A Young Airman’s First 24 Hours in Vietnam in 1967

In June of 1967, a nineteen-year-old airman stepped out of a chartered airliner at Tan Son Nhut Air Base outside Saigon, and the heat hit him like the door of an oven. A sunburned man on his way home shouted one word at him. This is the first 24 hours of an Air Force year in Vietnam: the long flight from Travis, the men going home, the scrip, the sandbags, the bunker in the night, and the first square on a calendar of 365. Did you serve in Vietnam or Thailand, or did your father or grandfather? Tell us his name, his base and the year he arrived. And did you keep a short-timer calendar? ✈️🫡 Subscribe for more stories of everyday Air Force life in the 1950s, 60s and 70s:    / @americanairforcebackthen   About this channel American Air Force Back Then tells the everyday stories of the young Americans who served in the U.S. Air Force. Every script is researched from official Air Force history, Defense Department records and veteran memoirs, and every date and number is checked before we publish. The airmen in this story are composites, built from real veteran accounts. Sources include: Department of the Air Force history on USAF rotation policies (1967); Air Force Historical Research Agency chronology of enlisted rank chevrons; Roger P. Fox, Air Base Defense in the Republic of Vietnam (Office of Air Force History); Air Force Magazine (Air & Space Forces Magazine) Vietnam almanac; U.S. Code on hostile fire pay and Executive Order 11216 on the combat zone tax exclusion; Public Law 89-315 (free mail, 1965). Not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. Air Force or the Department of Defense. #AirForce #VietnamVeterans #1960s