I came home from WestPac twice in 1971; the second time was on a C9 carrying injured/wounded home to area hospitals...No customs...No baggage inspection...
The first time I came home was on the "Freedom Bird"; we went through customs at an air base in Hawaii [Hickam?] and we all piled out of the aircraft with our seabags & ditty-bop bags on the tarmac, lined up in formation but spread out a bit...and customs agents went through your bags...they had an "Amnesty Box" which they suggested you use because they *would* find your contraband...I didn't have anything (I was on compassionate emergency leave - my father died) but others did...The pile of seized stuff was six feet high when I was checked and told to reboard the plane...
As far as I know, no one was detained or written up...but there sure was a mess of spilled uniforms on the tarmac for a while...
The second time for me was due to an injury...and I only had time for a ditty-bop bag of stuff...The rest of my uniforms boots etc were scattered all over Okinawa...Laundry girls; shoe-shine boys; loaned stuff...My buddies packed it all up and it was shipped home as "Household Effects"...by ship, I think...It didn't get home for a month or so after I did...
My buddies packed my M16 bayonet in with my stuff...It made it...
