I graduated from Bucknell University in 1969. I had friends who served in ROTC in college and went to Viet Nam. I had friends who protested the War. I had friends who chose professions solely to avoid the possibility of going to Nam. My younger brother got a high number when they started the lottery for the draft. Though I had opinions and feelings about the war I did not feel personally touched by the events then.
we were working commercial flights into a war zone
I became a stewardess with Pan American World Airways and in February of 1972 I transferred to our Honolulu base which was responsible for flying the regularly scheduled flights in and out of Saigon. Manila / Guam / Saigon was the route with layovers in Guam and Manila. Saigon was a turnaround, on the ground for an hour and then out again. These were regularly scheduled commercial flights and we carried business men (not many business women back then) as well as soldiers on R & R. I remember standing at the back door…R5 with a Pan Am steward who had previously served in the Army in Viet Nam. He pointed out bomb craters and other effects of the war while we were flying in. We cruised very high and then went down quickly for the airport, rather than your usual gradual descent common at most airfields. At the airfield someone sold large brass bells, about 10 inches high that they said were made of melted down bullet casings.
Suzanne Donovan 1970
In Honolulu we were issued ID cards which supposedly gave us the status of 2nd Lieutenants in case we were caught or captured. I do not still have the card so can’t verify what it actually said but it did work to get us into some PXs. Guam probably.
Even back then it was amazing to me that we were working commercial flights into a war zone. A lot of our passengers were soldiers going on R & R. We also carried a lot of babies that groups were trying to get out of the country. I did not work the actual “Baby Lift” as it was called, but we had our share of tiny malnourished infants that we needed to help the Volunteers who accompanied them care for. I think I recall that the Ambassador to Viet Nam’s daughter was a PAA stewardess and worked a flight with me there once. Back “home” in Honolulu I recall heading to the airport in the middle of the night to welcome home planes full of soldiers from Viet Nam. I can’t recall if they were released POWs or what….I should have written this all down years ago.
My story is not big, profound or scary, just a small puzzle piece that shows the reach of the Viet Nam War.
My husband and I toured Viet Nam from Hanoi to Saigon in 2015 and found a bustling country full of friendly people. It was interesting to find yourself enjoying places that had been only terrible headlines of death and destruction. We hunched down and walked through Viet Cong tunnels. Our guide took us to their Museum of the “American War” warning us that it was the story told by the victors. It was difficult to go through. They consider Ho Chi Minh their George Washington, uniting their country and throwing out the foreigners. You leave wondering why our government felt the need to join the French in the affairs of South East Asia in the first place.
Oh yeah, dominoes.