My Air Force Days 68-72, Settling in at Nha Trang...part 7

January 21st on average is the coldest day of the year, at least in this part of the world....30 days past the beginning of winter and like it counterpart July 21st, it is the day of extremes....this day the coldest on average, and it appears that today and tomorrow morning will be the coldest days of the season so far....but I've experienced colder.  Highs in the teens for a few days with lows in the single digits and wind chills below zero...but what the Hell, it is January?

And on this "Holiday" of sorts...not really the birthday of Martin Luther King, but the Monday after, an excuse for government to take a day off...as far as our nation's government, I'm wishing they would take many more days off...and stay the Hell out of our lives.  Speaking of out of control government, today is also the day our interloping foreign born President begins his second and {hopefully} final four years of destroying our Republic...Barack Insane Obama will be sworn in this day...and hopefully this clown and his Posse' will freeze their lying, Marxist, asses off....the more uncomfortable he and his Lemming-Like supporters are, the better for all of us. 

Needless to say, I won't be watching the self appointed "King of America" be crowned by the lap dog media of this nation.....

Nha Trang, South Vietnam, Summer of '69'....

Shortly after arriving at Nha Trang, I was out the Law Enforcement Desk at the Terminal....here it was, the 14th SPS Desk, I introduced myself to the Buck Sgt on duty, and he called for a Jeep which arrived in short order to transport me and my bags to Squardon HQ at the 14th SPS....my first thoughts of Nha Trang were as follows:  {1} Pretty Small, which was nice..{2} Hot, no surprise there..{3} Pretty nice duty location...or at least it appeared to bem but then again, this was Vietnam, so what was "Nice Duty"?

I checked in, was given a Barracks location, and a bed/stall number, and told to check in there, get settled and be at the front desk the next morning....Here I was in Vietnam, a full year awaited me...that, at least to this 20 year old back in the Summer of 69, seemed like a Hell of a long time.

The first people I met, or at least remember meeting, were Harry Bevan, Marcus Payen, Bruce Thompson, and others, whose faces are are now clouded by time and a memory, while still clear on many things from those days, had forgotten more that I would like to admit.  The next morning it was back to SPS Headquarters and doing some paperwork....I'm not sure how exactly I ended up in Law Enforcement, rather than Security...it would be the first and only time I would work LE.  I was assigned to "A" Flight, which meant I would work days, with one day off per week, that would be Tuesday in my case.  My NCOIC was a Tech Sgt named Phil Lange and my immediate supervisor was a tall black man, Staff Sgt Melvin Sloan.  Phil and I had a rocky relationship to start, but we became good friends later in lift and agreed on many things through our days at the VSPA and our e-mails back and forth.  Sloan and I would become pretty close during my days at Nha Trang....albeit those proved all to short.

Bevan, Payen, and I were on the same shift, and worked LE together....Johnny Claflin, would arrive shortly after I did, and we would hang together until JC was shipped out to Phan Rang.  LE Duty was basically pretty sweet, well at least as sweet as you could find as a Air Force Cop in Vietnam.  All the Airman and Airman First, along with most of the Buck Sargent's{3 stripes} would rotate between the entry control points and Jeep Patrol Duty.  With our days busy, and rotating on SAT{Security Alert Team}, our nights were free to do anything we pleased, as long as it was on base.....

We had a open air theater that would show newly released movies, and the SPs had our own movie house, named "Bailey's Speakeasy" in honor of our First Lt...who, not much older than us, left the discipline and hands on duty to the senior NCOs in charge of the troops.  We had BBQs at the outdoor pit, cold beers, and plenty to keep us busy.  Frankly Security Police were not the most popular people on base....I have written before about my run-ins with Army Warrant Officers and others...I will try to shake the cob-webs out of my memory banks and try to recollect some of the activities and other memories of Nha Trang...as I have stated time and time again, those six months I spent at the base on the shores of the South China Sea, were the best of my Air Force days....the rest are not even close.

More on my days at Nha Trang as this story continues....

back later>>>>

Photos-The early days at Nha Trang....Me at a Civilian Entry Point on the north side of the base...Obama and his SS Troops start their 2nd term today,  Payan, Ky, and Bevan, at the Nha Trang Main Gate...and me on the beach at Nha Trang, note the red hair....I had bleached my hair blond to piss off the NCO, Jack Adkins, at Dover...then I tried to dye it back to dark brown, not wanting to look like some kind of flaming fag, and it turned a bright redish orange, and remained that way until my first hair cut at Nha Trang...this photo on the beach was taken during my first few days in country.