Lifelong Glenwood City resident, Doug Hill, U.S. Air Force, Vietnam
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Doug Hill
By Missy Klatt
Doug Hill grew up on the family farm on Highway 64 north of Glenwood City. Besides his time at college and in the service he has lived in the Glenwood City area all his life. He is a 1965 graduate of Glenwood City High School and he graduated from UW-River Falls in 1969 with a degree in Ag Business. On December 27, 1968 he married Arlene Carlson.
“1968-69 Uncle Sam was keeping unbelievable close contact with me.” jokes Doug. Since Doug had a low number in the lottery-draft he decided to enlist rather than get drafted. So he and a buddy went to the Air Force recruiting office and they decided that they wanted to get into officer training school to be pilots in the Air Force rather than to take a chance with the draft and get stuck where ever. Doug comments that to get into the pilot program there were various tests and physicals that first had to be passed before they would take you. So in January of 1969 they went through a series of tests. They both passed the written tests but his friend didn’t pass the physical so he didn’t get in.
Doug signed up for delayed enlistment in the first part of June and on September 10, 1969 he headed off to basic training at Lackland Air Force Base (AFB) in San Antonio, TX for 12 weeks of officer training. He then went to Laredo AFB in January for pilot training, a 12 month program.
In the training program Doug flew three different kinds of planes; a Cessna 172 (a single engine Prop), a T37 (a small jet) and a twin engine super sonic aircraft. The last one they trained on for six months. Doug remarks “that first super sonic flight is kind of kick in the rear end. It’s impressive the first time you excede the speed of sound.”
In December of 1970 he graduated from pilot training. Doug said there were about 70 in his class and throughout the year there were various tests and flight checks that they would have to take and then they were ranked as to how well they did. Doug states that he doesn’t remember his exact ranking but he was in the middle of the class. The guys that ranked the highest got first choice as to what aircraft and assignments they wanted to sign up for. At the time F4 jets were the big fighter jets and most of the top guys took those assignments. However Dough laughs and comments that probable wouldn’t have been his first choice anyway, “things happen awful fast in those things.” He didn’t have to worry because he said that by the time they got down to him those assignments weren’t available.
Doug Hill
He picked a C130, a cargo plane (a four engine turbo prop). Doug notes that they are still making them and still flying them. The assignment was to Taiwan. That’s where he was stationed, however he and his crew supplied goods to bases around the western pacific but mainly to Vietnam. The crew consisted of two pilots, a navigator, the flight engineer and the load master (the one making sure the load was balanced properly and secure). The same crew stayed together with just an occasional deviation to the roster. Doug was part of the 21st Tactical Air Lift Squadron, part of the 374 Tactical Air Lift Wing.
Doug explains that they would be gone for 17 days at a time. They would fly out of CCK (Ching Chuan Kang) air base in Taiwan and fly down to Tan Son Nhut air base in Saigon. From there they would fly a mission everyday they were there with one day off during the 17 days. They flew all over Vietnam delivering anything from fuel to some remote bases to hauling ammunition or hauling troops around or delivering the mail. “Whatever needed to be done we did.” notes Doug
Doug states that they were short field qualified which meant with a full load on they could set the plane down on a short runway of only 1500ft. In comparison Doug states that the main runway at MSP airport is two and a half miles long. He also said that they also did a lot of air drops when needed.
Most of the time Doug says that they were high enough that small arms couldn’t reach them however often times when they were taking off and landing they would be shot at. Sometimes they would pick up some “holes” in the plane. Doug notes that during the 15 months he was there they only lost one flight engineer out of 60 to 70 crews in his wing (unit).
Doug also tells about a small town in Vietnam, An Loc, where are guys were pinned down and they would make air drops there. However the only open area was a soccer field so the Viet Cong would always be around there shooting at them when they heard them coming. They took a lot of hits there and one time they lost a plane (not Doug’s) when the crew had to crash land in a rice paddy. Fortunately the crew all survived and were able to be picked up by our rescue helicopters.
Doug recalls another time when they were heading in to some little base in the highlands at two or three in the morning and he called ahead to get clearance to land. The guy on the ground said do you have our mail? To which Doug replied in affirmative so the guy said good because we haven’t seen mail in two weeks. As long as they had their mail he would turn on the landing lights for them. Doug laughs at that memory.
Since Doug and Arlene were married when he entered the service they were lucky enough to be together for most of the time he was in service. Arlene and daughter Katie who was born when they were stationed in Laredo, TX were even able to join Doug in Taiwan. Doug went over first in May of 1971 but Arlene and Katie were soon to join him a few months later. The only problem was that they didn’t have any on base housing since they were not on an American base. So they rented a house off base which at the time was very inexpensive. They were also able to hire a full time maid for about $30 a month Doug smiles and remarks “Arlene enjoyed that.”
Doug gave Arlene a lot of credit for making the trip over with a less than year old baby. Not only did she have to make multiple plane changes, prior to the actual trip she had to figure out passports and vaccinations and travel arrangements all on her own where as Doug just had to go where the Air Force told him to go.
The last couple of years of his six year commitment were at Little Rock AFB. This is also where his son, Jeff was born. While he was there he had a six week deployment to Panama. He serviced all the embassies in central and south America. “That was a nice trip.”
About his time in the service, Doug states that he has no regrets, no problems and he enjoyed it. However in May of 1975 when the U. S. pulled out of Vietnam, Doug said it was just like they closed the door and getting flying time became difficult and they started moving people out of the service. “I couldn’t see it being the same anymore. So I put in for an early out and I got out two months early.” Katie was also going to be starting school that fall so that was another reason to be done and get settled back in Wisconsin, where his dad was looking for help on the farm. He was discharged on July 1, 1975.
It was hard being away from home but for Doug he said it was bearable and sometimes completely enjoyable because he had Arlene and the kids with him.
Doug finished his service with the rank of Captain. He explained that when he finished officer training he was a Second Lieutenant. Then after 18 months he was promoted to First Lieutenant and then another 18 months later to Captain.
When Doug came back from Taiwan he was advised to change out of uniform and put on civilian clothes because of the anti war sentiment at the time. They were also told not to interact with any one that wanted to talk with them or say anything. “The way we were treated when we came back, there’s no excuse for it.” states Doug. He said that he came back in 1975 and the first time he had someone thank he for his service was 2010.
Asked if he every flew again after his time in the service, Doug remarked that it’s a very expensive hobby, so no. He said he does regret not joining the Air Force reserves in Minneapolis because they were flying C130s and he could have stepped right into a flying position there.
Doug is the oldest of seven children. His brother Ken (4th in line of the siblings), enlisted in the Air Force, as did his wife. By the time the others were old enough Vietnam was over.
Doug is a member of the Glenwood City Legion Post 168 which he joined pretty much when he came back.