A good day, December 2, 1970
This day marked 1/3 of the way through my 15-month tour. An
auspicious day.
We flew 3 round trips from
Binh Thuy
to Duong Dong--each about a 200-mile round trip. Duong Dong is on
Phu Quoc Island, which is
the westernmost place in Vietnam, in
the Gulf of Thailand south of
Cambodia. At the time it was also the home of the An Thoi prison,
where 26,000 Viet Cong and North Vietnamese prisoners of war were
detained.
The airfield was fairly short (3300') but wide enough. It was
considered secure although many POW's had escaped from the
prison and supposedly attacked government facilities
occasionally. The airfield had no radio communication, though on
one of our three arrivals our navigator was able to
contact an American advisor on the island via the
FM artillery advisory frequency.
There was no tower so we simply arrived and departed as we
pleased. And since there was no tower there was no control of the
runway itself. Just before touchdown on our third arrival we had
to go around because
there was a guy riding a motorcycle down the runway!
After our
third departure we cruised around the coastline at 500' enjoying the
scenery. I understand that the island is a resort destination
today.