What's the difference between a fairy tale and a war story?  A fairy tale begins with "Once upon a time" and a war story begins with "No shit--this really happened."

These war stories are all true.  Most of the details are from letters I wrote in 1970 and 1971 when I was a C-130 pilot flying passengers, cargo and fuel to airfields around Vietnam.

These are my personal experiences, not a comprehensive history.  Please feel free to drop me an email. 

Vietnam vets, welcome home.

Alan Baker

Contents

• Home

Vietnam and Cambodia

• Google Map of Vietnam Airfields
• In-Country Checkout
• Windmill Taxi and Buddy Starts
• First Short Field Landings
• Refugees and Aussies
• Tan Son Nhut
• Cash and a Poker Game
• Flying in Monsoon Weather
• A Long Day
• Duong Dong
• Gripe, Gripe, Gripe
• A Crash Landing and a Mugging
• Under Attack at Bien Hoa
• Inflight Engine Shutdown
• Hot Brake at Long Thanh North
• Mortars During a Buddy Start
•    Lam Son 719:
• - Airfields Reactivated
• - Aerial Port Heroes at Danang
• - Missions to Quang Tri
• - Missions to Dong Ha
• - Missions to Khe Sanh
• A Bad Landing
• Attack of the Ice Locker
• Friendly Fire at Katum
• Flying with Squadron Commanders
• Kontum and Pleiku
• AWOL, GCA, and USO
• A C-123 Instructor Becomes a Copilot
• Quang Tri Revisited
• Ban Me Thout and Tuy Hoa
• It Takes All Kinds to Make a World
• Mechanical Problems
• SNAFU at Tan Son Nhut
• Long Nights

Thailand

• 2,000-Mile Trip to a Grass Strip
  
• A Typhoon and a Flameout
• Air Evac

Taiwan (CCK)

• Sach
• Check Ride to Vietnam
• Cubi Point
• Paperwork
• Waiting for a Check Flight
• Returning from the USA to CCK
• A "Hymn" to the Wing Commander
• First Air Medal
• Indonesia?

Training

• Undergraduate Pilot Training
• Flying the C-141
• Guantanamo Bay
• Survival Training
• C-130 School
• To North Carolina
• Replacement Training Unit
• Jane Fonda and the New Haven Nine

Appendix

• Contact Alan
• Sources
• Other Web Sites of Interest
• Guestbook
• Old Guestbook Entries

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