Dead Men Flying by General Patrick Henry Brady

Author:General Patrick Henry Brady
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: WND Books
Published: 2012-09-20T04:00:00+00:00

• PART 3 •

WAR

• 24 •

WHERE THE HELL IS CHU LAI?

AT last we were escaping the clutches of the ASO at Benning. I would actually miss Benning and our friends there but not the ASO. Viet Nam would be a relief. In a final tribute to their efficiency, they could not tell us where in Viet Nam we were going! All I had was a rumor from Barry that we were going to Chu Lai, wherever that was. I had covered Viet Nam from Pleiku to the mangrove swaps of Cau Mau my first tour and never heard of Chu Lai. I took some of our best men on the advanced party. Norm Shannahan, Wayne Aurich, Stan Tucker, and I left Fort Benning at 09:00 on 18 August 1967 departing Muscogee County airport via Atlanta (yes, going to or from Viet Nam, or to heaven or hell, in those days, you had to go through Atlanta) landing in San Francisco at 13:30. Don Sewell met us and, after a three and a half hour wait for our luggage, we left for Travis Air Force Base. En route to Travis, Don regaled us with stories of the weird happenings in San Francisco; the flower children, druggies, demonstrators, etc. He said that the women actually stripped naked to the waist in the bars! We were amazed. Don, of course, never frequented such places and was passing on only what he had heard.

We left Travis at 02:00 on 19 August and landed at Bien Hoa, Viet Nam at 13:30, 20 August. My old buddy Captain Barry FitzGerald picked us up. While at Bien Hoa I had a chance to visit with Jake, another friend and former member of the 54th. He introduced me to a nurse who had just returned from Hong Kong where she had purchased a wedding dress. She was ecstatic over the dress which she bought for her marriage to Jake. I was a bit shocked since he was already married! His wife and mine were good friends. There were other such stories in that war. This tragedy would play out when she later discovered his marriage and committed suicide. Her death wish was that she be buried in the wedding dress, that her parents forgive Jake, and that he attend her funeral so he could see her in the wedding dress. He did. There were other such stories in that war. Another friend had the incredible misfortune to have his wife and mistress sitting next to each other under hair dryers, one talking about her husband, the other the boyfriend; and discover they were talking about the same person.

We left Bien Hoa at 04:00 on 21 August for the 498th Helicopter Ambulance Company at Qui Nhon. They confirmed our final destination as Chu Lai. My old friend, the Atheist, was the operations officer of the 498th. He told me the 54th was to replace two 498th aircraft supporting what was then known as Task Force Oregon (TFO) at Chu Lai, which was transitioning from Marine country and was, in fact, named after a Marine general.

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