7th RRFS - 1972

Photos from Bill Shields - Recovered from Bill Bogart's old 7th Web Site

F4 Phantom. The work house of Vietnam.
Better shot of a Phantom (taken from a Huey overhead).
They were certainly a major reason for the 7th to exist.

One of our planes and my "partner in crime" - Sgt. Bill Reed.
We were both assigned as photographers (84G) even though we'd both spent 10 goddam
months at Ft. Monmouth (32D - Fixed Station Technical Controller).
The 7th didn't really need any 32D's - so Col. McFadden decided we should be
what he called "The official pornographers".
Our best assignment was to spend several days photographing
"every bar, massage parlor, whore house, and other hangout within 30 miles"
to be used as part of a briefing for the Secretary of the Army. What a tough assignment - sheesh!
This plane is an RU21D "Laffing Eagle" - Serial #67-18105 -
one of 18 such models used for COMINT.
Today it's being converted for civilian use by Turbine Power Inc.
in Virginia and is registered as N7139Z.

All of our aerial photo was done from Hueys based at Udorn.
This one is parked behind the HQ building (near Finance - they also delivered the payroll).

Looking directly down "Main Street Ramasun" from the Huey cockpit.
If you look closely you can see all the way down the front road to Non soong in the background.
Sorry about the haze - couldn't do much about it.

Operations and the Cage from the air. Main job-site for most personnel.

Another shot of Ops from down lower.

Not all of our "aerial" work had much air between us and the ground.
We did a very low, high speed run past the HQ building (well, okay, we buzzed them if you insist! 8-)...
We would have gone lower except for the streetlights.
About 10 seconds later a lot of freaked out people were coming out that front door!
(Warning - you need a Helicopter to do this. If tried in a U-21 it will probably involve some time in the stockade - or Leavenworth 8-).

Another shot from the air - central area of "home sweet home", with most of the important stuff
(e.g. the pool, tennis courts, NCO club, theater, etc.).
Skip Forcier and I spent a day at a Marine detachment just south of Ramasun.
It really, REALLY sucked... They were living in tents, outdoor latrines, 2 inches of dust/mud
(depending on the weather), water trucks with little mirrors attached so you could shave and brush your teeth.
If we'd had this picture with us to show them - they would have killed us for sure... Semper Fi.

Richard W Jaslovsky WebMaster