Kim Virant and Richard Virant

[00:00] KIM VIRANT: Hi there. My name is Kim, and I'm 55, and the date is Tuesday, May 11, 2021. I'm in the Seattle area in Washington state, and my buddy here is Richard, and he is my dad. Hi, dad.

[00:20] RICHARD VIRANT: Hello, I'm Richard. All my friends call me Dick, and I'm also here in Bothell, Washington, a beautiful state, and I've been to most states, so I know what I'm talking about. Glad to be here. Thank you.

[00:43] KIM VIRANT: We're going to talk about your military service and some things about that, because we're here for the military voices for storycorps.

[00:51] RICHARD VIRANT: Well, I was thinking about that, and one thing that struck me was they asked how it was different from civil life, civilian life. And to give an example, I went to air war college, and afterwards my assignment was to Mildenhall, England, and we were there for four years. I went as lieutenant colonel, as deputy base commander, and which was kind of interesting, because the base commander at that time was Mary McPeek, Tony McPeek, who became the chief of staff of the United States Air Force.

[01:32] KIM VIRANT: So that's big doings, a tough boss.

[01:38] RICHARD VIRANT: I was there for two years, and then I got promoted to full colonel. And when I did, they gave me my own base. So I became base commander at RF Alkonberry. The thing that was interesting to me is that the family, Kim and her brother Christopher, and my wife Susan, stayed at Mildenhall for them to finish school. So I went to Alkanbury by myself for a while. And when I was there, being the base commander, I had my own staff car, my sergeant, etcetera, and my sergeant, my first sergeant said, would you like to meet the rest of the people? And I said, yes. So we got in my car, and I was driving. We drove over to the personnel, military personnel, an old wooden building two stories. The sergeant opened the door for me. I walked through the door, and the first person that saw me called the building to attention. I could hear heels clicking all over the building, and my best voice, I said, add ease. And I met people. And then afterwards, we got in the car, and I'm sitting there, and my first sergeant looks at me, and he said, is there something wrong, Colonel Virant I said, yes, I can't do this. He said, do what? I said, I'm really uncomfortable about people calling a building to attention. I said, I'm a kid from Willoughby, Ohio, and it's a little too much for me. And the sergeant said, Colonel Virant they are not calling the building to attention because you're from Willoughby, Ohio, but because you're the base commander and you're the full colonel. And I said, okay, I can live with that if I never forget the fact that I'm the kid from Willoughby. That was very fortunate to have the position I have now. So it worked out well. So, for me, there was never any difference between civilian life and military life, especially with the air force. The air force is more of a business than the other services. So it was just a great time, and we enjoyed England for four years.

[03:59] KIM VIRANT: And then. So, speaking of being a kid from Willoughby, how did you end up enlisting?

[04:05] RICHARD VIRANT: Well, this was before, just very quickly. I went to Cleveland, Ohio, to the case Institute of Technology. I went there for a year. I was running out of money, so I decided to take in sabbatical for a year and go to work. But I wanted to make sure I didn't get drafted. So I went to the draft board in downtown Cleveland, and they assured me that I wouldn't be. I was 19 at the time. They assured me that I would not be drafted to the 24. As I was leaving, a recruiting sergeant from the Air Force said, you'd make a great aviation cadet. I didn't have a slightest idea what he's talking about. It turns out that this was before the Air Force academy. And to get pilots and navigators, the two flyers officers in the air Force, they had this program called aviation cadet. So we said, just take a test. I said, I'm going to take a test. He said, just take tests. There's no obligation. I said, okay. So I took the test was a hundred question task, and I thought he was going to become unglued, because I don't know why I missed one, but I got a 99 on it.

[05:27] KIM VIRANT: He said, I got a live one.

[05:28] RICHARD VIRANT: He said, I've never had anybody get a 99 before. So we said we could send you to Chinu Air Force base in Illinois for a week or ten days and go through all the tests, et cetera, to see if you qualify as a pilot or a navigator. And I said, I'm not interested. And he said, let me call the train. So he called the train station, and he hung up the phone. He said, I'm sorry, but there's no train available. There's no seat available for you on the train. I said, good, because I'm not going. And then he said, however, I was able to get you a room on the train. So here's this 19 year old kid who had been just to Ohio, Pennsylvania, and, and West Virginia. And so I said. And he said, the train goes from Cleveland to Chicago, you change trains, and then it goes down to Chanute, which is in central Illinois. So I said, fine. I said, and he says, there's no obligation. You go for the week, and if you don't pass, there's no problem. It's not going to change your status at all, not your draft status. And if you pass, you don't have to take the deal. He said, I had friends in Chicago, and I said, can I take the train down there and back? And coming through Chicago spent two days before coming back to Cleveland. He said, yeah, I could do that. So I said, okay. So I went, I went down there. It was October, it was colder than heck. In fact, we, they put us in this open bay barracks and it was so cold in there that in the old days, they had what they called butt cans. Everyone smoked and, and they would take these old large tomato cans and fill them with water. So when you smoke, you throw your cigarette in there. Well, we'd get up in the morning, they'd be frozen.

[07:37] KIM VIRANT: Oh, my gosh.

[07:39] RICHARD VIRANT: So it was really cold. And I had no pressure because I didn't care. I was just there on the lark. And so all the tests, everything else, it was enjoyable. And I went to the grocery store, no, commissary. Oh, I went to the retail store. No, no, no, that's the basics change. So I learned all this about the air force. And so at the end, I, for a week or ten days, and at the end, this major calls me into his office and he says, he's Mister Virant He said, you passed everything. And he said, welcome to the air force as a pilot. And I said, I don't want to be a pilot. I thought he was going to faint. He said, everyone wants to be a pilot. He said, no, I want to be a navigator.

[08:28] KIM VIRANT: Always different drummer.

[08:31] RICHARD VIRANT: The, the reason I want to be a navigator is that I wasn't going to stay in the air force at that time. The navigator, of course, had many hours of electronics, learning everything about electronics, so, and that's what I was, I was an EE major at case. So this is going to be fine. I'm going to go in there for two years, get all the training, and then say that I have a fear of flying and they, and they release you from the air force. Then you just serve two years. Yeah, so, so that's what I did. I became a navigator and I went through navigator training. And then when it was time for me to what they called self inflicted elimination, or Siadhead, when time sie and this is just like, as I said previous to the academy. So this was like the academy. We had a freshman class of sophomore, and it was all military. Get up. 05:00 in the morning make your bed fall out for. So it was just really unique. And so it was a lot of work. And so when it came time for me to sie, I couldn't do it. They were going to give me silver rings and gold bars. So I thought, okay. And when I did that, it was committed for five years. I said, okay, I'll do that. And I get to get the GI bill after, afterwards and finish my education. Well, somehow the years went on after 28 years.

[10:18] KIM VIRANT: And I'm going to say that 05:00 a.m. making your bed did not stick with you.

[10:23] RICHARD VIRANT: Not hardly.

[10:25] KIM VIRANT: I think you like to go to.

[10:26] RICHARD VIRANT: Bed at 05:00 a.m. now that I've been retired now for a number of years, I'm really bad about that. I try to get to bed by two amenity. Sometimes it's three, sometimes it's four. And my son the other day came by and looked at my bedroom and the bed wasn't made. And he said, you know, the admiral says you're supposed to make a bed every morning to start your day out, because that's what I do. I said, fine. I said, but I read where bed bugs do not like warm beds. So that's why I don't cover anything up.

[11:03] KIM VIRANT: You're like, I'm not giving them host.

[11:05] RICHARD VIRANT: I air it out every day. So.

[11:07] KIM VIRANT: So what were, um. You traveled all over the world? Like, I've seen your flat map of the world, and there are so many pins in there, I can't even believe it. But I wanted to talk about when you got marooned on Easter island. What year was that?

[11:23] RICHARD VIRANT: 1962.

[11:26] KIM VIRANT: Oh, right before you got married.

[11:28] RICHARD VIRANT: Yes. Married in 63. Yeah. In fact, I missed my classmates winning Val Benninger because he got married in October 62 when I was on Easter island.

[11:41] KIM VIRANT: And how did you end up on Easter island?

[11:43] RICHARD VIRANT: Just very quickly, the, in those days, for Chile to get an Easter island belongs to the country of Chile. To get the chile from Japan, for transporting stuff, you had to go through San Francisco. And they were looking for a way where they could fly from Japan directly to Santiago, Chile. But it was too far. The french polynesian islands, they didn't have the jets that they had have now. Long.

[12:18] KIM VIRANT: Haul.

[12:19] RICHARD VIRANT: Long haul. Yeah. Thank you. And so they decided that they would go to Easter island to take a look to see if they can make an airport. They have what they called an airport there, but it wasn't. It was just a field for cows. And so they. So I think what happened was the conversation between the chilean government and the embassy, because we are on the auspices of the embassy as opposed to the air force, even though we're air force. And so they sent two airplanes, C 130s, down to Santiago, spent a couple days there, and then we flew to Easter island. The other aircraft had a little bit of problem, oil problems, so they got off an hour behind us. We got to Easter island. On top was one of my best navigating ever, and we landed. And supposedly this field had been core tested, and so it would be heavy enough or sturdy enough to hold an airplane. Well, as I was telling. Telling you, it's like an apple pie if that's been covered. If you stick your finger in the apple pie, if you hit an apple, your finger won't go in, but if you hit between the apples, your finger goes in.

[13:55] KIM VIRANT: The wheel of your plane is going in.

[13:57] RICHARD VIRANT: So that's what happened. As we're taxing in to where we're going to park, we hit one of those open spaces, and then the ground gave away, and the airplane fell over on the left wing. Fortunately, we were able to stop it before the wing touched. And. And we were there for two months. And it turns out the reason we were there for two months, I didn't understand why we weren't getting support from the secretary of state, because that's who we were under. And so when I got home, as I was telling you, and my Saturday Evening Post magazine had a black border around it. And the reason it had a black border around it is because we almost went to war. It was during the cuban crisis that I was on this island. So the secretary of state has more.

[14:56] KIM VIRANT: Important things he was working on.

[14:59] RICHARD VIRANT: Yeah. Than these people sitting on the island. So it was just great. So I was out there for two months. I became. Today, of course, now it's like Disneyland. I mean, it has big hotels and restaurants, and tours come in every day. I think they have two flights a day come in there now with tours. When I was there, it was primitive. There were 1200 people. They never had. They only have one ship a year come in to bring supplies in, and then that was the only ship, so.

[15:44] KIM VIRANT: Wow. So you guys were the entertainment.

[15:48] RICHARD VIRANT: Yes, but it was just really interesting. There was a leper colony there.

[15:54] KIM VIRANT: That's right. Was there a priest that took care of the lepers?

[15:59] RICHARD VIRANT: Yeah, two sisters took care of the lepers. And they had a doctor on there. The doctor asked if I wanted to go sit to visit the leper colony. I said, no, I'll go as far as the sister's house, but I'm not going to go out and do the tour. And. But, I mean, it was just great. The, the head of the governor of the island wife had heard herself, and so she couldn't ride, so she gave me her horse.

[16:32] KIM VIRANT: Oh, my goodness.

[16:33] RICHARD VIRANT: So I rode all over the island on horseback.

[16:37] KIM VIRANT: That's so amazing.

[16:39] RICHARD VIRANT: Yeah.

[16:39] KIM VIRANT: Have you gone back since?

[16:41] RICHARD VIRANT: No. You can't go back. As Thomas Wolfe said. No. Yeah, no, it's just. But I have stuff from there. In fact, I have a board that I ought to have checked because it may be worth something. But anyways, that's just one of my thing. As you know, I'm a world traveler.

[17:03] KIM VIRANT: Yes, I do.

[17:05] RICHARD VIRANT: I've been to 122 countries. Wow. I've been to every state in the union.

[17:16] KIM VIRANT: I can say, as your daughter, I've been to every state in the union as well.

[17:20] RICHARD VIRANT: Yes, we did.

[17:21] KIM VIRANT: We did a lot of car traveling.

[17:23] RICHARD VIRANT: Yes. And every year I drive to the east coast from the Seattle area, taking a back road each time. I can now say without contradiction that I don't care what state you're from, I have seen more of your state than 80% of its population.

[17:49] KIM VIRANT: I would bet that's true.

[17:51] RICHARD VIRANT: I mean, just, just amazing. America is amazing. I mean, it just, if I, if I have a trip and I come back and I didn't wet my eyes on some vista.

[18:03] KIM VIRANT: Yes.

[18:04] RICHARD VIRANT: It wasn't a good trip.

[18:06] KIM VIRANT: It's so interesting, you. By happenstance, you fell into a military career with all the travel that was involved, and that was, it just went hand in hand with your wonder lesson, desire to see what was out there. And I think that all of that is a deep sense of curiosity, which you've given me as well. And I think. Yeah, I think the travel. What would you, would you say that's the best part of the military, the travel?

[18:35] RICHARD VIRANT: Well, as it turned out, when, when I graduated from navigator school, my first assignment was Charleston air force base, South Carolina, and we flew the aircraft. It was called the super consolation. It was Lufonza and Pan am and TWA use aircraft before, before jets. That was the last four engine aircraft, and I was a navigator on that. On that. And we flew passengers all the time. If someone got an assignment to Germany, we load up all the people going to Germany. We would fly to Germany and fly just Saudi Arabia, etcetera. And so, with the air force, I flew a lot, but then. But then after I retired, I start flying, start driving all the time. Matter of fact, my cross country are driving, but. And then for overseas, I'll take a tour sometimes. Sometimes I go on my own. I might take a cruise. It depends.

[19:44] KIM VIRANT: I can't keep up.

[19:45] RICHARD VIRANT: Yeah.

[19:45] KIM VIRANT: If it's Tuesday, it must be Belgium.

[19:47] RICHARD VIRANT: Yeah, right.

[19:48] KIM VIRANT: And if you know that reference, then you're a little bit older.

[19:51] RICHARD VIRANT: And actually, the air force wasn't my start. When I went to grade school, I guess I was about eight or nine, third or fourth grade. My school did not have a library. The town had a library. The library could been with Hogsworth.

[20:12] KIM VIRANT: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[20:15] RICHARD VIRANT: I mean, it was old wood, smelled of old wood, smelled of old books. And I found travel books. Oh, I didn't know this. Yeah, it, and it read about far away places with strange sounding names. They actually made a song of that later, but I thought of how exciting it would be to travel. And the other thing, I have an insatiable curiosity.

[20:49] KIM VIRANT: Yes.

[20:50] RICHARD VIRANT: I mean, if I see a rock, I'll turn it over to find out what's under it, but. So on my trips, like on a trip where I'll go on a tour and then we have an afternoon free, and I. And there's a tour you can go on. I don't do that. I just walk the city then and go into a pub. I just love people.

[21:19] KIM VIRANT: Well, that gives you an opportunity to kind of soak in the environment more so than just being on a bus.

[21:27] RICHARD VIRANT: I've never met a stranger. I mean, it just. I always find something to talk to them about that usually about where they live or like, if in the states, you just tell me where you're from, and I've either been to your town or city or village or within 25 miles of it, so whoever I meet, I can talk about anything.

[21:53] KIM VIRANT: I got that from you, too. I talk to anybody.

[21:56] RICHARD VIRANT: Yeah. I mean, and that's the other thing, is that when you get to the level of population, just regular people, no matter where I've been in the world, it turns out we're all the same.

[22:12] KIM VIRANT: Yes.

[22:13] RICHARD VIRANT: Want the same things. You know, just a roof over our head, clothes on our back, something to eat and friends, and it's just amazing. So. And the air force got me to a lot of those places.

[22:30] KIM VIRANT: Yes. I think it opens up opportunities.

[22:32] RICHARD VIRANT: Yes.

[22:33] KIM VIRANT: I really liked being a military brat. I thought it was. I think it's good training as you. I mean, you move every couple years, so we don't talk to people. You don't make friends. But I wanted to thank you for giving me such a wonderful opportunity to, to be a military mat, to travel with you. I love you very much. I also wanted to thank you for taking this time for me, for letting me interview you on this.

[22:58] RICHARD VIRANT: Oh, anytime. I've got so many stories you can't.

[23:01] KIM VIRANT: Believe those are for another day.

[23:05] RICHARD VIRANT: Yeah. Just as a comment. I tell stories all the time. And I have a friend and I told her, I said, just do, just pull your earlobe. If I'm getting too, too long and.

[23:20] KIM VIRANT: Too many stories, I'm pulling my earlobe now. Daddy, I love you. Okay, thank you.

[23:25] RICHARD VIRANT: Thank you. Take care.

[23:31] KIM VIRANT: So do you have a favorite state or favorite memory from traveling across the country during your service?

[23:37] RICHARD VIRANT: Well, not so much during the service. I mean. Yeah, we're in the service. Besides going to England, we were stationed at Ohio. Air Force sent me back for an MBA at Ohio State University, and my undergraduate degree is Florida State University.

[24:03] KIM VIRANT: That's where I was born. Tallahassee.

[24:04] RICHARD VIRANT: Yeah, Tallahassee. Born in Tallahassee, Florida. And as I tell people, I didn't learn a lot education, but I saw some great football because both schools were really football talent. We were, I remember before going to Southeast Asia, I had to go to a school in Sacramento, California. And you were about five, and it was in October, again at Halloween. So we rented a small apartment because I was there for six weeks. And Halloween came and we dressed you up and we went over to the, to a upper class neighborhood, and you went from door to door and one lady said, you're not from here, are you? But no, and then I remember that.

[25:06] KIM VIRANT: Because you were going to. That you were going to train before you got sent off to, to Vietnam. Right. And that was a super hard, like, I remember that was the first time you had left. I remember saying goodbye to you. It was the most upsetting. Cause you had this first time you had left. And that was like when you left to go to Southeast Asia, that wasn't as traumatic like, okay, we've done this, I've done that first time. Where were you going? Sacramento. Not very far.

[25:36] RICHARD VIRANT: No, no, the first one was actually from Spokane, Washington. I had to go to three weeks to a war school, had to learn about how to be a pow and training.

[25:52] KIM VIRANT: Oh, that's when the one. So that's because in my mind, you were gone for a very long time.

[25:56] RICHARD VIRANT: Yeah, three weeks. Survival. I was a major then. And then, which is kind of interesting. Went out in the woods. And they, and they had us with a enlisted man who was an instructor. And there were five of, five or six of us in this squad, so to speak, myself, I had a captain, a lieutenant and a sergeant, and a couple of enlisted guys. And so we had to use a parachute to make a tent. So the instructor showed how to make the tent, how to dig a trench around there. So when the water came, it wouldn't come in the tent. It would go in that little canal, etcetera. So. So he handed parachutes out to everybody, and he gave me one, and I said, I need a parachute. He said, no, major, this is yours.

[26:57] KIM VIRANT: Oh, that's nice. Yeah, the bennies.

[27:01] RICHARD VIRANT: Yeah. That was kind of interesting because they had a Pow camp, and, which was interesting because what they did, they captured us, so to speak, put us, put a bag over our head, put us in a cell that was five by five by five. So you couldn't stand up, you couldn't lay down. Then they took us out of that, and they went through an interrogation, and you had this bag on your head all the time. And then they, with one of the things they did, they put you in the box.

[27:40] KIM VIRANT: I don't like the sounds of that.

[27:42] RICHARD VIRANT: So, yeah, I didn't either, because I'm a little claustrophobic. And so when I went to the line and they grabbed me and they maybe squat and duck walk into this box, and when you get into the box, it's, they can change the size of the box because, you know, whether they're big man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they clamped it all down so the boxes squeezes you.

[28:15] KIM VIRANT: Oh, that is definitely not for me.

[28:18] RICHARD VIRANT: And so, but I got through it because I said to myself, wow, why don't they turn the lights on? This is a really big hall, and they ought to have the lights on. Why? Why is it so dark in this hall? I mean, I've never been in a hall this big. This arena. Gosh, I bet it's beautiful. I wish I turned the lights on so I could see it. So I convinced myself you were in a big cavern. Yes.

[28:45] KIM VIRANT: Did they keep you? Do you know how long you were in that box for?

[28:48] RICHARD VIRANT: Just. Just about five minutes.

[28:51] KIM VIRANT: Still. That's just crazy.

[28:53] RICHARD VIRANT: And then they took us to these quonset. Well, they're not quonset, but there were trenches in the dirt with a metal covering over it.

[29:07] KIM VIRANT: Okay.

[29:08] RICHARD VIRANT: So we had to sleep in there. And then the commandant comes out.

[29:16] KIM VIRANT: Yes.

[29:17] RICHARD VIRANT: And he starts yelling about, blah. And we're going to do such and such. So there was a major who was the highest ranking person there. And so he gets out and stands in front of the commandant and says, geneva conference convention. You can't do this. Can't do this. And he just says, take this man away.

[29:42] KIM VIRANT: Oh, no.

[29:43] RICHARD VIRANT: So they take the major away. So the next major gets up, and so, same deal. So when he gets pulled away, I look around. The next person is a captain, the only other major there it is. I.

[30:04] KIM VIRANT: It's time, buddy.

[30:05] RICHARD VIRANT: So I get up, I go through the same spiel. And so now they're going to teach us what's real. So he says, get one of those sergeants. So they pull one of the sergeants out of the. One of the ruts, and they have a hole in the ground. They lift up this lid, and they put them in there, and they close the lid.

[30:33] KIM VIRANT: Oh, no.

[30:35] RICHARD VIRANT: And so the commandant says, see this major, your officer, he doesn't care about you all. He cares about himself. Look at that. And so I stood my ground. And so he gets another sergeant out another hole and puts him in there.

[30:52] KIM VIRANT: Oh, my goodness.

[30:54] RICHARD VIRANT: And I'm not going to back down. This is Geneva Convention. You got to stick to the Geneva convention. He gets so frustrated that he says, take him now. It's October and it's colder now. And he said, take him and put him in the water.

[31:11] KIM VIRANT: Oh, no.

[31:13] RICHARD VIRANT: Oh, God. So they dragged me over, stripped me down to my shorts, and there's this big barrel, and they got to break the ice in the water. And so they had me step up on the step, and they say. They said a word. Instruction. It was. I forgot the word is now. But what that word was was, okay, this is hold. Right now the whole thing stops.

[31:48] KIM VIRANT: Okay. Like a safe word.

[31:50] RICHARD VIRANT: What's that?

[31:51] KIM VIRANT: Like a safe word. Like, okay, we're done.

[31:54] RICHARD VIRANT: Yeah. So they gave my clothes back. I get dressed, and they. And I wouldn't talk to the commandant, and he said, you can't do that, major. He said, you got to let the commandant say face. You didn't do that. You stood up to him.

[32:10] KIM VIRANT: Oh.

[32:11] RICHARD VIRANT: And he lost face in front of his own people.

[32:14] KIM VIRANT: Oh. So, yeah. So you have to. So you have to be political about it.

[32:18] RICHARD VIRANT: Yes. Right.

[32:20] KIM VIRANT: Oh, wow. Wow. That's.

[32:22] RICHARD VIRANT: Academic situation. That was it.

[32:24] KIM VIRANT: Academic situation. We have to have a pause here. Academic situation. I remember because you were gone that year. Were you gone about a year?

[32:34] RICHARD VIRANT: Yeah. Then. And then after that, I came back home, and then we all went to Sacramento. That's when you're five.

[32:42] KIM VIRANT: Okay.

[32:43] RICHARD VIRANT: And we were there for six weeks. In Sacramento. And then I left Sacramento, and I went to the Philippines. I had to go through jungle school.

[32:52] KIM VIRANT: Oh, wow.

[32:52] RICHARD VIRANT: So they. For a week, they put us out into the jungle, which was kind of unique. They gave me a parachute, and it said, okay, major goat. And they led me down a path about a mile from where we were camped, and he said, find a couple trees and create a hammock for yourself because this is where you're sleeping tonight. I don't know how much I slept at night. I kept looking at these eyes.

[33:20] KIM VIRANT: Was it noisy?

[33:21] RICHARD VIRANT: No, it was quiet, but it was a jungle. They have all kinds of animals. Yeah. Especially after snakes, and I forget what kind of cat they had. So. So I went through that thing, and then I went to southeast Asia, and I had 92 combat missions.

[33:43] KIM VIRANT: That's a lot.

[33:44] RICHARD VIRANT: And almost a thousand hours of combat time.

[33:48] KIM VIRANT: That's a lot.

[33:50] RICHARD VIRANT: The only good part about it was that my home base was in Thailand. So when we got on an assignment, there were. This had to do with the Ho Chi Minh trailhead. And there were spots in the air that were colored green, yellow, black. And so we'd get orders for that day, and it would say, go to green, so we would fly to green. And so which was in Cambodia or South Vietnam or off the coast of North Vietnam, it was black. We don't want. No, I don't want to do the black. Yeah, over there. And so, um, we would fly for eight to 10 hours. Just a ray track pattern, so.

[34:44] KIM VIRANT: Wow.

[34:44] RICHARD VIRANT: And because all we were was a taxicab, because in the back were these, uh, spooks. They had all sorts of computers, etcetera, and what they would do, the fighters would see the Ho Chi Minh trail, ho Chi Minh trail, which is. Which is the spider Webber trails. It's not just one trail. And they would lay down. These look like stovepipes, but they were acoustic and audio recording. And so when we would go to green, overdose the trail and just make the circle 15 minutes, make a turn, come back 15 minutes.

[35:29] KIM VIRANT: So that were they picking up frequencies.

[35:31] RICHARD VIRANT: And so they were listening to these things, and the truck traffic would set these things off, that they could hear truck traffic, and then they would send the fighters in or the gunships. Okay, to get the trucks, but. And so for us, we would set up on, like, in green and set the autopilot on. And so once I got there, that my navigating was through, because we just.

[36:01] KIM VIRANT: Yeah.

[36:01] RICHARD VIRANT: And so I would switch with the pilots. I would sit in the. I mean, I could operate the aircraft when it was on autopilot. Yeah.

[36:09] KIM VIRANT: Because it was just going.

[36:10] RICHARD VIRANT: Yeah. So, like an oval. Yeah. So I would fly the airplane on autopilot, and then. And one of the pilots will always be in the left seat, which is the command seat. And so we just switched around so the pilots didn't have to sit there for 10 hours.

[36:27] KIM VIRANT: Right. I don't think I ever realized what you were doing when you were over there. But I was only. I think it was five or six.

[36:32] RICHARD VIRANT: Five, yes. Yeah. You and mother were having a great time in Phoenix, Arizona.

[36:38] KIM VIRANT: It was. It was nice. It was warm, but I always. You would always send me cards, and you'd always send me. I have that little ladybug watch with the little wings with.

[36:47] RICHARD VIRANT: Oh, yeah.

[36:48] KIM VIRANT: It was a rose gold. Yeah. No, it was, uh. I was happy when you were back.

[36:55] RICHARD VIRANT: Yeah. I. I came back from there, and mother was disappointed. She was hoping for Phoenix, and we got the Pentagon instead.

[37:04] KIM VIRANT: But that was great. I love living outside of Washington. We were there the longest. Three and a half years.

[37:10] RICHARD VIRANT: Yeah. Three and a half years. Yeah. I had a good job at the Pentagon, and the neighborhood we lived in, red Fox Forest in Virginia, was just great. The people on there, it had been a dead end street at one time, so. And that was open. We moved down there, and they had about a dozen families, and with, all the kids were about the same age, so it was really great.

[37:46] KIM VIRANT: It was good. Are we done? Do we have anything more? Hi, Kevin.

[37:55] RICHARD VIRANT: Almost seven.

[37:57] KIM VIRANT: How many, how much more minutes?

[38:01] RICHARD VIRANT: Kevin's asleep.

[38:03] KIM VIRANT: Kevin's not sleeping. All right. Well, thank each other. Well, I wanted to thank you very much for telling me the stories and sharing with me on military voices for storycorps. Do I sound official?

[38:15] RICHARD VIRANT: Yes. My pleasure.

[38:18] KIM VIRANT: Thank you.