McGuire AFB 1972 - Questions

[hopkins92]

Is anybody familiar with operations at McGuire AFB in the fall of 1972? I was scheduled to depart for RVN on a Seaboard flight on 2 Oct. 72, but the flight was delayed. I had to stay overnight in a motel offbase and report back in the morning. I remember the motel as being in Woodbury, but after looking at a New Jersey map, that seems too far away from McGuire. Is it possible or am I just remembering wrong?

 

Any information would be appreciated, even a suggestion about a more appropriate site to post this question.

 

Thanks.

 

[AZ Abn]

Wrightstown, NJ is right outside the gate of McGuire AFB? That is a

more likely location. Yes, there are several hotels there.

 

AZ Abn

[hopkins92]

Thanks, I puzzled over Wrightstown, too. It just doesn't seem like we traveled too far from the terminal that night, so it might have been to Wrightstown. The Air Force personnel picked out the motel for us and ordered a cab. The motel must have been one they used a lot.

[AZ Abn]

Well it was like you said probably Wrightstown, NJ. That area right outside the

gates w/Ft. Dix close by had alot of hotels because lots of activity at Dix during

Vietnam time.

 

AZ Abn

[patches]

Is anybody familiar with operations at McGuire AFB in the fall of 1972? I was scheduled to depart for RVN on a Seaboard flight on 2 Oct. 72, but the flight was delayed. I had to stay overnight in a motel offbase and report back in the morning. I remember the motel as being in Woodbury, but after looking at a New Jersey map, that seems too far away from McGuire. Is it possible or am I just remembering wrong?

 

Any information would be appreciated, even a suggestion about a more appropriate site to post this question.

 

Thanks.

 

Interesting there wasn't any transient barracks' located on the base. I see by your avatar that you are Army, maybe that's the reason, they didn't want any soldiers hanging around

[tafh63]

Growing up I had experiences with McGuire AFB/Ft. Dix. When I was born in 1963 Dad was assigned to the former Third Naval District, then located in the old Federal Building, Downtown NYC. Mom and Dad had an apartment across the river in New Jersey. They then bought a house in Candlewood, NJ, which was roughly 40 minutes from Ft. Dix or 30 minutes from NAS Lakehurst. Mom would shop at the Commissary and PX at either Ft. Dix and/or McGuire AFB.  In 1966 we moved to Pensacola only to return two years later, when Dad had orders to Floyd Bennett Field-NAS New York. We lived in Candlewood again for a few months, until selling our home and moving into government quarters on the former Mitchel Field (AFB), on Long Island.

 

I remember going  to Ft. Dix and watching the soldiers drill, too young to realize the impact of Vietnam on the base. I have vivid memories of going to the MAC Terminal and eating hot dogs in the terminal's cafeteria. That terminal was REALLY busy! The troopship service out of the old Brooklyn Navy Yard that used to carry military personnel and dependents over to Europe had ceased operations. It would be a few years before the federal government began to book nearly all travel through commercial airports. McGuire was "the air embarkation point" for many years.

 

From New York we had orders to Maine. However, I would spend quite a bit of time as an in-patient each year, until 1975, at the former NYU Medical Center's Rusk Institute for new prosthetic limbs, surgery, physical-occupational therapy, etc.  Dad would drive down once a month and I was given a weekend pass from the hospital. We often visited Ft. Dix and McGuire AFB.  After 1972 the hustle n' bustle at both bases had waned a bit.