Tuesday November 17th, 1970

…exactly 50 years ago today.

Tuesday November 17th, they loaded us up in covered deuce-and-a-halfs and drove us to a larger landing field, the main airfield of Eglin AFB. We unloaded inside a large hangar. Inside that hangar was a C-141 Starlifter, which we boarded. I remember, the seats were like those on civilian planes, except they faced the back of the plane. We still didn’t have a clue as to where we were headed. We all joined in singing the John Denver chorus, “I’m leavin’ on a jet plane. Don’t know when I’ll be back again.” In this case, it was so true.

It was a long flight. We landed in California (we were told it was California–it was actually Washington State) to refuel but had to stay on the plane.

The next place we landed was Alaska. We were allowed to unload while they refueled our plane. A few of us went outside for few minutes, but it was so damn cold and we were not really dressed for winter weather. We had just come from 75-degree temperatures wearing our jungle fatigues.

Our uniforms were sterile—there was no military rank or anything that identified us as US Army soldiers. We didn’t wear our Green Berets—only our regular Army head gear.

On these flights, we had an serious craps game going on. I believe it was Sgt 1st Class Leroy Carlson who converted a cardboard box into a craps table. Talk about a floating craps game!

Our next landing was Japan, but we had to stay on the plane.

The next stop would be our final location–we were not told where.

Read the Raiders’ stories, in their own words, in Who Will Go.

Click Here:  The book.