<Begin Segment 23>

MA: So I wanted to ask you, we were talking about your service in Vietnam, and if you could talk a little bit about that.

BU: Yeah. Well, actually, it was, my one year service was broken up into two different times. One, first time I was, in 1956, I went with, during the buildup phase -- no, '66. I went in March, end of March in '66, and I was the Forward Air Controller, Air Liaison Officer to the First Brigade of the (25th) U.S. Infantry Division. And I met them, they were, they came from Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, and I met them at Cuchi, Vietnam. And I was their air liaison officer at Cuchi with them. And at that time, on that tour of three months, I wasn't flying. I was, primarily I wasn't flying, I did fly some, but not very often. I was mostly with the brigade staff on the ground. And then the whole time, well, not the whole time... it was a shock to me to be living with the Army. Because I joined the Air Force to fly airplanes, and especially fighters, here I am living with the Army on the ground, and completely different environment.

MA: And where was your family at this point?

BU: Oh, (they) had just got to Misawa, Japan, I was in Misawa Air Base, northern Japan.

MA: So they stayed in Misawa?

BU: They stayed there. They, in fact, they just got there, and I was only there maybe one or two days, and I had to go to Vietnam. Then they were living in a civilian house off base, waiting for government quarters to open up on base. So my wife was there with the three kids, and she had to (wait), they were living temporarily in Oakland waiting shipment orders for them to come to Japan to join me, 'cause I was there from January until end of March, waiting for them to join me, mainly because there wasn't any housing available. So, by the time that they got their orders to come to join me, I got my orders to go to Vietnam. And I had to talk to my boss about letting me stay there a couple days and let (me) meet 'em in (Tokyo), Japan, and bring 'em to Misawa. And they did that for me, so I got to see 'em before I left for Vietnam.

MA: And then your first tour, you were saying, was three months?

BU: Yeah, that was three months.

MA: And then you ended up going back.

BU: Back to Misawa, Japan.

MA: Or, I'm sorry, when did you go back to Vietnam?

BU: Then when I finished up my tour in Misawa Air Base in Japan, I went back to finish up my nine months, into Vietnam, and this time I was assigned to become the Air Liaison Officer, Forward Air Controller to the 23rd ARVN, Army of the Republic of Vietnam. It was the Vietnamese division staff, I was on their staff as a part of the U.S. advisory team. The Army also had their advisors for the Vietnamese army.

MA: And what year was this that you were back there?

BU: This was, when I went back was 1968, yeah. July, July of '68.

MA: So you were advising, then, the Vietnamese army, the South...

BU: South Vietnam army.

MA: ...Vietnamese army.

BU: I was the advisor to the 23rd ARVN Division. And this time I was flying, and I was controlling fighters on the, targets on the ground, and forward air controlling from a light Cessna 01 aircraft.

MA: How was it for you being in Vietnam, as a person of Japanese ancestry and as an Asian person, I guess, in an Asian country?

BU: Yeah, I was a little, quite apprehensive, you might say, that when I was flying, that I wouldn't get shot down. Because not only did I have to fear the VCs, but my own troops. The thought of being shot down or wounded or whatever by my own troops, that scared me more than anything. Because if I had to bail out or whatever, and then they would have to send in a rescue helicopter or whatever it might be to come get me, I, whether they would see me and think, "Well, that's not U.S.," you know, they might leave me or shoot me. That was, that was always the fear. And that was a greater fear, I guess, well, than the fear of just being captured and being interrogated by the, eventually, if I got shot down in South Vietnam and got captured, I would eventually end up in North Vietnam. And being put in one of those prison camps up there like the Hotel Hilton as they called it, like McCain and them, they're all contemporaries of mine. I always feared that. We all did, but again, when you get trained to do something, you try to put that kind of stuff out of your mind and do well, do your job.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Topaz Museum. All Rights Reserved.