VIETNAM

VIETNAM

Spending a year in Vietnam was quite a memory. Here's how it started.

It was August, 1966. The company I was assigned to was formed at Ft. Mead, Maryland. When we were ready to go, we (about 200 guys) were bussed to Friendship Airport in Hagerstown just outside of Baltimore. We flew a chartered plane to Oakland, California and were taken to the port area and were loaded on a Liberty ship refitted for troop transport. These Liberty ships were a class of ship that were originally used as freighters to haul goods. We slept in cots that were attached to the walls 3 or 4 high. I remember that we had to shower in salt water to conserve fresh water for drinking. The ship was manned by Merchant Marines. She carried about 4,000 troops.

After one or two days in Oakland, we steamed under the Golden Gate Bridge and down the coast to San Diego. All Army troops were loaded in Oakland. All Marines were boarded in San Diego. After a day or two, we headed for the open sea.

The trip took 28 days, port to port. The weather was wonderful. The Pacific was calm. We all had little chores to do each day that took a few hours but nothing else. Mostly I remember lying on deck and reading. I had never been to sea before and I loved it. I saw lots of dolphins, flying fish and even a whale or two. I spent more time on deck than anyone I knew. I loved it there. The ship had movie theaters, libraries and general recreation areas.

One catastrophe occurred. During our first week at sea, I got a terrible tooth ache. I went to sick call. They had about 10 doctors on board but, if you can believe it, not one dentist. I thought, 'Oh my God, I can't live with this pain until we get to port.' I had an abscess and none of the doctors wanted to mess with it. They gave me antibiotics and pain medicine and told me to see a dentist when I got to Vietnam. Luckily, the medicine worked.

After about three weeks, we made port in Naha, Okinawa. We got there about 9 am and were given liberty until about 5 pm. There were tons of little cabs lined up to take us to town. Crazy local cab drivers in beat up little cars were racing everywhere. Bars and brothels opened up. They had been through this before. I went with three or four guys and had beer and burgers for the first time in a while.

All of our guys managed to make it back to the ship on time though most couldn't walk a straight line. We were all lined up on the edge of the deck watching to see if anyone got back late when a big commotion occurred on the other side of the ship. It seems one of the 4000 (he happened to be from our company) had jumped off the ship and into the bay. Everyone raced to see him. He was drunk and swimming around in the bay like a seal putting on a show and ignoring calls for him to come to the ship and climb back aboard. He was a great swimmer. The Shore Patrol finally sent a small boat to get him but he was able to elude it for some time. Everyone was cheering for him which made him try even harder to avoid the SPs. Of course, they eventually got him and he was put in the brig for the rest of the trip.

The next morning we sailed down the Asian coast toward our destination. We made one or two stops in Vietnam before we reached Cam Ranh Bay. Most troops were going even further south. Our ship dropped anchor in the bay, and we boarded landing ships on a bright beautiful day in September (these were the same kind of landing ships used in WWII on D-Day). We were carrying all of our gear which was a duffel bag and a rifle. As I recall, we weren't given any ammo for the rifles. Cam Ranh was a pretty safe place. It was a natural deep water port with a small fishing village. The US built an air base there as well as docks for unloading ships. I managed to snap a picture while in the LST. Its a prize. We hit the sandy shore and gathered together and were marched to where we made camp for the next year. It was a barren sandy waste when we got there. We'll talk about it more at another time.