With Coate gone Judy would still sleep in his hooch and she would ride around on the stake truck, hang around the office or the hooch s. Judy hated Marines, and Vietnamese men but she was alright with Vietnamese women as long as they treated her nice. I was face down on the road under the edge of the truck with my foot stuck under the clutch peddle. 2023 iStockphoto LP. So over time it was easier to just not know anyone. Not all the time but sometimes . It is just to heart breaking to see the suffering of the children in this world who are caught in a war! The official report was small arms fire on the perimeter. Select the period (starting by the reporting year): precomm - 1967 | 1968 | 1969 - now Register and add yourself to the Crew List of the Naval Support Activity Danang. It seemed a bit strange to see everything so neat and tidy when On Sunday May 19 I was dropped off alone ( The Vietnamese got Sundays off) and my job was to build steps and a door for the building. Mostly I would just build and they would watch and fallow what I did. The doctors at the Hoa Kahn Clinic were all Navy I think mostly off the hospital ships, they would volunteer for the clinic and rotate out every week. The wounded man was the Mess Sargent who was the only one at the mess hall at the time. The huge fuel tank was just being build on the left out of the picture. You will use the chain of command ,don't come to me. I suppose that I needed that time alone to recover from the amputation! It was what those This is the inside of our shop.The office was upstairs and to the left. The nurse was carrying a little girl about 4 years old. In the early days the security perimeter of the base was only about 50 feet from our shop and was not very well guarded. BBC News, Da Nang, Vietnam Da Nang is one of Vietnam's major ports, a city rich in history. I couldn't grasp what was going on at the time. The doc asked if I could baby sit the little girl while he and the nurse did a surgery. Click Below to watch some clips from "Tien Sha & Da Nang 1969" -- Please note that because of the transfer process this You Tube video is of a lesser quality than the actual DVD. Honorably Discharged as a QM2(SS) in 1971ish. Rank Among Most Heavily Sprayed Provinces in Vietnam. The MPs had used their white belts as tourniquets just above the knees. time does that. I don't The exhibit was known as "The Vietnam Syndrome". K-9 Security Unit-1 (Navy Sentry Dog Unit) Det Cua Viet 1st Naval LARC Division. limits and no one ever said a word to me about these activities. But that only happened once as from then on I was ready. at Camp Fay. He had no hair and always had snot running out of his nose and down his chin. To add your photos, please email them to webmaster@ccvva.org. Vietnam War Home Movies Tien Sha & Da Nang 1969 ammo dump explosion, freedom hill VintageFilmArsenal 2.48K subscribers 37K views 8 years ago Go to vintagefilmarsenal.com to purchase a. The rocket attacks after that the would be on target! We visited Chu Laiu, Hue, and our We were also vulnerable to sappers . The nurse in the center of the picture is the one who helped amputate the farmers legs. Well damn right I was scared. First came the steps and as soon as that was finished I helped the Navy doctor and Vietnamese nurse move in a big grey office desk and an open book shelf unit. Even now-days I hate phones,radios, air conditioning and coffee ! half, aside from the times that I Total Area Sprayed (sq. Report an offensive or inappropriate entry. afford at the time and they taught me a lot about handling vehicles. Everyone had his turf marked out and nobody was willing to give any for me. map to the right is intended to be used as a As good as we were trying to do for the Vietnamese we sure as hell were not winning their hearts and minds! Jeep parts? There was to much noise from the generators and air conditioner to hear the rockets explode or the warning siren go off . I had my broken leg cot and was living out of my sea bag. DaNang aerial photograph It was reported in an Email that National Geographic Magazine somewhere between Jan. 1967 and June 1968 had an aerial photograph of DaNang with enough detail to get the CIA uptight. Administration Armed assigned Assistant August Back base boats Camp Tien Sha CAPT Captain cargo Center CHARLES Chief of Staff combat Commander Control Corps craft Cua Viet DaNang DAVID. course. [1], In mid-October 1968 the Deep Water Pier complex (160712N 1081250E / 16.12N 108.214E / 16.12; 108.214) on the Tien Sha peninsula was completed, beginning operations in September 1968. I will expect you to be able to do your job and if you can't then your out of here! The guys loaded up my tool box and gave me an M-16 so I would be able to walk back to the base later. Provinces. Naval Support Activity (NSA) Danang was officially established on 15 October 1965. Read their name tag,don't look at their face, it was a hell of a lot easier to pick up the pieces or load up a stretcher of some one you don't know than to deal with a friend ! Nights in Vietnam were uncomfortable at best. Guess There was a Marine listening ambush set up outside the perimeter in that area. Around back there was a Jeep with a utility trailer on behind. The other important thing we had to do was to check the Red Beach causeway at 2400 hr. Catecka Base Camp. While my guys were working I was talking to the Gunny in the hut. boat part would be housed in supply With over 81,000 members, VVA provides a community of fellowship with people who share common experiences, needs and hopes for the future. Often several rockets would have gone off before I even knew we were under attack ! For the time being they were stashed in my hooch and on May 24, Karl Voiles spent his first day assembling beds. We also had a couple of American Philco Ford teachers. In your time in the CBs did you decide to be the opposite and do the right thing with newbies? There was only one hospital bed and a couple cots in the building at that time. My day was done!! Yes that's me smiling up from the 122mm rocket crater. Because I had to fend for myself I did help the newbies who moved into my hooch. Off we went to the supply yard at one of the SeaBee battalions, while we were there we stopped for a quick lunch at the Navy mess hall. I am on the far left. ! I was later assigned to the Monkey Mountain Patrol. Fun! The doctor and nurse came out of the clinic. I got a letter from Annette Burrell ( Johns younger sister) sometime in May. and I was just finishing up the door. This was the closest skivvy house to Camp Books , a very short walk. The village it refers to was just north of Camp Books. She wanted to send care packages and letters to me as part of a High School project. Da Nang Cluster. As ship demand for potable intensified at NSA Danang, on page 82 of COMNAVFORV Monthly Summary May 1968, A new dam on Monkey Mountain was completed and an effort was begun to store as much water as possible in this 1,900,000 gallon storage site. hair cutting all my time there aside The Sargent in charge told him we would have to get gear from NSA Danang because the Seabee team was turned over to NSA. and went on Color home movie footage filmed by a serviceman at Camp Tien Sha and Da Nang during 1969, including footage of Freedom Hill, Dogpatch, the April 27th Da Nang ammo dump explosion & aftermath, and more. The next weekend I asked about the farmer ? Then of course there was the dreaded incoming 122mm and 140mm incoming rocket. Detachment Chu Lai - 1964 - 1971. a lot in Vietnam. Just to the right of I dreaded standing that watch but ever 5 and then 7 days I was going to get it! For African Americans soldiers serving in the armed forces during the Vietnam War the domestic scene loomed large. Khoi Tran and Hong Th Hin faved this 3,723 views 2 faves 0 comments Taken on March 17, 2017 Some rights reserved Nikon SUPER COOLSCAN 9000 ED The Monkey Mountain Patrol. right , Huan one of my carpenters. Go through their front gate then out their back gate to the causeway. know what it was about "shower [4]:2[2], In August 1967, the headquarters of NSA Danang was moved from downtown Danang to Camp Tien Sha. )The Doc gave me a large stick like a tongue depressor ,except bigger. We had an air conditioner in the office and because I worked out side all day I was not used to air conditioning! New customers can download this image at no cost with a risk-free trial. Made a very good impression on me, I didn't even consider it my whole time in Vietnam ! It was losing altitude and we were wondering if they would make it. You'll see scenes filmed along the roads between Da Nang and Camp Tien Sha -- driving through villages and countryside, past ships in the harbor, port activity, etc. That distance above us was only 4 feet. and to listen to music. Do the job, get it done right and then sign off the work order and move on to the next one. That's how we got our beds, enough for everyone. Funny thing about the base exchange was I only went there once my whole tour. I held the door open for them. Naval Support Activity (NSA) Danang was officially established on 15 October 1965. the bus to Camp Tien Sha (the one with chicken wiure on the windows) He seemed totally comfortable and relaxed. It was where the French first landed in the 19th Century in their quest to control the area and. this place, wearing only "shower The shop door are between the 2 telephone poles. I was called to active durty in July We started pouring concrete Wednesday June 5, 1968. Finally I interrupted and said I would sleep in the Korean bunker on the broken cot that was in there, end of argument ! So back around to the front of the hut and to work on the awning . If it had detonated when it hit the ventilator we both would have been killed! The Magazine was found The cot had a broken leg so I had to prop it up with a sand bag and it was missing one end piece so it just wanted to fold up on me when I laid on it. MST1 and thought it would be a good time to go back and see It was a long miserable cold 12 hour night. Some where along the line the nurse had done an IV drip. Then I was out the door, I passed LT Branch halfway down the stairs and was waiting for him in the bunker! Keep exploring. Quite the contrary, African Americans frequently complained that they were disproportionately assigned menial duties, not promoted to the level they deserved, unfairly targeted for punishment, disproportionately drafted, assigned to combat units, and killed in Vietnam. Our group that was sent to MST1 landed in Within a hundred feet of the generators. On the back of the truck was his dog Judy and inside on the dashboard was an M-16 rifle. The little girl was fusing and didn't want to leave the nurse so it took a little effort to hand her off to me . My Vietnamese had never even figured out what was happening and were still hunkered down by the lumber pile. The Priest took the kid around with him and often left him at the clinic with the nurses as the other children at the orphanage would pick on him. We set the radio on squelch so it would make a lot of noise and wake us up. The Marines would open that up and would also be extending the perimeter and adding watch posts . When I look back it sure seems stupid but at the time what else could I do? Naval Support Activity DaNang (1965-1970), the U.S. The building to the right of the Post office was the base exchange and it took a shit load of shrapnel from this hit. Most of them would be dead by now as most of the men were in their mid forties then . Pham Ba went around back to take a pee. The photos on this page are from an exhibit that was at the Collin County Historical Society Museum. Didn't get any meals so after we were finished we ate sandwiches with the mid watch Marines at the mess hall. Yes, everyone called him soccer ball head ! a small cargo plane in the middle of the night, all I cold glasses of chocolate milk, ice cream and an apple to go. There hours were 0800 to1700 so it was impossible for me to go. large canvas covering over the rear area that protected bench Suddenly the helicopter went nose high and stopped going forward. 15x12. If there was any heavy weather and to many buffer pads were jumping out I would have to go back to the hooch and roust out a work crew. The course is a model in how to survive, and how to come home with honor. through the base that would allow me to do "hot laps" as long as no Before I went into the Navy I had a After the little girl died I never went back to the clinic. Historian, US Navy Seabee Museum. Then there were the incoming Rockets, we had three big generators and fuel tank and we were a bulls eye. meal in Vietnam was roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, green peas, 2 large [6], In April 1972 all US Navy facilities in Danang were transferred to the Republic of Vietnam Navy.[1]. He finished his tour with detective work as one of six NSA investigators at Camp Tien Sha, adjacent to Da Nang. was about vehicles, building Da Nang marks the halfway point between Hanoi in the north and Ho Chi Minh City in the south. He did some stitching ,packed gauze into the stumps, put in shunts and temporarily closed the stumps. Marine guns up to the DMZ, we looked like shoe boxes eith long gun It had been built the end of April so was brand new. Although the helicopter was only a couple hundred feet out there was no way to put the fir out as they couldn't cross the mine field. very first day of war. The pain they suffered was of our making and they just wanted us to go home! person who was awake had access to the keys to the jeep. I was never in harms way. Work started at 0700 hr and we got off at 1700 hr. Welcome to Viet----fuckn Nam you FNGs ( funking new guys) !!! Naval Support Activities in the I Corps, the northern-most theatre of war in South Vietnam. What that means is we stood a four hour night watch every other night. The truck dropped us at the work sight. I also came down with a mild case of the flew so was feeling rather worn out. It was no problem during the day because either the XO or Chief were there or the secretary,interpreter (miss Nguyen). I slowly walked around the trailer checking them out. With chow finished I had the rest of Published October 25, 2017 Updated April 22, 2021 These Vietnam War photos taken by U.S. Army photographers reveal a side of the conflict that few people have ever seen. I suppose we had a good conversation but don't have a clue of what. Target audience. After our three big generators and fuel tank were up and running that area became a target for the VC. I did a phone call to the Marine Duty officer and he calmly told me the incoming fire had already been reported by the outposts. About a mile out the crew started kicking boxes out the doors. Long , long ago, far, far away on the other side of the There was a young mother with several kid and grandma and grandpa. Retro. It was the UH-1 trailing smoke. It was a Saturday, perhaps we were finishing up the cook shed. Alan it, there were about a dozen shower head" screwed onto the pipe. The tents were on the right. There were no more shots that day but there would be on the next two mornings. Manage all your favorite fandoms in one place! I even passed an enlisted sailor with a can of white paint and he was The station hospital begun in 1965 had treated over 21,000 casualties, 44,000 nonbattle patients and one million outpatients flowing in from the hostile and disease-ridden I Corps environment. Was I scared ? heads all in an area I'd call around (a hooch is a 16 by 32 ft wood framed plywood building with 5 foot high walls and a tin roof.) There are 186 crew members registered for the Naval Support Activity Danang. Link to Silent Spring Deadly Autumn (the best book ever written about Agent Orange and the other chemicals we were exposed to in Vietnam. So now I know why the sniping stopped. They were waiting for electricity and to get more beds from Catholic Charity . The memory of this little girl and the events at the Children's hospital are the reason I never had children of my own. But I don't consider myself as one. work out the details with him. I think the thing that uniform. T are sections in the book about Camp Tien Sha, Cua Viet, Dong Ha, Tan My, Hue, Phu Bai, Chu Lai, and Sa Huynh. get a mailing address via email from Chip and Jack Shulimson . Warehouses, open storage areas, cargo handling equipment, and good exit routes from the port were limited. Some time that day the Catholic Priest who was in charge of the clinic and also the Da Nang orphanage showed up . It was about the most insane thing I had ever experienced and was hard for my mind to grasp what had just happened. YFU-54 (Car 54 where are you). [1], U.S. NSA Danang was officially established on 15 October 1965 under the operational control of Commander, III MAF. One of our guy went with Babyson to the local market and bought blankets, cooking supplies, sleeping mats and food. Just kind of shut it off excepting that I had very little control over my situation and excepting that if shit happened ,shit happened !! Browse millions of high-quality stock photos, illustrations, and videos. The Navy Doc cleared off the big desk and the MPs deposited the farmer onto the desk. I thought the clinic was for children. In November 1965 500 men moved into the old French Army camp, Camp Tien Sha (Tin Sa) at the foot of Monkey Mountain. I didn't know it then but that was my last good meal for a long time! Danang had become the largest fuel complex in South Vietnam capable of holding over 500,000 barrels. The I am sure had I not done that , the Chief, when he came down to the hootch, would have solved the problem by sending me back to China Beach. May 27 was my birthday. Had tied their hands behind their backs and executed them. I went to the "motor pool" at least The kid had a big yellow Tonka dump truck and would sit for hours in the sand playing with that truck. Mark Harms reporting for duty! The new pier facility allowed deep-draft ocean-going vessels to unload cargo directly onto trucks instead of offloading into Lighters while anchored in the harbor. 5440 x 3520 px (18.13 x 11.73 in.) . Unfortunately when we got there it was closed for one hour for lunch and Coate did not have the time to hang around. side was a barge with a sign. Book description. Memoir of my time served with the Navy at Camp Tien Sha, Da Nang, during the Vietnam war. I needed to know which of the sound meant danger! Over 130 rough terrain and warehouse forklifts and 20 cranes eased cargo handling. I was hugely It was in a large dirt field 150 yards outside of the north perimeter. Well I had 2 sets that were issued to me when I went threw weapons training at Coronado and Camp Pendleton. After a short rest to pull my self together I went back and finished putting the door spring on and about that time one of my team mates picked me up and took me back to the shop. I got in the habit of sleeping with my right foot hanging off the edge of my cot so I would always be pointing towards the bunker. YFUs and LCUs such as the 62 were assigned to Lighterage Div of the Naval Support Activity, DaNang, and were based at Camp Tien Sha Annex. The Marines slept 12 to 14 men in a hootch. The number of rockets are probably plus or minus a couple rockets. I was then sent to Camp Carter while we were opening up an old ROK base that was being used by Philco Ford to teach Vietnamese Sailors how to maintain diesel motors that were used in the river boats. called to general quarters was in Then when I went back to the shop that night I would have Bettencourt cut me a bunch of rebar stakes 2 ft long. We also had a land line (telephone) installed for communication with the Marines. One of them used to take me to the MACV Club located by the USS Repose. Naval Support Activity, Da Nang 1969 Cruise Book vietnamandmilitary $175.00 101st Airborne "Tour Book" 1967-68 The first year!!! when I was there. The Marine on the left was blond and looked like a California surfer.He to had been shot in the back of the head. The field had been filled with red dirt and rocks and had been compacted with heavy equipment. PTF base at after working hours. On the far end of the bridge right . Often times during a rocket or mortar attack rounds would over shoot landing in Hoa Kahn or Dog Patch ,providing children for the Clinic. Marine damage reports were never very accurate and it is hard for me to remember what was damage when. never even gave a thought that a The carpenter flat bed truck. [3] The camp was quickly expanded to include 25 new barracks able to accommodate an additional 1,700 men, together with a barber shop, post exchange and milk plant. It really, really broke my heart! If one of the other bases in our AO got hit by mortars or rockets then our siren went off and we were on red alert which meant we had to role out with weapons, helmets,and flack jackets and man our posts. The next day he would become my first hooch mate although I had to rush to get a couple partitions up so he would have his own space. One about half way from knee to foot and the other just below the knee! once. I was new in country and still in John Wayne mode. There weren't even any stairs going up there yet. I asked about the little girls gangrene and the doc told me that she would die in a week or so. He didn't mince words. " The weekend after the amputation I went to build a small operating room and install a examination light. I dropped the log book on the microphone button and yelled AWC#5 -INCOMING ROCKETS! Probable a pissed of old farmer getting off a couple round while drinking his morning coffee. He was really short, only six more days and a wake up and he would be out of Vietnam, back to the world and his girl friend Judy. It was not exactly what you would call a state of the art mental hospital ! February 1969. I had orders in September 1966 to go to On February 10, 1970, SN Robert T. Sudduth, a sailor assigned to the camp, was traveling in truck from the Camp Tien Sha Annex to the Tien Sha Ramp when he accidently fell from the vehicle. We assumed everyone around us had the same idealistic desire to strive to do our best all the time. Gave me the creeps then and still does now when I think about it! Had fun there, especially since I had to wear civilian clothes. They never did a direct hit on the fuel tank but the got damn close several times! and drop their bow ramps. The advantage was that I got a whole extra year of dive time at Hoods Canal with Pett and got to do deep water dives with him ( 120 to 140 feet) in the summer of 1966. ed Camp Haskins (South) for Camp Tien Sha to complete the retrograding of equipment. side of the handling, I'd say it had severe understeer entering a What has stuck in my mind all these years is how much that bullet hole in the blond guys head looked like the bullet hole in the back of the head of a very large possum that I had shot in the back of the head when I was about 16 years old. The after noon of May 14, I had a work order to make escape doors out of the back of FLC (Force Logistics Command) administration building. Pett George my ex UDT instructor allowed me to go through the class early being as how my older brother Jay and my Dad were going through the class too. My station when On May 15 I had finished 6 or 8 escape doors. Coate would send dog food care packages to Judy. As tired as I was I never got much sleep. Yes, we would help them build new huts and we would patch up their children and pay compensation for the damages done. Camp Fay in the evening and morning. changes to : I set up a course John arrived here on November 21, 1968 and left December 22, 1969, thirteen months later. Coate took care of my paper work and handing in my bedding while I was packing up my sea bag and then it was back to clothing issue somewhere in China beach to pick up my clothing issue which was 4 sets of green utilities a couple soft hats (the Marine Corps kind) and a pair of work boots. I joined the Navy Reserve and went to Viet Nam anyway. As he cut them off he threw them in the corner beside the shelf and I can remember how strange they looked leaning against the wall! Drive out the back gate and about 2 miles to the Navy Seabee base. I know NOTHING of a chapel My work hours were 0600 to 1800 which made it impossible to use any of the base services! Don't try to cross in to the base as there were mines. Mountain. When that needle went in that poor farmer screamed and jerked up headed for the ceiling! Because of the rocket attack on May 13 (rockets hit with in 50 yard of this building) some of the officers there wanted escape doors out the back of the building where they were starting to build their own bunkers. The The argument got pretty heated. I turned 20 years old and of coarse it went un- noticed although I had gotten a care package from Annett Burrel, a couple surfing magazines from my brother Jay and a birthday card from my girl friend Linda! When he was all loaded he told them one of the other drivers had the paper work and while they were trying to hunt down the papers he just drove away. It sure seemed longer then a month, to me it was more like a few months! I spent the last 5 months of my tour as a NSA Investigator for the Naval Support Activity, Da Nang. Get those Fucking Gooks away from that Damn trailer". Seabees, initially using materials pre-stocked before the war in Advanced Base Functional Component packages, constructed three deep-draft piers for oceangoing ships, two 300 feet (91m) wooden piers an LST causeway and the Bridge Cargo Complex that consisted of a 1,600 feet (490m) long wharf, 300,000 cubic feet of refrigerated storage space and 500,000 square feet of covered storage space. Welcome! They had decided to spend the night at the Skivvy house (whore house) in Dog Patch. I do web work now and I want to help you fix your articles so people can read them easier.I'm not asking to get paid I just want to do something for you. The firemen loaded foam canister on a mule and were able to get to the UH-1 and finally put the fire out. I thought they were trying to lighten their load. When I got on the bus to Camp Tien Sha (the one with chicken wiure on the windows) I knew I wasn't in Kansas. Some It took six and one half days to finish that hooch (later with a full crew it would usually take us four days to build a hooch). Military personnel learn some of the basics in other training, but this is the course for the big boys. Didnt take long to figure out that everyone could see that you were a FNG. this pic is.