My father was a Ssgt and Line Delivery Crew Chief with the 408th MMS while stationed at Ubon RTAFB from 11/70 to 11/71. On or about 11 June at approximately 03:00 he was driving a tug back from the flight line to the bomb dump - the trailer he was towing was empty. A Thai guard in camo fatigues was walking on the taxi way (which he should not have been doing). Because of the lack of lights on the taxi way and the guard's attire my father didn't see him until he was almost right on top of him. He swerved and missed him with the tug, but the left front corner of the trailer hit the guard... banging him up pretty bad. The guard needed 24 stitches to his head, and had some pretty nasty bumps and bruises. And the guard's M-16 was damaged beyond repair.
Following the arrival of the Air Police at the scene my father was then taken and confined to a holding cell for the next 24 hours pending investigation of the matter. And according to my father the door to the cell was unlocked and open, but he was never told he could leave until his CO came in and notified him that he was free and cleared. However, despite the fact that he was found to be not at fault his CO was bound by regs to issue a ticket.
The Thai guard was likely in a world of **** after the incident as he'd been found sleeping at his post about 30 minutes earlier. My father never saw the Thai guard again, but remembered his name to the day he died.
Statements were taken from my father and the Thai guard, and according to my father's CO they matched point for point.
Now, with all that was involved there must be written documentation regarding this incident somewhere. Statements were taken, a ticket was issued, and God knows what all else had to be done and filed. Add to this that the incident involved a foreign national during a time of war. So my question is how do I go about obtaining this information? I've sent for, and received, my father's service records, but this incident is noticeably absent, and I had made sure to request an disciplinary records that might also pertain to his time in the Air Force. My mother wasn't surprised when I told her there was not mention, or record, of the accident in his records. And to date the only written documentation I have of the incident are in the letters he wrote home while at Ubon. That and what he told me over the years about it.
I am not trying to crush your dreams of finding that info on your dad, but if all he got was a ticket, then it was more than likely destroyed after he moved.
Those records are kept in what the call a Personal Information File, along with LORs LOCs etc issued by the commander. Most of those documents are destroyed after a period of time (6-12 months).
No dreams being crushed. I was just hoping to fill in a few bits of info regrading the incident, and I was interested to see it from a different perspective.
