From: Billy Williams
Date: February 26, 2013
Subject: AFVN Web Site
The AFVN web site looks great, Jim. Thanks for your efforts. In the 1990s, I was playing around with web site design and put up several pages about AFVN as practice on a small web space that came with my dial-up Internet account. When I upgraded to broadband, the website went poof. I used Microsoft Front Page to create these pages. My old computer with Front Page crashed after ten years and the files are no longer available. Front Page apparently is now an obsolete program. You must have concluded your AFVN service before I arrived. When I got to AFVN in late 1971, AFVN NCOIC was SGM Logsdon. I remember jeep rides with him in downtown Saigon. He was a master at navigating the crowded Saigon traffic! I never rode with anyone there who was any better. Admin XO [Deputy OIC] was Capt. Robert LaFrance. La France and Logsdon had departed by the end of my AFVN time in Sept. 72. When I was at AFVN Qui Nhon, the NCOIC was MSG Andrew Barkley. I think he either DEROSed or transferred to another unit when Qui Nhon closed down in March 1972 as I don't recall ever seeing him again in Saigon.
Billy Williams
From: Jim White
Date: February 25, 2013
Subject: AFVN Web Site
Thanks. I was able to access most of your work through the first three links you listed below. However, some of the photos show up only as "outlines boxes" and many of the others are rather small at only 200 x 200 pixels or so. However, I should be able to use (save?) most of your work and will try to do so--just not in the immediate future. Right now my goal is to get the roster going and I also have other, personal projects of my own which I don't want to let wait forever.
Some of your work had evidently been picked up by Paul Kasper and it is already on the new site under "Historical Documents, 1:3." Hopefully, I won't duplicate it when I use your other information. A question about your photos. The ones I checked are all in "brown and white." Was that intentional or were they originally color or what? I will most likely convert any I use to black and white.
MSG Lodgdon replaced me as Admin NCO when I left in early June 1971. Don't know how you felt about him, but I later heard that he had become very "spit and polish" which didn't set all that well with the others at the network. Also, heard that evidently anyone who wanted anything from the Admin Office had to go directly to CPT Hastings. MSG Barclay (perhaps with a "C," not a "K"--do you know which is correct?) is listed on the roster as having been with AFVN in 1972.
I never knew hm nor Capt. LaFrance.
Jim
From: Billy Williams
Date: February 26, 2013
Subject: AFVN Web Site
The photos seem to be in color when I view them here, Jim. When you get around to it, let me know which ones you can use and I will try to find the originals and send copies to you via e-mail. No rush. Also may be able to dig up some short sound airchecks if the site is set up for audio.
Wanted to get the page archives to you while I was focused. Needed to recover other (non-AFVN) pages on that old website capture related to a part-time job I had and was glad to see the AFVN stuff was still available as well.
La France and Lamonica were both with AFVN in late 71 and early 72. When I got to AFVN, I reported to La France who I remember as Admin Officer at 9 Hong Thap Tu. He signed some documents including an "installation identity card" to get me set up with AFVN after I transferred there from AVEL--an avionic electronics unit in Phu Loi. Seems like maybe La France replaced Hastings who was not there when I arrived in late 1971.
I believe Lamonica was next in command under Souville at that time.
I was sent to AFVN Qui Nhon in Jan. 1972. When I returned to Saigon around April or May, La France, Lamonica and Logsdon were gone. MSG Don Winger replaced Logsdon and I don't think La France's slot was filled. I think Winger stayed at AFVN until the end in early 1973.
Yes, the correct spelling could well have been Barclay. Real tall guy (around 6' 8"). Logsdon didn't seem overbearing but I was not at AFVN Saigon very long before going to AFVN Qui Nhon. But I was only familiar with Logsdon for a few weeks. When I returned for my final five months or in Saigon, no one was very strict but Winger was in charge by then. I had a radio air shift in Saigon and AFVN had by far the most relaxed atmosphere of any of the half dozen or so (civilian) radio stations where I worked before and after AFVN.
Before being drafted, I worked at an AM/FM combination owned by the City of Jacksonville. I enjoyed working at both but AFVN was much easier to work for than the city-owned station.
Very good on working on the roster, Jim. Lots of details to handle with that.
Billy
Billy Williams beside the AFVN work bus at the AFVN Main Station ready to go to the
Wahling BEQ.
John D. Allgood SP4, USA 1972 Doing the Dawnbuster show from the Master Control Room in Saigon.
Another shot of Billy Williams doing the Orient Express radio program from the Saigon Master Control Room.
Billy Williams in the Saigon Master Control Room doing the Orient Express radio program.
Sitting in the AFVN Saigon lobby. John L. Bowles SP5, USA 1972 (Engineer) and Brian Gary SGT, USA 1972 (Night Duty NCO)
James L. Brigham SP4, USA 1972-73 Also known as "Daddy Sweetback;" he was the DJ for Soul Train in Saigon.
Danny K. Vander Myde SP4, USA 1972
In the AFVN Saigon Production Room
Eugene R. McKinney 1LT, USA Network News OIC 1972 Eugene is preparing for an over night newscast. He was the only AFVN officer in Saigon who was on the air.
Billy Williams up close (possibly a self-portrait?)
Billy F. Williams SP4, USA
Det 1, Qui Nhon / Det 2, Da Nang / Saigon 1971-72
Includes some messages between Billy Williams and Jim White
at the time Billy submitted his photos.
John D. Allgood SP4, USA 1972 Doing the Dawnbuster show from the Master Control
Room in Saigon.
Individual Photo Albums & Stories
Home Contact AFVN Past Contacts AFVN Roster POWS: The Honored Taps: Those Departed AFVN Organization AFVN Reunions
AFVN History AFVN Photos & Stories AFVN Group Conversations Audio Archives Video Archives AFVN Guest Book
Project Jenny KLIK - 1st Inf Di v Women in Vietnam RELATED-- To AFVN To Saigon To Vietnam Further Afield Index
From: Jim White
Date: February 26, 2013
Subject: AFVN Web Site
Billy,
Sorry, here is the photo.
Jim
From: Jim White
Date: February 26, 2013
Subject: AFVN Web Site
Billy,
Sorry, here is the photo.
Jim
From: Billy Williams
Date: February 26, 2013
Subject: AFVN Web Site
October 1971 must have been the changeover date from Hastings to La France, Jim. Then La France left early well before Oct. 72. By then, it was apparent that the end was coming with detachments closing and they were reducing the roster. Getting the chronology established is interesting.
Don Winger was Army E-8 and I believe he had the 1SG diamonds in his emblems. So the order for the last three Admin/1SG at AFVN must have been you, followed by Logsdon and then Winger. OICs were Souville, Casipit and finally Hutchison. Other officers at AFVN Saigon when I was there included Capt.Terrence Mayer, USAF, OIC for Broadcast Operations. He was followed by Major Frank Kafer, USAF, around June 1972 who I think finished things out in that slot. Kafer was probably the biggest pr*ck at AFVN though he was always civil to me. When I had a Sunday AM airshift, I remember being assigned one time to briefly leave the AM console when one of the LP programs from AFRTS-LA was running, go over to the Meyerkord BOQ in a jeep to pick up Kafer and bring him to the station. I don't think he liked riding the AFVN bus. I remember he didn't get along well at all with Bob Nelson, NCOIC of Broadcast Operations.
A group that gets overlooked are the supply guys at AFVN. I worked in supply briefly in Saigon. It was overseen by CW4 Frank Waller in 1972. Waller was one of my favorites at AFVN. He was far the most laid-back (anti spit & polish) officer there. NCOIC was Ken Cross Army E-7. Supply took care of all the shipping and logistics. I usually drove the supply jeep all around Saigon making deliveries and picking up items.
Another unforgettable guy at AFVN was SGT Brian Gary, an Army E-5. He was the night NCO who sat in the lobby overnights keeping track of the Vietnamese guards. At the end of my time at AFVN Saigon, I "drove" the Orient Express program on AM and SGT Gary was the only person there in the front near me though there were two or three engineers in the back. He was a very competent infantry guy and was very interesting to chat with while the LP programs were running on the turntables. Billy
An Email Discussion between Billy Williams and Jim White
February 2013
Tim Huguenard JO2, USN 1972 In the AFVN Master Control Room doing the Town and Country Show.
Billy Williams, most likely when he was in Da Nang..
From: Billy Williams
Date: February 27, 2013
Subject: AFVN Web Site
That is indeed Col. Casipit along with Bob Morecook, Jim. I was at AFVN Qui Nhon when he took over. He was really a stickler at first. He came up to Qui Nhon and pitched a major fit because the film library was in an old hut at the signal site there. It wasn't up to AFRTS standards according to LTC Casipit. I was film librarian there and I caught the brunt of his wrath.
AFVN Qui Nhon was probably the most dangerous detachment at that time. It and the signal site that hosted AFVN Qui Nhon were almost overrun two or three weeks later during Tet 1972. We were eating meals out of ration cans and evidently LTC Casipit expected spit and polish. I think he came to AFVN from AFRTS-LA.
The TV van was outside the perimeter where guards were posted. I remember running the TV station several nights with the M-16 locked and loaded next to the master control console.
But when I came back to Saigon, seemed that LTC Casipit was a changed man. Very friendly and nice to me for the whole time I was in Saigon. A remarkable transformation!
Possibly MSG Logsdon underwent a similar transformation from the time you knew him until I got to AFVN.
Billy
From: Jim White
Date: February 26, 2013
Subject: AFVN Web Site
Billy,
Will try to let you know on the photos. Perhaps rescanning at a larger resolution (pixel size) will help. Looking at the site again, I guess they are in color but with a lot of brown in them. But, after all, almost all Vietnam was either green or brown, depending upon where you were.
I have just added the "Gooooooooooooood Morning" audio that Bob Morecook used to the site so audio will be possible also. Getting them direct may help with the quality.
My error--mixing up LaFrance (who was adjutant) and Lamonica (who was Deputy OIC). With both of them being "La-----", I wonder how people who dealt with them in 1971/72 had the same problem? Just a thought but when they were both there, was AFVN a "la-la land." Hastings was assigned to AFVN in mid-October 1970. He should have left in October 1971. We got along fairly well except that he once threw a fit because I couldn't pull a jeep out of my sleeve when he wanted one. Curious, was Winger a real 1st Sgt (with the diamond) or an E-8 Admin type as I was. As Admin NCO, I was the de-facto "first sergeant" but the position wasn't called that. Also, was he Army or Air Force? The Walling BEQ list I received showed: "1Sgt USAF or 1SG USA"
AFVN relaxed? Why not? Who worried about the bottom line?
Jim