INDEX No.1--"The Old Ambulance"               No.2--"The Boiled Eggs" No.3--"The Cheo Rio Story" No.4--"The Nha Trang, VN Story" No.5--"The Roy Acuff Story" No.6--"A Country Band Mystery" No.7--"Chinese Steel Player" No.1          "The Old Ambulance"   My buddy worked in the motor pool and had been working on an old ambulance, (the square one) and had somehow got hold of enough parts to rebuild the engine. He was going to use it to to go to and from the "villa" where we lived in Nha Trang. well, we got orders to move the Skyraiders to Udorn air base in Thailand and to "muster" all support equip to a designated area for loading on a C130. He hurriedly painted that thing yellow and put a big A G E on each side. (Aerospace Ground Equipment) It was loaded along with the bomb loaders, droptanks, etc. When we got to Udorn, we had to live off-base as the barracks were full. Well, we rode that thing to work for about 2 weeks and one day we took it to the chow hall. To get there, we had to cross the active runway. We were waiting for the "green light" from the tower when a car pulled up on the other side. After we got clearance, we took off and as we passed the car, we noticed there were "3 star" flags flying on each side. Hank said "Oh crap" as the car made a "burn rubber" U-turn. The General said "Where did y'all get this damned thing? After Hank layed some crap on him, he told us to turn it in to salvage. This isn't very funny now but if you could have been there, it was. No.2                 "The Boiled Eggs"   While I was at Nha Trang, 13 of us rented a villa at No. 3 Mei Lin. we usually played cards to pass the time away from the flight line. One night we were wishing for something to snack on. I heard a voice yelling out some vietnamese words and I got up to see what it was all about. There was a vender with a rolling cart with steam coming out of it. I could just taste a hot dog or a hot tamale and went out to see. I looked in and there was a bunch of boiled eggs in there and I thought that an egg is sealed and as long as the shell wasn't broken. they would be safe to eat. I bought a sack full and told the guys that I found something to eat. As we starting cracking and peeling them, we could see little feathers sticking out. I found out later that they were "Gou-blutes" and were a popular asian snack. That kindly squelched our appetite for that night. As the saying goes, you have to have been there. No.3                  "The Cheo Reo Story"   When my A1E unit was at Nha Trang, Vietnam, we got a message that one of our A1E Skyraiders had made an emergency landing at Cheo Reo with a engine warning light on. (No ground fire). Four of us gathered the engine change equipment and an engine, (R3350), on a C123 and headed for Cheo Reo. We unloaded our stuff and the pilot hopped on the 123 and they boogied back to Nha Trang. There was a small group of US Army stationed there with a bunch of montagnards. We had to borrow some 55 gal drums to use as stands. The only crane there was a large 20 ton on wheels. We got everything disconnected and was ready for the crane. There was a few shots fired off and they were at us. There was a portable gun on a vehicle but we had no operator. The RVN's quieted the sniper and we sent for the crane. A "chopper" was headed in our direction and landed close by. A lot of "brass" got out and a General with a lot of stars walked up and said, "Doin' a great job, boys; I'm General Westmoreland", and headed for the huts. I didn't know at the time, but he came to give the order to eliminate the runway so they could build a longer one. We got the engine changed and test ran it. We noticed a big bulldozer  heading for the end of the runway and watched him start tearing it up. We found the commander of the outfit there, and he said we're taking up the runway. We said we have got to get this bird in the air now. We had to contact our outfit at Nha Trang. They couldn't get hm on that "wind-up" phone. I asked the guys if any of them had ever flown a plane. None had. It was on the 3rd day, (the runway was getting shorter and shorter) they finally got through an sent a pilot on a C123. They made a slow landing and our pilot looked at the runway and said boys, I've only got room to go; if I get off, I won't have room to land if something happens to the engine. We told him it checked OK on run-up. He said I'll have to testhop it on takeoff. He wound it up and released the brakes and away he went. He made a 180 and gave us a "wing-wag" and left.......... We barely cleared the end of the good part of the runway and was  glad!!                No.4        "The Nha Trang, VN Story" In 1966, personnel build-up in Vietnam was humungus! there were over 500.000 troops there. When I moved from Bien Hoa (18 miles north of Saigon) to Nha Trang (R&R area for North & South), Base housing was in short supply so I, along with 12 others,(part of them in the band) leased an old French Villa from a local Vietnamese family, located at #3 Mhe Lin in town. One day we were playing music,(country) and a little vietnamese boy that lived next door; about 4 or 5 yrs; walked in the house. He finally said "can  sing?" We were astonished. We asked him what you sing? He started singing... "M I C--K E Y--M O U S E". Needless to say, some GI's had been there before us. He became a regular visiter and His mother cooked us a nice dinner one day, Silver, china and all except i dont like shrimp and told her I was sorry, that I had to go to the club for a meeting. I had me a good old hamberger and fries and some beer and went back to the house, Bless her heart, she had "saved" me a portion so I wouldn't be left out. Talk about sacrifice; I sat there and ate about half and told her thanks. What a day!  She had two older boys that learned to play and sing, some in english and some in vietnamese. About the time we were ready to do a number with them singing harmony, some of us had to leave. Anybody need any eye drops? No.5          The Roy Acuff Story   When I was stationed at Bien Hoa, Air Base in S.Viet Nam, I was playing in a GI country band.Mr. Acuff was on a tour there in 1965. He came in to the base and since I played country, the Special services officer asked me to welcome him to the base help him with what he needed. This was after all the Dignatary stuff was over. He was very tired and it was very hot and humid. I had them to close the barber shop on base as that was the only air-conditioned place that was cool.He came in and  said"Boy, this sure feels good". He sat down in the barber chair and quickly was asleep. I talked with Oney Wheeler, for a while and asked him if he still did Oney's Bop . He said yes, but Mr. Acuff wouldn't let him do it with the Smoky Mountain Boys. Mr Acuff was a class act and I will never forget that day! No.6       "Á Country Band Mystery" While stationed at Phu Cat, VN in '69, we had formed a country band of GI's. We practiced a few songs in the base laundry so as not to offend any one until we found out if we could present something that was decent. Having convinced ourselves that it was , we applied for a gig at the NCO club. We wound up with a standing Friday-Saturday show. We had a few USO shows and Korean shows sprinkled in.    There was this one singer who was in the Army, (I can't remember his name), that used to present two shows each night for about 15 minutes each. He would do "sound-alikes" of all the country stars. If I remember correctly, he had drawn some patterns of "Nudie-type" shirts, and trousers and got one of the merchants to make them for him. He would wear a different "suit" for each show. I remember him saying that he recorded for Sawgrass records out of Florida. I thought for a while that it could have been Del Reeves but have since ruled him out. His identity has remained a mystery all these years even though I have searched everywhere. He was very talented and had great "stage presence". Jay   PS; Just another page in the "Country Pickin' Book"........ Adage; "If you want to "please" folks, be sure that you are satisfied that you are "pleased" with yourself first. No.7            "The Chinese Steel Player"   While I was stationed at Bien Hoa, VN, we would travel to Saigon to buy supplies for the band from a Chinese merchant in Cholon; a section of the city. He made replicas, or copies of US instruments that GI's had brought with them. He was very good and even made his pedal steel that he used to play at clubs with GI bands in the Saigon area. I grew very close to him and became a friend. We were always traveling the 18 miles by "hiring" a taxi with a carton of cigs. Sometimes we would get to jamming and would miss the curfew and he would put us up on some rice straw beds. He made a left handed copy of a telecaster for my son Steve and a base guitar for my brother, he inlaid their names in the fingerboards between the frets.   This one time we stayed a little time past curfew, but thought we would try to make it back anyway. We had to beg and plead, (and bribe), a driver to take us back. I remember this one place he came to and he said something and made the sign of the cross on his chest. You could see tracers on the south side of the highway but we made it ok. Some three years later, when I was sent to Phu Cat, we needed some equipment for a band and we thumbed a ride back to Cholon on a "milk run". The old reliable "Gooney Bird" got us there safely. The crew said they would be leaving a few hours later that day and to be back on time. Well, after the greetings and buying some equipment, we hit the strings. After many songs and chinese beer, we were running late and finally found a "Jitney" type taxi and loaded it down with two amps and a bass and I forget what else, we headed for the base. We were running late and "jacked up" the driver to hurry. We were stopped at the gate and we could see that the C-47 had it's engines running. I told the guard we had to catch that flight and told the driver to "hit it" while waving a ten dollar script and so he did. We drove up to the aircraft waving and hollering and they saw us with our load and throttled the left engine back and opened the door. We were trying to get the stuff aboard in the 'idle" propwash. After we finally got everything loaded, the crew had a laugh, but we were relieved that we escaped an AWOL charge. I hope the taxi driver made it OK. Jay.......... PS; I believe that if we hadn't of had the amps and stuff, they would have forcibly prevented us from entering the flightline.