I was inducted in the United States Air Force on 21 January 1959 at Montgomery, Alabama and sent to Lackland Air Force Base, near San Antonio, Texas. There I completed 13 weeks of Basic Training.
From there I was transferred to March Air Force Base, at Edgemont, California. March Air Force Base was the 15th Air Force Headquarters and was under the command of the Strategic Air Command. I was first assigned to the 807th Base Installation Squadron, which later became known as Base Civil Engineers.
In 1960 the Bomb Wing changed its name to the 22nd Bomb Wing and the Squadron that I was assigned to became the 22nd Civil Engineering Squadron. My assignment at March AFB lasted some 6 and a half years, ending near the last of November 1965.
Right after Thanksgiving around 1 December 1965, I received this phone call from the Civil Engineering's Orderly Room and was told to report to the Base Personnel Office ASAP (As Soon As Possible).
I immediately went to the Base Personnel Office. Upon arriving there I was given Base Clearance Papers with Transfer Orders and was told to be cleared off March AFB by 1700 hours (5 PM). I was then told to report to Cannon Air Force Base, Clovis New Mexico for a Top Secret Assignment within 5 days.
I arrived at Cannon AFB on Monday morning on or about 5 December 1965 and was assigned to the 554th CESHR Red Horse Squadron. Here I received the shock of my life, "Basic Training" all over again.
When I arrived at Cannon AFB, New Mexico, there were less than 100 Horsemen there. But this quickly changed as more and more Horsemen arrived and the training really gets started in Ernest.
You can read of our training in "554 In The Beginning", however there are a couple of things that need to be talked about.
The Heavy Equipment that was leased for us to train on was all 1962 Caterpillars and were really difficult to work with. Remembering one thing that took place one day while training a Horseman on a DW-21 Scraper, a Master Sergeant comes up and informs me that I could tear up the Torque Converter by spinning the pull wheels. I asked the Sarge how's that as this Tractor has a 4-speed stick shift.
The other training was given by three "Green Berets", and this was really difficult as they showed us colored photos of the atrocities committed by the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Regular Army against their own people.
I guess one of the largest surprises while training at Cannon Air Force Base, New Mexico, was to wake up one morning to find 4 to 6 inches of snow on the ground. Things more or less came to a halt. Just think about this for a moment, 6 inches of snow in a dry arid desert in the Southwestern United States, what a real surprise.
Colonel Conti called a meeting in the theater and began asking if there were any grader operator in the room. Even though I was, I did not volunteer, but was volunteered by a friend. Well five Horsemen were sent out to the Flight Line in open cab caterpillar graders to clear off the area, so that the F-100 Fighter Bombers could go to the range in Southwestern New Mexico and Arizona.
It was decided that both the 554thCESHR and the 555thCESHR would break training on 22 December through 29 December for the Christmas Holidays.
I returned to Cannon AFB, New Mexico on 27 December 1965 and was told to pack up that, we would be moving out to Vietnam soon. As usual Hurry Up and wait. There would be a delay as there were problems getting enough aircraft to move some 800 Horsemen, supplies, and equipment some 12,000 miles to South Vietnam.
Red Horse Training continued. The advance party was selected and sent to Phan Rang to set up the Contonment area for the remainder of the squadron. Several days later five C-130 Aircraft arrived and plans began to transport the 554thCESHR to Phan Rang.
As it turned out, on that first aircraft was Colonel Conti, the 1stSergeant, eighty-five other Horsemen, a five man aircraft plus myself crew.
The travel route was started at Cannon AFB, New Mexico to Travis AFB, California, to Hickam Field, Hawaii. At Hickam Field we took time for a hot meal and a crew change. We departed Hickam Field and flew onto Wake Island and took a short break there. We got about 1,200 miles Northwest of Wake Island when our aircraft blew an internal oil seal on the right outboard engine and it was determined that we should return to Wake Island as we hadn't gotten to the point of no return. So back to the coral rock we went. About 36 hours later the Air Force sent in a C-124 Globemaster to complete our trip to Vietnam. This aircraft had a nickname in the Air Force (Old Shaky).
But let me regress back a little. Earlier I had said we had a lot of things with us. Well on the C-130 we had loaded two filing cabinets of squadron records, 225 cases of .223 military M-16 ammo, 1 each HAM Radio, 2 Each boxes of Dynamite with Caps and wire, 2 cases of Plastic Explosives with remote Detonators, 2 each RPG'S, 2 each M-60 Machine Guns, 2 each 40MM Motors, plus everyone carried his own M-16 Rifle and AMMO. All of this had to be transferred to the C-124 Globemaster
As I said, "Old Shaky". We departed Wake Island and our next stop was Anderson AFB, Guam for refueling and a hot meal. Departing Guam in a driving rainstorm heading directly for Camn Rahn Bay, Republic of South Vietnam. This turned out to be the coldest roughest airplane ride that I have ever had in my life.
Upon arriving at Camn Rahn Bay it seems that no one but the Base Commander knew the 554thCESHR was on its way to the base. The plane landed and six Red Horsemen step off. With loaded M-16s and surround the aircraft.
The Base Air Police freak out at this site and come running with four jeep mounted M-60s demanding that we put down our weapons. On the orders of Master Sergeant Maurice Woods I tell them to stand down so that the 554thCESHR Horsemen can deplane and that Colonel Conti would speak with their commander.
Then the Base Commander arrives and orders the Base Air Police to stand down that he knows who we are. All's Well that Ends Well. So we unload the aircraft and it departs. The Original 554thCESHR has arrived In Vietnam and moves into tents that were set up for us by the advance party.
Landing at Camn Rahn Bay was a shock to say the least. All of that intense heat strikes you in the face and makes it difficult to breathe. Then there is sand everywhere, then the insects get you. Adding to this discomfort the bad food.
The largest surprise was going to the showers and finding Vietnamese women in the showers washing G.I. uniforms, but not paying attention to the G.I.s coming and going from the showers.
After staying at Camn Rahn Bay for almost a week, two C-123 Provider's arrive and two twenty man groups load up and head to Phan Rang. Again Colonel Conti takes the lead aircraft along with 19 other Horsemen, myself included.
These aircraft where flown by two Green Beret Majors. The co-pilot tells us, "If the plane is shot down while on approach flying through the valley South of the Base, that he was going to be the first one out of the plane." Sorry Major! So I say to him, "You will probably be trampled as I will be first out."
The Original 554thCESHR Red Horse arrives at Phan Rang, Vietnam unharmed and immediately sets to work selecting the site outside the South side of the Base Area as it was in 1966 and began construction of the Red Horse Compound.
The squadron was divided up into several different sections to work on several projects at the same time. One group was set up to complete work on the Horse Compound. The next group started working on projects on the base proper. Another group went to work on metal buildings for the maintenance to be done on the Fighter-Bomber Aircraft that had begun to arrive on the base. Still another group was sent out to begin work on the airfield to make it a more permanent structure. This was the section that I was assigned to as the photos show on this WEB Site.
I did not get too involved with the compound work except when it came time to put tent tops on our Hooch Living Quarters. It went fairly easy as everyone in the Hooch put out one hundred percent to get our home as comfortable as possible.
Out on the Airfield working 12 hours on and 12 hours off the heat in the daytime was Horrific not being used to it at that time. Night work was better as it cooled off a lot. The work shifts were rotated often to make the work easier on everyone.
The Army Engineers stopped working on the AM-2 Runway after they had only laid down enough panels to be used to fly on. From there on it became the responsibility of REDHORSE. There was no drainage; the runway wasn't secure at either end. The Crash Barriers were just lying on the ground next to the runway and not secured.
Then it started to rain. It rained for 41 straight days, both night and day. As the aircraft began to use the runway, it began to move back and forth, sometimes as much as a 100 feet. This movement started to cause very large mud holes to form underneath the metal panels. At first we would remove the panels one at a time. This was very time consuming, so everyone began trying to find a better way to do the job.
One of the enlisted personnel came up with the idea to take out 300 feet at a time by using damaged panels cut and attached to huge chains attached to bulldozers and scrapers to pull out 300 feet of matting at one time. Then remove the mud and debris sometimes to a depth of 10 feet. Then crushed rock of various sizes was layered in up to a height of about 12 inches higher than the original height. When the runway was finally totally reconstructed "French Drains" were constructed on each side of the entire length of the runway.
While working on the runway some of us were assigned the task of repairing the Taxiways and Aircraft Parking Ramp Areas. The process of Mud Jacking repaired some of the ramp. Decidedly this didn't work very well; so much of the same methods in repairing the runway was also used here.
A separate group of the Airfield Section was assigned to construct both metal and earthen revetments that were used to protect and store anything from Aircraft to Munitions, Fuel, and Food. Still other Horsemen were given the task of constructing metal buildings for Aircraft Engines, Instrument Repair, and a multitude of other things.
RMK (Raymond Morrison Knudsen) Construction Company, solely owned by Ladybird Johnson (the wife of President Lyndon B. Johnson) constructed the permanent concrete runway and control tower.
