October 2, 1999

Dear Col. Ballard:

Sorry that I've taken so long to get back to you regarding the copy of the TDY order. I
had that right away, but my job took me out of town and then some other things came
up.

Anyway, I have not had contact with any of the other members of the start-up team
since I left Clark in July 1966.

I'm not sure why I was selected for the team. In mid-February '66, I had returned to the
6922nd from a 90-day TDY to the 6924th and was working an 8:00PM to 4:00AM shift.
I was a 202(European), having been cross-trained from 203-Chinese, along with my
entire class from language.

Bill Sherman was a Vietnamese 202 and Gerald Schuetze was a 201.

Some collections:

1.  Coming from TSN on a C-141 and, when we were taxiing in, seeing VN nationals
    reparing the runway from the recent attack that had delayed our departure from
    Clark.

2.  Getting off the plane, walking around a stack of Conex containers to the terminal
    and seeing civilian passengers getting off of an Air France 707. That just seemed to
    be really out of place.

3.  On the second or third day, Sherman and I moved from the transient barracks to our
    new home. It was one of those screened in buildings that faced a small, walled-in
    cemetery and one of the base perimeter roads, approximately 1/4 mile from the main
    gate, and was covered in red dust. We cleaned it from top to bottom and, that night,
    just washed our fatigues in the shower. That left little heaps of red mud on the 
    shower floor, which we also had to clean up.

4.  Sherman and I then assembled about two dozen metal, double door lockers. That
    was quite a project, but we really got to be good at it.

5.  Then we went to our ops trailer in the 7th AF compound and cleaned that up.

6.  After all the initial work had been completed, we began spending a good deal of
    time with the ASA 509th RRU at Davis Station, learning how to do what we would
    be doing. Their building backed up to the flight line and was across the street from a   
    BX cafeteria. Our Army counterparts were very helpful and hospitable. They
    referred to us as "The Fleigers," German for flyers?

7.  In 7th AF compound we also had a small operations room in the building that was
    next to the trailer. I believe that the army had a small communications center in the
    same building. As time passed, we began spending more time at this location and
    less with the Army.

8.  Sherman, Schuetze and I rotated CQ duty in the ops building. Since we were so 
    busy during the day, the CQ had to go to work in the morning. We had a cot in the
    ops area and were permitted to sleep during the night. One night when I had the 
    duty, one of the Army people from the comm center came in, carrying a helmet, an
    M-16, several clips and some boxes of ammunition. He stated that they had
    received word that the bass was to be attacked that night. He opened the peripheral
    doors that led to our trailer and showed me what my field of fire would be. I loaded
    the clips, turned off all lights and waited... and waited... and waited. By about
    4:00AM nothing had happened, so I opened up the cot and went to sleep.

9.  After the original team had been there for awhild, I remember that a Lt. Gary A.
    Fink, an AF Academy grad, joined the unit, but I don't recall anything else about
    him.

10. One night, Bill Sherman (the Vietnamese 203) and I were sitting in a bar in Cholon.
    Sherman was listening to two girls talking in the booth behind us. I saw his eyes get
    big. He got up and asked me to follow him to the back of the room. When we got ther, he
    said that the girls were discussing the VC cadre meeting that they had just come
    from.

11. I was at TSN for 60 days, which took me into mid-June '66 and then returned to
    Clark. I don't remember if any 6994th permanent party personnel had arrived before
    we left.

When I returned to the 6922nd, I learned that I would be going PCS back to the 6924th
for a year.

After I had been at the 6924th for a while, a ceremony was held at the ops area and I was
presented a Bronze Beaver award for my work at the 6994th. From that time on, my
nickname became "Beaver."

I made E-5 in May 1967 and then got out at the ned of June.

I believe that's about all for now. I hope that the above material will be of assistance to
you in your efforts to reconstruct the times.


Sincerely,


Neil L. Solomon  ( I believe that is the signature, I will change if I find different. )