Special Leave

After hearing horror stories about LEGS at Ft. Bragg, I let it be known that I would do ANYTHING to avoid going there. At about the perfect time, the Army issued AR614-30 and USARV Reg 614-30 which, with a 6-month extension in VietNam, provided a free 30-day special leave with transportation out and back.

On 8 July 1967, I received orders to rotate back to Ft. Bragg. I received those orders at the morning formation in front of the Orderly Room. When dismissed, I did an about-face and went in to see the company commander. When I entered, he had a big smirk on his face. He knew why I was there and already had the paperwork on his desk. Everything fit with my ETS (Estimated Termination of Service). How could I lose?

On the specified date, I made my way to TSN (Tan Son Nhut) airbase and boarded a C-141 Starlifter transport. There were only about 15 live personnel plus a nearly full load of caskets. We went to Tokyo and unloaded some caskets, then continued to Travis with the rest of "us".

Rather long flight, especially in a cargo plane. Only sling seats. The Loadmaster provided us with shipping blankets so we could sleep on the floor. He did a good job of providing hot meals. It was very cold in that cargo bay.