First time was in 1965. Phan Rang. 62nd Engineer Battalion, constructing a 10,000 foot aluminum matting runway and parallel taxiway. I was in Delta Company, and the First Sergeant and I decided (with the permission of the Battalion Commander) to issue some free beer to the troops to have with their meager portion of turkey and associated delights. It went pretty well, except for a few who swapped their ration of beer for pieces of extra turkey from their buddies. Result...a few had too much to drink and had to suffer the wrath of the First Sergeant the next day, by going on latrine clean-out duty for a week.
Second time was in Can Tho in 1968. I was an advisor to the ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam). My Navy Seabee buddy and I had turkey in the local MACV (Military Assistance Command, Vietnam) compound and that was pretty much it. Afterwards, we went back to the small building where our advisory team had it's headquarters, and shared a few beers with the Team Chief, while watching a movie issued by the Red Cross. The Army Engineer Lieutenant Colonel who was our team chief was a pretty resourceful guy. He told the Red Cross office in Saigon that our team had over one hundred men assigned; from the Army, Air Force and Navy. Actually, we had less than ten, and only one non-Army person...my Seabee buddy mentioned above. The result was that we got issued a new film projector and screen from the Red Cross, and received movies before most others in our region. I was the designated projector operator. We also were the only MACV separate advisory detachment in the region to receive a very large artificial Christmas tree with decorations from the Red Cross, a week or so after Thanksgiving. There is no way you could get away with this sort of stuff in today's military...unfortunately in my view.
