Submitted by: the ole gunny

Right now, your more then likely wondering what the hell I did with all the Beer that I was buying.  Well it just so happened that we excuse me, (The Army) had a small empty building on the Qui Nhon  base that they said we could use but, it was in a state of dis-repair and that was just up our alley.  We always had a couple of guy's that weren't flying  as much as some of the others and  they  were all in favor of “Sprucing up” the old building  and turning it into a Club of sorts.  I ended up at being the Club Manager because of my prior experience with Clubs and Bars.  We even had some of the “Hootch Maids” double as waitress when we were open.  If I remember, we sold  ice cold Beer for a quarter a can.  We had Carling “Black Label, Lucky Lager, Pabst “Blue Ribbon” and of coarse Budweiser.  I remember that we dis assembled pallets to get wood and  built the bar out of what we salvaged.  The ARMY also contributed some tables and chairs from their mess hall (tent).   It wasn't long before we qualified as a first class “slope chute” and, we made money doing it.   Not very much but, we turned around and put it back into the facility in the form of wages for our waitress's help and  other “slope chute” related items..  No Dancing Girls but, then again, the Commanding Officer wouldn't have approved anyway. This venture by the unit took our minds off some of the daily flight schedule and  horrors of the conflict that we were involved in..

It wasn't very long after the warehouse opened that we were involved with transporting undamaged pallets of the “Elixor of Life” out to the different outposts, and fire bases.   The biggest problem we had was getting the beer from the warehouse out to the club because we didn't have a truck.  That problem was solved when we got the old French fire truck running that was sitting on the base and next to where our tents were.  We talked to the MP's on the gate and explained what our plan was.  They told us that what we wanted to do was not a problem.   Now, you have to understand that we didn't use the Fire Truck every time that we needed  Beer but, only every once in awhile.   We finally talked to the ARMY and they said we could borrow a 2 and half ton truck from them except  we had to use their driver and Machine Gun Crew.  OK, not a problem,  Let's go get some beer !!!

There was also an old French Motorcycle that  Sgt. Milt Mc Fall  found over by where the Fire Truck was found  but, It didn't run.  That was all Mac needed to get him interested in working on the beast.  And yes, it was a beast.  The handle bars were bent and we tried to straighten them but,we never did get them straight.  When you rode it you would be better to have one arm about 4 inches longer than the other. Otherwise, you'd be continuously going around in a circle. Like one of those old Motor Cycle shows that they used to have at the Fairs. 

I'm going to tell you about a Night med-e-vac that was over the limits of insanity. It all happened when we got a call form the 7^th MARINES which were entrenched all around Qui Nhon, for Security.  It was for what was perceived as an emergency night med -e vac so  we launched  as soon  after the call came in and went to the coordinates that were given .  We landed and a MARINE walked  out to the A/C and got in,  I leaned over and asked him if he was OK (because he didn't appear injured).  His reply was “Yea, I have a dental appointment  out on the Hospital Ship in the morning”.  You can imagine my remarks after he told me that.  The pilot was naturally upset also and, we both wanted to fix this guys dental work..