Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
5:49 | It was an exotic post, the Pacific atoll Kwajalein. Bob Wylie was an air traffic controller and worked search and rescue as well at the Naval air station there. Then it was back to Georgia for advanced school and further grounding in VFR, Visual Flight Rules. He was assigned to the Philippines just as a massive buildup of forces began in Southeast Asia.
Though he was an air traffic controller, Bob Wylie also worked as a loadmaster and navigator. Based in the Philippines, he supervised the cargo on a circuit around the various bases in Vietnam. The aircraft also ferried troops on R&R as well as the occasional chicken coop.
To Bob Wylie, the experience in Vietnam was a disaster for military discipline and organization. He likens it to the Korean War and blames political considerations for both outcomes.
His tests showed high aptitude for math and science so Bob Wylie was able to get into the Navy school he wanted, air traffic control. The federal regulations at the time fit on four pages. The contemporary ones fill a book. They also taught him air navigation when he got past the fundamentals.
Bob Wylie's first post as a Naval air traffic controller was in picturesque Monterey, California. Then it was on to the east coast at Brunswick, Georgia. A short stint back in private life was unsatisfactory so he returned to the Navy and became an air crew member as a secondary job.
