I clearly remember the spring of 1975, as I was a Marine stationed on Okinawa and had been due to rotate back to CONUS after a 13 month tour of duty. One afternoon all the officers were called into the ready room, where the CO came in to inform us we were on alert to go into Vietnam, all rotations were cancelled, and those effected were involuntarily extended. The next several days were hectic, as one might expect. When the final orders were posted, I was not among those scheduled to deploy. I pleaded my case, asking to be assigned to the mission, even offering to extend a full six more months. Regrettably, it wasn’t to be, and other Marines from our squadron deployed.
Well beyond the original rotation date, I eventually received the travel orders for home. After boarding an aircraft at Kadena AFB, we taxied out to the runway. Almost immediately the aircraft returned to the terminal and we were directed to deplane. After reentering the terminal we were amazed to see the aircraft roll out and launch, taking our gear and leaving us. We were put up in a variety of places for the next several days (I can't remember the exact number), under orders that we couldn’t leave our rooms, because we’d be leaving “soon.” We had just the uniforms on our backs and whatever we'd carried on to the aircraft. It wasn’t until days later, when we finally were aboard an aircraft and airborne that I learned the original aircraft had been diverted (along with almost every other plane in WestPac) to carry refugees who had been delivered to the Philippines onward to California, where a large Vietnamese refugee camp had been established at Camp Pendleton.
Finally I arrived in Portland, Oregon, where my wife had been staying and held my eight month old son for the first time.
So I remember 40 years ago.
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