Conversations With My Father - Part One

This is a tidbit of this weekend's marathon memory session with my dad. It is the account of when he first landed in Vietnam, in late summer of 1966:

Then they land and everything. And then the doors open. And then you look out. There's a jeep there with an M60. They start yelling, "Everyone get out of the plane, hurry up." I was like, I can't believe it. I cannot believe I'm here.

We get the first meal and we're told we're gonna spend the night right there at the airport. This one captain came in and said, "I want everybody to stay in tonight. Charlie wants this air base real bad."

I'll never forget what I said to this captain.

Across the road there was a big empty space. Just fields and fields. I remember telling the captain, "I have an idea."

"Oh, yeah? What's that?"

"Charlie wants this air base real bad? How 'bout we give Charlie this air base, and we go build another one over there?"

He said, 'You think you're being fucking funny? You think this is a fucking joke?"

I was like, "Jesus Christ, doesn't anybody have a sense of humor around here?"