Quote Originally Posted by Cary View Post
The alternative I was given was "Southeast Asia", i.e., Viet Nam or Korea, but Alaska was considered "overseas", so I offered that as an alternative. The personnel officer said, "You can't go to Alaska--you only have 2 years left, and that's a 3 year assignment." I said, "How about I donate an extra year to the Air Force?" He said, "You're going to Alaska." That's how I wound up in Anchorage, a much better assignment than either Chanute or anywhere in Southeast Asia.

Cary
I have never been to Alaska (sad to say) but after a couple of years in Topeka, I volunteered for overseas duty, which, in 1971, meant Southeast Asia. I loved my time in Taiwan, and our missions included quite a variety, such as hurricane relief in the Philippines, long trips from Bangkok to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, Guam, Okinawa, and of course, Vietnam and Cambodia. I flew 70 combat missions in Vietnam, but 68 of them were pretty routine (if we were shot at during the others, we didn't know it).

Could have served all my time in Topeka, but I was actually influenced by the movie "Patton:" "When your grandkids ask what you did during the war, you don't want to tell them that you shoveled shit in Louisiana." My aircraft commanders were all combat veterans and none of them had any regrets... I had been training for three years as a combat-ready crew member, so I wanted to go off to war.

My wife and infant son were hard to leave behind, but I have no regrets.