Sharkbait

In early 1966, Dr. Guy Clark received orders to go to Vietnam, and upon arrival that June was assigned to be a flight surgeon at Cam Ranh Bay Air Force Base, on the South China Sea. Thus began a year-long assignment that would find Clark flying more than ninety bombing missions over Vietnam in the Phantom F4-C, plunging deep into the Viet Cong-infested jungle with a gaggle of Republic of Korea Marines in search of the remains of two lost Phantom pilots, and tending to the medical needs of the pilots he flew with.

Sharkbait, A Flight Surgeon’s Odyssey in Vietnam tells these stories and more, including Clark’s survival of “Jungle Survival School” in the Philippines, and temporary assignments at Vung Tau (the “Riviera” for servicemen in Vietnam), Binh Thuy, and other Air Force outposts in Vietnam. Along the way, Clark introduces readers to arrogant and clueless military brass, and courageous pilots who day after day fly into the danger and uncertainty of a war that was becoming increasingly unpopular at home.

Guy Clark’s experiences as flight surgeon and doctor to the pilots who flew bombing missions every day were very different from the ground troops and helicopter pilots, many of whom have written eloquently about their own war experiences. Clark was a physician who dreamed of high adventure, and flying with the Phantom F4-C pilots was the ultimate high.

In early 1966, Dr. Guy Clark received orders to go to Vietnam, and upon arrival that June was assigned to be a flight surgeon at Cam Ranh Bay Air Force Base, on the South China Sea. Thus began a year-long assignment that would find Clark flying more than ninety bombing missions over Vietnam in the Phantom F4-C, plunging deep into the Viet Cong-infested jungle with a gaggle of Republic of Korea Marines in search of the remains of two lost Phantom pilots, and tending to the medical needs of the pilots he flew with.

Sharkbait, A Flight Surgeon’s Odyssey in Vietnam tells these stories and more, including Clark’s survival of “Jungle Survival School” in the Philippines, and temporary assignments at Vung Tau (the “Riviera” for servicemen in Vietnam), Binh Thuy, and other Air Force outposts in Vietnam. Along the way, Clark introduces readers to arrogant and clueless military brass, and courageous pilots who day after day fly into the danger and uncertainty of a war that was becoming increasingly unpopular at home.

Guy Clark’s experiences as flight surgeon and doctor to the pilots who flew bombing missions every day were very different from the ground troops and helicopter pilots, many of whom have written eloquently about their own war experiences. Clark was a physician who dreamed of high adventure, and flying with the Phantom F4-C pilots was the ultimate high.

Dr. Guy S. Clark is medical director of The Arthritis Institute of Santa Barbara and The Osteoporosis Institute of Santa Barbara, Calif., which he founded in 1975 and 1990, respectively.

Dr. Clark received his bachelor’s degree from Emory University in Atlanta, GA, and his medical degree from Northwestern University School of Medicine in Chicago. He is certified by the American Board of Medical Examiners, the American Board of Forensic Medicine, the International Society for Clinical Densitometry, and the American Board of Forensic Examiners, and board-qualified by the American Board of Internal Medicine. He also is a founding fellow of the American Rheumatism Association and the American College of Rheumatology.

In addition to his directorships of the Arthritis and Osteoporosis Institutes in Santa Barbara, he has served in numerous executive and administrative positions over the course of his career, including positions in occupational and emergency medicine, extended care and convalescent medicine, and laboratory and clinical pathology. He has served as a senior aviation medical examiner for the Federal Aviation Administration since 1971.

For his service in Vietnam, Dr. Clark received the Bronze Star, three Air Medals, the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry, and the Vietnam Service Medal. This memoir is based on almost daily entries in a personal journal he kept throughout his year of service in Vietnam, from June 1966-June 1967.