Jun 26th, VIP and USO Visitors

My next batch of photos includes shots that I took of General Westmoreland, Senator Ted Kennedy, Johnny Unitas, Frank Gifford and Sam Huff.

I had absolutely no prior knowledge that any of these individuals were going to be on the base, so I was not prepared. As I accidentally stumbled onto them, fortunately, I either had my camera on me, or I had quick access to one.

I understand that Senator Kennedy had flown in on General Westmoreland's specially appointed C-123 "White Whale" to visit South Vietnamese refugee centers in Da Nang. I happened to have my Minolta 16 mm camera in my pocket, that day, and I was able to snap off a few shots of him while he was on the tarmac. I apologize for their horrible quality. That camera took half-way decent photos, but the film apparently was very difficult for the photo finishers in Da Nang city to handle. Even the negatives were all scratched and dirty.

I don't have much recollection of General Westmoreland's visit or how I happened to spot him heading out for departure on the flight line. I think I read somewhere that he was an avid fitness buff and was extremely competitive in tennis. The rumor was that he had injured his left wrist while playing tennis, thus the cast.

One evening, I decided to go over to the Base Theater to watch something or other and have a bag of popcorn. After a steady diet of C-rations, the popcorn was actually the greatest incentive for going to the theater. C-rations in the Chow Hall, grilled cheese sandwiches at the Airmen's Club and popcorn at the theater were the menu choices during those days.

Sorry, I digressed...

When I got to the theater I noticed a crowd of  guys surrounding 3 men dressed in khakis just hanging out outside the theater.  Being an avid NY Giants fan, naturally I recognized Sam Huff and Frank Gifford. But there wasn't a football fan anywhere in those days who did not know who Johnny Unitas was! I found out later that they were on a USO sponsored tour of various bases in South Vietnam. I ran back to my barracks, retrieved my camera and took the photos of them shown below.

Sam Huff with Frank Gifford (only his eyes are showing)

Frank Gifford and an unidentified aviator.

Johnny Unitas looking straight into my camera.

Johnny Unitas having a laugh with unidentified Airman. 

Sam Huff and Frank Gifford chatting with Airmen.

Frank Gifford provides his autograph.

Senator Ted Kennedy draws a crowd on the flight line.

Senator Kennedy speaking to an unidentified civilian.

Senator Kennedy's "ride" - Gen. Westmoreland's White Whale. 

Senator Kennedy being greeted by unidentified civilian and possibly a USAF officer (The Base Commander, perhaps?)

General Westmoreland and entourage preparing to depart Da Nang Air Base.

General Westmoreland with left wrist in cast.

General Westmoreland en-route to his C-123 "White Whale" aircraft.

General Westmoreland having a few final words before boarding. 

January 4th, Introduction & Overview

Da Nang Air Base  - 1965 & 1966

This will be my first shot at posting photos I took while assigned to Da Nang AB, South Viet Nam during the 1965-1966 time frame.

I hope that there are other Vietnam veterans, perhaps even from Da Nang, who might still be interested in reading a few of my anecdotes and/or viewing some of the multitude of photographs that I took while there.

I was not a photographer, but rather an aircraft electrician in the USAF who just happened to have caught the photography "bug" during the time I was in Vietnam.

If you are interested, these photos were all taken with 3 cameras that I owned during that period. I went to Vietnam with only a little Minolta 16mm "Spy" camera. The poorest quality photos in this blog were all taken on that camera. Then, courtesy of the Navy Exchange just outside the base's main gate, I upgraded to a Mamiya C3 twin-lens reflex camera. All of the photos from that camera can be identified by their square format. Finally, after many months of saving up my meager script money (Military Pay Certificates), I was able to order a Nikon F Photomic T 35mm single lens reflex camera. All of the best rectangular format photos came out of that camera.

These photos have endured the past 50+ years, but not without some noticeable suffering. Most of them were stored in either Asian lacquered hard wood cover albums, photos of which will be included in this blog, or in Kodak Carousel slide trays. A few years ago, I digitized (scanned) everything on a CanoScan 9000F.

Other than normal, natural fading, some of the photos exhibit bad scratches, fingerprints and other blemishes. In most cases, these are not the result of 50+ years in storage, but instead are evidence of rough handling and processing by the inexperienced film developers in downtown Da Nang city. Where possible, if I still had the negatives, I replaced the poorer print scans with re-scans of those negatives. I also edited many of the worst cases with free photo editing software, primarily MS Photo Gallery and Retouch Pilot Lite.

I plan to organize the photos by category, I.E. aircraft type, off-base scenes, fellow airmen, etc. I will start posting these images as soon as I have completed this process.
  
I hope that you will find this blog to be interesting. Possibly for some, it will also refresh your memories of that time, hopefully, not all bad!

Is this a worthwhile project?  Please let me know your thoughts about whether or not I should continue, and/or how I might improve it. 

A nice aerial view of Da Nang AB as it appeared during the time I was there. Permanently assigned Air Force personnel were housed in the formerly French cantonment area in the 4 long, 2 story buildings seen in the background above the rear of the closest hangar. Many different types of aircraft are visible on the flight line. How many can you identify? (Credit for this photo: Thang - Nguyen Xuan - Arch Collection)  

Here are the 3 Japanese made, lacquered, photo albums in which I stored the majority of the prints that I took at Da Nang Air Base, Da Nang city, the surrounding villages and China Beach.

This is a clip from the Pacific Stars & Stripe newspaper, circa 1965.