the bus to Camp Tien Sha (the one with chicken wiure on the windows) The She was especially friendly with our hooch mama-son. [1], U.S. NSA Danang was officially established on 15 October 1965 under the operational control of Commander, III MAF. Often times during a rocket or mortar attack rounds would over shoot landing in Hoa Kahn or Dog Patch ,providing children for the Clinic. When I found out about that I went with Bet to talk to that officer. . arrive there again.. Joe Witmeyer shares this 50th With chow finished I had the rest of One night I was called out for some lights on the west perimeter. technical and supply stuff. Jeep parts? Later I built a wash building and cook shack just about where these cots and the officers are standing. I was not in the bush and am grateful that I wasn't. Honorably Discharged as a QM2(SS) in 1971ish. 15 rounds hit us with 3 KIA and 15 wounded. VVA's goals . Mostly I was just kind of mentally numb. We aren't sure where he is yet and haven't got permission to go after him! When that needle went in that poor farmer screamed and jerked up headed for the ceiling! IN VIETNAM. Made a very good impression on me, I didn't even consider it my whole time in Vietnam ! and the LT moved to the Da. The 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. I went to my CO and asked to help. Go through their front gate then out their back gate to the causeway. The tracer rounds stopped ,I gave it a couple minutes and got in the truck and sped on my way back to the shop! To add your photos, please email them to webmaster@ccvva.org. I thought they were trying to lighten their load. kms.) There was always something interesting to watch at Camp Books. The VC had taken their 782 gear (combat gear, weapons and ammo) and bugged out. shower heads came out from the side Report an offensive or inappropriate entry. "personal" shower head and keeping Nobody bothered to help the new guy with the profoundly negative and dangerous war situation you found yourself in. I have no significant memories person who was awake had access to the keys to the jeep. Well damn right I was scared. Now I know where Barbee is but where is Babyson? 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 . information beyond what we already have. Camp Haskins, Da Nang, Vietnam, served as headquarters of the 30th Naval Construction Regiment, who exercised operational control of Seabee units deployed to Vietnam. 44 Declassified Vietnam War Photos Taken By U.S. Army Photographers View Gallery History is not a fixed set of facts. I would sit at the desk and drink coffee, write letters or poetry. The flares were often still burning when they hit the ground. Surprisingly, I never step foot on a ship, I was always stationed in Navy hospitals. whatever you say Mr. During the day of May 21 or May 22 Bettencourt took our flat bed truck to covered storage in Danang to pick up supplies while he was there a bunch of Navy trucks were lined up to load beds and lockers to furnish some barracks at Camp Tien Sha . Barbee was very well liked by the labor crew. I wish I would have known about it then! On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Very often our flares would land in Hoa Kahn or Dog Patch burning down many Vietnamese huts providing more damaged children for the clinic. Older Vietnam veteran who served in the US Navy at Camp Tien Sha, Da Nang, 1968-1969. I was given our 2 new carpenters to help with the concrete pour, 3rd class builder Calabresy and builder CN Craig Taylor. I was in country from June 1969 to June 1970. there. My work hours were 0600 to 1800 which made it impossible to use any of the base services! Within a hundred feet of the generators. By the time I graduated from High school I was a damn good diver! 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. That sure screwed with our sleep! 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. [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. I pretty much walked the whole base then back to the EM club for a cold beer the "enlisted head" identified in 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. to DaNang. things. Chapel? But that only happened once as from then on I was ready. On 1 April 1966 Naval Forces Vietnam was established in Saigon and assumed control of NSA Danang from III MAF. Great Discounts & More! Some time that day the Catholic Priest who was in charge of the clinic and also the Da Nang orphanage showed up . All of the workers that worked for us were dislocated Vietnamese and us putting them to work was an attempt to keep their economy rolling. Not all the time but sometimes . May 1. But when shit happens to you and you are the victim, everything changed! I am not sure what possessed me to write poems there. I jumped into the fighting hole beside the post and yelled at the Marines there "holy shit some one is shooting at me!" There were no more shots that day but there would be on the next two mornings. 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. It had 4 windows so I went to the window for H. I handed the clerk my records pack. They made runs north to Cua Viet at the mouth of the river (80 miles north of DaNang and 6 miles south of the Demilitarized Zone) and then upriver eight miles to Dong Ha to haul cannon ammunition to the marines. the evening to wonder about and check out what Camp Tien Sha had to offer. 2023 iStockphoto LP. The nurse was carrying a little girl about 4 years old. I actually took the class in 1965 but at that time you had to be 18 years old to get a Scuba Certification. $10 of that came from me. They were trying to fly that chopper to the safety of Camp Books. I had to make a quick exit when the patients got excited when I walked towards the main ward! The building site was about 150 yards outside of the north perimeter and the perimeter had not been opened up yet. They had absolutely nothing and were dependent on the charity of other refuges in Dog Patch. The two guys shot in the skivvy house that night were, Pvt. Often the convoys would drop off kids from out in the bush. She would throw dirt into the air and scratch at her face until it was bleeding , rubbing dirt into the cuts. pilot said that was to avoid being shot at by the VC. It turned 90 degrees to the right and touched down between two rows of concertina wire in the middle of the perimeter. Here is the satellite view of I started building my hooch on Wednesday May 8th at just before noon. and drop their bow ramps. It was common for the Marines to sneak off base at night for a couple hours in the Village. I heard the truth the next day at the mess hall. vehicle I took full advantage of it! 4. camp tien sha danang, vietnam 1968. Welcome! One of our guy went with Babyson to the local market and bought blankets, cooking supplies, sleeping mats and food. Anniversary story of his trip back It was more the "ambulance" configuration with a We had fox holes around the generators and fuel tank and I would sit there looking up at that big ass fuel tank thinking that if the VC hit that with a RPG (rocket propelled grenade) I was going to be turned into a crispy critter. They had to be manned 24 hours a day. Also we took care of damage at Camp Reasoner and the small CAP out posts. We took good care of Judy and she ate very well, We would get stake and chicken from the mess hall and She also loved to drink beer. That's how we got our beds, enough for everyone. Da Nang Cluster. I had my sailboat and some Another thing that screwed up the night for us was our night radio, phone watch, it was a real bitch ! Total Area Sprayed (sq. 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. Don't go to Dog Patch at night and stay way from the prostitutes. She is always with me ! it for their personal use. [1] In November 1965 500 men moved into the old French Army camp, Camp Tien Sha at the foot of Monkey Mountain. Local Page TIMES-MIRROR and OBSERVER Section B WARREN, PA., WEDNESDAY. The poor farmer screamed like you could never imagine until he finally passed out. So my hooch would now have 5 of us. Naval Support Activity (NSA) Danang was officially established on 15 October 1965. Bombardier Jan 17, 2016 I bet they had to patrol that high ground a lot though Media information Category Images of Vietnam Added by nstar48 Date added Jan 30, 2008 View count 16,033 2 This was the closest skivvy house to Camp Books , a very short walk. would be thinking about that meal a lot! Camp Fay in the evening and morning. Naval Support Facility DaNang (1970-1972), and the Detachments. Some of the rocket attacks were on Camp Books (FLC) . a small cargo plane in the middle of the night, all I We went through the gate, down Main Street, took a left and stopped in front of a small building that looked like a hamburger stand. You FNGs get to the back of the 1966 and assumed I would spend two years on a submarine in WesPac. Some where along the line the nurse had done an IV drip. So off to Camp Tien Sha to get my gear and check out. Alan on Haircuts He got the point and let me through the gate, no more questions asked. The guy on the right had black hair, he had been shot with a small caliber pistol right where the skull meets the spine. Here is the letter I wrote my parents on May 15, 1968. The lumber and wood crates in upper right was the start of our lumber yard. basis Lance Corporal James D Feucht (cause of death,misadventure). Despite these positive interactions with whites, African Americans did not view the armed forces as an institution free of racial prejudice. There were other things to screw up the nights. There was an indoor movie theater, snack bar, hobby shop, NCO club and EM club, basket ball courts and tennis courts. James L Chambers (cause of death,misadventure). This is a 122mm rocket crater in the road in front of our shop. 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. Some part of it was always listening to what was going on . 1968 SPECIAL REPORT: "CAMP TIEN SHA RACIAL TROUBLE" Hezakya Newz & Films 165K subscribers Subscribe 300 9.9K views 1 year ago For African Americans soldiers serving in the armed forces during the. waiting in transit at the Long Beach Naval Station, I got orders to loading the LSTs and loading onto trucks. This building was about 24 ft wide and 200 feet long and was a two story building. I was driving on the perimeter road with the dry storage ASM wall on my right. [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. That distance above us was only 4 feet. On May 13,1968 we took 6 122mm rocket rounds as explained in my May 15,1968 leter. After a couple rocket and mortar attacks my brain never went completely to sleep. All of the rounds hit in swamp area between the main base and FLC command building . Military personnel learn some of the basics in other training, but this is the course for the big boys. These places were essential for the completion of the overall mission and are important for understanding the assignments and accomplishments of personnel who served with 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. When we arrived at Red Beach the Seabee team shop was a mad house. uniform. Here is the battalion report for May 1968. Danang was handling more tonnage than the port of Baltimore at the time. 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. The villagers brought each one of us Seabees a Tiger Beer before we left for Camp Books. Cat Lo Naval Base. But I don't consider myself as one. 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. The bundle was given to the mother who would take the bundle out side and set it down in the dirt by the street.