Texas Tech University

Slide

Slide Item Number: VAS036123
Pages
1
Media Type
Slide
Physical Location
Stacks
Language(s)
English
Dates
Existence: March 1971
General Note
Tom Streithorst (yellow shirt), reporter for NBC News enroute to Phu Bai to report on the Lam Son 719 invasion of Laos. Tom was called out of retirement in Mexico for this assignment. The plane was an Air America Beechcraft. I was stranded in Saigon with the General Motors, Chu Lai Sales Manager and out of desperation I walked across the Tan Son Nhut tarmac to see if we could hitch a ride north. I met an Air America employee in front of their flight operations center. He was very stereotypical of what I had heard about the CIA. Dressed in a Hawaiian Luau style printed shirt, partially open in the front, he wore a US $20 Dollar gold coin on a heavy gold chain around his neck, a gold Rolex watch and a gold I.D. bracelet with, what looked to be, a name written in Cambodian or Laotian. Luckily he let us ride to Phu Bai with Tom Streithorst and his Cambodian cameraman and soundman.

Perma Link
https://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/virtualarchive/items.php?item=VAS036123

Citation
Slide, VAS036123. March 1971, Don Kilgore Collection, Vietnam Center and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive, Texas Tech University, https://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/virtualarchive/items.php?item=VAS036123, Accessed 05 Feb 2026.

Pub Credit Line
VAS036123, Don Kilgore Collection, Vietnam Center and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive, Texas Tech University

Added: 13 Sep 2005 [Updated: 03 Jun 2010]