A Tigerhound Memoir by Jim Gordon INTRODUCTION       DANANG, EARLY 1968       FAC AIRCRAFT           PLEIKU, 1968       COVEY OPS FROM PLEIKU VISUAL RECONNAISSANCE & INTERDICTION      EXTRA PHOTOS        LINKS       FAC PATCHES

After a couple of weeks at the Danang office to learn the routine, I was sent to the 20 TASS' detachment at Pleiku Airbase, in the central highlands region of South Viet Nam.  I arrived at Pleiku on a bitterly-cold day, making me regret having had the sleeves cut off all of my uniform shirts for working in warmer weather.  I had left some extra fatigues and a field jacket at home, and somehow survived until my parents could mail them  to me -- a very strange "care package" from home, but most welcome.  The living conditions were spartan, at first.  We had one of the tent-roofed huts on the upper slope of the base, and the red dust blew through the screens and covered everything.  Soon after I arrived at Pleiku, we were given the lower floor of one of the new barracks buildings -- cement floors, less dust, and closer to the showers.  The other intel specialists and I experimented with various nighttime working schedules, trying to find an arrangement that gave us sufficient rest and a bit of usable off-duty time when base services (PX, laundry, clubs) weren't closed, and allowed us to meet the demands of the mission schedule.  We operated out of two rooms in a metal building along the flight line, and the nights were long, cold and monotonous.  We shared our shifts with a radio operator, with whom we would trade off covering the office for an occasional meal break, crew pickup or when we went to base ops to check on the daily "frag order" that tasked the Covey missions.

Barbecuing on the patio,    Spring, 1968.  Does anybody      recognize these Coveys?	Who is this? Why so happy? Spring, 1968.	Probably getting ready to go fly, Spring 1968, Pleiku.  But who izzit?