By Clem Blazewick
In October 1966, I learned I’d be leaving Vietnam on December 15 for my next duty station, Camp Zama, Japan.
When December 15 rolled around, I picked up my papers from Administration, said goodbye to my fellow laboratory technicians at 93rd Evacuation Hospital in Long Binh and hitched a ride to Camp Alpha in Saigon.
There, I started to process my way out of country. But the sergeant said I didn’t have all the proper paperwork. So, I had to hitch a ride back up Highway 1 to the 93rd and obtain the missing papers.
By the time I got them in hand, it was too late and too dark to travel back to Saigon. I slept in my old bunk and, after breakfast the next morning, I checked with transportation to see if any vehicles were going to Saigon.
No luck. I walked to Highway 1 and starting hitching again. A couple of Vietnamese motorscooters stopped and offered me a ride. I knew better than to accept. I waited for an American military vehicle, and one came and took me directly to Camp Alpha.
When I handed my papers to the sergeant for processing me out, he said I was on the manifest to depart on Christmas Eve. I asked for an earlier flight but was denied.
As I turned away, a GI stopped me with advice.
“If you want to get out of here early, go to the PX and buy the sergeant a carton of cigarettes.”
Off I went, secured the bribe from the PX, and presented it to the sergeant.
He looked at the carton of cigarettes on the counter, picked up a clipboard of papers, and said, ”you’re on the manifest to depart on the 19th.”
Out-processing included a strip search. A group of us GI’s in an empty warehouse were told to strip down, empty our duffle bags, and march into another room. After a half an hour, we were marched back in, told to dress and pack our bags. What they were looking for, I didn’t know.
I settled in on Braniff Flight #B-284 at Tan Son Nhut. After a half an hour, a stewardess came down the aisle calling my name. I identified myself, and she informed me that I couldn’t fly back to the States because my next Temporary Duty Assignment was Japan.
I said that I haven’t been home in 17 months and wanted to go home for Christmas. She looked thoughtfuly and told me to stay seated.
Another 30 minutes later, she returned and said they were re-routing the plane from Tachikawa (a US Air Force base) airport to Haneda, a Japanese airport, and I was not to get off the plane when the others disembark.
I followed her instructions, and after a two-hour flight and stopover in Japan, I was airborne again, heading to San Francisco and Oakland Army Terminal to begin my 30-day leave.
We landed and I entered the Terminant for in-processing. After collecting some pay, I was on the streets of Oakland, California.
The experience was surreal. One day in a war zone, the next on an American street.
I took a military bus to Travis Air Force base, where I boarded a military flight to Denver, and then to Dobbins Air Force Base in Georgia.
From there, 15 of us GI’s boarded a military bus to Atlanta International Airport. While in route on a highway, the bus broke down. The driver, a sergeant, ordered us to stay on the bus. He locked the door and left to get help.
We watched him cross the highway and enter a building. We all looked at each other, exited through the rear emergency door, and started hitching rides for the airport.
At the airport, I was able to buy a US Air ticket to Pittsburgh and arrived home at about 9:00pm on December 21st.
Home for Christmas was never sweeter.
