Thank you Vet's

[Stick]

Qui-Nhon RSVN 67-68
1st APU
APO San-Francisco 96238
Face it if you were in VietNam in 67-68, Qui-Nhon was a place by the sea that you wanted to be. It was a relatively secure area on the South China Sea with Red Beach to go enjoy yourself cooling yourself off from what Vietnam normally had to offer you.
Maybe you went down Vo-Tahn Street and hear from one of the doors "boom-boom ah numbah one G.I.!" and all it took was one trip to the medics to get some salve for those darn crabs the next day. The largest post in Qui-Nhon was the airfield and there you could go to the EM, NCO or Officers Club and get blasted in a refreshing way and then go to the guest house, a real building for a good nights sleep on a bed. There was also a sea-port in Qui-Nhon I think but I never went there.
I was assigned to the 1st Army Postal Unit as a supply clerk when I first went but that ended after just a couple short months and was sent to the QuiNhon Airfield Security Detachment where eight hours, 2 four hour shifts I would go either to one of the 14 towers or 1 of the 2 bunkers. Shifts started at midnight, 0400, 0800, 1200, 1600 or 2000 hours and you were on duty midnight & 1200, 0400 & 1600 or 0800 & 2000 hours. Every 14th day you were off duty and would rotate back one shift giving you a full 36 hours between your shift.
You would climb the 35 foot ladder to the top of a tower and listen to the calm of the city normally. It might be disrupted by a landing airplane and maybe once or twice a week you might hear a few shots somewhere way out there. Only during the NewYear celibration (Tet) did it get ugly otherwise you spent four hours in udder boredom.
I had a couple occasions to fly over to An-Khe or Camp Evans taking papers to whoever. I couldn't read them so I really don't know what they were. I hated flying through the pass because a 123 might get a couple more holes in it going through that pass and once a guy on the plane was hit while flying through it.
Even Tet was a couple of days late in Qui-Nhon. We heard on the radio's and even on tellevision how bad it was in Siagon, Danang and Hua. Black plastic bags kept landing but at midnight, February 2nd all hell broke loose and that lasted for four or five days. Every troop was "numbah one GI" after that and the calm came back onto Red Beach.
The most I saw of the war was the black plastic bags being unloaded from a 123 or 130. It was the guys in those bags that gave me four hours of boredom and eight hours of relaxation twice every day. It was the guys in those bags who were out there with many of you that deserve my honor.
Thank you for covering my "Six" otherwise known as my "a***s."
It was you that brought me home.