In the 1960s and 1970s, Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Airport teemed with soldiers on rest and relaxation from Vietnam.
But there were others who traveled through Kai Tak on their way to or from Saigon.
In the mid-60s, my uncle was at Kai Tak waiting for a flight out after a trip to Hong Kong. (He worked in international ticketing for TWA and could fly to Hong Kong from Chicago for peanuts.)
With time to kill before his flight took off, my uncle waited in the airport restaurant.
Then an American newsman arrived from Vietnam and sat at a table next to my uncle. The newsman relayed the horrors he’d seen on the battlefield in between ordering a martini.
That newsman was Dan Rather (still pretty much unknown in the US) and it was 8 o’clock in the morning.
War stinks.
Wow! I can’t imagine the Concorde landing there! Now I’m curious to see what’s in that space. I know flying into HK will never be the same.
kai tak – what a fab place! i lived down the road on argyle street, depending on the wind we could plane spot;) my school was even nearer – also plane noise interrupted our classes for up to two minutes… intermittenly and when the concorde came – everything shook. great pity as the former kai tak installations now seem to be abandoned