She giggled a bit (talk the fresh meat so what do I know about it. The Docs loved coming to Hoa Kahn Clinic. heads" but they were always stolen On Friday I left the shop at 1800hr and went to the Children's Clinic. It was to late to get him settled in because we were so incredibly busy with rocket attack damage. Danang, Naval Support Activity, Operations, Lighterage, U-Boats. The Doc took a big syringe and needle and shot both legs up with anesthesia. Funny thing about the base exchange was I only went there once my whole tour. There was about a weeks over lap so the knew Chief could learn his job! When that needle went in that poor farmer screamed and jerked up headed for the ceiling! MST1 and thought it would be a good time to go back and see Marine damage reports were never very accurate and it is hard for me to remember what was damage when. I noticed an old gray hair lady,just a skeleton in the hospital bed and asked the doctor about that. He seemed totally comfortable and relaxed. The course is a model in how to survive, and how to come home with honor. barrels over the bow. Didn't get any meals so after we were finished we ate sandwiches with the mid watch Marines at the mess hall. You forget the bad things and you remember the good Looking back, have It was no problem during the day because either the XO or Chief were there or the secretary,interpreter (miss Nguyen). I was land based in Da Nang. We had an air conditioner in the office and because I worked out side all day I was not used to air conditioning! reportedf to the USS Permit (SSN-594) at Mare Island, and got out a May 1. So after the 2400 check in I would jump in the truck with M-16 and ammo. I wanted to go back and see that little girl before she died but all that next week I was to busy to get off early ( or maybe I was just to scared and heart broken). the bus to Camp Tien Sha (the one with chicken wiure on the windows) U.S. MARINES IN VIETNAM THE DEFINING YEAR 1968. by. My station when The doc explained that she had been burned by napalm and had gotten gangrene and that was the smell. In the future I This was the closest skivvy house to Camp Books , a very short walk. Chief then showed me the mess hall and walked me down to the Seabee hooch's. We were working with basic hand tools, cutting everything with one cross cut handsaw. There was the real possibility of hitting a mine or being ambushed by the VC (it happened more often then I would like to think about) . At that time the base fir truck showed up. On Tuesday May 14 I finished my hooch and settled into the corner right inside the door. The doctor and nurse came out of the clinic. 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. You FNGs The U.S. Navy established the MST-1 detachment to train Vietnamese crews and maintain PTFs in February 1964. right , Huan one of my carpenters. You FNGs get to the back of the He was wearing his best short timers uniform. Then it was back to the base ( it took about 50 minutes to do the whole trip) and hopefully be on time for the 0100hr radio check in . Only 364 more days to go! There hours were 0800 to1700 so it was impossible for me to go. History [ edit ] Following the initial landing of Marines in South Vietnam on 8 March 1965, the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade (9th MEB) established their headquarters in an old French Army compound on the western edge of Da Nang Air Base . Next thing I realize he has a hold on my sleeve. Was a different Doc and Nurse and they didn't know anything other than the farmer had been moved to the civilian hospital in Da Nang City. Still, It was just after 1700 so I was good. The MPs left in a hurry. We were supposed to protect our base generators and fuel tank from sappers. Sleeping in that bunker was not good.It had 2 opening which allowed the mosquitoes to get in and eat the shit out of me. And We had devastated their economy and destroyed their infrastructure. I needed to know which of the sound meant danger! Often times during a rocket or mortar attack rounds would over shoot landing in Hoa Kahn or Dog Patch ,providing children for the Clinic. I yelled "incoming" and took off running to the nearest watch post which was 150 yards away. Da Nang, Vietnam, Camp Tien Sha, 351 Days in Da Nang Ray Norton Me, age 23, sitting on my bunk drinking a beer and smoking a cigarette. 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. That's how we got our beds, enough for everyone. Over time that changed, I didn't want to know any newbies! Beerworth dropped us at 1st MPs. For the time being they were stashed in my hooch and on May 24, Karl Voiles spent his first day assembling beds. a shower enclosure that wasn't But when shit happens to you and you are the victim, everything changed! H e had white hair and a white beard and very much looked like Santa Clause. He always seemed happy and smiling and the whole time he was around the clinic I never heard him speak a single work. We took several trucks and picked up Pham Ba and Babyson outside the gate and headed down the road. If US Mail works best for you, This is Judy and her puppy ( named Puppy) Judy was Coate s dog and was named after his girl friend. The nurse laid across the farmers upper thighs to hold him in place. I got my NAUI Scuba diving cerification in July 1966. I am hoping that my response willl stay intact and not disapear completely from here. [3]:8, In April 1972 all US Navy facilities in Danang were transferred to the Republic of Vietnam Navy.[4]. [2] The camp was quickly expanded to include 25 new barracks able to accommodate an additional 1700 men, together with a barber shop, post exchange and milk plant. There were no more shots that day but there would be on the next two mornings. I have spent countless hours over the past 15 years driving my motorbike around the Camp Books area looking for any of our workers. Both of his legs had been pretty much blown off. New year found Tour: August 2, 1969 through July 17, 1970. I didn't understand at that time the danger of rocket attacks. I never really realized the high level of tension we lived under until I left Vietnam ! Some I took this photofrom the stern of YFU 80 which was docked at SCRF, looking across Da Nang harbor at sunset. The United States used it as a major base during the Vietnam War (1959-1975), stationing Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine units there. 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. The field had been filled with red dirt and rocks and had been compacted with heavy equipment. So as May 1968 ended I had been in Vietnam for 1 month! 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. Nang officers billeting ! John arrived here on November 21, 1968 and left December 22, 1969, thirteen months later. We took 2 122mm rockets about where the crates are. There are over 500 chapters that provide fellowship, volunteer opportunities and community service. Just kind of shut it off excepting that I had very little control over my situation and excepting that if shit happened ,shit happened !! whole story here. In 1997 I drove my motor bike through the gate while the guard was taking a nap at lunch time and was able to get to the main office and talk to a doctor. The helicopter crew sat down a couple hundred feet from their UH-1 and waited. A couple of our guys , Craig Taylor and Pat Brown were interested in learning to Scuba dive so I took it upon my self to teach them. ptfnasty.com and the DaNang section, worked that jeep to it's limits and had a highly entertaining time At first it was because every thing was so knew and exciting. During the first half of his in-country tour, Norton made the best of a boring and life- consuming job as a Tien Sha Peninsula Security Division guard. February 1969. Some of the materials for rebuilding came from my civic action salvage yard. Relive & share the memories of your service time with your brothers & sisters in arms today. We were also vulnerable to sappers . The shop doors were always open and a light on in the shop. At the moment it happened, my buddy Dave Lozier and I were at Camp Tien Sha at the foot of Monkey Mountain. They were the best I could was the building directly adjoining Link to video tour of . once. Some times she would get so drunk that she couldn't walk anymore, was really funny watch her four legs going in different directions! He's shooting from a long way out and hasn't hit anyone yet. of the DaNang Military Complex, One of the late 60's and early 70's. Driving around on the perimeter of the base checking for burned out security lights could also be very hazardous . There was a young mother with several kid and grandma and grandpa. I made a series of videos about the exhibit before it was closed. the "enlisted head" identified in Luxury. side of the handling, I'd say it had severe understeer entering a The road was closed to civilian traffic at night so there would be no other vehicles on the road. right out of there. "Honcho come", he pulls me around the Quonset hut, his eyes were as big as saucers! there was a war going on. First I had to do a couple hour job at the 1st MP Quonset hut. After that LT Branch never stayed late at the office, he would leave at 1700 to take Miss Nguyen home to Da Nang. If it had detonated when it hit the ventilator we both would have been killed! Da Nang is known as the tourist capital of South-Central Vietnam, with a west coast location that makes for beautiful sunsets against an impressive backdrop of lush mountains. Camp Haskins, Da Nang, Vietnam, served as headquarters of the 30th Naval Construction Regiment, who exercised operational control of Seabee units deployed to Vietnam. I took all the materials that I thought I would need to build the cement forms for my strong backs. The hardest things for them to figure out was the batter boards, how to measure and cut rafters and how to measure and cut gable end studs. As such a small group we couldn't do the standard Navy 4 hour watch. The official report was small arms fire on the perimeter. Soon, the fleet dispatched Naval Beach Group One Cargo Handling Battalions 1 and 2, nucleus port crew, Mine Force, Service Force, Underwater Demolition Team, and Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) units to Danang. Her husband was an ARVN soldier who had been killed. naval reserves just before graduating from high school in 1962. Style attributes. These detachments decentralized the support function and improved the logistic flow. I think he may have had scrambled brains to go with his stitched up head . Camp Tien Sha Vietnam 1968 from Monkey Mountain Bombardier Pretorian Aug 16, 2013 Good photo, get a good look at the base. That was the LTs first rocket attack and he didn't react fast enough. We had to give Puppy away as we were not even supposed to have a dog. Everyone was busy as hell and I didn't have any idea as to what was going on. ---- I spent the rest of the day until after dark alone in the shop building a foot locker. It was kind of a taste of what we would get when the monsoons came in September. snakes and other items of entertainment. I hated that phone, radio, air conditioning and black coffee! On the "left side" was all the 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. IN VIETNAM. I slowly walked around the trailer checking them out. We set the radio on squelch so it would make a lot of noise and wake us up. The beach is more than twenty miles long, and in the last two decades, numerous China Beach hotels as well as dining and shopping venues have sprung up along it. 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. NMCB THREE Main Body Flights consisting of three passenger . It was a long miserable cold 12 hour night. I think Left Phung a Vietnamese carpenter and formerly a French foreign legion Major. really an enclosure. I spent 1968-72 in the US Navy, as a Corpsman (Medic). Late in the day we had built them a nice hootch and had them moved in. TWS is the largest online community of Veterans existing today and is a powerful Veteran locator. The kids head had been stitched up and looked just like a soccer ball. I am searching for anyone who may recall serving with me in the Seabees at Camp Tien Sha, Da Nang between 1969-1971. Well I never did hear from Barbee. VVA's goals . shoes" and one of the Vietnamese context of what was happening. I think there were only three or four of us on duty at the The sound had carried down the valley making it sound very close, then it would die down then get loud again, very strange how the sound bounced around the walls of the valley. from Danang, Republic of Vietnam. I cried to myself on the way back to the base. Click here for inormation on the VVA. The ESSO fuel plant from the north east side where we were snorkeling. map and make modifications, please email your basis Most of the time if you were Phu Loi Airbase Information by: Daniel Hanley, Phu Loi Airbase is 30 mile North of Saigon.I was with A Company, 1st Aviation Battalion, Infantry Division, October 1965-1966. Get those Fucking Gooks away from that Damn trailer". The poor farmer had stepped on a mine. A regular jeep would accommodate 5 people, while in this He lets fly with 8 or 10 rounds then he is done for the day. Here is the battalion report for May 1968. Some time before the end of the month we got three more guys in . African Americans perceived racial issuesrace relations, prejudice, and discriminationin Vietnam through a lens heavily influenced by their earlier experiences in the United States. [1], During 1965 the logistic operation at Danang suffered from lack of suitable or sufficient harbor craft, cargo handling equipment, and port personnel. Whenever there were 122 rocket attacks there would be casualties and being as how I was a first responder and did the damage clean up and repair and being as how medivaced Marines did not need their uniforms any more I would just help myself to what ever would fit me. I am not sure what possessed me to write poems there. The green building upper right is the hooch that I built for our Vietnamese workers. My head carpenter ,Pham Ba told me about her during the week. Then he pulled all that up to expose the bone where he wanted to cut the bone.The nurse held all the skin and muscle up while the Doc cut off the bones. Drive out the back gate and about 2 miles to the Navy Seabee base. 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 looked a lot more hard corps than we were. Mark Harms reporting for duty! such a small vehicle. Had tied their hands behind their backs and executed them. So just go back to work and keep moving so he doesn't have a stationary target and you should be OK!" Message is: I am looking for members that served at Tien Sha Ramp in 1968 through 1969. Alan on Haircuts Inside of that trailer, face down were 2 dead Marines. Craig Taylor was pulled from the job to go work another project.He had also gotten cement poisoning in a cut on his foot so would not be able to help on any more concrete work. It was time to go look for some food! course. In another incident, a black guard was shot to death when a black sailor went on a wild shooting spree at Camp Tien Sha near Danang. What we finally did was a one man 12 hour watch. Ch Linh Camp. Despite the repeated assurances uttered by our senior non-commissioned petty officers that Camp Tiensha's location on the peninsula that juts out from the City of Danang, and with the location of the Danang airbase on the opposite side of the city itself, generally put our base beyond the purported 7 mile range of the Russian-made 122 millimeter Katyusha rockets . there. ] [ Base Drawing Legend ]. You'll see the plumes of smoke, fireballs and falling debris from the explosion of the DaNang ammo dump on April 27, 1969 -- and close ups of some of the damage to buildings and barracks. Stephen was a veteran of the United States Navy, serving state side and in Vietnam at Camp Tien Sha, Danang. sat idle. James L Chambers (cause of death,misadventure). This comment has been removed by the author. U.S. identified as "enlisted head." thought about was the airbase in Danang was under attack, Naval Support Activity (NSA) Danang was officially established on 15 October 1965.