I was leaving the sprawling headquarters of the Military Assistance Command headed tor my rendezvous point to catch a convoy back to my Advisory Team 99 when I passed by a basketball court where soldiers from the headquarters command were playing basketball. They had full-fledged teams with shirts versus skins and striped uniform referees blowing their whistles with exaggerated gusto. A seemingly bored private was outside the fenced-in court near me keeping score on a notepad. I stopped to watch for a few minutes. I overheard two other men near me saying "Let's go get tennis shoes. They probably got our sizes now." Not seeing a PX anywhere nearby, I asked one of the men "They sell tennis shoes here?"
"No, they don't sell them," he said. "They're free if they have your size."
I had no use for tennis shoes but decided to follow them and get me some free tennis shoes. I didn't need them, but they were free. In a building separate from the headquarters command and facing four basketball courts and two tennis courts, we went past a door to what seemed like a bonafide shoe store. Racks of tennis shoes lined the walls and the center of the room. A huge guy of color who appeared to be a professional basketball player had these two guys sign for their tennis shoes. I was next.
"What's your size?" the seven foot plus pro player asked me. I gave him my size, and he handed me my tennis shoes. Signing for them required a unit of assignment on the form. I entered Advisory Team 99 on the form. Pro player didn't like this saying, "Oh, you're not assigned to MACV headquarters. You can't get tennis shoes." He then added, "These shoes were purchased by MACV for our soldiers stationed here only. I bet you don't even have a basketball court in your team!"
"No, we don't have a basketball court on our team, but I'm not walking out of here without my tennis shoes," I said. I just didn't think it was fair that we who sacrificed so much on our team couldn't even get a free pair of twenty dollar tennis shoes; yet, these yahoos who most likely never even heard the sound of enemy gunfire got free tennis shoes.
"No, man, I've got to get those back. They're only for MACV headquarters troops," he said again.
"Okay, I'm not leaving here without them," I said "so let's work on this. I'll just cross out Advisory Team 99 on your log, and you can write in whatever you want."
"Man, just leave," pro player said.
I let him have the box and stashed my new tennis shoes in the laundry bag I always carried on my trips to Saigon. Upon getting back to my Advisory Team 99, I shared my newly-acquired information with everyone on the team telling them where the free tennis shoe store was and how to get their free pair of tennis shoes.
It would not be hard to find I would tell them. "Just look for the basketball courts and enter the door nearest to them, but be sure to enter a command headquarters unit of assignment," I would tell them. "Enter Advisory Team 99, and you'll have a Q and A session with the colored seven foot plus pro player."
I started a trend. I started seeing other men on the team sporting the free twenty dollar tennis shoes. Tennis shoes are good even when one has no real need for them. Free tennis shoes are even better! Sadly, I didn't have room in my duffel bag for my tennis shoes when I left Advisory Team 99 a few weeks later. Some deserving South Vietnamese (or perhaps some neighboring and undeserving Viet Cong) probably got the most use of them.
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