from Neighborhood to 'Nam......and back.

Growing up in a close knit neighborhood during the ‘50s and ‘60s was not unusual, it was the norm. Friendships were long and the bonds were tight. Friends walked to school together; joined scouts together; played sports together; grew up together. They dated and married girls from the neighborhood. . .And, most of them went to war together, not as a group, but as single individuals….and those same friends parted ways for a time. Each moving on to a new phase of their life.

The neighborhood was ‘Kaisertown’, a Polish-American community on the far east side of Buffalo New York. . .the war was Vietnam.

This blog is a collaboration of stories and experiences from this group of men, childhood buddies, all now in their sixties, whose friendships have lasted a lifetime.

These are also recollections from those young men who stayed behind. . ’caretakers’, as you will, of the old neighborhood that was a part of them . . .keeping the memories alive until all returned.

6.28.2011

Jerry: Lost Power

One early morning in April 1969, my NCO in charge asked if I would like to take a flight in a C-47 (the 12th TAC wings ‘Sandblower Airlines’ as it was called) to drop off and pick up supplies at Phu Cat Air Base. I said, “sure, it would be nice to see some of the Viet Nam country side”. We left at 7 am and  would return around 8pm the same day. It certainly was a beautiful day for flying and we did get to see the country side.

The pilot pointed out to us a few things that we passed over in our flight. . .some blown out roads and a bridge that was just taken out by some F-4 fighter jets, I really don't know if the F-4’s were from one of our squadrons or not, but they surely did what their intentions were, to make traveling for the Viet cong a little more difficult to say the least.

There were only 6 airmen on this flight including myself, the pilot, and co-pilot. . .and we were served box lunches.  The flight went well and we dropped of the supplies we needed to and picked some other items for our return flight.

The return flight to Cam Ranh Bay was just before dusk. Everything seemed to be going well until we were making our approach to land. At that point I noticed fire trucks on the tarmac with their emergency lights on.  As we landed, they were following us down the runway. I'm thinking that something must be going on if they have all these emergency vehicles ready. . .could this greeting be for us???  After landing, I found out that one of our engines wasn't working and the greeting on the fight line was indeed for us.

I never really found out what happen to the engine, just kind of glad the pilot had enough experience to fly, and land the aircraft safely the way he did. I was happy and relieved to make it back to base camp, especially after knowing that we were flying with only 50% of what it took to fly a C-47.

All in all I did get to see Viet Nam from a birds eye view. 
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