So lets make this perfectly clear Sgt. Pleiku was at best a very reluctant warrior. He joined the Air Force not out of patriotism, but out of desire not to be humping the boonies of "Nam" having people shoot at me. In fact I had it figured that by the time I got through the Air Force technical training schools the war would be over. When it looked like that wasn't going to happen, I put down on my "Dreamsheet" that I wanted to go to Antarctica. At Sheppard AFB,Witchita Falls,Texas the Air Force spent most of 18 weeks teaching me to operate and maintain diesel and gasoline generators. There were 2 days spent on Aircraft arresting systems.
Well the Air Force didn't send me to Antarctica instead it was Beale AFB in Northern California..With the 456 Civil Engineering Squadron I was assigned to the "SAGE" Power Plant, we were attached to and supplied emergency power to the Headquarters/Operations buiding of the 9 Strategic Reconnaissaince Wing the folks with SR-71 Spy Plane.I had hopes of spending the rest of my Air Force career at Beale but that was not to be. Yes, overseas orders came through. There was some initial confusion as to where I was going Thailand or Viet Nam but the good folks in Finance got me staight. "You're going to Pleiku,Viet Nam. I was not a happy camper, this not what I had planned.
When I arrived at Pleiku, assigned to the 633 Power Production Shop I don't think they knew what to with this very junior A1C (E-3). I helped with operator maintenance on the generators we had scattered all over the place. Frequently found myself doing special projects, like steam cleaning the engine compartment of the Base Commander's truck or going to the Base Exchange to buy cigars for our NCOIC. Then one day the NCOIC called me into the office and asked if I had a drivers license valid for Viet Nam. When I said yes, I found myself in Barrier Maintenance, I was going to use those 2 days of training I got in Tech School.
We operated 2 BAK-12 Aircraft Arresting Systems (Barriers) one at each end of the runway. The BAK-12 consists of a 60" reel on each side of runway, each reel has 900' of woven nylon tape, ( like a web belt 9'" wide a 1/4 " thick). Connected to the tapes crossing the runway was a 1" cable. To stop the airplanes were 4 B-52 brakes, one on each side of the reels. To retract the tapes and cables there was a gasoline engine on each side of the runway. I caught my first "Bird" (airplane) after a week on the crew, a F-100 "HUN", and I knew I had found a home.
Life was good, at least for Viet Nam. Enjoyed the job, and things were quiet on the base. It's like "Charlie" had forgotten we were there. They'd drop 122mm rockets all around us but none hit the Air Base. Things were changing. On March 15, 1970 we went from being the 633 Special Operations Wing to becoming the 6254 Air Base Squadron.At about 1200 people we had to have been the largest Squadron in the Air Force. Then with the ground invasion of Cambodia suddenly "Charlie" woke up and rocket attacks were almost a daily occurence. At the same time things were winding down for the Air Force at Pleiku Air Base, there was soon to be a mass exodus of troops from the base. Civil Engineering was turned over to Philco-Ford. In Civil Engineering those with less than 60 days to go were going back to the "World" the "land of the big BX" the rest were scattered throughout Viet Nam.
