"And we were … 10 minutes late, coming in to make our landing. And as we made our approach, the revetment that we would have … parked in took 12 rockets. If we'd have been on time, we'd have been sitting in the revetment when those rockets hit."
Description of Interview:
Dave Williams enlisted in the Air Force in 1965 to avoid being drafted by the Army. He studied Chinese at the Defense Language Institute for eight months and was deployed to Taiwan and then Kadena Air Base in Okinawa where he became an airborne intercept specialist flying on RC-135 missions around the Gulf of Tonkin listening to Chinese military transmissions, and translating them before turning them over to intelligence officers for analysis to determine the Chinese order of battle. During two temporary duty assignments in Vietnam he flew similar missions in C-130s, mostly along the North Vietnam-Laos border. Following his experience in Vietnam, Mr. Williams spent 22 years as a foreign service officer with the State Department, finishing his career in Mongolia as a deputy chief of mission at the embassy there, and then taught high school history.
Key Words: Shu Lin Kou Air Station, Taiwan (Republic of China), Torii Station and Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Korat Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand, Gulf of Tonkin, Mainland China, Hainan Island, Chinese SAM sites, MiG-19, Pinochle, Iron Butterfly, Kent State
Unit:
6987 Security Group, 6990 Security Squadron
Specialty:
Airborne intercept specialist
Read the Complete Transcript of this Interview.