Screaming Eagles

Here are a few notes from Richard Denne's Diary "SORRY ABOUT THAT" while in Vietnam,being published early next year.

  This section is about his coming home from the Nam.

I was flying back to safety in some rear area airfield to catch my ride home.The long nightmare was over.Or was it.How could i have known that when i

got back to America,It wouldn't be there?

Soon i was standing with hundreds of other service personal waiting to be processed at a huge airbase in Saigon.The shock of going home was overpowering,I really can't recall just what my reactions were at the time except that I was not all that sure that i wouldn't be pulled out of this process and sent back into the Hell I just escaped.I remember that it was a long wait however,because nothing in the military moves along swiftly,combat situations being the exception.Even waiting to board the civilian continental 707 seamed to be a mind-numbingly slow event.Anticipation mixed with apprehension,hope with prospect,fushed together into unwelcome feelings of not making it off the runway,overpowering the reality that i was in fact finally homeward bound.The line finally started moving, and we waddled aboard in a promenade like hot penguins heading for a refrigerated flying refuge.

I was fortunate enough to find a window seat.Even though the most popular saying in the NAM at the time besides "SORRY ABOUT THAT" was,"DONT LOOK BACK".Nothing was going to stop me from watching this little corner of Hell disappear from my field of vision.We settled in and waited for takeoff.And waited and waited and waited.Gazing out my window,i recall thinking,"oh,this is great".Come on,come on! Lets go! I can't breath! why aren't we moving? I was begining to hallucinate and I wasn't even on any drugs.

Theres probably VC on the runway! i'll never get out of here.What if I'm here the rest of my life?Maybe I'm dead.And this is my Hell! Stranded in Vietnam!

I envisioned lifting the plane off the damned ground with my bare hands,flinging it into the air, and jumping back on board as it gained altitude.Anything

to get this fucking aircraft into the air and out of this place!We were all frozen in our seats with anticipation and all silently pondering the same thing.

When the Hell were we going to move?Knowing we're not out of here yet and still smelling and tasting this place.Jesus Christ, I'm leaving Vietnam,

but it's not leaving me.

A lifetime or two passed before we began to move and taxied into position for takeoff.Everyone on board seemed simultaneously to take a breath.The air was thick with tension,all of the passengers willing the plane into the air.We were moving faster and faster, but we still on the ground and still holding our breath.There was a deathly calm in the cabin now.I started to move up and down in my seat,pulling on my hand rest to help lift us into the air.Maybe if i yelled for everyone to do the same,we could help get this bird airborne.Then came that exhilarating feeling of takeoff.

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We would like to thank

Richard for allowing us to share a small section from his diary

"SORRY ABOUT THAT"

on our website.