In January 1966, the 391st Tactical Fighter Squadron of the 366th TacticalFighter Wing, Holloman AFB, New Mexico set off with a squadron of F-4CPhantoms along with the support personnel required and, of course, included me, a twenty-five year old know-it-all by the name of Airman First Class John P Slusser, AF16618253.  The original plan of the deployment was to deploy to  Phan Rang, RVN.  The 390th and 480th had already deployed in November 1965 and  eventually ended up at Da Nang in October 66.  The 389th was TDY to Alaska at the time and deployed later.  

Somewhere along the way, plans were changed. The 391st TFS arrived at Cam Rahn Bay, Republic of Viet Nam for an over night stay in-route to Phan Rang. Well, the RON turned into the rest of the war.  The 391st TFS was soon adopted by the 12 Tactical Fighter Wing out of McDill AFB, Florida.  Support personnel were divided up and I was one of the "left behind" individuals while the rest of the 366th went to Phan Rang and later on to Da Nang. 

We got off of the C-130 that day, arriving from Clark AFB, after a puddle jump across the Pacific.  I remember walking in to Central Processing & Billeting Office and they looked at our orders and said "You ain't suppose to be here."  Well hell, the destination and pertinent information was starred out on the orders.  I don't remember who actually said to the effect that after fourty-some hours in a C-130, we were draggin-ass tired and let them know in no uncertain terms that we ARE here. Now,  where do we go to eat and sleep?  You can sort it all out later.

We, the stubborn members of the 391st, managed to stay affiliated with the 391st for about eight months before the 12th were able to corral our motley crew.  The above sign was probably made by our hooch resident carpenter, Bud Meyers.  It's been too long ago for me to remember.   I think that we felt like bastard step-children since our main unit had left us in the lurch.  When all was said and done it turns out that Cam Rahn was the proverbial briar patch that we got "throwed" into after considering some of the war stories we heard.  Those guys were almost prisoners on their own base.  At least we could take a weekend trip to Na Trang once in a while.

Some of the guys in the 12th were from the 45th TFS out of Ubon and were integrated into the 12th as well.  There is a picture of  a group of WCS troops from that bunch provided by Ed Phillips.

I have tried to make contact with some of these guys over the years, among others, however, I can say that I have contacted only a few of these guys. Steve Arch, OK Spencer, Fred Frickman and Dale Lindeau.  Sadly, I have to tell you that among those four, two, Steve Arch and Dale Lindeau have died Both were in their 50's.  I knew Steve Arch since tech school at Lowry AFB, Colorado in 1959 and was in contact with him off & on until his passing.  Steve retired at George AFB, California in the mid seventies.  Dale Lindeau was a party animal and played anything with strings favoring the mandolin.   Would you believe that of the hundreds of slides that I took,  I don't have his picture?

NEWS FLASH: I finally made contact with CMSgt Jim Kenney who has sent me a CD of pictures from Cam Rahn and there was a picture of Dale Lindeau ! You can see the guitar in the background. 

A year or two ago, I had a conversation with Lamar Cruse who retired in Louisiana.  He's one of the original Naha bunch who came over with the 391st out of Holloman.  He told me that another WCS troop, Bobby Griffin,  had passed away.  Don't have pictures of either of them.

If you know the whereabouts of any of the guys you see in the pictures below, please let me know.  

Since posting this page, I've talked to Cary Stanley and Ted Quella, both living in Aurora, Colorado, and hadn't talked to each other until after I called Stanley !!  That was a kick in the butt !!

Also, I'm in contact with one of the 391st WCS troops and fellow Ham Radio Operator that went on to Da Nang:   John Reika, WA6OWU

UPDATE: (June 2012)  Time takes its toll.  Since the original posting, I know that Lewis Alexander,  Lamar Cruse, Bob Suiter, Ted Quella and Cary Stanley have all passed.

In pretty short order, we had converted those 8-man tents into hooches of plywood and canvass and later replaced the tent top with corrugated asphalt roofing sheets and the trappings of stability began to show up.  It's a good thing we were young then or we wouldn't have survived.  As you'll see, underwear was the normal uniform of the day.

And on top of getting our abode livable, it was necessary to work on occasion.  Someone took my picture when we were on a work order. 

Finally !  When the wheels came up on that big bird, there was a great cheer from everyone on the aircraft.  Still, I had a feeling that a missile might come out of no-where and spoil the trip home.

How lucky for me that the Air Force drafted me into Field Training for athree year tour followed by orders to Bentwaters !  By the time we got back from there (December 74), Viet Nam was just about done.

I didn't miss it a bit !

With the exception of a couple of bumps along the way, it's been great since those wheels went up over forty years ago.