Vung Tau was for me sort of an R and R area. At that time most ofthe work was done out of Soc Trang. So when I finally rotated back toVung Tau I would get a sort of rest. There would be several days in arow when there were no missions flown. Of course there wereexceptions to that rule. There was a large push in the works and wewere asked to do the recon of the area for the command in charge ofthe attack. It was on a Saturday when three of our flyable A modelswent out. Each aircraft made two sorties and exposed two rolls offilm. Around noon they returned. I was handed all 6 rolls consistingof 250 feet each. I was told that they needed the pictures by 0600Monday morning. This was by far the most challenging a task that Ihad been assigned to do. For the next 66 hours I processed andcataloged and printed all of the film and delivered the finishedprints to the Major's office with an hour to spare. It was aroundthat time that I picked up the nick name of "Popeye The Photo Man".To this day I never knew how or why that handle was given to me .
Anunidentified Crew Chief hands me a roll of film in an obviously posedpublication shot. My "Antique 7 Photo Lab" is in the rear.
Around this time both Captain Menefee and Lt. Freitag both wereshot down. It seemed that the jinx connected to the failure of theparachute problem with the Martin Baker Ejection Seats was brokenwhen Captain Bisbey went out with Hawk 6.
Around the Spring of 64 the Army decided that it was time to do anI. G. Inspection in Nam. This would be the first since there was anykind of involvement of U. S. Forces in Nam. As you can imagine up tothis time Military Protocol was kind of lax along with a shortage ofmaterial and parts. Scrounging was a way of life. For some reason Namwasn't a real issue with the military either. All of our Hawks werein a state of disrepair. We were so busy and didn't have but 5 or 6what you would call really flyable aircraft and those were heldtogether with green tape and piano wire. So there was a mad rush tolearn the General Orders and how to stand for inspections and we evenhad to learn how to say Sir. Well the big day arrived when theinspection teams arrived. To our relief they weren't there to checkup on protocol but this was to be an inspection of Equipment andMaterial. We flunked big time on all counts. They grounded everysingle Mohawk. Out of the working and not working aircraft we managedto put together 4 flyable aircraft that passed the I. G. That day wasa memorable day to say the least. All four took off and did a flyoverin a diamond formation several times to the cheers of all. Until theday I left we never had any more aircraft that those which really puta strain of all the pilots and maintance personal. For some reasonthe military command expected us to perform missions as if we had afull contingent of aircraft. Needless to say we did our mission inspite of the odds.
We had on our fatigue hats our unit logo embroidered much the sameas the pocket patch. in addition to that we had a small medallionabout an inch and a half in diameter that was exactly the same as thepocket patch. I managed to keep the medallion over all these yearswhich is a little less for wear.
What was and more than likely to only time a Mohawk had nose arton it happened shortly after the I. G. Inspection. It was entitled"The Flying Dickey Bird" and never really made it off the ground. TheMajor decided that it was not in keeping with military standards andwe had to paint over it. If you are not offended by a rather graphicimage then CLICK HERE.
Sun Set at Soc Trang ................ This is mystory