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John H.[_5_] John H.[_5_] is offline
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First recorded activity by BoatBanter: Jul 2008
Posts: 8,663
Default More of that lake city .308

On Sat, 4 Aug 2018 07:54:14 -0400, Keyser Soze wrote:

On 8/4/18 2:22 AM, wrote:
On Sat, 4 Aug 2018 04:21:24 -0000 (UTC), Bill
wrote:

wrote:
On Fri, 3 Aug 2018 19:31:27 -0000 (UTC), Bill
wrote:

Keyser Soze wrote:

I forgot...what did you do in Vietnam during that war?


I stayed in the states assigned to a military airlift wing. MAW. And
fixed airborne radar units from the transports most of the time. Also was
the ILS trained guy, but never had to work on the ground based Instrument
Landing System. Unlike you, going to Vietnam as a high paid contractor.

High paid contractor? I never heard that story. I did try to get IBM
to send me there for a while and the pay was good but they wouldn't do
it. That was probably a good thing because I would have been there for
Tet. I did room with a guy in Chicago who did go through Tet in an IBM
unit in Danang and he said it was ugly.


NCR was looking for an in country rep. My co-worker took the position.
They had NCR 500 computers at each fire base for inventory control. They
did not offer enough money, offered a 50% pay increase and $300 a month
expense money. Don said they had to raise the expense money as the rent
was higher. He probably knew the IBM rep, as it seemed all the reps
rented half a retired VN generals villa. He was there for TET, and the
Saigon attack was on the villa side. The generals wife was happy as they
never lost power at the villa as they installed one of the spare generator
for the NCR systems as backup.


IBM gave you 66% and the assignment was 18 months so you didn't pay
taxes. Expenses were actual and reasonable but they were pretty easy
going on it. He could also eat at the GI mess hall by paying ComRats.
He said he ended up pretty much banking all of the salary. He ended up
with enough to buy a house when he got back.



During the 1950s, one of my dad's buddies of Italian extraction who was
an engineer at Sikorsky not far down the road from the boat store was
seconded to the Italian government to help it learn copter mechanics and
maintenance. He spent two years in Italy, was given a villa and servants
and a car and driver and a generous monthly living allowance. He banked
his US salary. This was still post WW II Italy, and life there for an
America ex-pat, even a temporary one, was pretty easy. I know this
because he sent my dad postcards describing how much fun he was having,
and when he returned, he took us out to dinner and afterwards, we got to
watch his "home movies." What a gig and, I'd bet, a lot sweeter than
being in Vietnam.


And you say you don't do drugs. Where does this **** come from?