While we were not flying we had plenty of time to fraternize with the natives and made many friends. Those of us that flew together hung out together but not necessarily the same folks that you crewed with.
This somber looking dude is JR. He wasn't much of a party hound but a quiet
nice guy that shared Jerry's area as I remember in the barracks. 
These
are the new barracks built while we were there and we moved from our luxurious
hootches into them just after we were settled into the hootches. sop military
... Heh, I really got a kick otta this. The spelling checker went nuts and cant
find hootch. lol .....
So here is a shot of one of many barracks parties. Imagine that crew. I remember
Jerry on the left, Doug next, me, and the two dudes at the right are the
Resident California Beach Boys. (Tom Pera & John Baldwin update
7-26-2002)
Here is a much better Military picture of Jerry .... hehe. He looks serious don't he? We teased the hell otta him about that picture. Much pleasure derived therein.
JR, Mike, Jerry, and I on a mission to who knows where ?? 4 for the road
The enlisted men's club was the place where a lot of time passed unnoticed by
These Dudes. I cant remember all
their names, Danny is second from the left, but I do remember we had a lot of
fun. (Updated Identities_7-5-01, 7-26,7-29,7-31-02) The crap table lasted about 6 months if i remember and I was partial to
betting the "points". It was ousted by a command decision after an
upset competitor impaled another participant 
with
a sharp object. How is that for rhetoric?
The local bands were not bad after about 6 months and I got to know this one. I remember teaching them the words to "The Letter". They couldn't speak much English and I could speak little Thai but they learned it phonetically.
I learned to also appreciate country music over there as other than Bob Hope, they were the only acts that made the trip over to play in the clubs for us. Nary a rock band in sight. Here I am at the club.
Speaking of Danny, I think he is the one that instigated my purchase of a motorcycle. We rode all over hill and dale and generally had a hell of a great time on them. Many road trips ensued and we visited some of the countryside and made several trips to Bangkok. Here is a shot of my bike. I paid 750.00 in Thai Baht for it downtown Korat. The largest denomination in Baht was 5.00 US so I had four pockets full of Baht that day. I also sent it home via Central Transport and it arrived in Toledo a few months after I got back covered in cosmoline.
One
of the locals that we were friends with and accompanied us to act as guides
during excursions into the jungle. Noy was pretty and quiet and I remember her
asking me one day out of the blue if we were leaving soon. She and her friends
lived in the same general area as Dan and Royce and I did uptown. We had a 2
story house and it was surrounded by a fence and the owner lived next door. His
name was Pa and he was a Thai army Captain. The neighbor kids used to try and
scare us by killing cobras and hanging them on our front gate. Those lil
...
Here is a scary picture of a military
ID. Heh, still alive ??
Here is a shot of an Airman
all suited up for an official picture.
And, here is a shot of my Thai drivers license. Getting that beauty was a trip as no one in the license bureau spoke any English. I speak very little Thai but evidently enough to get by.
More to come ...
