13 - 388th MMS
I was stationed at Korat 9/67-9/68. I guess I, like many of us, did not ralize the impact Korat would have on my life at the time. Sometimes I find it hard to believe what we were doing there..right or wrong. As it turns out the years in SEA, bad as they were at times, were important to not only us but to the world. The world still talks about the Viet Nam years and it seems all military and political bench marks go back to our era. The sounds of the Thuds in AB taking off was my alarm clock in those days and 18 hrs. later my day ended. My day was spent hustling 20MM, 2.75 rockets, and 750 bombs for the poor dudes running back and forth over Hanoi, chasing targets of questionable merit and putting themselves in harms way. I admire every last one of them. Can't say I miss much of it, but the camaraderie and experiences have served to form my later life. Left the AF in '70, worked in a steel mill as an engineer for nearly 40yrs. thereafter. Now I'm retired and when I see the pics of all of us running around as skinny kids with no shirts and a beer bottle are truly heart warming.