doomsday

Doomsday Refreshment Committee
Is Heard From

I can't tell you what a rush it was to see some of the photos on your website. I was suddenly back in 1970 in DaNang! I was just looking at http://www.hmm-364.org/album69k.html and saw an image that just blew me away. The image with the text that begins "The Bob Hope USO . . . ." shows Gerri Bryant singing in the foreground and me on drums in the background. Wow. We were a So. California group that was working through the Commercial Entertainment Branch of MACV Special Services. I had just gotten out of the Army as a 1stLt. and, although I spent a year in the relative boonies in Thailand, I escaped going to Vietnam. The chance to do the VN tour came up while we were playing a club in LA and we jumped right at it. I have always thought that someday I would encounter a person and/or photos of our (Doomsday Refreshment Committee) 6 months in Vietnam. That photo was taken inside of a (really nice considering the situation) USMC O club at MAG-16. It was mid 1970 and we had been at that club a couple of times. The marines at MAG-16 were a great bunch and being there was always fun for us.

I remember I felt secure there unlike the shows we did at the fire bases in that region. We were once at a fire base west of DaNang mid-day where the perimeter got hit in the middle of our outdoor show. I was sitting there playing drums and watching two AH-1 Cobras strafing an area that could not have been even one click away. What a show. We set a record for ‘packing up’ and a CH-53 & crew came in and yanked us out of there.

We had no relationship to the USO. We were contracted to a private corporation who contracted with the Commercial Entertainment Branch of MACV Special Services. Most of the shows you saw were setup that way. Unlike the USO shows that were escorted everywhere and mothered, we were essentially on our own for bookings, lodging, and transportation. Since we were Americans and especially since we had the three women, there did not seem to be anything that we could not get and never lacked for company. One of the big problems we did have was GIs we met who would go AWOL and follow us. We spent many hours convincing them to return to their units. I could tell you some amazing stories about what we could arrange just by asking. I wonder how much it cost the military per hour to fly a C-130 in 1970?.

The Doomsday Refreshment Committee band members were:

Skip Metheny – drums (US Army – ‘67-‘69 – spent all of ’69 in Thailand)

Steve Hyde – keyboards – (no military experience)

Kenny Johnston – guitar (US Army - VN Combat Vet ’66-‘67)

Samy Govindas Moutyapoulle –bass - (joined us in Saigon – of Indian heritage, VN resident, French passport)

Gerri Bryant – Vocals (joined us in Saigon – from another show that was leaving)

Ginger Kane – Dancer – wife of Kenny Johnston

Margie Kane – Dancer – sister of Ginger

The band varied from time to time but this included everyone that participated.

All of us were from Southern California except for Samy.

Photos From 1970 Album
(Click image for larger version)

From left, Ginger Kane, Kenny Johnston, Ginger Kane and Skip Metheny

Steve Hyde, Margie Kane, Kenny Johnston, Ginger Kane and Gerri Bryant

Skip Metheny, Ginger Kane, Steve Hyde, Skip Metheny Gerri Bryant

I had been totally committed to music, beginning in the 9th grade. I lost my college draft deferment in ’66 due to missing school, due to pneumonia, due to playing drums at night and school during the day (no time for rest). To avoid the draft, I joined the Army for 3 years, the last of which was spent in Thailand. I was so close to Vietnam but was ‘safe’ – I was an Infantry OCS graduate and actually felt somewhat guilty I was not in Vietnam. The core of the band began 2 days after I left the Army and returned to the US. We were playing at a typical LA bar at night and laying around the south bay beach area during the day. One day Kenny was looking in the paper and saw an ad “Musical Groups Wanted For Overseas Tours”. He thought it meant Hawaii, etc. but after reading the ad, I knew where the real destination was. We investigated the agency and, in a very short time period, inducted Ginger and Margie into the group and made a ‘show’ out if it. Soon after that, we stepped off a PanAm flight in Saigon and our 6 month adventure began. We played almost every day in a different place – sometimes twice each day. We played almost everywhere but spent the most time around DaNang with the 1st Marine Div. and the delta with the Army and Navy. We spent many nights at the DaNang Hotel drinking too much warm Budweiser.

We were transported in just about every kind of conveyance imaginable (jeeps, 2 ½ trucks, pickup trucks, UH-1’s, CH-46’s and 47’s, CH-53’s, C130’s, C123's, DC7’s, and even an Air America SkyVan).

After leaving Vietnam we went to Bangkok and worked 7 nights a week for close to a year in a nightclub “The Tug” on Soi 4 off of Sukumvit Hwy. The group reverted to being a band and eventually ended up burning out as most groups do.

To spend time with so many US troops in Vietnam and bring a little bit of the ‘world’ with us was an experience that I have never been able to adequately describe. I still vividly recall many incidents that make me smile to the point of tears and others that make me hurt to the point of tears. It was the most intense and rewarding 6 months of my life.

Short personal history:

After the group broke up in Bangkok in '71, I returned to California and began a ‘normal’ life without music. I have been a police officer, A&P mechanic, avionics tech crew chief, FE and Chief of Maintenance for Kenny Rogers back when he owned a BAC 1-11, Maintenance and Modification Mgr. for a corporate aviation operation, and have ended up as an IT guy with a large group primary care rural medical practice in the Western North Carolina mountains. I have not had any communication with the old band members for many years although I frequently wonder about all of them. I had not played music since returning from SE Asia in ’71. About two years ago the musical ‘need’ re-emerged and now I play again with 3 different bands – but I’m not quitting my day job(!) Music is much more fun when it’s strictly ‘for fun’ and not a ‘job’.

I have so many other stories and memories from that time period. I’m sure all of the Americans who were there share similar feelings. I won’t bore you any longer with them now. Relating all of this to you is a very good thing for me. It puts so many things in perspective once again. If you want any other information, please do contact me. And I would love to hear about your organization as well. I considered attending a reunion of another vet’s association a couple of years ago but never did get it together. At least I have some 'history' with you all.

One last thing. My wife and I took a 3 week Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia vacation tour in December 1999. We arranged the trip through a US Army 4th Div combat vet who operates a GI-oriented tour company out of WA. The trip was fabulous. I know there are those who could never return to VN no mater how much time has passed. But those of us who have returned are probably the better for it. We made it to Saigon and south into the delta. We did not make it north but you can easily visit all of Vietnam. We experienced no animosity or ill will from any of the Vietnamese. They were actually quite warm and friendly.

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