Teaching the Vietnam War, #137
WE were a small group that went in C-130s and flew nort over the interior and
back down Laos and Cambodia and back north to Cam Ranh Bay. Our guys on the
plane were listening to what was being said by the enemy on the ground as they
had radios that broadcast in a 180 degree sphere and we picked it all up. Our
guys came bac, we deciphered the tapes put it on Teletype tape and we sent the
info out to where bombing runs would go and bomb them to Hell. We would recieve
the after action reports and see what our bombing runs had axxomplished. It was
a satisfying job as we could read the effects of our efforts. We were not a
large group but we were effective because of dedicated linguists, who flew and
put info on tape, linguists who translated and put the info on Teletype tape,
crypto men who maintained the equipment that encoded and decoded the info that
went out from our small compound, the Teletype operators and the Teletype
maintener, me. To this day I feel guilty that I didn’t go back and serve more in
country or reenlist so I could go back, I still feel ass if I didn’t do enough
or stay more, I should have done more, I just should have and say to Hell with
the promise I had made about going back to work for a man I didn’t really like,
I should have stayed in my beloved Air Force, I should have stayed.
I don’t go to fireworks and keep the windows closed on the 4th of July. I can’t
stand the sounds or the bright lights that linger in the sky for a long time. We
who were in the rear were’nt supposed to be affected by Vietnam, but I still
hate the Vietnameese, I’m more jumpy than I was before I was there. Someday
maybe I’ll enjoy all those things.
When we first went to Vietnam our small compound wasn’t fenced or finished and
we had to rotate guard duty, all we were equiped with was a .38, that’s all, I
was scared, what could I do with a .38…what could I have done? And I shake as
I type this and think about it, how do I sleep now, the scream draems might come
back, so I stay awake as long as I can, I’m safe if I’m awake. Thanks for
listening.
– Steve
Stephen R. Hendrickx
Teletype maintainer USAF
Why We Must Remember and Teach the Vietnam War Submission Page:
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– Otis Willie (Ret.)
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