Cam Ranh Choraleers

The following is about a very special Christmas. Why Christmas in September? One reason is I am trying to locate fellow members of the Cam Ranh Bay Choraleers and also trying to obtain copies of tapes of our performances and the Christmas tape we did for the Ed Sullivan Christmas Show December 1966.
It all started Nov. 22, 1966, from my Vietnam diary while I was stationed at Cam Ranh Air Base where I had been stationed with the United States Air Force 1966-1967. The diary notes the shock I experienced in Manila after several months in the sands of Vietnam.
I have just returned to CRB after five wonderful, relaxing days in the Philippines. … We were a great success.
We arrived late Thursday night after Sgt. Britten, our leader and organizer, went 48 hours with no sleep trying to get a plane for us. The colonel said cut your group to 38 and you can go. Sgt. Britten said all 55 go or no one goes. The colonel called back and said a plane was waiting. When we landed at Clark Air Base, the director of the Silver Wing Service Club, Miss Davis, was there on the flight line to meet us with two buses. We were taken to our quarters and let loose. On the way we couldn’t get over paved streets with lines drawn down the center, sidewalks, American cars — any car for that matter, and most of all green — real green, cool — grass. In the squadron were two Coke machines that gave bottles, not cans, of Coke.
Our mattresses were 7 inches thick. The barracks were made out of wood. During the five days I ate all of my meals in the Airman’s Club. Our A Club at Cam Ranh is a one-room barn. Clark’s A Club was fantastic. You walk past the lobby into a huge room with a stage in front. On the stage was a 12-piece band. At one end of the room is a restaurant — The Knight’s Inn. This is where I ate all my meals. Wall-to-wall carpet, tablecloths, padded pleated leather chairs, beautiful leather-bound menus and the most courteous Filipino waiters. We ate off plates, drank out of glasses, were waited on, had our cigarettes lit for us and paid very nominal fees. It took us three times to get used to the Inn.
Behind the Knight’s Inn was the Pirate’s Cove, a more secluded, more intimate nook for couples. On the other side of the main room was a barbershop that used electric razors. In another corner was a small lounge that served drinks and featured a jazz combo. There was also a game room.
In the other corner was the Stag Bar with hard wood walls, large polished tables and chairs, a TV and TV-juke box.
The first day I had a Mexican dinner followed by a ham steak, filet mignon, sirloin, waffles for breakfast with melted butter and I can't remember what else I had during those five days. I gained 10 pounds.
Friday we had a short rehearsal in the service club then we went to the hospital where we gave a short concert in the main lobby for the patients. Friday night was one of our big performances. It was one of the most important. We were on live TV for 30 minutes and we pulled through it like champs. It was near perfect.
With this under our belts Saturday was a day of rest and the Service Club arranged a special tour of Manila for us. We spent all day riding a bus from the base to Manila, about 50 miles away, and seeing all of the sights. We made stops at a beautiful Chinese cemetery, the Manila Zoo, the market area where you hide your watches and hold onto your wallets, and made a lunch stop at a shopping center that was just like home. In the center we ate at a very exclusive restaurant that served a smorgasbord for $2. I filled my plate three times. We couldn’t believe it. Chicken, veal, sausage, shrimp and rice, carrots flavored with anis, fruit salad, coffee and the best whiskey sour I have ever tasted.
At the end of the meal I put a cigarette in my mouth. Before I got my hand to my pocket for a lighter one of the five waiters around our table had lit my cigarette.
All the time we were on the bus we were singing songs from the concerts until we had lost our voices. Sgt. Britten would have loved that if he had known.
The Filipino children flocked around the bus asking for money or trying to sell black market goods. They always greeted us with, “Hey, Joe.”
Sunday was another big day but also our most disappointing. We had a big concert on the base theatre — capacity 1,200 and we were expecting a large crowd due to the reports received of our TV show. Just before the concert it started to rain and typhoon warnings were out. When the curtains were drawn we could see nothing but empty seats. We couldn’t see that eventually the seats filled after the lights dimmed. I think this had an effect on us because we didn’t sing at all well. The audience was polite and appreciative but it wasn’t the performance we knew we could give. We sang an encore — I Believe — which we slaughtered. We were all very unhappy.
This whole tour meant so much to us and we felt as though we had just blown all of Sgt. Britten’s hard work.
Monday was a different story. It was our last day of concerts and they were important. Our first appearance was not an official concert. We were the guests of the Skylarks, an all-female choral group of officers’ wives. The Skylarks included the wives of two PACAF generals. Maj. Gen. Ingelide, vice commander of Clark, was present. The ladies presented us with a very nice, yet informal, lunch after which the Choraleers presented flowers for members of the Skylarks and gifts of appreciation for Sgt. Britten and our only female member, 1st Lt. Eileen Gabehart (Gabey). There were tears because we love Gabey as much as she loves her “60 wonderful men.”…
We were asked to sing. We didn’t have our music, but you can’t refuse a request, so we sang our three favorites — “I Am Proud To Be An American,” “Happy Wanderer,” and our No. 1 song, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” We sang these songs like they were made of gold. Never had we sounded so good. We were honestly flabbergasted and when we finished Battle Hymn there were tears in the ladies’ eyes. To tell you the truth there were tears in our eyes too. The Skylarks sang a medley from Sound of Music. Then we sang together.
…
At the hospital we stopped in four wards to sing. This was interesting because we didn’t have a piano. It took about the first four words of each song before we finally got our pitch. But it turned out fine and the men in the beds were appreciative. That was all that mattered.
At 9 that night we had our final and most important concert of the tour….
We sang a 45-minute concert in the officer’s club. Most of the top brass on Clark were there along with the chief nurses. After the hectic week of singing, our voices were beginning to wear but somehow we pulled through and gave them a performance they shall remember. As we finished our last song and started to walk off stage they shouted for more and we gave them two encores. Then we left the club and boarded the bus. Just as the bus was pulling away a lieutenant from our group nearly broke his neck as he flew down the stairs to stop the bus. Sgt. Britton wanted every man back in the club. The officers had opened the bar for us. We have only five officers in our choir. The majority of the rest are lower-grade airmen with the remainder NCOs. When I arrived at the bar a full bird colonel stepped behind the bar, asked me what I wanted, and mixed it for me. He mixed quite a few drinks. We couldn’t get over it. A man one step from general mixed our drinks. We not only closed the bar, but remained an hour after the bar had closed.
As we were leaving, we were met in the lobby by Mrs. Westmoreland. She introduced herself to each member of the choir and told us that she wants her husband to hear us.
…
Nov. 24, 1966
This is going to be very short as I still have five more letters to answer from the onslaught I received after returning from Clark. But I have news for you that is the thrill of my young life. Please spread the word. I thought our trip to Clark was great. I thought that our Christmas tape to the States and our individual tapes were great. Now you are not only going to hear us, but you are going to see us. This was arranged some time ago and none of us knew about it until tonight. I just returned from choir rehearsal. Tomorrow we are to be on the flight line in work clothes to do a color TV tape for the Ed Sullivan Christmas Show. We will start and finish the show. That is all I know about it now.
Dec. 22, 1966
Christmas started last week with a Christmas tree in the squadron and stockings loaded with goodies from the Red Cross. Friday, the Choraleers had their dress rehearsal for the Christmas concert. Monday we gave the concert before a large crowd that responded with a standing ovation — a mighty good reaction form a GI audience. Tuesday we rehearsed for Billy Graham with the Army and Navy. Wednesday was the day we all had been waiting for since we knew were coming here. The Bob Hope Show — to be televised 18 Jan. by the way. Col. Agen would not let them come to the Air Force so we had to go to the Army 10 miles away. We left the base at 9 a.m. (10 of us), hitched a ride and arrived at the South Beach Amphitheatre at 9:30. It was already crowded — maybe 300 people, but we managed to get a seat on the aisle — dead center — and about 50 yards back. They were great seats until the camera crews arrived at 1 p.m. and put up scaffolds right in front of us. The biggest complaint was, “The show is for the troops, so they put a scaffold up in our way so the folks back home can see it well on TV.” It was hard to see. Most of the time all I could see of Bob Hope was from the shoulders down. However, it was still a great show — two hours long — and gripes were dismissed as soon as Bob Hope came on stage. It was such a thrill just to be there. And what a crowd!! If you get to see the Bob Hope Chrysler Hour you’ll see what I mean. The cast couldn’t be better — Phyllis Diller, Joey Heatherton, Anita Bryant, Vic Damone, The Korean Kittens, Miss World, Les Brown and his Band of Renown, and Diane Share, a baton twirler. Two solid hours of entertainment. The show started at 2:30 and ended about 4:45. …
Tomorrow we are singing for Billy Graham. Saturday the choir sings at candlelight services, then to the hospital, then caroling with the Red Cross. At midnight Christmas Eve, several members of the choir boarded jeeps and toured the outposts of the base to sing to the troops guarded us and in the mess halls preparing the meals and along the flight lines. Sunday will be a most memorable day. I signed up — along with 74 others — to escort Vietnamese orphans around the base. We will meet them at 11:15, take them to lunch where Santa Claus will hand out gifts, then to cartoon show. And that will conclude my Christmas week — one I shall never forget.