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been to CRB several times. The first time I was sent there was as a replacement in their depot. Got put on the chair detail for the Bob Hope show, and he came out off the stage to talk with all of us.. A couple days later I got shipped to Chu Lai in a C130 (my first ride in one), and was scared to death with all the screaching and groaning going on! I was certain the plane was going down at any second, and liked to clawed that canvas seat apart. Kissed the ground in Chu Lai when I finally got off, and vowed I'd never fly in another one again (fat chance). Was sent to another replacement depot with a stack of orders, and they promptly threw them in file 13 (lots of tax dollars wasted there). Got put on the chair stacking detail for the Bob Hope show again! And met the man again. Still we never were allowed to see the show, but did finally get to see it a year later.

Back to CRB! I remember all the red sand everywhere and having to walk about a hundred yards to take a shower. On the way out there was watching all those red and green tracers going at each other on a hill top that must have been four to five miles out, and was scared to death. Looked for a bomb shelter on the way to dive into! (little did I know!) When I was ETSing out of the place I hit CRB at about two in the afternoon, and tey actually had a buss to ride in. It all of a sudden made a fast stop and everybody piled off the buss. I sat tere and wondered what was going on! I got off the buss and went into this PX we stopped in front of. I could see 122 rockets landing about five klicks away, and it was no big deal to me. I was in the PX roaming around and this guy comes in there and asked where the hell I came from? I told him that buss out there, and he said don't you know the place is being rocketed? I said sure, but it's way over there! He thought I was nuts! I told him not to get too exited as they don't have that kinda range to get to us. He said I was nuts again. I told him I came from the land of mortar rounds and rockets on a daily basis, and this was nothing to get exicited about. Guess he didn't think that way.

Used to roll thru Da Nang about once every six weeks to make trades with the Marines and Sea Bees. I'd show up with a duffle bag full of whiskey and NVA pistol belts, and leave with just about anything we needed. I also traded with the Sea Bees in Chu Lai for building materials and things we couldn't lay our hands on. We always scratched each other's backs in those days. I often got so much stuff in trades that it took two choppers to haul the stuff out to the Lao border area. We also used the south end of the runway in Da Nang to load choppers for CA's, and remember seeing all those planes parked one right after another there. (we loaded up down by the F104's) Looked like a bunch of Mexican Bandits, and they'd all be standing up pointing at us (probably holding their noses as I'm sure we stunk pretty bad). The Marines would let me use their hot showers (probably for their own sake), and I used them everytime I went to see them. Almost 44 years ago, and seems like yesterday
gary