Abbink worked on HAWK missiles in Vietnam
Pictured: Former Edgerton resident and Vietnam veteran Ron Abbink.
By Jill Fennema –
Ron Abbink received his draft notice in September 1965. He was dating Gail Ebsen, whom he had met at the Hiawatha Roller Rink in Pipestone. After graduating from Southwest Christian High School in 1963, he went to work for Peter De Boer Chevrolet in Leota. He had purchased a new car that March – a 1965 Chevy Impala. After getting his draft notice, he traded in the 65 Chevy and would order a new one two years later when he was about out of the service.
Ron was sworn into the United States Army in Sioux Falls on October 20, 1965, and left the next day for Ft. Leonard Wood. He and several other inductees flew on a DC3 from Sioux Falls, to Sioux City, Iowa, to Omaha, Nebr., to Kansas City, Mo. During the flight, the guy sitting next to him became airsick and could not get his “barf bag” out soon enough and made a mess – on himself, the seat, and Ron.
After the flight, they took a bus to Ft. Leonard Wood. As soon as they got off the bus, the drill instructor started yelling. They were to get into formation. Some of the men locked their knees and tipped over like trees. Before supper, they had to maneuver over horizontal ladders – like the monkey bars at a playground. In the beginning, it was tough and Ron remembers falling off. But he improved and so did his muscles. “When I did my final PCT test,” he said, “ I did 76 rungs and just quit because we only needed 35 to get a perfect score.”
The barracks were wooden two-story units built during WWII. At one of the first formations, Ron was chosen to be a fireman. From 5 p.m. until 5 a.m. the next day he helped maintain the coal furnaces. He had a shift every fifth night. There were eight furnaces to keep fired. It was tough work because he had to keep moving all night, banking the fire. They were allowed to sleep the next day because the furnaces were not used during the day when no one was in the barracks.
A training exercise at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri. The barracks are in the background.
Basic training was tough – Ron realized that they were being torn down and made to feel less than human, only to be built back up and made into a team at the end. They went on three-mile runs and those were made all the harder by the red clay mud in November and December. Their boots would be twice as heavy when coated with mud, but they better be spit-shined again by the next morning.
After basic training, Ron had a short break over Christmas before going to Ft. Bliss at El Paso, Texas, for his advanced training. This was more of a 9 to 5 job and Ron thought they were treated more like human beings there. While there, he trained on the HAWK missiles. The HAWK is a medium range, surface-to-air guided missile that provides air defense coverage against low-to-medium-altitude aircraft. It was invented in 1950 and was used by the U.S. (with modifications and improvements) until 2002. HAWK stands for Homing All the Way Killer.
To work on the HAWK, Ron had top secret clearance, which meant that the army did more extensive looking into his family and affairs. His parents and Gail were interviewed by the military.
Ron was a 16D20, a mechanic/repairman on the missiles and the radars that were used. The one radar, CWAR, watched the skies in about a 50 mile radius. The IFF, which stands for identification friend or foe, in the front nose of all planes identifies if the plane is foe or friendly. If the signal came back as foe, all the other radars came online and watched that plane. Then the missile would fire if needed.
While in Texas, the pastor of the Christian Reformed Church in El Paso and his wife took Ron under their wing. They picked him up every Sunday for services and brought him back to the barracks. They also took him out some evenings to different places. Ron also enjoyed the USO programs that were put on there. “The USO in El Paso was superb. They had all kinds of things to do. I spent just about every Saturday there. That is why we support them yet today,” he said.
When advanced training was coming to an end, Ron was told by some of the top brass that they would not be getting any leave time after their training and would fly directly to Vietnam. Ron panicked because he wanted to propose to Gail before he left for Vietnam. He bought a ring at a jewelry store in El Paso, and his parents and sister drove Gail to El Paso so he could propose. But his panic was not necessary, as three weeks later he was back in Minnesota.
On March 16, 1966, Ron flew to Oakland, Calif., to the army replacement depot. They were there for two days to get all the paperwork and their immunizations.
He had shots in both arms in an assembly line with jet gun injectors, and a shot of the gamma globulin in his lower back. “We were told that it would take care of anything that the others didn’t,” Ron said. “It was a lot of serum because it actually formed a pocket or bump under your skin that took a week to go down.”
He left California on Northwest Airlines, which was a government contracted flight on a Boeing 707 from Travis Air Force Base. He flew to Seattle, Wash., then to Tokyo, Japan, followed by Manila in the Philippine Islands, and then to Vietnam. The flight took about 18 hours with all the stops.
“Because we went over the International Date Line and because Vietnam was 13 hours ahead of our time, we never saw Saturday,” Ron recalls.
When they opened the airplane doors at Tan Son Nhut airbase, the smell was terrible. Ron explained that they used diesel fuel to burn pits of human waste. “It was a horrible smell and I will remember it forever,” Ron said.
