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Posted by Paul Coleman on 10/20/2005, 17:07:09, in reply to "474th MMS" Do I remember the F4 Phantom Bar? Oh ya! A hootch mate of mine use to get up on stage and do a scream session with the band. We retired after hours to the bands apt behind the club. They had a record player that had a short that shocked you everytime you touched it. The next day I went with the band to an electric surplus shop downtown and I found a transformer to replace the one in their record player. This was their learning tool and were thrilled that I fixed for them. It turned out that my R&R was the same as the bands rotation out of Takhli. They were going to Bangkok so I went with them in one of those pickup taxi with the bench seats in the bed. That was an exciting trip down highway 1. We stayed at Dang's (the lead guitarist) house in Bangkok. Or should I say we stayed in the apartment that Dang's father built in the backyard of the estate due to a lack of appreciation of Hendrix in the main house. I was a celebrity as an American and I think I meet everyone in the neighborhood. Dang's father did a traditional ceremony "my house is your house" or Wae? He wanted to send his son to college in America to study architecture and questioned me about every corner of our society. I assured him we were a fair and noble society. Dang and the rest of the band (I only remember Dang and Chok the drummer) took me to the Bangkok Gardens. It was great. When we were leaving I suddenly realized that they were truely entertaining me. The guys had stayed together and seemed to have a plan for me. We went clubing that night and on arrival at any club we were greeted with alot of girls. The next night it seems that a fabulous garden hotel was rented and it became a long two day party with alot of trips to and from different clubs in between. My fantasy ended when I had to get back to base. The guys brought me to the bus station in Bangkok so I could get a ride back to Takhli. They gave me advice on how to handle thugs but I was on my own. It was almost as thrilling as the trip down. Back at base the night the plane crash on takeoff I was running a test in a plane facing the runway. I watch the crew bail over the sides and run like hell. I was fixed at the disaster unfolding without regard for myself. When I heard the shrill of metal overhead from the first explosion I guessed I was was not in a good location. I exited the aircraft and attempted to scale the reventment walls. I would get a couple of ribs up and eventualy slip so I got up on the back of the aircraft and jump to the top of the reventment wall. Unfortunatly getting down the other side I fell and shattered my left foot. They sent me to Utapao for an operation with all my stuff as I was expected to go home. When I was at Utapao I felt guilty cause the guys in my ward had bags of their belongings tied to their foot boards. It was what they had when they came in and it was mostly combat gear. I really wanted to stay in touch with Dang but unfortunatly all my gear and contact information with him got lost by the hospital in Utapao. They must have been really hard up for techs in Takhli cause they sent me back in a cast for the rest of my TDY with nothing but the shirt on my back. At least they recked me a new uni and boot(s).
I hope we are all still kicking. I was working out of the comm/nav/radar shop from Oct/72 to Apr/73 TDY on night shift. We worked during launch and recover and I did a stint in debriefing.
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