Victory Roll at Đà Nẵng AB!

I arrived in Vietnam in Jan 1966, barely 18 years old as a Marine private assigned to Headquarters and Maintenance Squadron 11, Marine Air Group 11. I was a 3071 aviation supply technician.

As I stepped off the C130 from Okinawa I heard something like the sound of a bull whip, snapping all around me and then I realized it was incoming small arms fire -- and it wasn't friendly. I was issued an M14 rifle within the hour and live ammo ... I felt better and I knew my rifle and I would be inseparable ... I couldn't believe how much noise there was around the airfield as fast movers, as we called them, F-8 and F-4 Phantom fighter aircraft took off what seemed like continuously with afterburners on.

The next day I was taken to my duty outfit and informed we would be working 12 hours on and 12 hours off ... sometimes with little or no rest. This was seven days a week and every once in a while we would get a chance to go to China Beach on the other side of the city of Đà Nẵng.

I was appointed to work on the Air Force side of the flight line supplying both Air Force and Marine units with replacement, essential avionics parts, angle of attack indicators and other items which were absolutely necessary for the fighter aircraft to function properly during air to ground operations or air to air operations.

One incident I will never forget, an F-4B Phantom aircraft came home from flying air Ops over North Vietnam, and the pilot did a victory roll over Đà Nẵng AB! The aircraft spiraled up over the air base with afterburners on performing a full roll over. I knew everyone on the other side of the airfield, Marines and the side I was supporting, Air Force were in awe of the event.

Later that day a Marine Captain came to thank me for my support of his aircraft as he had shot down a enemy MIG over North Vietnam. I really appreciated that thank you as most of the support personnel, and supply men especially were taken for lightly, except when someone wanted something special.

You learnt in supply support how to get things, and in a very short while I learned how to get almost anything necessary for the war effort. I stayed away from black market items but Vietnam was like walking around in a candy store. No matter how illegal, you could  get anything with very little effort. And you could get almost anything or any service you wanted with a case of C rations.

I wasn't in Vietnam long when I realized just how much loss of life was going on, I was saddened but at the same time I had a duty to perform as promised. I swallowed my emotions like all Marines and realized I had lost the age of innocence.   I remember the rains in Vietnam, it was so heavy at times it seemed to swallow humanity in a sense of lifelessness. I extended in Vietnam for six months to go home for Christmas 1966 and departed RVN in Oct 67. I personally witnessed many events around Đà Nẵng AB which you could call war stories but there is not enough space to articulate properly and give all Marines and Airmen due credit. Everyone I knew did their part well and its a camaraderie I will never forget. What makes it so hard to forget is one of my best friends was killed in Vietnam and I think about that every day. During times of extreme circumstances of life and death, there are permanent supernatural feelings which go beyond the normal understanding of just ordinary words. I remember like it happened just yesterday and its been over 40 years.

Most of us, that were there at an early age never got a chance to experience a normal developing adulthood because of our circumstances and maybe we inadvertently ignored the requisite culture of our time. I remember returning to the US and coming to the conclusion that I had missed out on a lot of American culture by being absent and partially obstructed by life's experiences in a far away land. You can never get rid of the dull felling. You live with it. Even to this day, I heart jumps up in my throat  when I hear anyone holler "Marine!" Simper Fi to all Marines who served honorably in Vietnam.

Cpl Leonard Simek (3072) you know that means if you were there.