Military personnel in the 1960s and 70s were not exactly overpaid, even if one considers overseas pay and hazardous duty pay. In July 1970, our annual raise took the monthly base pay for most of us in the Snake Platoon to one hundred seventy to three hundred fifty-five dollars, depending on rank and time in service. That’s about five sixty to eleven eighty-five per day. On the other hand, most of us were single and did not really have any living expenses beyond basic toiletries. Clothing, food and shelter were provided at no charge.
In 2014 Meredith H. Lare wrote a book entitled Armed with Abundance. In her book, Lare discussed the Defense Department’s attempt to keep the GI in Vietnam happy by providing him the opportunity to buy all sorts of consumer goods. The price of beer and sodas has already been addressed, and the Post and Base Exchanges (PX) sold cigarettes at the ridiculously low price of a dollar twenty a carton. Every military base of any size in Vietnam had a PX where one could buy all the necessities of life, including Japanese stereo systems and televisions, Omega and Seiko watches, and really nice Japanese 35mm camera equipment (Nikon, Minolta and other brands), all at extremely attractive prices. At least one major PX even had representatives from General Motors, Ford and Chrysler who would sell a GI a new automobile to be delivered to his stateside address the day he returned home.
Nha Trang had substantial PXes on both the Army Base and the Air Force Base. Additionally, there were PX snack bars scattered around, and the 313th Headquarters area had a PX run Vietnamese giftshop and barber shop. Contrary to laws and regulation, some of the goods purchased at the PX, and even items obtained from the mess hall or supply system, found their way downtown to the black market for sale by street vendors. Larry Gonzalez shared a picture once of him holding an orange purchased from a Nha Trang street vendor. The orange was clearly stamped ‘Florida.’ If the PX didn’t have what you were looking for, and you couldn’t find it downtown, you could order it from the PX catalog and have it delivered to you or to your home address.
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