Viet Nam in 1970 - Oakland Army Terminal, Oakland, CA

My fun time on the way to Viet Nam in 1970 started out at Oakland Army Terminal, Oakland, CA…
Back in the day after completing my US Army Basic Training at Fort Lewis, WA and my Military Police Advanced Individual Training at Fort Gordon, GA was on my way to the Viet Nam War by way of Oakland Army Terminal.

Left Gordon by bus to Atlanta, GA transferred to commercial flight to Oakland, CA and flew forever or so it seemed. 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, and lots of protesters at the main gate to the facility. Military Police 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 Viet Nam”.
We were told we would only be at Oakland a day or so, take another bus north to the military air base, fly from CA to AK, then to Japan, then land in Viet Nam.

Sergeant told us we had to make three formations a day; if our name was called out we would be on our way to Nam. 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 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 were wanted MPs in Viet Nam quickly.

Showed up at loading area to find several MP jeeps waiting on us to take us to the local MP Company where we were going to assist with crowd control for an undetermined amount of time, could it get any weirder?

There is a story on my MP crowd, protester moments at Oakland if you are interested.
Once my crowd, riot control duties were over got on another bus for the air field, flew to Anchorage, AK in route to Viet Nam.

There is a story on the fun moments at Anchorage also, it was not just coffee and a break before changing air craft.

The flight from hell began after the incident on the runway, did not think we would ever get to Viet Nam. Then after what seem 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!

There is a story on this stop over on the way to Viet Nam 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, Viet Nam 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