THE ROAD TO SINGAPORE

Burning Fuel Dump, Song Be Airstrip, October, 1969, 22 x 28 inch acrylic on canvas painting by George C. Clark    United States Air Force Art Collection

Comment:

I had enjoyed a five day R&R (rest and recreation) visit to Hong Kong in August, but a soldier at Bravo Battery could have a second R&R if he was in his CO's good graces.  I had been made crew chief ("chief computer") of one of the two fire direction crews, and was promoted to Spec/5, and I got a second R&R.  I couldn't travel with any of my friends from fire direction because we couldn't spare two crew members at the same time, and besides, I was now in an NCO pay grade, and the one form of segregation the Army practiced was segregation by rank.  But I could travel with Sgt. Manny S., crew chief on one of our big guns.  We both wanted to go to Singapore, and we got orders cut so we could go together.

The first step in going on R&R was to show your orders to the people co-ordinating flight operations on the airstrip right outside our compound, so they could put you on a flight to Bien Hoa Air Base, near Saigon.  From there you would take a shuttle to Long Binh, the giant Army Base (home of 30,000 troops) where our battalion's service battery was located.  You'd stay there a night or two, do some shopping at the big post exchange, catch a show (live bands and go-go dancers) at an enlisted men's or NCO club, then on the appropriate day you'd report to the civilian airport in Saigon where charter flights to R&R destinations originated.

Manny and I were out on the airstrip bright and early the day we were authorized to leave.  After a while we noticed some commotion and saw soldiers trying to put out a fire in a drainage ditch.  Normally a drainage ditch would be a good place to douse a cigarette, but in this case helicopter fuel from the nearby AirCav fuel dump had leaked into the ditch.  Flames followed the leak and by midmorning the whole dump was burning.   A few planes landed, but none was going where we needed to go, and they shut the airstrip down before lunch.

Manny and I got out the next day and had a great time in Singapore, although what happens in Singapore should perhaps best stay in Singapore.  For a sense of the time and place I recommend the book Saint Jack by Paul Theroux.  I had bought a camera in Hong Kong and took it with me to Singapore.  I did this painting for the Air Force Art Collection in 2008 from the black-and-white photos I took at Song Be Airstrip that day.