Richmond Relay - 1969-70

8. A Newbee - Greenbean on Site

It took a long time for me to thaw out after that truck ride but the following morning a jeep from Bucket Site arrived to pick me up and take me back to Osan AB. The driver was a guy from Tennessee named Jim Hinkle. The ride was a lot more comfortable than the day before in the back of a truck and Jim assured me that being assigned to a radio relay site was a great job. The signalers on site were friendly and although it was on an air base the site was locked and off limits even to the AP's on base. It was a sanctuary with clout because base communications went through the site switchboard and therefore no unit and no one were beyond our control. Jim would remain one of my close friends while I was in Korea and later we would even take R&R to Expo'70 in Japan together. I sure would like to hear from him someday and hope his life has been good and filled with happiness.

Bucket Control Site was small in area but had a large number of communications pass through it. Its nickname was "The Tower of Babble or C Control. There were only about 4 or 5 main buildings with the Radio Operations and tower on a level about 15 ft above the others structures. There was a combined Mess Hall/ NCO Barracks/Day Room Building and a Quonset EM Barracks. Electrical power came from the air base system so generators were used only for back up.

Bucket Control Site was small in area but had a large number of communications pass through it. Its nickname was "The Tower of Babble or C Control. There were only about 4 or 5 main buildings with the Radio Operations and tower on a level about 15 ft above the others structures. There was a combined Mess Hall/ NCO Barracks/Day Room Building and a Quonset EM Barracks. Electrical power came from the air base system so generators were used only for back up.

This made the site quiet compared to the isolated sites where the sound of Puff the dragon, our name for the generators, was always a background sound both day and night. If their sound stopped you would even wake from your sleep because it meant trouble. All hell would break out in the radio building as all the alarms would sound and the systems would require a slow re-start so as not to blow out the high power tubes. Everyone would run to operations to help with the procedures to prevent down time and damage to the equipment.

I became familiar with a variety of off-time activities found on most radio sites including shooting pool and playing ping pong which was Korea's national past time. Other favorite activities included playing various card games, reading, writing letters, watching AFKN on TV or listening to music. Since the site was on an air base we had to go to the movies down at the theater but then there were many things to do like shopping and crafts too. One favorite way to pass time was to spend it at the NCO or Airman's Clubs drinking, eating and enjoying other activities that were available.