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Project Jenny KLIK - 1st Inf Di v Women in Vietnam RELATED-- To AFVN To Saigon To Vietnam Further Afield Index
From: Michael Groucher
Dated: April 20, 2017
Subject: 60+ AFVN Vets in New Book
Rick-- I don't know how my name is included with all those classy guys & gals but I am very grateful for the mention. I spent so much time in the films business folks can't believe I started out in radio back in 1958! I was one of those wannabes who would go get coffee for the on-air guys; and one morning during a huge snowstorm no one but me and the owner showed up at the station. He said, "Tell people to stay off the road, and everything's closed - schools, factories, government offices. Oh, and you can play records too, but keep the information going even though you'll be repeating it all morning." That was my first shift - 8:45 AM (we were late getting the transmitter fired up) until 1:00 PM. Dominyk Hysko was his name, the station was WPAW in Pawtucket, RI. That was when I learned you don't need booze or drugs, just a generous manager, a microphone and a radio station!
From: Rick Fredericksen
Dated: April 20, 2017
Subject: 60+ AFVN Vets in New Book
Great beginning to a profession Michael! I'll bet many of us started our broadcasting careers with a stroke of luck. For me, it was simple. Orders to DINFOS out of Marine boot camp. Now THAT was blind luck . Would be interesting to hear others share their first break into broadcasting. Cheers.
Rick
From: Ken Kalish
Dated: April 20, 2017
Subject: 60+ AFVN Vets in New Book
I was 12, Rick, when I started distributing game sheets for WRCO in Richland Center, Wi. I worked my way through the first two years of college working for WAKX, WIGL, KAOH, and KOZY. I moonlighted as TV news for KDAL in Duluth for three years while on recruiting duty. As Randy will confirm, I built an AFRTS outlet in Newfoundland, and I installed a SITE system on a USNS while up there. I also spent time at AFRTS as a radio producer and was briefly assigned to NAVINFO in DC before being sent to Argentia to take care of a pirate interfering with SAC and NAVFAC signals. Quite a trip.
From: Ken Kalish
Dated: April 20, 2017
Subject: 60+ AFVN Vets in New Book
John, your line “I recall like yesterday following a very long line of deuce and a half trucks loaded to the top with flag draped coffins on way to Tan Son Nhut air base to be flown home.” hits me hard. The guys who left after fire fights were in simple green, waterproof bags. It wasn’t until I left for my extension basket leave that I saw the row upon row of aluminum coffins standing in formation at TSN, and knew that some of them were mine. Heavy heart.
Ken Kalish
From: Rick Fredericksen
Dated: April 24, 2017
Subject: Memories Galore in "Broadcaster" E-book
"Broadcasters: Untold Chaos," includes many AFVN memories and is now available. Just enter the title at amazon.com (for Kindle, or the free Kindle reader app) or smashwords.com (for any digital readers, even laptop and desktop, or the original Word document. epub for tablets and phones) You won't be disappointed. Please purchase and then give your review. If you have a problem let me know. Click on the link below my name for the Amazon page.
Rick
At this point the title was changed to Start in Broadcasting so please go to that page to continue.
From: Joe Ciokon
Dated: April 20, 2017
Subject: 60+ AFVN Vets in New Book
Guys, Good topic. I started my broadcast career at Hadley Tech High School in Saint Louis on KHTH which was later become the local PBS station. I did film narrations for the school and acted in radio dramas. I was also chosen as my graduating class valedictorian. After joining the Naval Air Reserves, and boot camp, I was designated a jet mechanic in training (striker) and changed to aerial photographer. My first active duty assignment was to NAS Lakehurst NJ where the Personnel Officer offered me another change of rate to Journalist without DINFOS or a Navy "A" school. She sent me to the base newspaper where I made JO3 (E-4). When I told her I had previous radio experience, she gave me the secondary job code (NEC) as Radio-TV Announcer. And the rest, as you know, is history. :-) Thanks for letting me share.
JoeC
From: Ken Kalish
Dated: April 20, 2017
Subject: 60+ AFVN Vets in New Book
Nope. The list is about 1,449 short of documenting my contributions.
Ken Kalish
From: John Workman
Dated: April 20, 2017
Subject: 60+ AFVN Vets in New Book
Mine was somewhat unusual, as I seemed to followed in my father’s footsteps. So this is a tribute to him & AFVN.
When WWII started in Pacific, the Army found out my father (ham radio operator before service) could build transmitters & receivers from parts, so they assigned him to the Signal Corps, sent him to Pacific, island hopping setting up listening / lookout posts on deserted or even Japanese occupied islands.
After WWII he went to work for Motorola and later worked on the Redstone missile project for several years at the NASA base in Huntsville, Alabama.
He passed away few years later when I was 12.
I started working in TV repair when I was 13 at a radio & TV shop owned by a great friend of my father. So starts step 1.
Then I was hired at Motorola doing home Tv service. Step 2.
I started college (electrical engineering) under my father’s GI Bill benefit .step 3. My father started electrical engineering just before WWII) but I made mistake of taking a semester off to get married. Got draft notice day after Christmas & before next semester started.
Went thru basic at Fort Knox, then assigned to US Army Redstone Arsenal - Missile & Munitions base (no need to guess where) Yes, Huntsville, Alabama ! And right next door to the NASA base. Step 4.
While at Redstone Arsenal I was assigned to Signal Corps (step 5)
And was sent to Vietnam at the Saigon AFVN station in ‘69. Sort of a step 6 as it was in Pacific region & in Radio / TV.
While I didn’t get bit by malaria bug in Vietnam,I did get bit by the "broadcasting bug." Worked for all the networks, CBS in Saigon and afterwards at PBS, ABC, CBS, NBC, later & now Fox.
When people ask me how I got started in broadcasting, I get a surprised look when I tell them in my 1st broadcasting job I carried a .45 automatic to work, then I explain Vietnam. They ask what it was like, for those that have never experienced war, I just tell them it was the worst and best time of my life. The best being a new career in broadcasting. The thing I can’t begin to express to anyone that hasn’t been in the military or a war zone, is the incredible sorrow I felt and feel for the AFVN staff at HUE in Tet 68 and the 58,000 + that didn’t make it back alive. I recall it like yesterday following a very long line of deuce and a half trucks loaded to the top with flag draped coffins on way to Tan Son Nhut air base to be flown home.
I’m glad for their memories that President Trump made March 29 National Vietnam Veteran’s Day and for all the people that do pay their respects at the Vietnam Memorial wall. I’m eternally grateful to my father and AFVN for starting me on a great career path, which was good as TV repair shops & Motorola have long become extinct.
My father could repair anything electronic or electrical and I seem to have inherited that skill from him as my broadcast and video production career has been in the realm of Broadcast and Video Engineering.
"Broadcasters: Untold Chaos"
May 2015
From: Rick Fredericksen
Dated: April 20, 2017
Subject: 60+ AFVN Vets in New Book
Ken, I believe you do have Vietnam stories to tell, outside of AFVN.
Rick
AFVN Group Conversations
From: Ken Kalish
Dated: April 20, 2017
Subject: 60+ AFVN Vets in New Book
All I did was do my show, then go home to work TV for a while, then taught broadcast news and production at U of MN for a while. No big contributions there. Oh, I also taught broadcast buying to Navy recruiting.
From: Ken Kalish
Dated: April 20, 2017
Subject: 60+ AFVN Vets in New Book
Indeed, Rick. None of mine begin as traditional fairy tales (once upon a time) or as sea stories (this ain't no sh*t). I stopped telling of the giant catfish we had to shoot because I was never believed - until one appeared on the River Monsters TV program. Mekong catfish do grow to eight feet and do not die easily.
From: Jim Allingham
Dated: April 30, 2017
Subject: Rick Fredericksen's Book A "Must-Read" for AFVNers
For all of us who ever served at AFVN, Rick Fredericksen's new e-book "Broadcasters: Untold Chaos" is a must-read. From the minute I downloaded my purchased copy as a "pdf" document (I don't do e-readers, but the book is available in a variety of formats; pdf worked great for me), I found compelled to read it from start to finish. It was that good. Rick gives us a totally different perspective of AFVN, one that I found quite enlightening and somewhat cathartic for me. It honors all of us who were part of the grand experiment of live radio and TV broadcasting in a war zone. Great job, Rick. You've given AFVN a true place in broadcast history for all time.
Jim
From: Ken Kalish
Dated: April 20, 2017
Subject: 60+ AFVN Vets in New Book
You started young Ken. I also think you have lots of llama experiences that few people know about but would like to hear. Not your typical house pet or farm animal. Here's my story on those Mekong cat fish. This giant catfish is found in the Mekong River. I did this story in 1988 as Bureau Chief for CBS News, Bangkok.
World's Largest Freshwater Fish
From: Forrest Brandt
Dated: April 20, 2017
Subject: 60+ AFVN Vets in New Book
Why not?
From: Rick Fredericksen
Dated: April 20, 2017
Subject: 60+ AFVN Vets in New Book
Is your name included? Broadcasters: Untold Chaos coming soon.
Key broadcasters and other media individuals (150+), in order of their appearance:
Paul Rhoades, Russ Van Dyke, Bob Sevey, Derek Williams, Rick Lewis, Michele McNabb, Vinh Ve, Shelly Blunt, Ron Turner, James DiBernardo, John Deering, Tom Young, Don Gouin, Harry Ettmueller, Courtney Niles, John Anderson, Steve Stroub, John Bagwell, Jack Laurence, Robert Schakne, Murray Fromson, Don Webster, Duong Va Ri, Walter Cronkite, Michael Herr, Al Gore, Walter Mondale, Steve Kroft, Mai Phuong, John Chancellor, Clarence Page, Gene Siskel, Earl Woods, David Kieffer, Mike Maxwell, Bob Andreson, Lee Hansen, Steve Sevits, Jerry Masini, Craig Prosser, Harry Simons, Paul Bottoms, Casey Kasem, Wolfman Jack, Chickenman, Adrian Cronauer, Robin Williams, Pat Sajak, Merv Griffen, Richard Bednar, Gary W. Gears, John Steinbeck, Thomas Steinbeck, Hugh Morgan, Carl Hudgins, Robert Stricklin, William Wilson, Randall Moody, Toney Brooks, Ray Nash, Bob Lawrence, Bobbie Keith, Paul Baldridge, Janie and George Lewis, Al Dawson, Jim Russell, Tony Sargent, Kenley Jones, Gary Bel, Richard Threlkeld, Gary Shepard, Joe Moore, Michael Goucher, Nick Paladino, James Adams, Huntley-Brinkley, James Campbell, Ray Profeta, Peter Berlin, Bruce Beebe, Tom Sinkovitz, Norman Schwarzkopf, Ron Hesketh, Hanoi Hannah, Ed Wood, Eric Sevareid, Paul Harvey, Parker Lane, Bob MacArthur, Greg Cooke, Ron Bartlett, Jim Allingham, Rep. John Moss, Lynn Packer, Jack Anderson, John Broger, William R. Frye, S.L.A. Marshall, Robert Sanders, C.W. Lane, Richard Fitzpatrick, Lee W. Hauser, Mike Jackson, Dennis Woytek, Aunt Sara, Wayne Cannon, Jim Sandt, Robert Morecook, Keyes Beech, Brian Ellis, David Henderson, Richard Warner, Eric Cavalerio, Joel Bernstein, Dan Rather, Larry Doyle, Graham Greene, Tran Duc Suu, Linda Mason, Pham Dinh Long, Le Van Anh, Beth Bressan, Mai Phuong, Rob Dillard, Edward. R. Murrow, Neal Davis, Bill Latch, Luis Beltran, Narong Srivoraphak and Uthai, Andy Williams, Gabby Tabunar, Ed Bradley, John Hamlin, Don Hewitt, Haing Ngor, Dith Pran, Charles Kuralt, Sydney Schanberg, Hidenobu Okamoto, Bob Simon, Nate Thayer, Dave McKaige, Art Key, Wanna Chukul, Connie Chung.
Rick Fredericksen
AFVN News 69-70