Oakland Army Terminal

My fun time on the way to Vietnam in 1970 started out at Oakland Army Terminal, Oakland, CA

Back in the days after completing my US Army Basic Training at Fort Lewis, WA and my Military Police (MP) Advanced Individual Training at Fort Gordon, GA I was on my way to the Vietnam War by way of Oakland Army Terminal.

Left Gordon by bus to Atlanta, GA and transferred to a commercial flight to Oakland, CA and flew forever or so it seemed and arrived at Oakland where we loaded onto another bus and rode over to the Army terminal.

There were protesters out in force along the road to the Army post at Oakland Army terminal, and even more protesters at the main gate to the facility. MPs came out to move the crowds back as our bus entered the gates to Oakland. There was a large sign over the gate that read “Welcome to the Gateway to Vietnam”.

We were told we would only be in Oakland a day or so, take another bus north to the military air base, fly from California to Alaska, then to Japan, then land in Vietnam.

A sergeant told us we had to make three formations a day while at Oakland to find out when we would fly out to Vietnam; so I got settled in the barracks area by tossing my duffel bag on the bed and headed to the lunch time formation.

To my surprise my name was called out at the lunch formation along with ten other MPs. We were told to get our gear and meet the MP Sergeant at the loading area in ten minutes. Wow, apparently the powers-that-be wanted MPs in Vietnam quickly.

All of us MPs showed up at the loading area at Oakland to find several Oakland MP jeeps waiting on us to take us to the local MP Company located just outside the arrival and departure area for incoming and outgoing soldiers. Once at the MP unit, we were told we were going to assist with crowd control at Oakland Army Terminal for an undetermined amount of time, could it get any weirder?

There is a story on my MP crowd control and protester moments at Oakland if you are interested somewhere in my stories.

Once my crowd, riot control duties were over at Oakland I got on another bus for the airfield, flew to Anchorage, Alaska in route to Vietnam.

There is a story on the fun moments at Anchorage also, it was not just coffee and a break before changing air craft since our aircraft ran off the runway into a snow bank when we were leaving the airbase at Anchorage resulting in our spending eight more hours in Alaska.

The flight from hell began after the incident on the runway in Anchorage, did not think we would ever get to Vietnam. After what seemed like a life time we landed somewhere, it was dark, we unloaded, walked across the runway to the terminal and realized we were at Yokota Air Base located on the island of Honshu, Japan, on the Kanto Plain 28 miles northwest of Tokyo at the foothills of the Okutama Mountains! Saw that on a post card when I walked into the terminal - smiles.

There is a story on this stop over on the way to Vietnam about getting the hair cut of all times before getting back on the plane.

After several hours at Yokota we boarded the plane and again flew forever before landing in Saigon, Vietnam around noon. As we stepped off the plane I could feel the heat waves, we were in summer uniforms but instantly felt like a bucket of water was tossed on us. It was 105 in the shade and we were not in the shade.

Yep, you guessed it, there is a story on arriving at Saigon, y’all will just have to do some searching for those stories, they are out on FB and the net…Smiles.

Boarded another bus and rode to MACV compound where I spent a few weeks watching AFVN TV, eating, and waiting on my assignment to Nah Trang…story on that also…Smiles