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  • Vietnam

    THANKSGIVING IN SAIGON, 1968

    Dec 01, 2020 5 minutes
    By Jim Van Eldik

    In the fall of 1968, I was a U.S. Army first lieutenant roaming the helicopter pad behind Army headquarters at Long Binh, about 20 miles northeast of Saigon. Low-slung UH-1 “Huey” helicopters and “Loaches,” the nickname for OH-6 Cayuse light observation copters, squatted in the faint morning mist like slugs hunkered down in a garden back home. I needed a ride to Saigon, or more specifically, to Tan Son Nhut Air Base to link up with my college buddy, Air Force 1st Lt. Mike Buss, who worked on the air base. It was Thursday, Nov. 28, and time for a couple of Iowa boys to get together for some Thanksgiving dinner.

    At Long Binh, I oversaw an eight-man Army night crew tasked with ensuring all U.S. ammunition in South Vietnam was accounted for. After spending some 119 consecutive workdays with my crew of

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