Bao Loc Memories

You Look Lovely in the Candlelight…

One thing I always loved about Army guys is that they are resourceful.  Shortly after they moved us off the end of the runway at Bao Loc, the place became a real tent city.  A flight operations tent went up and a mess tent was erected.  The place was getting civilized.  What we didn’t have was electricity.

The only reason not having electricity was a problem was that we didn’t have any lights.  We normally flew until sunset and by the time we got back to the tent if you needed to do anything you had to use a flashlight.  It was just inconvenient.

Some of the troops got a chance to get into the village and found some guy selling candles.  They were great big things and really put out some light.  They became the rage, everyone had to have one.

In order to set the stage for what happened next, I must digress for a moment.  Our primary enemy was the Vietcong (VC).  They weren’t as well equipped as we were but they were clever little devils who came up with ingenious ways to try to kill us.  Pretty early in the game we were warned about an incident that took out a Huey.  The VC would take a grenade, pull the pin, and then tape the release lever down with plastic tape.  They would then distract the flight crew with a bunch of kids or some cute babysan who would smile at the crew while someone opened the fuel cap and pushed the grenade into the tank.  Eventually, the jet fuel would dissolve the tape, releasing the lever, causing the grenade to explode inside the fuel tank.  There was no way of knowing if the thing would go off while in flight, but eventually, it would get the job done.

Armed with this knowledge, whenever we found ourselves among indigenous personnel we always stationed one crewmember by the fuel cap and the crew chiefs put witness scratches on the cap and fuel port.  If we came out and found that the scratches weren’t lined-up, it meant someone had been messing with our fuel cap and we didn’t fly until we found out why.

With knowledge of these tactics, we now return to our candle-lit tents.  It was really great.  Guys were finding lost socks, writing and reading letters, and doing things that just weren’t possible in the dark.  I was there when the revelation happened, but I don’t remember who had it.  All of a sudden one of the pilots commented that the candles were just about as big as a stick of dynamite!  The place went dark immediately.

Everyone took their candles and began cutting them in half.  We didn’t find any dynamite but it was a damn clever idea.  I’m glad we had it and not them.

Fred Harms

Sidekick 3

Nov67 -Oct68