We got our pager long before it became popular. The distribution was based on department units. There were several pagers for one unit, and you got it if they thought you should have one. But it gave only bleeps. The bleeps were the code. We had a note for decoding: one bleep meant a particular thing, and two bleeps meant a particular person called you. The control center was at the headquarters. They used the bleeps to tell you which department you had to call back.

At first the company paid for home phone installation for employees above the engineer rank. Later they used pager. HAECO mainly repaired U.S.cargo aircrafts during the Vietnam War. One time, the U.S.military chartered a CL-44 to deliver cargos to Saigon’s Tan Son Nhat Airport, but because it was overloaded the landing gear was damaged. The airline advised the U.S.military to seek help from HAECO and try to send it to Hong Kong for service. I was on holiday at that time, swimming in Sai Kung. My boss called my pager, and I called the telephone company soon after I went ashore. Then I knew my boss called me. He told me an aircraft in “Saigon” needed help and urged me to come back. I said I was right in “Sai Kung” (note: the Chinese name of “Saigon”, in Vietnam, and “Sai Kung”, in Hong Kong, is exactly the same). No one was willing to go, but as I had made the promise I had to.