Tom,

After Tet 1968 the size of the perimeter was enlarged to twice its size. Each flight platoon had a bunker and we had to supply three guards per night. With about twenty to twenty-two in the platoon meant you got guard about every third to fourth day. Every third week we also had to pull flare stand-by for seven days. One ship per flight platoon. One primary ship and one back-up. The primary ship would be in the air only if we went to 75% alert. Both ships would fly if we were at 100%. We would rotate at two hour shifts. Can you believe how boring it is to fly circles around Holloway for two hours in the middle of the night. About once every two months we would fly a "Fire Fly" mission. That was always fun. Lets place a large spot light in the ship and fly around the perimeter and see if Charile would shot at us. The heat from the lamp would melt the sound proofing if you didn't remove it and if you happened to move the light the wrong way you would blind everyone in the ship.

During the monsoon season was about the only time we got any time away from the ships. We would still pre-flight at 0600 but then we would have to stand-by until the weather would clear so we could take off but then nine times out of ten once we got to Dak To we would have to circle forever until we could find a hole to, drop through so we could land. Then most of the time the firebases were socked in. We would pull three day RONs because of the weather and then get back to Holloway just in time to pull guard.

I was the floating crew chief for about two months while my ship was getting its 1100 hr PE. We were short people to begin with so you could fly almost every day on somebody's ship. I would rather fly then get stuck on some detail so I flew. Didn't really get home sick because if I wasn't flying or pulling guard I was asleep. Needless to say we didn't have people begging to get into the flight platoons and the ones we did get were the best. You had to be love to fly and still put up with all the bull. It was proablly like that when you were there. Flight crews had to be some of the strangest bunch of guys I ever met and I loved them all.