Air Force Days — Visiting the FACs

One bright morning, Capt. E, my boss, said, “Mona, you know we send one of our targets folks to Danang in Vietnam each month to talk to the FACs (forward air controllers) about the targets, right?”

“Yes, I remember Steve went last month, and Mark went before that, right after I got here.”

“Well, with your arrival, we now have three women and three men in Targets. It’s kind of a burden for those three guys to go so often. So I’d like to send a woman. It’s just a one-day trip, and you’d fly. So what do you say? Are you ready to go?”

Good heavens! What a surprise! I knew that Glo and Gail, the other two women in Targets, had wanted to go but were never allowed to. So I wasn’t about to ruin it for them.

“Sure, if it’s my turn, of course, I’ll go.”

But Lt Col B, our boss’s boss, reminded him that whenever a new guy went, they’d also send one of the previous guys along to show him the ropes.

“Now, with Mona, since the new guy is a gal, we’d have to send one of the men with you. And you know how their wives in the States would feel. You know what would happen!”

Can you imagine how completely disgusted and insulted I was, as were Glo and Gail? We lost a career opportunity, a chance to enhance our skills. Maybe some guys were ‘loose’ but don’t judge us by those standards! did complain to the colonel, but he didn’t want to be involved in what he considered to be character assassination.

Argh! I thought for a time about getting out of the Air Force, finding out where he lived, getting a taching job there — and making his kids life an unpleasant as he had mine and my friends. But I came to my senses and continued my Air Force career, never forgetting that creep jerk!

BTW — While I was at TFA, they never did send a woman to visit the FACs!