Hotel Three

 

For those who flew in III Corps, there was Hotel Three. This was the heliport at Tan Son Nhut that served the helicopters. It was a large facility that had a small terminal and those needing rides to various bases and installations around III Corps could find a flight. Nothing was scheduled, at least as I remember it. When an aircraft landed at Hotel Three, the pilots would check in with the terminal, saying they could take a certain number of people to their home stations. It wasn’t always a direct flight.

Saigon near Hotel Three, if I remember correctly. Photo copyright by Kevin Randle.

To get to Hotel Three, meant that the helicopter would fly along Highway One, finally descending to low level to fly under the traffic patterns at Tan Son Nhut. Then pop back up to altitude and call the tower for landing instructions. What was fun was there was a gap in the tree line that blocked the path, meaning you could fly between the trees. At one point, someone strung commo wire through that gap. I know this because I caught the wire with my skids, taking out about a hundred feet of it. I never saw the wire and didn’t know I’d hit it until we landed at Hotel three.

Once there, with the engine shut down, and with the field guarded, you could leave the aircraft. You could then walk out, to what we thought of as the World’s Largest PX. You could buy practically anything there, even a new car to be delivered to your home of record or your next duty station, if you knew it. Before I left Vietnam, and like so many others, I ordered a stereo system that showed up at my home of record a component at the time.

There was also a movie theater. This was a real theater with a concession stand and theater seating. It really didn’t matter what movie was showing because it was the theater experience that was important. I remember seeing Hombre there, complete with popcorn and coming attractions.

On one of the stops there, I went into the terminal and said that I was heading for Cu Chi if anyone needed a ride. Two nurses asked to go along and one guy wondered if I could take him to Bao Tri. Not exactly on the way, but not that far out of the way. I told him to come along.

Toward the end of my tour, they began to restrict the flights into Hotel Three. Too many helicopters landing there for no other reason that the let the flight crews wander around the PX or the movie theater or some of the other facilities. The exception was if you had combat damage that needed to be checked out. I think I used that excuse once and no one seemed to care… especially since I could take a colonel to Tay Ninh. (And this was after I had been assigned to the Crusaders, which meant I was going to Tay Ninh.)

There really was nothing extraordinary about Hotel Three. It was just the heliport that operated as a passenger facility. I don’t remember them having refueling capabilities. We did sometimes take passengers from Cu Chi to Hotel Three as they rotated home or as they were going on R&R. Sometimes the tower would ask if we could take someone to another location.

I just thought I’d provide a little insight to some of the mundane things. If the majority of the area hadn’t been a combat zone, no one would care.