolve the problem. He lost the argument and the motor pool converted the ambulance to its own use as a shop vehicle. It was a clear example of every unit for itself and regulations trumping rank.

I left the Command Surgeon’s office feeling a heavy responsibility had fallen on the shoulders of a young twenty-seven year old physician just weeks removed from internship and flight school. I could only hope I would be up to the task medically, militarily and psychologically.