The early months of 1971 were very busy for us. On January 30th Operation Lam Som 719 (named for a mountain in Laos) started. The ARVN (Army Republic Viet Nam) with massive amounts of air support from the US Army and Air Force, moved into Laos with the purpose of stopping the flow of materiel to the South. The operation met with mixed success and made Da Nang Air Base one of the busiest airfields in the world.
In April word of more changes to come...the Marines were leaving! They were going to let us use the 2 midfield M-21 barriers on runway 17R-35L until RED HORSE (Rapid Engineer Deployable, Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineer) installed some BAK-13s for us. Now both the M-21 and the BAK-13 used water turbines as energy absorbers (brakes). Now the way a water turbine works...well lets demonstrate. Find a washing machine, put some water in it, try to turn the agitator, feel the resistance...add a tape and cable, you've got an arresting barrier. The M-21 was built like a Marine, tough, low maintenance, and a joy to work with. We trained with the Marine "Morrest" crews ( Morrest stood for more arrestments. A dig from the Marines since they caught more planes than we did.) for about a month. Then they were gone and we were on our own.
The main purpose of midfield barriers is to keep keep aircraft from going off the side of the runway when he pilot hit the brakes. This was a real problem in the monsoon of South East Asia. The combination of water, oils, and fuel created a real hydroplaning hazard for the aircrews. Esspecially at Da Nang because the runway had very high crown and Ubon, Thailand because there wasn't enough crown. So when it rained the midfield crews worked their tails off. We split the crews up, with some working the BAK-12s and the lucky ones the M-21. Sgt Pleiku worked the M-21.
At the same time as the change over out at Morrest they moved us to the Civil Engineering compound now located on the West side of the base. We inherited the Marines midfield Alert Quarters located between the two runways The place had its own mini control tower with direct phone line to the Air Contol Tower. Plus our little tower gave us a great view of the big pond between the runways known as "Lake Morrest".
Sgt Pleiku's time in Da Nang was getting short. He'd received orders for the 2049th Communications Group, Mc Clellan AFB, Sacramento, California. Just about 70 miles from home. THere would be just one more year to do in the Air Force, or so I thought.
First it was time to celebrate my second birthday in the 'Nam. This one being my 21st, on the 28th day of May, 1971. Turns out the Air Force had a special birthday gift planned for me. After picking up some fermented and distilled refreshments for the birthday party planned for later Sgt Pleiku stopped by the Squadron's bulletin board. There it was, the promotion list for Staff Sergeant, and Sgt Pleiku's name was there for all to see. The Squadron's First Shirt, First Sergeant Robinette came by and offered his congratulations. Well, actually what he said was, " Golden, if you screw up one more time, I'm personally going to castrate you."
Just about three weeks later they loaded me on the "Freedom Bird" back to the "World". It was a departure filled with mixed feelings. I thought I'd had enough of Viet Nam but there were feelings that I'd left a job unfinished. Got a window seat and as we passed over "Lake Morrest" a single tear escaped and slid down my cheek. It was my last view of "Lake Morrest" ...but not of Viet Nam.
