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Project Jenny KLIK - 1st Inf Di v Women in Vietnam RELATED-- To AFVN To Saigon To Vietnam Further Afield Index
Memories of Cal LaMaritniere
by Jack Holsomback GySgt, USMCCalvin M. "Cal" Lamartiniere TSgt, USAF
New Director, Saigon 1966-1967 / Det 6,
Tuy Hao 1968 / Program Director, Saigon 1968
There are 20 or so photos that were on the old Geocities site which can not be accessed. If anyone has copies , please send them to the Webmaster.
-- Cal's Story in his own words --
Individual Photo Albums & Stories
I really miss Cal. He was one of a kind. He, Cramer Haas and I used to go out on the town (mostly for breakfast, but what a great time those morning meals were. Cal used to fill a 7-inch audio reel with a faux broadcast, then bring in into my Key Son room, put it on my Akai tape recorder and I would waken to those wonderful pipes, and some great music. I saved those broadcast tapes for a long time until a drug-filled grandchild broke into my storage and what he didn't steal, he destroyed. Oh well, that is life, but Cal and Cramer still occupy my happy memories of my Vietnam experiences.The slide show and then scroll down through the PDF. You may also enter the photo number in the box at the top of the PDF viewer. The number may be one higher than shown in the Index depending upon whether or not a "title page" is included at the beginning of the PDF.
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Slide Show19 Photos
I left Vietnam the day before Christmas of 1968. I had arrived two years earlier on Christmas Day! I was in the USAF. I was promoted to Staff Sergeant (E-5), then promoted to Tech (E-6) both in Viet Nam. I made Master Sergeant (E-7) at the Pentagon where the day I retired, I as told I had been selected for E-8. No matter, I was burned out. Anyway, regarding Vietnam: I served two tours with AFVN in Vietnam. The first tour I did in news. I started at the old Brink Studio, then moved to the new studios. After that I went to Tuy Hoa to get some management experience. Re-upped, came back to Saigon, and Commander Wentz promoted me to PD [Program Director] of Radio. Message from Dick Ellis dated January 13, 2016
AF Sgt. Cal Lamartinre started that [Panorama] program in 1967 and I was his field correspondent each weekend. During the week he would get on the phone and find me a place to go and Friday afternoon or Saturday morning I would head out. I did a Spookie flight out of Da Nang...an Agent Orange flight out of Da Nang...a Vietnamese Navy minesweeper out of Saigon harbor....a FAC flight out of Da Nang...a Leaflet drop over Ho Chi Mien trail in an Otter or Beaver (?)...went with the Kit Carson Scouts in I-Corps...a LOH gunner out of Bear-Cat to Dong Tam in the delta with the 9th Inf. Div. Did a Cobra helicopter mission somewhere up north..... That is all I can remember...but we had a tape recorder and patched it into the aircraft intercom and interviewed the pilots during the missions. We kept Panorama going in 1967 and 68. Damn...I was young and stupid!!!
Dickie