I believe this happened sometime around April to June, 1968. The Army, in its infinite wisdom, saw fit to remove me from my most vital position in Room 1 and put me in a tower OUTSIDE the building. Personally, I thought this was carrying this Duty, Honor, Country thing a bit too far. Here I am, stuck in this damn tower - it seemed at the time as if I was 500 feet above the ground - with nothing except a gun (damn right I had one with me), a rifle (an M-14, I think), a couple of boxes of ammo, a phone, and the biggest searchlight on the face of the earth. I'm supposed to spend the night up here? Somebody has lost control of their faculties. I'm too valuable to be up here! I'm needed at my position! It's darker than the inside of a water buffalo's behind!!! The damn jungle comes right up to the railroad tracks - I can't see anything, except jungle as far as I can see!!!! And, I know, beyond doubt, the entire North Vietnamese Army is out there, not 50 yards away, just waiting on me to get tired and nod out before they come screaming across the tracks. God only knows what they will do to me before they kill me. And, I have no doubt that they WILL kill me. TONIGHT IS MY LAST NIGHT ON EARTH. Why in hell am I on this side of the compound, anyway? Why is the Thai guard in the tower AWAY from the jungle and NVA? As usual, the Army has completely screwed things up, and this time, I will have to pay the ultimate price. I vow revenge on the people who put me here, if it takes a thousand years. Hours pass - hours in which absolutely nothing happens. The terror has subsided, and a slow burning anger is keeping me from succumbing to drowsiness. I allow a little glimmer of hope to creep inside my fatigue shirt - I might survive this night after all, but I will never forgive the b*%! who put me up here. About two or three o'clock in the morning, I looked to the East and saw a lone F-4 Phantom, making his way slowly to the Udorn RTAFB. Alone?? Hmmm. They don't leave here alone. Suddenly, as surely as I know my name, I realize that this guy has just had a much worse night than I can imagine. We may both be lonely and tired and miserable - but his misery is much deeper than mine can be at this time. On impulse, I swung that heavy searchlight around toward him, and hit the "on" switch, just long enough to illuminate him. Then I switched it off. I wanted to send him a small gesture of sympathy. He continued on... When I saw no reaction, I knew that he indeed was feeling about as low as possible. I watched until he was out of sight in the inky darkness and tried to imagine what he would do when he landed. I tried to imagine where he had been and what he had been doing. I tried to imagine what must have happened to his friend. Suddenly, I realized that he had flown into Udorn, and, instead of landing, had turned towards the 7th. The nose of the phantom was pointed directly at the tower where I stood. At about a half mile or so out, he switched on his landing lights and bathed me in a glow of light that lit me up inside as well as outside. I had made a friend just then, and I was no longer lonely or afraid to be in that tower. Then, the cherry on the whipped cream... He flew over my head as slowly as molasses pouring from a cold jug. I turned to watch as he slowly flew to the center of Ramasun Station, threw the throttle forward to "military power" and turned that jet on its backside and flew straight up into the night sky. The resulting boom of the afterburners kicking in and the roar of the engines as they carried him up, almost completely blew the 7th away. Lights came on all over the base - my phone was ringing off the hook. All I could say was that I had seen nothing, and I promised to stay awake, keep alert, and to report anything that I did see. Consider the incident reported. Back to Cry Havoc #31 Table of Contents Back to Cry Havoc List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by David W. Tschanz. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com