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In August of 1967, as the end of my tour was approaching (getting short…“I’m so short I can stand on a six foot ladder and still walk upright under a door.”), I flew fewer air missions and remained more in camp.  In one aerial mission, the gas in one of the wing tanks ran out and the engine quit.  The pilot switched to the other tank but that was the last mission I flew. 

I went back to the 1^st Sergeant and told him I was going home.  It was August of 1967 so he cut the orders, and I left that afternoon for Saigon.  I changed into my class A uniform in a bathroom, left my jungle fatigues in the trash and rushed to make a flight that left within the hour. 

The flight home was on a Braniff Air, commercial jet with female flight attendants.  It was quite unlike the military air flight that brought me. If I had known it was that easy to leave country, I would have done it sooner.

                                                       Adin M. Tooker

(Additional Photos on Page 13 & 14)