Undaunted Valor: An Assault Helicopter Unit in Vietnam by Jackson Colonel Matt

Author:Jackson, Colonel Matt [Jackson, Colonel Matt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-10-26T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

Times with Dad

I had ninety-nine days left before I would go back to the States. Actually, it was my first day of being a double-digit midget. I hadn’t taken an R&R or leave since I’d come to Vietnam. Why should I? I had no one to meet in Hawaii, which I had been to before and hadn’t cared for. I had lived in Japan for two years of high school and knew all the tourist sites of Tokyo and Yokohama as well as some places off the tourist route. I had spent six months as a merchant sailor and had been to Singapore. I figured Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok were just the same as Singapore except not as nice, and I had been to the Philippines and saw no need to go back there. The only place I didn’t get to before joining the Army was Australia, and every other GI from Vietnam was there, so why would I want to go where everyone else was? No, I decided to save my money for when I got back to the States so I could buy my first car and set up an apartment.

My dad, a naval officer and former Navy master chief, was stationed in Saigon. He had been there for a couple of months, and the major would let me take off a couple of times to go down and stay with him. He had a very nice set of quarters with a living room, bedroom and bathroom. His bathroom even had a flush toilet and a hot shower. The first time there, another pilot, Mike George, was with me, and I found him sitting on the floor of the shower, just letting the hot water run over him. I had known Mike George since flight school although he was three classes behind me. I remembered his room well, as he had a picture of a very attractive brunette wearing a pair of shorts, sitting on a rock at the beach with her legs tucked under her. Her eyes were cast down; her blouse was totally unbuttoned with no bra, tastefully exposing her chest but not her breasts. I loved to inspect Mike’s room when I was the cadet battalion commander. He always passed inspection. He was from Sacramento and, like me, a bit older than most of the guys in flight school, having been a Sacramento firefighter before joining the Army. Clean sheets, hot and cold running water and a flush toilet made this trip heaven for Mike and me. Dad had a small grill on his balcony, and we cooked steaks that night that had soaked all day in Jack Daniels. Time to explore Saigon.

Mike and I caught a cab into the city. We weren’t used to being in crowds, especially crowds of Vietnamese. It was a bit uncomfortable at first, but we loosened up after a bit. Some rules were pointed out to us by Dad.

“Sit in the back of a bar with your backs to the wall.

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