By August 1970, my tour was coming to a close. My year at Phan Rang was extremely productive and in addition to all the others I had met, I became best friends with a member of personnel, whose name was "Pete Sadler". Not wanting to go through the nightmare of stateside roulette again, with a little help from "Pete", I was given another Vietnam volunteer assignment, to Tan Son Nhut Air Base, Saigon and he decided to tag along.
September 1970, after going home for a 30-day leave, I arrived at my final Vietnam destination, Saigon. It was beautiful. Again, I was stationed in Headquarters Squadron and "Pete" and I became roommates. Over the course of the next few months, we listened to the bullshit that was constantly cranking out on AFVN. Stars & Stripes was no better. I remember receiving some newspapers from my Mom and comparing them to what we were being told in the Stars & Stripes. That is when "Pete" and I really started understanding what bullshit was being poured over our families and friends back home, but more importantly, the guys who were putting their lives on the line every day and not realizing that we were never going to be able to win the war in Vietnam. The politicians and their buddies, who were cranking out weapons and ammo out the kazoo, were making sure of that. Winning was not profitable.
"Pete" and I kicked around doing a show similar to what was done at Phan Rang. The bad news, of course, is that Saigon is home to AFVN and if they kicked out someone like Adrian Cronauer, I sure would not have a chance in hell to do a LEGITIMATE show. What to do, what to do. If my dream was to take shape, I needed help and I needed it from the right people. First thing we needed was equipment. The same rig that we had at Phan Rang, but better.
I thought about asking my parents for a thousand but decided; "Midnight Supply" was a more viable option. A friend of a friend of a friend of a friend made sure we had the best. Next, we needed a place to broadcast from. We sure could not do it from the base; we had to do it somewhere in downtown Saigon. But where? There was a "gentlemen's club" aka "whore house" where "Pete" knew the "madam".
We approached her with renting one of her rooms on a monthly basis on the top floor in the far back. She requested a few things in return for the favor of keeping her mouth and those of her girls shut. You might recall I said choosing SUPPLY would be important down the way for an Air Force job. So, we had a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend deliver a few products that guaranteed us our first 30 days and additional products for whatever time after that was required. The next thing was to make the room soundproof as possible as we could not have street sounds, screaming or banging next door interrupt our shows.
We covered the room in 1" thick cork tiles and mattresses. We added a few pieces of needed furniture here and there and the studio was set. We did some test runs with recording and playback to see if we could hear background noise etc. The only thing we added was foam padding around "Pete's" and my microphones. That small addition allowed me to get closer to the microphone also.
It is November 1970 and everything is ready except material and how to broadcast our signal beyond the Saigon area. Those friends of mine that I made back at Phan Rang in the Relay Station were the true geniuses that made everything happen. AFVN was able to carry their signal throughout Southeast Asia because they relayed their signal from tower to tower throughout the country. If we could not go all the way, I just did not want to risk it at all.
Fortunately for us, the Phan Rang guys had some great friends in the other area stations, and with a few electronic devices and wiring, we were set to go with a flick of a switch. Not counting the hotel full of whores, we now had a group of about 10 trusted people that knew what we were going to do.
Recruiting "Nguyen" was a no brainer for us. We knew we needed a female voice and she was a bud and we trusted her. More important than that, she worked in the office of AFVN and got us all kinds of filler stuff including "Your Air Force in Action". Probably the most important thing she did for us, however, was let us know how "hot" we were and if we needed to shut down.
It is Thanksgiving 1970. "Pete", "Nguyen" and I meet at the station to begin our final plans of what we want to do. Believe it or not, at this stage we had not decided on a name or anything like that, as it would be moot if we could not get on the air.
