Ed Freudenburg
June 1969 to January 1970

My Phuoc Vinh tour-of-duty time was probably one of the shortest on record as I literally started working at the IO’s front door in Command Information and then moved to the back door of our office compound as Cavalair editor – all within five months. By early November 1969, I was fortunate to become the “production editor” in Tokyo until my “one year, nine months, seven days” as a draftee ended in January 1970.

When I arrived at JD’s door on June 8, the first thing he said was that I needed to “go to the field” for some “experience.” But, that never happened. Instead, my first assignments involved writing the general’s twice-daily newspaper based on AFVN radio broadcasts, handling 1^st Cav Association enrollments and preparing hometown news releases (1526 forms). That all changed on Aug. 14 as I moved to the Press Section and took up duties as a rewrite editor, Cavalair layout editor and nightly “war story” writer until Nov. 9 when I left for Cavalair production editor duties at Stars & Stripes in Tokyo. If you’re wondering how I can remember all these details 35 years later, it’s because my daily letters home to my wife, Pat, were all saved and turned into an unpublished journal in 2002.

By the time I arrived in Phuoc Vinh, I was already 24 years old with a BA in journalism and had served as both a civilian and military newspaper reporter and editor. But after I left the Army with an “early-out” for school, my career path turned to public relations where I’ve been employed for 35 years in the Los Angeles area.

In 1970, I joined the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s (LADWP) public relations division and worked 27 years before retiring in 1998 as the division director. Much of my LADWP career involved conducting public information programs for new power plants, transmission line projects and water facilities. Over that time, I served many years as the utility’s prime spokesperson to the news media while also managing the media relations function for the nation’s largest municipal utility.

When California deregulated its electric utility industry in March 1998, I moved to the California Power Exchange (CalPX) as its first corporate communications manager after the LADWP offered a “downsizing package” to its senior staff. As a one-person staff, I found myself back into “hands-on” public communications work for two years while the short-lived California energy market flourished.

I left CalPX in January 2000, before the Enron scandal and CalPX’s eventual collapse, to start EDS Communications Associates, my current “free agent” public communications business operating out of a home office. Since then, I’ve worked for a number of municipal utility clients on power plant projects and conducted several national surveys for Standard & Poor’s.

This year, Pat and I will celebrate our 38^th anniversary, and we have a 33 year-old daughter, Lisa, who is the planning manager for the City of Santa Clarita, California. Pat also works in public relations at Van Nuys Airport, the nation’s busiest general aviation airport, but keeps her pending retirement papers ready in her bottom desk drawer, just in case she decides on a quick exit.

As for retirement, I’m waiting for Pat to retire and join me on-the-road for some additional world travel. In recent years, we have enjoyed a number of cruises and European trips, but I’ve never had the desire to walk the streets of Saigon again unless it’s during a brief port stop on a world cruise, which is on my “to do” list these days. As you can tell, travel is one of my goals for the “good days” ahead. And as for my client work, I’m finding that my best days are now the ones without any “billable” hours.