Bien Hoa Air Base, Vietnam
Everywhere we looked there were signs welcoming us as we got off plane. We had arrived in style on a civilian airliner with real "stewardesses". If it hadn't been for our uniforms we could have been fooled into thinking we were going on an Asian vacation. As we disembarked our senses were assaulted with new sights and smells, mostly unpleasant. The first thing I remember was the heat and humidity. After a long flight in an air conditioned tube exiting the plane presented a dramatic change. And the smell. Something like garbage and urine with some aviation fuel mixed in. The dust was next. No green lawns in sight, just powdered soil that soon covered our new duffel bags, footwear and us. Every step generated puffs of smoke. This was already turning out to be a lousy vacation.
Then we thought the welcome signs must be some sort of sick joke.
I remember being herded in a group to an outdoor holding area close to the runway. Nearby were large chain-link cages with several American soldiers inside. Somebody said they were prisoners. That seemed strange. Someone else said they had gone AWOL or committed a crime and were being flown back to the states for court martial. They were still in the cages when we were led to another area where buses and trucks awaited. Some nice Air Force fellows were loading our duffels onto a truck for us. As I recall, we boarded Air Force buses which took us to the 90th Replacement Battalion at Long Binh, a few miles away.
The ride to Long Binh took us through some Vietnamese neighborhoods where we got to see the natives up close for the first time. There were open air markets and falling down shacks. To call it the slums would have been generous. The smell we had noticed at Bien Hoa had increased in intensity, the avgas fumes being replaced by diesel smoke from our bus. Trash littered the street and floated in open puddles of muck. There were motorbikes and horse drawn carts. Everyone was busy. The young men who looked our way scowled, the old ones stared with faded eyes and toothless grins. Women communicated in loud, sharp monosyllables like a barnyard full of hungry ducks and chickens.
The bus never stopped moving and neither did the action. We tried to take it all in but there was too much to see, hear, smell. At times we wanted to rewind the presentation as a jumble of new information vied for brain cells, but it was gone in a flash, replaced by new assaults to the senses.
As quickly as the carnival ride began it was over at the main gate of the 90th Replacement Battalion. Ramshackle huts became neat military rows of buildings, most painted white. The guards at the entrance were accustomed to seeing "duece and a half" trucks full of individual arriving or departing troops, not whole busloads from the same company, let alone reservists. This apparently took some explaining. The orders were finally accepted and we were admitted to the interior grounds.
I'm not sure what happened next, probably an assembly and a scramble to find quarters and feed the new arrivals. I remember ending up in a long, one story open air building that was half tent and half barracks. The interior was lined with bunks and we were told to find one that looked unoccupied. By the nature of this outfit, soldiers were coming and going all the time so housekeeping was a minor concern. I found a bunk that was empty with no belongings under it and decided to call it home. I think there were a few other men from my unit in the same building, but the rest were scattered about in other quarters wherever vacancies could be found. That must have created a huge logistics task for our non-coms to manage. I suppose there was a meal in there somewhere and we probably spent the night. Somehow we were all accounted for and headed for the next chapter in our adventure.
After we left Long Binh, we proceeded to an airport (Bien Hoa?) and were crammed into a transport plane for the 100 mile flight to Vung Tau. I flew so much on these prop planes during the next year that I'm not sure which type this one was, but it was probably the C-123 as we were all on one plane. It was standing room only and wire ropes were stretched across the interior for balance. I remember thinking "this isn't safe". The flight was short and surprisingly quite smooth, even the landing. You can imagine the sweaty mass that emerged on arrival from the ramp at the back of the plane. Duffels in hand, we boarded more trucks and headed for the barracks that would be our home for the next year.
During my research I came across a copy of the pamphlet that was given to newly arrived soldiers at Long Binh. It was intended for individual troops, so a lot of it didn't apply to our company. (--From allanfurtado.com--) Here's the link -- Download PDF