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I was stationed in Thailand from November 1964 to December 1965. I was assigned to the 207th Signal Co. TROPO, 55th Signal Co. Support, as a Tactical Switchboard Operator/Installer. There were times we would go into Laos and Vietnam to sit up Tactical Switchboards and Single-Sideband site in support of the Vietnam War. The 9th Log Command in Korat was our headquarters, and Camp Friendship was the location of our barracks. The people of Thailand that I had contact with both professionally, and socially were very friendly. The food was strange to me at first, but it was very good, and I would order special meals mostly made of rice. I did not know that you could do so many things with rice.

I never could get a second tour of duty there, no matter how hard I tried, (that's military life). I had a great time and learned to speak the Thai language pretty good. We had to work long hours when some of us had to deploy to Laos, and Viet Nam with the line team to pull duty. I can still remember the equipment that we installed and operated, the TA-312 Telephone Set, SB-22 Tactical Switchboard, SB-86 Tactical Switchboard, WD-1 Wire, and the SB-249 which was the fixed Station Switchboard for large facilities. Many times when we would returned from TDY, we had to wait two to three days to take a shower. We had lots of water to drink but not to shower. The best time to go TDY to the Nam or Laos is during rainy season, it was great to stand out in the rain to get that ever so needed shower, all you needed was a bar of soap, if you could find one. I know that some of those guys who were out there in the Infantry units never got the chance to take showers unless it did rain.