jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

bw79st Loc: New York City

At Ft. Gordon, GA, it was referred to as the "Clerk's Mafia." In Saigon I was at an Info Office that was overstocked with Polaroid film for some reason. I had a friend at Long Binh who worked for the sgt who was in charge of the gear taken from GI's going home. He was hungry for Polaroid film so we traded for bags full of poncho liners which were a scarce commodity in Vietnam at that time. We then took them across the base to an Air Force film unit and traded them for huge amounts of Kodak High Speed Ektachrome. The clerk there said he was sending the poncho liners home to his wife to line his finished basement! I can't imagine what that looked like! We all got liners as our EM quarters in Saigon were air conditioned but there were no blankets. Poncho liners were ideal as a blanket in those circumstances.

Carl S

Necessity is the mother of invention, and the average GI can be very inventive! For my R & R I passed through Ton Son Nhut airbase, and couldn't believe how poorly the Air Force lived: the BOQs were all air conditions, they had flush toilets and real showers, the Officers Club looked like a fine bar in the states, there were surf boards stored in the heads, and there was maid service in the BOQs. Really a tough duty tour! We started in tents during the rainy season, ending up building our own billets by trading electricity for concrete used in the runways at An Khe for the foundation, and used shipping grates for our personal gear. The johns had 55 gallon drums cut in half for anything deposited therein to be burned on a regular basis, and 2.5 inch rocket shipping tubes were our urinals. Accommodations fit for a king. A common mess tent with a few tables for officers. Love that country living!