the swan

In those days getting a swan was easy. Just roll over to the Americans and ask. If there was a spare seat it was yours.

"Sure, there's a chopper leaving in ten minutes. There's a couple of spare seats on that. Where's it going? Who cares."

So we got on this chopper and went somewhere. I got some good pictures and we saw a lot of interesting stuff like trees, the odd road, and more trees. I'm not sure where we went, but where ever it was we lobbed (some American base) there wasn't that much air traffic and there was no chance of a flight back to Vung Tau in the forseeable future. That's the down side of swanning about. You're at the mercy of other peoples schedules.

"Sorry there's no space on that flight."

"If something comes up we'll let you know."

I was starting to panic a bit. I was supposed to be on shift on the morrow. The corporal I was with wasn't a worrier though. He would have hitched a lift in a staff car and asked the general to shove over.

There was a flight in about an hour to Siagon. We could probably get a seat on that. And Siagon was the logical place to go. Bigger airport. There was sure to be a flight heading to Vung Tau we could bum a lift on.

So it was out to the flight pad, and into another huey. We flew high, and the scenery was great. (More trees) At one point we saw a cessna way below us stooging along just above tree top height. Looking for something? What? Was it Air America, or somebody else?

Logically Siagon airport ought to have been an ideal place to catch a flight back to Vung Tau. Siagon airport was, at the time, the busiest airport in the world. Planes and choppers going everywhere. Except to Vung Tau.

At least not that day.

So we got a taxi into Siagon and rolled around to the Canberra. The Canberra was a hotel used by the Australian forces in Siagon. 110 Sig Squadron had a bunch of technicians stationed in Siagon and they were billetted at the Canberra. So we had somewhere to kip. But in the morning there were still no flights back to Vung Tau. In the end we bummed a ride on the Wallaby flight and got back to base that way.

Technically we were AWOL, but nothing was ever said about it.

I hadn't taken my still camera on the swan, but my movie camera. I figured flying and all that the 8mm camera would be ideal to capture the experience. At one point we flew over an area where some B52's had done some pattern bombing. All that was left was a series of interlocking craters all half full of water. The land had been totally destroyed. What ever had ben there before the bombing was totally gone. Every house, every tree, every bush, every blade of grass, everybody wiped from the face of the earth like they had never existed. I pointed the camera down and took the shot. The craters went on and on blanketing the land with death until the film ran out.

copyright © 31-5-2002 Fred Willett