I went to Automotive mechanics school at Fort F.E. Warren Wyoming....Upon graduation I was sent to a remote site in Alaska, NE Cape of St. Lawrence Island. I was put in a power plant....running diesel generators. Upon rotation I went to AC&W sq. in the middle of a corn field in Iowa. Again in a power plant... Somewhere along the line my AFC got changed from a 47xxx to a 54350. Power Production Specialist. I actually had three tours in that cornfield. A tour on Texas Tower 2...three legged radar platform 110 miles east of Chatham, MA. A tour on the Pinetree line in Canada.....a power plant at Snow Mountain AFS, (ft Knox) KY.....a short tour on a CEMIRT team (Civil Engineer Maintenance Inspection and Training). Covered thirteen states in the midwest. Responsible for ALL Air Defense Commande generators, overhauls, troubleshooting and training local personnel. Had a 5 ton tractor and 40' trailer with a complete machine shop...Up to this time all tours had been ADC.

From the cornfield got orders for AFCS....1st Mobile Comm Grp., Clark AFB , PI.....Assigned power shop. We had about 300 guys in the shop and about 100 portable generators. This was '65....Our functions were to support OPS in SEA and APOLLO shots and thing else that PACAF deemed neceassary, I had been in the MOB about 45 days and got a TDY to Cam Ranh RVN with a MRC 98 Troposcatter system.....the other end of the shoot was Vung Tau.

At Clark, we worked our buns off to keep the generators ready for redeployment. Some of the units that came back were pretty well shot up....Mose were repairable. At this time we were under AFM 66-1.....Never saw that in ADC....A bunch of extra paperwork......

Was on orders for Perth Australia in support of a Apollo shot.....The Group commandder calls me in his office and says I was recommended for a classified assignment in SEA. I would be given a civilian clothing allowance and could not discuss anything about with mission with anyone including family members. (This was Jul '66 )....My orders for down under were cancelled and I was on my way to UdornThani for subsequent move to LS85 in Laos with a TACAN and generators...we lived off base ..very little contact with the military side. We had military ID cards locked up in a safe on the base. from the base, we drew M16's , boxes of rounds and a box of grenades. The grenades and most of the rounds were kept on site...We normally carried about 200 rounds each on person while in transient. After a couple of trips across the fence we were given Embassy Id cards (VTE)...After being buzzed by low flying unidentfied...we would call VTE on the sideband radio..requesting support....They had us to stop transmitting in "English", we had to stop in VTE each trip and pick up KAK books..all transmissions had to be encoded.....Had a few very interesting experiences going up country and returning to Udorn.....Did a little FACing with AA in porters...called in Sandys from Udorn on ememy locations.Saw a lot of fireworks.......Got shot at around 36 more than once.Had excitement on the ground at 36 more than once,,..One trip, got lost coming from 85....ran out of fuel coming back ...did manage to land on the Thai side..that was a black pony express....The other pony went to NKP for a barrel of fuel and a hand pump.....Took a few rounds approaching NKP to get a full tank of gas....

Upon completion of TDY, back to Clark for remainder of tour...Rotated to Ent AFB Co....Emergency power plant.......recieved divorce papers from old lady in the cornfield. We had split on rotation....Ended up counter suing..got custody of kids.....Got 4 consecutive deferments from overseas short tours....Orders cut for Phan Rang RVN.....got married on Thursday and the following Monday called to orderly room. Orders came from ADC HQ. ..changing assignment to Hickam AFB HI..Went over with a bunch of family and added one more while there.....

Made Tech....put retirement papers in before they had a chance to cut any other orders.....was very ripe for another SEA tour....Shipped to McCoy AFB , Orlando Fl. for retirement processing. Been here ever since...

Guess that's enough boredom for now....You can always hit the "D" key....

God Bless You , God Bless America
R.G. (Dick) Grimes TSGT USAFRET
Member TLC-Brotherhood
Member Vietnam Veterans Of America
Member Vietnam Veterans Of Central Florida
Member VFW Post 4287
NhaTrang RVN '65
CamRanhBay RVN '65
LS 85 Laos '66