Wednesday, August 29, 2007

The Summer of 69


2:45 pm


One last hot day before some less humid weather comes along, maybe a storm or two tonight....Football Officials meeting at Van Wert High School at 7 tonight.....2 more meetings to make my quota after that.


Finished off the back yard, walked about 3 miles, and lifted weights...back feels OK....games tomorrow at Wayne Trace(Jr High) and St Henry on Saturday morning(JV)....may take a RV run over the Labor weekend(after)....if they give me a run to Vegas....otherwise I stick around the house and do whatever.


38 years ago

"The Summer of 69"




The Brian Adams song has always been a favorite....not sure if the Summer of 69 was mine. As the summer of 07 winds down, I can remember back to the last days of that summer in Vietnam...I had been stationed at the resort(of sorts) Air Base at Nha Trang, located on the shores of the South China Sea...was there for 6 months, and as I had previously mentioned, it was by far my favorite location in the Air Force....war going on around us, and even a couple of rocket attacks, but the duty and the town time were pretty easy....and I have to say Nha Trang duty prepared me for what would lie ahead in my life. I stopped taking crap, got tough, and didn't look back at what I was before...no more going along to get along, and no more backing down...yes, Nha Trang Air Base on the sun baked South China Beach...would be the turning point in my life...the old days were gone....the changes were slow, but by the time I lifted off in that C-130 bound for my next duty station Ton San Nhut(Saigon) Air Base, I was ready for what lie ahead.


One of the guys I ran with at Nha Trang was Harry Bevan, he left Vietnam in late 69, and after his stint in the AF went on to become a cop in his home town of Philly....Harry took the new posted photo of me on the top of the blog.....the photo on today's post is me(L) and Harry(R) on patrol....found him a few years ago, along with other Nha Trang guys Phil Lange(my old NCOIC) Bruce Thompson, Johnny Clalfin, Marc Payan, and others, genealogy research and the Vietnam Security Police Association,




have made it possible to find many folks thought lost....still some more to find....Jack Gates where are you?, and others you find are no longer with us....RIP Jack Friedl and Joe Prokop.


No, the Summer of 69 was not my favorite summer(have to say 67 the year I graduated from high school)...but it is one that I remember well, and with pride for the changes it brought.


prh

11 comments:

fuzzbert_1999@yahoo.com said...

Thanks brother for the plug and I love the photos. Man the shot with the two of you, blue helmets, in front of the jeep is terrific!

I wish I had taken more photos instead of slides, even though I have save many of them. Keep it coming...I'm loving your memories!

PRH said...

Thanks brother....I've got many from Nha Trang and Hawaii(R&R)...lost a boat load from Tan Son Nhut, but still have some. I've been working on fixing as many as possible with the adobe "fixer"....seems to work wonders...older, yellow shots can be made almost new.

Thanks for the plugs and help.

pat

Sarge Charlie said...

Summer of 69, I love the video, let me see.......I did 60 days in Saigon, 60 days in Chu Li and another 60 days in Da Nang. Oh I was army, I noticed your link said AF

Sarge Charlie said...

I also did 60 days at Ben Hua.

Sarge Charlie said...

I should have told you we lost 4 guys of a 8 man team at Ben Hua, to an ARVN short round, they were all in the shower when the round came in.

PRH said...

Sorry Charlie...I'll do that a quick fix....see now my pappy had them both covered...Army Air Force WW2....

pat

fuzzbert_1999@yahoo.com said...

Well, the gang is all circling your wagon...great!

FHB said...

My dad was also Army/AirForce in WW2, and did 32 years in the AF in all, and I love reading this history, and seeing these pictures. Love thsat you guys have found one another. Cool.

Bill said...

Greetings,
You said RIP Jack Friedl...was he from Glenwillard, PA? I was in country 4/69 thru 4/70.
Bill

PRH said...

Bill: Jack(John Lewis) Frield was from Coraopolis/Moon Township near Pittsburgh....born 1949 died 1992.

E-Mail me if this is a connection at pat.houseworth@gmail.com

thanks for stopping by.

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