...

 BA>>> Late one afternoon during my TDY to Da Nang one of the
 BA>>> other fellows that was with me came into the tent and told
 BA>>> me to pack, that we had to be out of the country *today*.
 BA>>> Well, that late in the day there weren't any airplanes
 BA>>> leaving Da Nang for anyplace out of the country, so we left
 BA>>> the next day at about 1800 - on a C124 piled full of mail
 BA>>> with about a dozen passengers crammed in jump seats along
 BA>>> the sides.  Turns out that the day we actually left was our
 BA>>> 60th day in country, and we had to be given credit for the
 BA>>> time spent there (and qualified for the ribbon).

 BK>>  They didn't want you to get the ribbon???

 BA> They didn't want me (and the other 3 guys) to get credit
 BA> for having served in-country, which if we'd been there less
 BA> than 60 days they

 BA> wouldn't have to do.  It would move us a bit farther down
 BA> the list of those to be sent there.  The award of the
 BA> ribbon (ribbons, there were two) was irrelevant.

 I would think both would be worthwhile to the recipient. Ok, the
 moving down the list immediately, the ribbon in the long run.

 BK>>>>  So, you are saying, had I reenlisted I would have gotten to
 BK>>>>  go more places? Well... maybe I should have... nah.

 BA>>> Had I left the service after 4 years I still would have
 BA>>> seen Clark and Kadena (and, if you count stopovers, Hawaii,
 BA>>> Wake and Guam).

 BK>>  Hey... I saw Florida and Maine, and a stopover in Omaha.

 BK>>  Maine was my favorite.

 BA> Closest I got to Maine was Ayer, Massachusetts (Fort Devens
 BA> at the time).  I went from Kadena to Nakhon Phanom via
 ...
 BA> Devens) and Jungle Survival School (Clark AB, Philippines),
 BA> in that order; took about 3 months including a couple of
 BA> weeks of leave, April 12 to July 10, 1971.

 And a covered wagon to the ship would have been just a bit
 longer.

BOB KLAHN bob.klahn{at}sev.org   http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn

... It's just the IDEA of an inflatable rubber starship that bothers me.
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