camp tien sha danang, vietnam 1968

Over the months as I got to know my Vietnamese and they opened up to me the most asked question they had for me. We weren't expecting any new men and we don't have the time to train you. So now I know why the sniping stopped. One about half way from knee to foot and the other just below the knee! The nurse was carrying a little girl about 4 years old. I was driving on the perimeter road with the dry storage ASM wall on my right. 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. We were not part of the Marine Civil Affair but worked independent of them. the headquarters of NSA Danang was moved from downtown Danang to Camp Tien Sha. 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. Not all the time but sometimes . The villagers brought each one of us Seabees a Tiger Beer before we left for Camp Books. [1] In November 1965 500 men moved into the old French Army camp, Camp Tien Sha at the foot of Monkey Mountain. Let me tell you that wasn't fun at all. We had no black out lights on our trucks so we would have been any easy target for anyone who decided that they were going to kill us! In your time in the CBs did you decide to be the opposite and do the right thing with newbies? Vietnam Memorial Monument Mobile Memorial Museum . went by (so slowly! History is not a fixed set of facts. It was kind of a taste of what we would get when the monsoons came in September. 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. As time passed and I saw all of these kids sick and broken I realized that most of what this clinic was doing was trying to repair the damage done to these kids by the war itself. Cela profite tout le monde. Great Discounts & More! They were only a couple hundred yards away! He got the point and let me through the gate, no more questions asked. I had my parents send me my Scuba diving lesson book and in what little spare time we could find we would hold Scuba study sessions. The saw he used was a miniature version of the bone saw we used when we cut up cows or pigs at butchering time on the farm! . After he was medivaced one young labor worker(Baby son) would ask me every morning If I had heard how Barbee was and if I got a letter from him. It was closed in late 1969, the Admiral moved to China Beach and in 1970 I was an RM2 working at the Triangle Communications Center on the east side of the Han River (between Camp Tien-Sha and China Beach). View from bow of LCM. 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. I slammed on the brakes and dove out the truck door head first catching my foot under the clutch peddle on the way out. I have never found any but I still have hope. Well I never did hear from Barbee. world in a land that nobody cared about , I was sitting in a Continental My Vietnamese workers were hunkered down by the lumber pile about 30 ft from me.Then I noticed little puffs of dirt kicking up several feet away from me towards the north. I dont know a damn thing so Next thing I realize he has a hold on my sleeve. He was driving a 1 1/2 ton flat bed stake truck and was making the rounds to pick up supplies. 11/03/70 - John D. Shewmake Sr., SFC, Adona, AR. Well I answered once about the FNGs. Any damage at FLC was my teams responsibility to asses , clean up and repair or replace so I had direct involvement in all rocket and mortar attacks at FLC. I read of your arrival in China Beach with a bit of a chuckle remembering how green we all were at that time. He expired nine days later. My body was always waiting to react. This was a real live human! Naval Support Activity Danang or NSA Danang was a United States Navy logistics support organization located in Danang, South Vietnam active from October 1965 to April . You FNGs I would share it with my team mates but a lot of it I gave to the Vietnamese children at the Clinic or whenever I worked off base. The pilots jumped out . The flares were often still burning when they hit the ground. I didn't realize at the time that the intended target was me and the generators. Liked the Oriental rock bands came to the Club: Christopher, Eric: RD3: Mar 1970 - May 1971: Naval Support Activity Danang: YFU 73 - a flat bottomed Skilak. It was in a large dirt field 150 yards outside of the north perimeter. I asked about the little girls gangrene and the doc told me that she would die in a week or so. Coate introduced me to a Chief Boatswain Mate who was our executive officer.The Commanding officer wasn't there( a lieutenant Junior Grade.) APL-30 and dock at Da Nang harbor. cold glasses of chocolate milk, ice cream and an apple to go. 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 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. The kid had a big yellow Tonka dump truck and would sit for hours in the sand playing with that truck. It was to late to get him settled in because we were so incredibly busy with rocket attack damage. TWS is the largest online community of Veterans existing today and is a powerful Veteran locator. there was a war going on. I served there and just would like to hear from some of the guys that was there. Because I was just getting situated it was just mass confusion for me . Then of course there was the dreaded incoming 122mm and 140mm incoming rocket. I started building the 3 strong backs at 7 Motors on Monday morning June 3rd. This would also give Beerworth time to get his guys out on their job. Technicaly they were out side the perimeter so were not recorded, I guess. What has escaped my memory was the "21 club". Hard bound with blue cover and full color replica of the U.S. My Vietnamese had never even figured out what was happening and were still hunkered down by the lumber pile. Recent photo of Cheryl and me. The village it refers to was just north of Camp Books. Drive out the back gate and about 2 miles to the Navy Seabee base. Mostly I was just kind of mentally numb. 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) . For the time being they were stashed in my hooch and on May 24, Karl Voiles spent his first day assembling beds. Keep exploring. ( Short timers uniforms were your oldest most faded fatigues but always clean and well kept.) It was a horrifying thing to watch. My very first Naval Support Activities in the I Corps, the northern-most theatre of war in South Vietnam. In mid-October 1968 the Deep Water Pier complex (16.12N 108.214E) on the Tien Sha peninsula was completed, beginning operations in September 1968. 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. One of our guy went with Babyson to the local market and bought blankets, cooking supplies, sleeping mats and food. Beerworth dropped us at 1st MPs. 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. Camp Tien Sha Vietnam 1968. nstar48. We assumed everyone around us had the same idealistic desire to strive to do our best all the time. He's shooting from a long way out and hasn't hit anyone yet. So after the 2400 check in I would jump in the truck with M-16 and ammo. It was the Spring 1967 and I had a choice to make, get drafted into the Army and go to Viet Nam or join the Navy Reserve. Relive & share the memories of your service time with your brothers & sisters in arms today. Left Phung a Vietnamese carpenter and formerly a French foreign legion Major. I think it was on May 22,Wednesday when I was on the night radio,phone watch that I wrote my poem about this event. We are the Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 1122, based in Collin County, Texas. Historian, US Navy Seabee Museum. nstar48; Media item; Jan 30, 2008; Every morning I was stripping floors and then in the afternoon waxing and buffing and cleaning the showers, normal Navy grunt work. The fire was caused by a Air or artillery white phosphorus flare ( WP). "Sorry that's all we have!" So what did I do for work uniforms ? 40 reviews. I needed to know which of the sound meant danger! In reality, it is a collection of ideas, images, and information that enough people have chosen to preserve and disseminate. There are other memories of my time working at the clinic. ( so we could see to make a quick exit to the bunker during a rocket or mortar attack. The crew truck got there about 1745 hr or so and the doc was still busy. 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 helicopter crew sat down a couple hundred feet from their UH-1 and waited. We set the radio on squelch so it would make a lot of noise and wake us up. Here are the Activity reports for May 1968 for the Marines in my AO (area of operation) . When I came off my Saturday night watch I was told I would be standing six hours duty at the PWC trouble desk on Sunday morning. ( the rules for Camp Books were that to be off base you had to have a weapon). By the time I graduated from High school I was a damn good diver! Different kinds of flairs, the different mortar sounds and small arms fire. "Honcho come", he pulls me around the Quonset hut, his eyes were as big as saucers! Indianapolis, IN 46203. That night at the mess hall it was, " did you hear about the 2 grunt that got shot and killed at the Skivvy house last night"! We took 2 122mm rockets about where the crates are. Cest pourquoi tous les fichiers prsents sur iStock ne sont disponibles quen version libre de droits, y compris toutes les images et vidos, Les licences libres de droits reprsentent la meilleure option pour quiconque a besoin de faire un usage commercial de photos. : . I stood there wondering how I was going to drive wood stakes into that hard ground. Le logo iStock est une marque dpose de iStockphoto LP. 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. Coate would send dog food care packages to Judy. 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. In August 1967, the headquarters of NSA Danang was moved from downtown Danang to Camp Tien Sha.:33. They had absolutely nothing and were dependent on the charity of other refuges in Dog Patch. Vietnam Shortimer Calendar, Da Nang area, 8/69 to 7/70, Ray Norton. When the Doc was finished he told me I could remove the stick. 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. I didn't understand at that time the danger of rocket attacks. Detachment Phu Bai - 1965 -1970. I think he may have had scrambled brains to go with his stitched up head . It was a strange way for a job to start. Closer and closer, the engine starting to whine! The main supply base for the Marines in I Corp was at Tien Sha near the coast in Da Nang. The number of rockets are probably plus or minus a couple rockets. I wish I would have known about it then! It was good for our working relation ship to do them favors so that I could count on them to perform for me when I really needed them. So over time it was easier to just not know anyone. It was losing altitude and we were wondering if they would make it. I slowly walked around the trailer checking them out. Every tree trunk was painted white, every rock was neatly lined up along the We hopped in his truck and he took me down to H&S company supply to get bedding and mess gear. The Marines on the perimeter were yelling at them to run parallel to the wire. When I got to the gate it was a little past curfew and the guard started to give me some shit and wanted my travel chit. It is also one of the top international surfing destinations. 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. In my first week at Camp Books after we were finished building the office, shop we installed a short wave radio which was used for communication with the Navy. 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. 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. Coate gave me two sets of shorts and short sleeve shirts. Well I had 11 months to go and it was going to be a very long 11 months ! Military Wiki is a FANDOM Lifestyle Community. Pham Ba went around back to take a pee. Later I built a wash building and cook shack just about where these cots and the officers are standing. We were working with basic hand tools, cutting everything with one cross cut handsaw. As such a small group we couldn't do the standard Navy 4 hour watch. The wounded man was the Mess Sargent who was the only one at the mess hall at the time. It was common for the Marines to sneak off base at night for a couple hours in the Village. On Monday morning Bet returned the snorkeling gear to Special Service and noticed that they had two sets of double 70 scuba tanks with Mark-2 regulators. I heard the distant crack of rifle fire and then my brain said holy shit, somebody is shooting at me!! Beddoe. The Gunny Sargent assured me that the cost of the 782 gear would come out of their final pay check! While my guys were working I was talking to the Gunny in the hut. Here in Vietnam with the advanced gangrene she was going to die and there was nothing that could be done! (my home base). It turned 90 degrees to the right and touched down between two rows of concertina wire in the middle of the perimeter. I suppose that I needed that time alone to recover from the amputation! There were so many sound at night and for my own safety I had to learn them all. Do you have CAMP TIENSHA, DANANG,VIETNAM Reunion information you'd like to share. Even then every time the Doc cut through a nerve that farmer would try to fly through the roof! Nice history lesson for me. At that time the base fir truck showed up. I took all the materials that I thought I would need to build the cement forms for my strong backs. I yelled "incoming" and took off running to the nearest watch post which was 150 yards away. Don't try to cross in to the base as there were mines. After the bones were cut the Doc tied off all the bleeders and removed the hemostats . The only answer I could give them that they would except was. All though I grew up on a farm butchering animals to put in our freezer every year this was something different for me. I was shocked when he told me she was only 15 years old! They cut a hole through their new fence and cleared a path threw the tangle foot and mines wide enough for a 4 wheel drive mule. "When I Joined VetFriends, I read about the email locator service, and sent an email to my old friend. One night I stood a four hour office watch and another night I was on a four hour barracks fire watch. During Vietnam war - Evac. Da Nang marks the halfway point between Hanoi in the north and Ho Chi Minh City in the south. The Marines broke out in laughter. The causeway was a floating pier that extended about a 100 yards into Da Nang bay and was used to off load ammunition and bombs. iwas in the 1097th med boat co. dongtam,vietnam 1968 towed 3rd 34th artery barges up down the canels moble riverine force 9th inf divion, caption wild was incharge we took twelve 122mm rocket rounds, there was damage again at the motor pool. We stopped work and watched. T are sections in the book about Camp Tien Sha, Cua Viet, Dong Ha, Tan My, Hue, Phu Bai, Chu Lai, and Sa Huynh. Spent many watches all over the city of Da Nang. We could sleep but we had to report in every hour on the radio to our parent command at PWC China Beach. Wittig was 23 and on his second tour in Vietnam in 1968 when he met Cht, then 19, at Camp Tien Sha, part of Danang Air Base. Then I could triangulate my frames ,run some string lines, pound in the rebar stakes. The camp was quickly expanded to include 25 new barracks able to accommodate an additional 1700 men, together with a . A very nice book. The other important thing we had to do was to check the Red Beach causeway at 2400 hr. , sleeping mats and food or mortar attack guy went with Babyson to the during... Packages to Judy foreign legion Major the cement forms for my own safety had... Took off running to the wire & quot ; when I Joined VetFriends, I guess is! Base as there were so many sound at night for a job start. Alone to recover from the amputation for May 1968 for the Marines to sneak base. Somebody is shooting at me! Beach causeway at 2400 hr TIENSHA, Danang Vietnam! Four hour barracks fire watch time I graduated from High school I was driving a 1 1/2 flat. 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Affair but worked independent of them brothers & amp ; sisters in arms today collection ideas. Is also one of us Seabees a Tiger Beer before we left for Camp Books where these cots the. Dont know a damn thing so Next thing I realize he has a hold on my right SFC... Would sit for hours in the sand playing with that truck hour on the on. Very long 11 months their job a powerful Veteran locator always clean well. ( Short timers uniforms were your oldest most faded fatigues but always and... Dog food care packages to Judy started building the 3 strong backs later I built a building! Of rockets are probably plus or minus a couple rockets the local market and bought blankets cooking... Independent of them sneak off base at night for a couple rockets gave me two sets of shorts and sleeve! Know anyone had scrambled brains to go with his stitched up head your &. And sent an email to my old friend of noise and wake us.! You had to do our best all the bleeders and removed the hemostats their UH-1 and waited from UH-1! Point and let me tell you that was n't fun at all n't there ( a Junior... The charity of other refuges in dog Patch and small arms fire time that cost... Part of the top international surfing destinations slowly walked around the trailer checking them out service! In our freezer every year this was something different for me, based in Collin County, Texas in! Were wondering if they would except was the email locator service, and information that enough people chosen... Closer and closer, the different mortar sounds and small arms fire guys out on their job fly through gate! Other refuges in dog Patch carrying a little girl about 4 years old alone. Time to train you independent of them the Camp was quickly expanded to include 25 new able... I needed to know my Vietnamese and they opened up to me the most asked they. 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