Is there life after flying?
Home sweet home, with comfort attachments
Upstairs, supersonic, it was life in the fast lane. On the ground at Udorn it was life in the, well, Udorn lane. All pictures in this gallery are courtesy of Dick Hammaker and are used by his permission. This slide show starts and advances automatically; or you may control it manually with the buttons and controls below.
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An overview of Udorn RTAFB. The base had officer and NCO clubs, a base exchange (think Wal-Mart) and an outdoor movie theater—where M*A*S*H could not be shown by Order Of.
Many buildings seemed to share the same architect: squadron operations for the 14th TRS and hooches (living quarters) for aircrews.
Hooches had two man rooms with a much valued window air conditioner and one each common latrine per hooch.
More hooches, same architect
Inside, pictures of females with staples in their navels were ubiquitous. In 1970, the pictures came down by Order Of: a general officer from 13th Air Force (who probably had no knowledge of the order), a Mormon, was coming for a visit.
Hooch girls washed clothes and dried them where they could—sometimes on a tin roof top.
Just like your mamma used to do.
Une fille de chambre avec un drap de lit.
Boots were shined; and flight suits were washed by, literally, beating them on a rock. Each hooch had its own rock.
Many Americans purchased motorbikes. The typical bike was a 90cc Honda and was ridden on base and downtown. By 1970, the motorbike related injury rate had risen to an unacceptable level and the wing commander decreed No More, meaning no more motorbike driver’s licenses would be issued; he also would not allow Americans to ride their bikes off base. The license prohibition applied only to green beans (more: “Green Bean”, in Alone, Unarmed and Unafraid), the off base portion applied to all; grizzled veterans were grandfathered and kept their licenses and bikes until transferring.
Bike or no bike, the front gate and downtown, this one with lots of very friendlies, beckoned (more: “Ten Baht Alley” in Alone, Unarmed and Unafraid).
Out the front gate to Ten Baht Alley and environs.
Overnight accomodations for RF-4C aircraft. More on why revetments were a good idea at "Aircraft 039 where are you?"
The maintenance area, where you got your airplane fixed.
Sawadee (hello, good bye, happy new year, and other things) flights were celebrated as appropriate -- often with alcohol-assisted activities.These photos and more from this sequence are in the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, Wright Patterson AFB, OH (more on these hijinks: “Barrack Room Ballads”, Alone, Unarmed and Unafraid). (Thai translations and spellings courtesy Danette Haley.)
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