The Travis Air Force Base theater was packed. It was a day that everyone in attendance dreaded. We weren't there to watch the latest movie release, but rather everyone in each of the approximately 350 seats had been notified the day before that they had been selected for reassignment. It was September 1970 and the war in Southeast Asia was still being waged. Travis Air Force Base was the point of debarkation for anyone heading to the war zone. Everyone there knew the chances of being assigned to Vietnam or Thailand was about 99%. It was not to be a happy day.
The names were to be called in alphabetical order. I would have to wait and sweat for a while before they would get to the "S's". As the role began, "Anderson; Vietnam...", I thought back to the daily surge of service members boarding flights to take them into harm's way. My job while stationed at Travis was in cryptographic communications maintenance and several days a week I had to perform routine maintenance on the equipment in the air port communications center. I was saddened each day as thousands of people of all branches of the service said good-byes to their loved ones. For many, it would be the last time they would ever see each other alive again. "Bailey; Thailand....". Sometimes I would catch sight of a returning flight unloading. I watched the loved ones running to greet the survivors with hugs and kisses, not knowing that the person whom they had in their arms had been changed forever. "Carpenter; Vietnam...." Then there were those who were rolled off the plane in wheel chairs with one or more missing limbs. "Dempsey, Vietnam...". Next came the cots, loaded directly into one of the several waiting ambulances to be carried off to the base hospital for further treatment. "Edwards, Thailand...". Last to be off loaded from the aircraft were the flag draped caskets. It was a good time to be in the flag and casket manufacturing business. One by one they were escorted into the building by the detailed honor guard. "Fox, Vietnam...". Which one of these categories would I be in? "Grogan, Thailand...". Hightower, Vietnam...". Irwin, Vietnam....". What about my beautiful family? How could we manage this situation. Just eight months prior, my beautiful wife of just over a year, Monica, gave up her homeland of Germany to join me on the air force roller coaster. Would she and our two beautiful daughters, Sabrina and Andrea, want to stay in the states while I was in Southeast Asia? Would she want to go back to Berlin to be near her family? "Jefferson, Vietnam....". Kristofferson, Philippines..." What? Philippines? Where's that lucky son of a bitch? There was an uproar from the crowd. The speaker then told us Kristofferson was assigned to a mobile communications unit whose headquarters were in the Philippines, but Kristofferson would be a forward air controller calling in airstrikes to the fighter squadrons received from the ground troops on the front lines. Kristofferson didn't have it so good after all. The roll continued; "Lassiter, Vietnam...". "Marsh, Vietnam... Nelson, Philippines, same deal as Kristofferson... Owens, Vietnam...". We were living from paycheck to paycheck, how could we afford for the family to go back to Berlin? If that was what Monica wanted to do, we would find a way.
The time had come, they were in the S's. I heard my name called. Loud and distinctly, "Schmidt, Kenneth R".; a pause as the speaker looked up at the audience and uttered in disbelief " The Netherlands!?" I couldn't believe what I had just heard. I was about to come out of my chair with a shout of joy, when I heard the audience. If you thought Kristrofferson caused an uproar, the crowd almost in unison leapt to it's feet in jealous anger. I was not about to let anyone know it was me. I covered my name tag and got out of there.
I later found out I was being assigned to Allied Forces Central European Region of NATO located in Brunsum The Netherlands. I went straight home and told Monica the news. We just hugged and wept silently together. The relief we felt was unbelievable. As we embraced, I couldn't help but think about the other 349 people in the audience at the base theater. I'll bet they were thinking about me too.
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