Blog 3713 – 01.19.2026

My First Day In-Country 

On this day fifty-six years ago I arrived at an airstrip in Long Bien South Vietnam with approximately two hundred and sixty military personnel clad in new jungle fatigues after a twenty-one hour flight from Travis Air Force Base near San Francisco with fuel stops in Honolulu, Wake Island, Guam, and Okinawa. From Long Bien I rode with my duffle bag and ten or so other guys and theirs in the back of a duce and a half, that is a two and a half ton Army truck, to the Saint George hotel in downtown Saigon. The St. George is where Army Security Agency (ASA) personnel were processed and assigned their duties stations for their one year tour of duty in Vietnam. The ASA was called the 509th Radio Research Group in Vietnam.

I had received my Military Occupation Skills (MOS) training after eight weeks of Basic Combat Training in Fort Campbell, Kentucky at the Southern East Army Signal School at Fort Gordon, Georgia. Teletype repair 31J20 was the longest school available when I signed up for the Army on my eighteenth birthday, November 22, 1968. It was a six month long training course that I thought might give me a useful skill to pursue if my plans for a college degree after the military did not pan out.

When my teletype repair class graduated on August 15th, 1969 we were informed that the ASA needed more teletype repair personnel so our entire class had been levied, reassigned, from the Army Signal Corps Third Army to the Army Security Agency which maintained top secret com-centers on military stations all around the globe. We were told that we would be held over with assignments as clerks in our training battalion until FBI security clearances were completed on each of us. These investigations typically took about six months and included interviews with friends and neighbors from our home towns to determine if we were good citizens and trustworthy to keep secret the work that we were about to be assigned.

After only three months we were told that we were being sent to ASA Headquarters at Arlington Hall, Virginia to await the completion of our background checks and security clearances. There we would be given casual duty assignments which usually consisted of manual labor details like cleaning, painting, and grounds maintenance. No sooner than our orders were cut we were called back into the First Sergeant’s Office and informed that those orders would be changed, that we were being sent home on a two week Christmas leave after which most of us were ordered to report to Oakland Army Depot for processing to South Vietnam. A few in our group drew assignments to Germany and other places, but Vietnam was where most of us were sent.

I arrived per my orders at Oakland Army Depot on January 6th, 1970 and three days later I was on my way to ‘Nam. We spent several days at the St. George hotel awaiting our individual assignments to the various 509 Radio Research posts in-country. We were assigned casual work details to keep us busy and out of trouble. The Army is a big believer that idle hands and minds are the devil’s tools and workshops respectively so they try hard to keep soldiers busy most of the time. While waiting for orders at the St. George my group pulled work details at Davis Station on nearby Tan Son Nhut Airbase just outside Saigon. Davis Station was the headquarters company for the 509 Radio Group (ASA) in Vietnam. It was named after the first U.S. casualty in the Vietnam War Specialist Fourth Class James T. Davis from Tennessee. He was killed on December 22, 1961 while assigned to the 3rd Radio Research Unit on Tan San Nhut Airbase. A month after his death, his headquarters stationed was renamed to honor his sacrifice.

While on a water break from cutting grass and filling sand bags at Davis Station I told one of my buddies that I was asking my higher power to be assigned there as it looked pretty safe. He laughed and said, “Good luck with that.” And then he shared my request with the whole crew who also joined in the laughter. But two days later when we got our orders. I was assigned to Davis Station where I spent my whole tour in Vietnam.

Fifty six years ago I began my long hot summer in the Republic of South Vietnam. From my first day in-country to my last I was guided, guarded, and protected by my higher power, my highest, best self, who has always had my back and my very best in mind.

Thanks for the memories.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David James White

This is a photo of Mark Perlick from Minnesota who spent his year at Davis Station the year before I arrived.