Introduction By: Robert S. Ault

I had spent some 45 days leave at home prior to my leaving for Vietnam.  The first letter that I wrote was from a visit to Alpheaus Shirley. He was serving a mission in Washington State.  The letter went something like this:

I got to Alpheaus' house at 4:00 AM Sunday morning.  I got to Seattle at 4:00 PM Monday evening, and had to take a train in.  It was a lot of fun on the train.  It was a real experience.  I met this one guy who was going to the town that I was, and at times I thought he was really weird, however he was good company.  I remember looking out the window and seeing the snow drifts pass by.  The name of the town was, Ephrata, Washington.  Me and this fellow talked about the church, and I found out later that Alpheaus taught him the lessons.  I went to Quency to a meeting where Alpheaus was the zone leader.  We played football in about 4 inches of snow, and Alpheaus threw the ball in a tree, and got it all messed up.  I slept on the floor with a mattress.  Al slept on the springs.  Al's place is a mess!  His refrigerator was empty, so I put $20 worth of food in it. They had been living off peanut butter and molded bread for the last 2 weeks.  We played basketball in the church gym and went to the show.  Alpheaus is still the same.  I guess I'll leave here the third so by the time ya'll get this letter I'll be in Phu Cat.  Alpheaus wrote this at the bottom of the letter, "Hello everybody. Like Robert said, I'm just about the same (except for my testimony). I'll be home before you know it.  Feb. 27th.  It was sure good to see Robert.  He's the first person I've seen since I left.  Take care. Alpheaus."

Letter written 4 December 1970
It's about 11:30 PM here at McCord.  I'll be leaving at 2:00 AM for Alaska, Japan, then Cam Ron Bay Vietnam.  I've really been going since I left Monday.  I've rode planes, trains, buses, and one taxi.  I plan to sleep all night.  Have to make this short.  Next time I should know my address.
Your son,
Robert

At this point, my mother, has missed placed those first few letters that I wrote home.  The night before I left, me and two other guys who were leaving on the same plane went to the show, and saw the Odd Couple. One other thing, at the time I was to leave, I was told that I had to be delayed by the people at Wurtsmith AFB, however I did leave at about 2:00 AM that night or it could have been early that morning, it was dark.  The two guys that went on the same flight that I did were some characters.  Just as the plane took off one of the guys went into shock and froze to the handles of the seat scared to death, everyone laughed their heads off. I was lucky I got to sit in the front seat with two Air Force women officers, one was married to a fighter pilot, who was stationed at Phu Cat. later on at Phu Cat I did see her.  They were on the return flight as well.  Also the same guy, who froze up the first time, did the same.  There were three of us on that flight, who were going to Phu Cat, however only two returned.  The one who didn't got into trouble and left later on.  Our first stop was in Alaska, and it was really cold.  We didn't stay there long, however only two weeks before a plane had crashed and had killed some troops going over, so I was relieved when our plane got off the ground.  Our next stop was in Japan.  Nothing exciting happened here.  Coming into Cam Ron Bay was exciting and a moving experience.  I kept looking for fighter escort to bring us in, but we landed without any trouble.  The skies were gray and overcast.  We exchanged our money for what was called funny money.  The feelings that I had inside me will never go away.  I still feel that way anytime I go to a new place.  We had to arrange for a flight in country this we did.  Our plane didn't leave until tomorrow, so we had to lay over one night. The night before the base had a rocket attack, and had killed some Navy people.  The lace we had to sleep was called the Cam Ron Hilton.  Sand was everywhere, and so were the bugs.  The next morning we headed for Phu Cat. We road in a C-130.  I thought they were leftovers from WWII.  We did arrive at Phu Cat in one piece.  I'll never forget that day either.  The same overcast grey skies, but a place I would call home for one year of my life.  At first I thought I was going into K-9, but my orders were cut for me to go into security.

We lived in what we called hoochies.  My roommates were all black guys, and at that time blacks and whites didn't get along very well.  We did make the best of things, and I did buy a few things from them,  for one a mosquito net.  After awhile I moved into the barn, a large building that held many men.  This is where I made most of my friends.  For the first 15 days I worked in bunkers and towers some of the things that happened to me during that time were these:

My first assignment was at entry point. I spent the night waving cards and jeeps in and looking out for charley.

I had one post out by some helicopters, and I heard some voices, and thought it was charley, but it turned out to be a speaker in the hanger. Also I had to go there on post.

I had one entry control point, and it had been overrun by bugs.

I had a tower one night, and it was the best.

One of the first towers that I was in, I had another guy with me, and he talked so much that I went to sleep.
I had one bunker that someone or something walked in the light just behind me, and scared the pants off me.

I had what was supposed to be a bunker, but it was nothing but a pile of sand bags, some of the leaders came out and we three hand grenades.

I was on B-36 when a F-4 fighter plane crashed, he touched down about 200 yards from me, he looked like a ball of fire.  I looked straight up at him as he passed over . . .

This was on 24 December 1970.  The temperature at this time was a warm 80 degrees.  

At this point, I have written record of what I did and said during that time of my life.  Hopefully at some later date, I will have the letters that I wrote home.  I will try to make this a daily report of what was happening as I wrote these letters to my folks.

26 November 1978

My years spent in Vietnam are some of the most exciting times of my life.  Hopefully, at some later date, I will be able to find out the exact day that I got my orders to leave, however this part of my history deals with those days I spent at Phu Cat RVN.