What was Udon like during the Vietnam War?

[beer monkey]

No photos have been deleted. However if you use the upload image to post option then they are uploaded to an independent server, their guidelines state that if an image isn't viewed for over 30 days then it will be deleted. That's the only disadvantage with that option.

when i look over some old topics photo's have vanished just a box stating invalid image, .....now i know why.

[mjohncoady]

Thanks for the replies about the photos. After I made my post, I decided to check my profile as I couldn't recall the last time I had done so and discovered that a link from there. Presumably, I knew how to get there at one time and simply forgot, not an uncommon pattern for me. I'm not sure which option I used to upload but the link from my profile was something like "personal photo album". Thanks again.

[Stu]

mjohncoady's write up was "spot on." I was in Udon in 1972 and 1973. Unless you flew into Laos or Vietnam, you saw nothing of any war in Udon. It was a party town and the Air Force base had all the luxuries and amenities you could imagine -- swimming pools, bowling alleys, clubs with go-go girls and cheap beer, a variety of restaurnats, a tape recording studio, etc. etc. etc. The biggest hazzard the Air Force guys faced in Udon was catching the clap, or perhaps getting mugged and knifed as happened to me waking home from a bar late at night, drunk, alone, and my pockets full of payday cash. Some of the Air Force pilots thought they were pretty hot ----. In line with MJC's observation, I saw one pilot with the words "Capatilist, Imperialist Peeg" embroirdered on his flight jacket. Not all of them were of that ilk, but enough of them were to make one wish he wasn't a part of it all.

[wokkawombat]

Did the American servicemen who served in Udon during that time and who were not aircrew receive veteran status and the entitlements that go with being a veteran of a war?

John

[Stu]

Did the American servicemen who served in Udon during that time and who were not aircrew receive veteran status and the entitlements that go with being a veteran of a war?

John

I'm pretty sure they did. They were in a "combat zone."

[Alagrl]

Everyone who served in the U.S. military during Vietnam is considered a Vietnam era veteran and are eligible for veteran benefits.

Those who served in SE Asia did receive a SE Asia service pin (for dress uniforms).

There's still a lot of controversy on benefits related specifically to SE Asia service -- mostly around Agent Orange. I recently learned that a high school friend of mine had received disability status prior to his death, due to Agent Orange exposure, and this was as late as 1971-1972. Udon has been mentioned several times in relation to Agent Orange testing and storage.

[jetdoc]

When I was drafted in 1961, there were no VA benefits available for draftees. While I was serving VA home loan became available to draftees. I think I was out of the service for about 8 years and then educational benefits were made available to draftees;o)

[mjohncoady]

Did the American servicemen who served in Udon during that time and who were not aircrew receive veteran status and the entitlements that go with being a veteran of a war?

John

The main mission at Ramasoon Station was in direct support of the war and thus we were awarded two ribbons--Viet Nam Campaign and one other whose name completely escapes me at the moment. I guess I will have to dig out my DD-214 and see what they gave me. It struck me as peculiar to receive the ribbons since I was not assigned to the main mission of the station but don't blame me, I didn't write the rules.

[Alagrl]

OK, asked my husband about the Vietnam ribbons. There were two -- the Vietnam Service ribbon and the Vietnam Campaign ribbon. Everyone in service during the designated Vietnam period got the Campaign ribbon. The Vietnam Service award outranked the Campaign award and was given based on being in the SE Asia theatre of operations. The Campaign ribbon is green and white, and the Service ribbon is golden/yellow with red and green stripes.

There also was a Meritorius Unit citation that could have been won, worn over the right pocket rather than with the rest of the ribbons on the left.

[Prenders88]

Did anyone see the Bob Hope concert?

[skipvice]

every year Bob Hope visited base's in south east Asia to intertain the troups, was to busy with my GF when in udorn, but seen the show in viet Nam, he had ann margret with him and what a show. they were call USO shows. also martha ray and other actors did USO shows.

[Alagrl]

Stpehen said he was working and didn't go, but he remembers on the filmed version that was broadcast in the States later that Sergeant Major Eiler presented Bob Hope with a carved cobra-headed walking cane and made a speech about how "we're Ramasun Station, down the road 14 miles." Of course, theoretically, Ramasun wasn't supposed to "exist." If Stephen or any of his cryptology and translation buddies had done that, their top secret clearances would have been yanked in a heartbeat. Actually, the security clearance was the reason most of them didn't marry their Thai girlfriends in anything other than a village ceremony -- top secret clearance was revoked upon marriage to a non-U.S. national.

[Garnet]

Some of you might find this account somewhat interesting. I just wish that the author doing his service tour wasn't so admittedly stait-laced. Still, he saw enough to offer some curious descriptions:

http://nucleartypewriter.com/FieldGuide ... ailand.htm

[uncle tom]

Did anyone see the Bob Hope concert?

Sometime in the early 70's Bob Hope toured Thailand and even made a quick trip across the river to visit the Embassy in Vientiane. He did entertain the official americans stationed there but it was not the regular USO show that he normally puts on for the troops. He was by himself and gave a half hour of joke telling.

Back in the office they need a volunteer to stay behind and be the official American on duty while the others went to see the show. I was not a fan of Bob Hope and gladly stayed behind. It was rumored that the real purpose of this quick visit was about Bob Hope's personal efforts to help free POW's in Vietnam. Ross Perot had also visited that year for the same reason. Perot had addressed the American staff and was open about the purpose of his visit.

The USO visit to Thailand was a public relations disaster. Mr Hope's joke telling was completely insensitive to Thai Religion and Culture. The Thai were extremely angry and felt that they had been publicly ridiculed by Bob Hope.

During the show he stated that why flying over Thailand he was amazed to see so many balloons on the ground only to later discover that the balloons were in fact the shaven heads of Thai monks . The Thai felt that he had ridiculed the monks and their Religion.javascript:emoticon('[-X')javascript:emoticon('[-X')

He continued to insult the Thais when he related that while visiting a temple he removed his shoes and left them outside. When he returned he found a Thai family living in his extra large shoes. Now he had associated the Thais with his feet. javascript:emoticon(':oops:')javascript:emoticon(':-k')

He went even further and said something about Thai food not being fit for dogs. javascript:emoticon(':yikes:')javascript:emoticon(':yikes:')

Our ambassador of good will really did screw up. The entire country was outraged. Its said that the Thai don't anger easily (or at least don't show anger). They were visibly upset with the Bob Hope visit. The Thai newspapers wasted no time in blasting Mr Hope and indeed all Thai I knew were deeply upset by his words.

I never did not read of any apology given to the Thai people by Mr Hope.javascript:emoticon(':evil:')javascript:emoticon(':evil:')

[BKKSTAN]

Sorry to hear what a disaster Bob Hope was for the Thais.He was a giant blessing for the US fighting troops around the world for years.I hate to hear such negatives about him,but truth is truth and nobody lives their life with perfect behavior at all times!

[uncle tom]

Hope i am not off subject but I found an interesting old news clip entitled Vietnam War: Bangkok R&R It only runs for 1 minutes and a half and can be found at http://www.cbc.ca/video/features/retro/

The news clip is dated 1968 and states American soldiers head to Bangkok for a good time while on leave. Business is booming for massage parlours, leaving some Thai officials lamenting the decline in morality.

[skipvice]

Did anyone see the Bob Hope concert?

Sometime in the early 70's Bob Hope toured Thailand and even made a quick trip across the river to visit the Embassy in Vientiane. He did entertain the official americans stationed there but it was not the regular USO show that he normally puts on for the troops. He was by himself and gave a half hour of joke telling.

Back in the office they need a volunteer to stay behind and be the official American on duty while the others went to see the show. I was not a fan of Bob Hope and gladly stayed behind. It was rumored that the real purpose of this quick visit was about Bob Hope's personal efforts to help free POW's in Vietnam. Ross Perot had also visited that year for the same reason. Perot had addressed the American staff and was open about the purpose of his visit.

The USO visit to Thailand was a public relations disaster. Mr Hope's joke telling was completely insensitive to Thai Religion and Culture. The Thai were extremely angry and felt that they had been publicly ridiculed by Bob Hope.

During the show he stated that why flying over Thailand he was amazed to see so many balloons on the ground only to later discover that the balloons were in fact the shaven heads of Thai monks . The Thai felt that he had ridiculed the monks and their Religion.javascript:emoticon('[-X')javascript:emoticon('[-X')

He continued to insult the Thais when he related that while visiting a temple he removed his shoes and left them outside. When he returned he found a Thai family living in his extra large shoes. Now he had associated the Thais with his feet. javascript:emoticon(':oops:')javascript:emoticon(':-k')

He went even further and said something about Thai food not being fit for dogs. javascript:emoticon(':yikes:')javascript:emoticon(':yikes:')

Our ambassador of good will really did screw up. The entire country was outraged. Its said that the Thai don't anger easily (or at least don't show anger). They were visibly upset with the Bob Hope visit. The Thai newspapers wasted no time in blasting Mr Hope and indeed all Thai I knew were deeply upset by his words.

I never did not read of any apology given to the Thai people by Mr Hope.javascript:emoticon(':evil:')javascript:emoticon(':evil:')

[skipvice]

Thats is interesting and I was in Udorn at the time and do not remember any of that also saw bob hope in Korat in 1972 and I do not remember any problems as you discribe, but as i said I dont remember every thing as some people can. a lot of stuff happen during the war that still has not been relieased. and thats my story an I am sticking to it.
(I think)

[beer monkey]

Hope i am not off subject but I found an interesting old news clip entitled Vietnam War: Bangkok R&R It only runs for 1 minutes and a half and can be found at http://www.cbc.ca/video/features/retro/

The news clip is dated 1968 and states American soldiers head to Bangkok for a good time while on leave. Business is booming for massage parlours, leaving some Thai officials lamenting the decline in morality.

thanks for that vid clip uncle tom,good find,shame it was'nt a bit longer i enjoyed that.

[banpaeng]

Ok I am bored so will type a bit about the airbase and life in Udorn. The best way to start this is to say this is my recollection so if yours is different, that is great. I was stationed here from 1970 thru 1975. I was on the first C-141 that left Udorn when they were closing the base. They took a lot of folks who had been here awhile as they thought they were either doing the black market or owned a bar. Most did neither.

Anyway there were two gates for the base. The one that comes out of the flight line on the Thai airforce Gate is what was called the back gate. This is the gate close to Nong soon. If you came out that gate and went right toward the ring road, after teh Thai army gate there was nothing but paddies and grass all the way to ramasun. Going towards town were about 20 bars. You couls start at the end and work your way down if you could last that long. These were small bars like the ones in falang alley.

From the main gate as you exited you turned left to get a taxi into town. If you went straight to the highway (the main gate was about 100 yds from the highway) there were shops as described before. Tailors, shoe makers, gold (14k type), and just junk. As you turned left into town there was not much on the left hand side till you got to the college. On the right hand side were quite a few bars. Most of the blacks ran these bars. there was a lot of intergration then but still seperate. (that is not opinion, just fact). Right off the first circle(by the way all the GIs called them first circle, second circle, and third circle. Resourceful bunch) was a very large club called the Jumpen. They had some great bands and could get down and party. As you went to the left from that circle you came to a big club that had one of those disco balls in it. It was down by the seri Udorn hotel and I do not remember the name.

At that time I was working a 18/30 shift. in other words I worked all night one night and off the next. A lot of guys worked similar type shifts. A lot of guys would get their bottle and go to the SiriUdorn hotel or the Paradise when they got off and would sit by the pool till noon or 1PM. We would then go home, sleep till about 7 and then party till 1 or 2 in the AM. Sleep it off and go to work. What a life.

Back to town. As you went to the second circle you had a movie house that showed mostely Chinese movies. The place was packed daily with Thais and Falangs. The prices started at 5 Baht and went to 20 Baht. To the left of this circle was a noodle shop which myself and a lot of GI's ate our Gotheo at. To the right of the circle were the Wolvirine. There were a whole street of bars and all had bands and were a very lively place.

Just to give you and idea of as you guys call it eyecandy, you could round up all the girls working in Udorn now and the Jumpen had more then. I would guess the Jumpen had about 2 to 3 hundred girls working there.

Another big club off the third circle was called the Golden Palace. I hung a lot here. Most likely about 150 girls worked there. Had a band that had a brass section. Played a lot of Herb Albert and a lot of soul music.

You could go to the Paradise Pool any hour of the day and see around 30 girls working. A lot more at night.

The Cheroen Hotel was the most expensive place in town. That is where a lot of the offiers hung. Even had the Yellow Bird back then too.

Udorn today is so tame it is not funny. I like it that way. Do not want to go down that road again. It is a bumpy road.

Talking about roads, as stated the main road was paved. Other than that it was iffy. There was no mall and I remember it being built,sometime in the 80's. It stood out there with nothing around it for a long time. I will say if you went more than 4 blocks in any direction off the main road (not all areas) you hit country. Nong Prajack lake was a swamp. When you went to the consulate you figured you left town and went to another. Not too much out that way.

There were at least 4 large massage parlors in town. Large as they had 50 plus girls working them all the time.

Had some pretty good restruants back then too.

AS stated on base you had the clubs, indoor and outdoor theater, very large BX, bowling, USO, library, music center, pools, etc. There were several snack bars done by the BX and several restruants. There were two chow halls on base. One on the flight line and one on the town side of the base. Boy when they had apples in the chow hall it was a mad scramble to get to the chow hall. Heck you could trade the apples for ------------. You figure it out.

You also had the red light district for the Thai Army. It was in Sulfadang area out by Tessabon. Don't know where the area you guys talk about now.

Hope that settled some of the curosity. Guess that is why I say now that Udorn is dead compared to then.

No I meant to spell it Udorn as that is how it was spelled back then.

I say again as I am remembering back 30 plus years, if you remember something else, great.