11. FRANK ALLEN 67 to May 68
I have not been in contact with anyone since I left there in 1968. My home address is 1004 Delmas Ave, Nashville, Tn, 37216.
The firstname that come to my mind is John Paul Michael MCgrath III. I also just remembered a guy name Gault that was a chicken farmer from del I think that dropped 20 rolls of tape on a generals feet on Christmas eve to shake his hand. We both worked in tape repair.
Remembering the night I was on guard duty but off duty when they starting mortoring and I had to run from the guard bunk house to the tower at the far end of the compound.
Remembering things like when a guy in our barracks tried to or did kill himself. Some guy took his rifle out of his locker, went to his bed, sat down, put the barrel in his mouth and pulled the trigger started a fight with a french guy, la something and then went and shot himself they evac him out and we never heard anything else except that he had gotten a Dear John letter. We were all diving out through the screen windows because we first thought he was shooting at us.
I worked in the tape relay in the repair dept, look up and find messages that had been garbled and re-send and such. zz's were top priority messages, usually top secret coming through that set off bells and such on the machines.
They were building the new club when we got motorars -one landed right in the middle but didn't go off, sure was a lot of shrapnel around from the others that did go off though The day I was to leave [Phu Lam] no trucks could get out and I thought I was not leaving. Then the Sgt Major came running in and said grab bag and baggage and go the helipad, sniper bullets were going over every few minutes--chopper came in. I and two others got on and we were gone.
I also remember when the USS Pueblo was captured by North Korea and we were told to pack and be ready to leave in two hours. Turned out only a few left for that trip that wound up somewhere around Da-Nang--I got a motorcycle out of that from a guy, John something that had to leave in the middle of the night.
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I also remember seeing the V.C. the rvns soldiers had captured being held in the pens and also seeing them torture them for information using the field phones and the rvns walking the VC around blind folded for thirty min or so then walking them into the corner of a steel bunker and several other things they did to torture them.
I also remember a arvn soldier teaching several of us to write Chinese. Does anyone remember the night a guy in one of the short guard towers down by the fuel tanks
that thought he saw something out in one of the patties and decided to shoot a flare up with the flare gun and shot a grenade off instead. Put the whole base on red alert in the middle of the night.
Something no one else has mentioned is standing outside and feeling the con-cussions vibrate you pants legs from the bombs the b-52s were dropping way off in the distance.
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12. LARRY CARLSON May 67 to May 68
There must be many stories to tell of my short stay at Phu Lam (it didn't seem short, then)...firefighters who came back from burning weeds in the "perimeter" totally stoned out of their minds... pulling back-to-back 12hr shifts on guard duty, commo ctr, and KP ('cause the locals don't show when we're gonna get 'hit')..
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13. GARY WARGO Feb 67 - Jan 68
I am particularly interested in the Crypto people from the KW26 area during that period. Unfortunately I have lost all contact with any of them.
Gary Wargo
SP5 Crypto
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14. PAUL M. DELMASTRO 9/67 - 4/68
I was at PhuLam from Sept. 1967 to April 1968. Put me on your roster - spec 4 Paul M.
DelMastro HQ and Motor Pool and all around golfer.
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Guy's I remember - Ron Dunns from Ohio truck driver motor pool , Rodney Chunn from Hawaii his mother played in all those Elvis movies, and all those "care" packages from his mother. George Grimmes a big dude, he and I brought a lot of wounded guys that slept through the mortar and rocket attack the night of "TET", to a Saigon Medical unit . Dougherty the motor pool dispatcher from Connecticut, He played rock & roll music over the motor pool intercom, broke his leg in a jeep accident on the ChoLon bridge a day before he was going home. I still have a security unit patch, you couldn't get through the front gate without it.
The guy who broke his nose running out of the tape data relay room and smacked right into one of those pillions in front of the place. I only had six months to do in the Army, when they sent me to the 52nd at CanTo in the big French bank in the Delta from Ft. Lewis, Wash. They sent me to the wrong place and they sent me back to PhuLam to finish out my time. There's a lot more to that story. I was from Manchester , Connecticut then , now my wife and I live in Spring Hill, Florida.!.
Paul "Target " DelMastro
US51598275.
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I remember one day when they sprayed our compound by mistake . The sirens went off and
everyone came running out of there barracks with there gas masks on, and locked and loaded to see what the hell was going on , all this orange stuff was floating down. Oh Ya, those were the good old days alright !!.
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15. BOB RUTT 67-'68
I actually served in a provisional company called AUTOSEVOCOM housed in Saigon's
Cholon section in some old French hotels. Worked all over Saigon, MACV, Tan SonNut,
and was TDY to II Field Force Hqts. at Long Bihn. Didn't spend a lot of time at Phulam,
just remember it was out in the middle of paddies.
Bob Rutt
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16. JOHN STEELE 7/67 to 6/68
I was there 7/67 thru 6/68. I was Deputy Co of the Battalion there in 67-68 period.
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Yes. I am the 7th from the left front row. facing the picture I am on the right of LTC Brown, the CO, behind the sign (in the 1967 Phu Lam Officers photo)
I went directly to CONARC Hq in Virginia when I left Nam. I retired from the military at that location. GE offered me job in Bloomington, In and I went straight there. After 24 years with GE, I retired in 1992 and have stayed in Bloomington ever since. Capt McAtee was in Indianapolis 20 some years ago.
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When I got my Lt bars I served in Communication centers and Staff Jobs except for my
Command assignment. When I arrived at Phu Lam I found out that I had been scheduled to go to the Long Lines Bn but LTC Chance knew me from Europe and traded me to LTC Brown at
Phu Lam for a Capt and a Lt. I don't know who but it was my Lucky day. I remember living
down town Cholon. We had three or four hotels, Officers in one, NCO's in one, and one or two for lower grades. That was before the added qtrs were built at Phu Lam. There was a small village on the way to Cholon with a Bridge over a stream. A Viet Cong use to shoot at us as we went over the bridge. He was careful to never hit anyone so he wouldn't be hunted down. Also as the VC came in at night to attack places in town along a road behind the compound they would wave at our guards but not bother us. From when I arrived in June 67 until Nov or Dec we used to play 18 holes at least once every other week. After that it got too dangerous as the VC would booby trap the course. During an attack on the Air Base the inflated cover on our sattlelite dish got 118 holes in it from a rocket that went off close by. During the TET offensive Phu Lam was attacked once by rocker and mortar. We had tapes prepared to stop traffic if this happened. The OIC sent out the msg and the OIC in Hawaii called up and told our OIC that he couldn't do that. Needless to say we did. We had 38 I believe wounded during this attack. That
is the only wounded that I remember. I remember taking a convey down town to rescue the
civilian workers at the AUTODIN site that was under construction. I also remember many holes in it during this time frame.
John Steele
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17. RICHARD PALUSAKI Phu Lam 2/67 to 2/68
I was at Phu Lam from Feb of 67 to Feb of 68. I left a couple of weeks after TET offensive. I was Fixed Crypto Repair , lived on the base as a SP4.Your name is not familiar to me, some of the guys I worked with were Lee Enouf, Bruce Cohen, John O'Kane, Dan Kaye, a guy that I can't remember his first name but we called him Diaz. Another was Bob Orpin I think.
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18. THOMAS LASSEK 10/67 to 9/68
8 October 1967 through 12 September 1968. I worked at the "EE" building, sometimes called the "IWCS" (integrated wideband communications system) building. Part of the Long Lines Detachment there.
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Got some pictures of what everyone did to "enhance security" after the Tet offensive. I'll forward these on to Howard as I can. Mainly consisted of erecting PSP in a perpendicular manner around the buildings, I'm speaking of the EE building. Also on that portion of the perimeter we were responsible for we had to double the sandbags - what a pain in the ass since I had to do a lot of it. After Tet, as I recall, they stopped dropping the 40mm mortars and started with the rockets. Bad deal, but the lifers knew what they were doing. The double sandbags stopped the damn things.
Do you remember the dog's "concho" and "Xin Loi" ? Amazing how I remember them but they were my "buds" since they "worked" night shift with me, eheheheheheh.
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19. DAVID LOPEZ: June 67 to August 69
Hello Howard, my name is David NMI Lopez, good to hear form you. I guess a little history to start with. I was trained as a tape ape., after getting my clearence , I went through at Fort Gordan,Ga. I have a reminder of Eddie's tatoo palor { Augusta} on my arm. Any way went I arrived in country, my records went one way and I went another, thank God, Phu Lam was a nice
place to be. From late June to early Sep. I built bunkers form Phu Lam to Tan Son Nunt. I felt very lucky to get into Tech Supply, working 10 hour days. The EM club was still under construction at the time. When I arrived, there was no room at the inn so to speak, we were put up in a warehouse just arount the corner from the PX. lLater around late Sep or early Oct we were moved to a BEQ around 3 or 4 blocks from the PX. Later on late 67 there was another BEQ but I can't remember the name of either one. If any one can remember, there was a young man by the name of Spec 4 Campos who was from Texas who died at the BEQ. His name is on the wall, anyway we sandbagged together for a while. I don't remember the cause of death, but it was April of 68 and he was short, a two digit miget. In May of 68 I extended my tour and again in Dec. I went from pvt to Sgt in two years. Not as good as some but better then others. I remember the swiming pool going in, it took forever to get it filled. The one thing I dont' remember is the chapel' I remember mass in the mess hall..
Hi Howard, when I arrived at Phu Lam, there was a company clerk by the name of Sgt Cade. He left in 67 some time. If it is possible to locate him, he maybe of some help. In June of 67 when I arrived there, there was only one ordly room, that was located in the building that ended up being the arms room. We also had one 1sgt and one company commander. There was also a company bulletin room by the orderly room. The btn commander was Ltc Brown and the Sgtmaj was a fellow by the name of Castallo, not to sure of the spelling, but he was Italian, hope that this will help some.
I just looked at my mail and saw the picture of the officers playing volleyball. I did know Lt Albee. If I remember correctly, Lt Albee was a WEST POINTER and was on the USA Olympic Fencing Team, does anyone out there know what happened to him?
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Does anyone out the remember miss Trinh, I dated her for well over her for a year. She worked in tech supply.
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20. JOHN MARTIN: October 1967 to May 1968
I arrived in October of 67. I was a 32F (Fixed Cryptographic Repair) and worked in the NARC (Non-Automatic Relay Center). I maintained the CRYPTO equipment (KG-13) in the area behind the card readers and tape machines. In May 68, after AUTODIN came up and was working, I was transferred to MAC-V HQ.
I knew Richard Lacey; he was a good guy. We often worked together trying to figure out why the lines were down. He helped me get a call through to my parents on Christmas day.
I was also a driver, and because I had a Top Secret clearance, I was often told to deliver classified messages. I clearly remember the morning that Lacey and Behrens left; I could have easily been driving that jeep. We all knew what was happening around us, and why someone sent them out that morning has really troubled me all these years. What a waste!
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21. William Freetage 6/67-6/68
I served at Phu-Lam from June 67-June 68. I was a teletype operator in the communication
center. I was working in the Communication Center the early morning we were hit. A 80 mm mortar struck directly over my head as four of us were drinking coffee in the break room. It struck a steel beam in the ceiling and most of the scrape metal went out side. I thank the good Lord every day for placing that beam in the right place.
I remember the Comm. Center being hit by that mortar, during the Tet offensive. I had bucker guard at the same time and I'm sure ran the 100 yard dash in less then 10 sec. The mortars seem to be landing every where. I was on the wall where not a shot was fired. I'm glad cause I was very scared! The attack by us happen on Phu lam village during the second attack. No one was hurt as far as I know. We shot the hell out of one of the buildings that was on the left side of Phu Lam, facing from the front gate. I looked at it the next day through binoculars.
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22. Paul R Smith 12/67-12/68
I served at Phu Lam with the Long Lines Battalion from Dec 67 to Dec 68.
I remember Melvin Ferguson from Flatwoods, KY in our Long Lines Battalion South
detachment. We were the guys at the back of the compound. There was also a Hispanic fella last name Gonzales who worked in the power plant for Long Lines. He was from Lubbock TX. And James J Jarvis of Watertown NY.
Also I remember a black guy named Eugene P Watts who was in our Long Lines. I was a 32
something MOS and was trained on the LRC3 equipment but they put me in this semi van at theback of the compound and I sat out there for a month with a civilian who seemed to like to sit around and do nothing. I couldn't stand it and complained bitterly to our 1st Sgt. He then made me the detachment driver and up until my last two months in country that is what I did. Out to Ton Sa Nhut frequently and hauling our guys and visitors all over the place. Watts was my frequent shotgun on runs. I remember one time when the fighting was pretty heavy in Phu Lam that we took a back route around Phu Lam and traffic was terrible because everyone else was avoiding Phu Lam. We were going through some major intersection and the locals began running away from our jeep and yelling and Watts noticed it first and screamed for me to get the hell out.
I gunned it and took off down the street with people jumping out of the way. I still think we were targeted for a grenade that day and will forever remember Watts alerting me. He and I were real good friends but he and a few others in Long Lines got shipped off to another Long Lines detachment in country and I never heard from him again.
I also remember an oriental from California. I think his name was Gary Marumoto or
Matsumoto. He was really thin. He got a big salami shipped to him and was real excited about it. Being a young and naive Indiana farm boy I didn't know what it was and had never seen one.
There was another guy who shipped out about mid 67. His last name was Woods and he was
from Chicago. He had been in country for at least a year and a half but when
time came to ship out he was gone. I don't know anything about the rest.
There was a group of us who would play Bridge in the EE building where most of our equipment was. That is #39 on the aerial photo. There was one guy who was the instigator of the Bridge games and taught me to play but I just can't remember his name. He was really a decent person and I wish I could remember him. There was also a girl who worked in the front office of the EE building. She was Vietnamese and was really a nice girl. I wonder what happened to her. I think Christiansen was our first sergeant.
I distinctly remember Look or Life magazine carry a photo series on the fighting in Phu Lam in 68. There was some major tank activity in the town. They used them to get the Cong and NVA out of the buildings and blew big holes in a lot of the Phu Lam buildings. Maybe someone could check that out. I remember quite a few of the mortar attacks. We had the spring offensive in April & May and I recall us getting hit with mortars during that time. Then there was another one in July with more mortar attacks. I remember a helicopter coming in after one attack and lifting out some wounded guys. The chopper landed just outside the compound in the back of the compound. I don't think the pad up front was built then.
Me and another guy had to pack up William Behrens belongings for shipment back to the states after he and Lacey were killed. I remember seeing a lot of photos that he had and it was really sad. I remember it as if it were yesterday. Somebody brought all his stuff to the Long Lines Battalion and we packed it up in a shed at the back of the compound. I went to the Wall in DC and looked up him and Lacey and a hometown friend of mine who was with the AF and was killed while I was over there.
We had a dog that lived back at the Long Lines area and we called Concho, which I think Con Choa means dog in Vietnamese. He always barked at the ARVN and we figured he had reasons for that. Does anyone remember the extensive helicopter assault activity just off our perimeter and the F4 activity, all at the rear of the compound behind Long Lines? It went on for days and I think it was in February. We also used to sit out at night and watch Puff circle the area out past Phu Lam. One night a burst of fire came from the ground up toward Puff and Puff returned fire. That was a dumb move by the Cong. I also remember several helicopter assaults across the road from Phu Lam toward the edge of Phu Lam. The helicopters just kept coming in firing from their pods.
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23. BRIAN VICHE 7/67 to 3/68
I was at Phu Lam at the AUTODIN switch during construction. I arrived sometime in the summer of "67" and left in Mar 68. Our Site Resident Engineer (OIC) was Cpt Robert Cuce. I think I still have some pictures hidden away and would like to put them on your WEB site. Let me know what you would like/need/etc. Brian J. Viche (SP6)
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24. DUANE ROSTBERG 1/67-?
When I got there in January of 1967, the Phu Lam site was divided. I was assigned to an area in the rear of the compound which was called the First Signal Command. We were seperated by a fence from the rest of the compound (although the gate was always open). We had no barracks on our section and everyone was living in BEQ's in Saigon. I lived at the Capital hotel in Cholon for six months and at the Hung Dao for the other six months. We ate at the open messes in Saigon but ate in the mess hall at Phu Lam at noon if on the day shift or midnight if on the night shift. Our unit never had a headcount of more than about 25 or 30 men in 1967. I worked with Richard Lacey and Bill Behrens often and got to know Behrens quite well. He was from Two Rivers, Wisc. and Lacey was from somewhere in Kentucky, I think. My friend, Ora Pennington, was lined up to date his sister once he got home.
Our first job in 1967 was to sandbag the fuel tanks next to the power plant. This took about a month of steady work. I worked in the power plant and rarely went into the other building. I do remember two semi-trailers on the site located next to the tropo screens being called Wet Wash and Backporch. Most of the communications to our site was done through these two trailers early in ' 67.
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25. STAN GRIECO 6/67-6/68
I was at the Kingsport and remembered Miss Connie [receptionist Kingsport Hotel]
I corresponded with her after I got back to the world. She even sent my wife and I a wedding present. I worked in tape relay, in the service section. My MOS was 72B20. I can remember the NCOIC of our shift, Sgt. Ortiz and the two guys I worked with Denny Stevens and Ira Daniels . There was one other name Jesse Gomez, his name I won't forget because, we were traveling back to the Kingsport on his girlfriends motorcycle when a Vietnamese cab drove us into the path of a duce and a half. I was laid up in the 17th Field Hospital over Christmas.
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26. ZOLTAN ANDAHAZY 4/67-3/69
I was assigned to Phu Lam Signal Bn from (Official dates-13 April 1967 to 29 March 1969). Tape Relay, (Order Wire, Nights 1800-0600 Hrs) You know,--Tape Apes. Was There Through TeT. Remember, we got hit those nights. I was probably stoned or else I'd've panicked. But no, of course, I was tooo cool--. Remember, the ambassador was trapped on the top floor of the embassy and we had to courier messages to get him off the roof or something....
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27. BURT STIGEN 67-68
I was in Phulam in '67-68 as a civilian with PA&E (Pacific Architects & Engineers or Promises Alibies & and Excuses, whatever) I was operating the power plant the night Phu Lam "lost her cherry" and the first rocket attack came in. Later during the Tet offensive I was living in an apartment in the Phu Tho race track district, and was under house arrest by the VC that had set up under the race track bleachers. Some real nice guys from Phu Lam came in APCs and sprung us free.
In photos of Phulam the Place, picture of the chapel I remember real well as it was built by PA&E.
In the Phulamers off duty on page 1 of 7 in the next to the last frame, there is a picture of a waitress serving breakfast in the mess hall. Her name is/was "Bui-Thi-Minh-Phoung" After the Tet Offensive, she moved to Vung Tau to take care of her elderly grandmother..
I am a pastor now and I operate a homeless shelter for Vietnam Veterans. I live in Vinton,LA.
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28. ROBERT TORCHIA 11/67-1/69
Served there from nov 67 to jan 69. Started on recieve board in com room and ended up as Sarge shift leader in service section.
I remember the time the slot machine in the club just kept paying off until there was no money in it. I think thats when we told the Ncoic that the machine wasn't working or the time me and a good buddy of mind decided to go to the club in formal japanese komona's. Then there was the time when a group of us were by the swimming pool and the major came by. A few of the guys were not drunk but high. He had a strange look on his face, than asked us how we were doing, we replied find sir than he said good and left. We were sure we were busted but nothing happened. I was sure he knew even to this day I still think he knew. In 66 I got to see the Bob Hope Show which was a thill after seeing them on TV and finally getting to see the show in person. Ah yes the time we decided to hang the flag in the center walk way(and you that lived in the little barracks know how narrow that was) just before inspection forcing Top and the rest to side step the flag without touching it. For some reason or other we were at war with them. Than there was the time when Some Red Cross message got lost. There was hell to pay. To me.
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29. VIRGEL "WAYNE" LUCK 5/67-68
I was sent to Phu Lam the middle of May 67 to operate a switchboard, myself and eight other men. Well when we arrived there the positions were taken. That was my MOS 72C20. For several days the only thing they had for us to do was guard duty and sand bagging. Finally they put us in this Comm Center, relaying messages out of these machines. Never done this before. This MOS was 72B20. Caught on fast but did not like it, twelve hours a day, six days a week. We worked one week days and the next week at night. Working like that was hard to get some sleep.
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30. DENNIS PERRY 5/67-11/67
I worked receive most of the time. I helped burn alot of tape. Remember the grease gun that we used to guard the door? I worked send a few times and I pulled tape off reels for retransmission. I also filled in for the ZFX clerk on occasion. I also ran tape thru the multiple address machine.
I think my barracks was somewhere in the middle. I also lived in the BEQ that looked like it was in an alley. There was a little bar across the alley. I remember cockroaches the size of my thumb or bigger in the bathroom.
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31. GEORGE FANNING 1/67-8/68
My barracks was next to the outside stage. I moved down to the Mercury BEQ the last six months of my tour.. I worked the receive bank at first and then went to the send side for awhile. Worked the HP Log, Oderwire position and reels man. I worked the service section during the heavy backlog times. Did you ever have to burn the bags of old messages at nights??
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32. RUSS HEESHEN 11/67-5/68
32F20 at AUTODIN, worked in the security room in the back (with the KG-13s etc.). I remember working hard with Mark Volkoff to dig a really fine underground bunker next to AUTODIN building, covering it with an "appropriated" airdrop palette & sandbags, only to have the bunker commandeered by our captain as the command bunker. During that time at some point AUTODIN was running on an "extension cord", 'cause the underground wiring shorted out. I also recall that one of the VN maintenance men was nearly killed when he tried to clean the banks of lead-acid backup batteries using a water hose... some of them exploded. On one occasion I met an ARVN soldier & we ate lunch in the ARVN mess hall -- fried snails & onions with "33". I can still hear the hiss of sniper bullets during Tet, and the groaning sound of Puff the Magic Dragon. During Tet I remember being locked into the secure room at AUTODIN for at least 48 hours, just two of us, a SP/5 named Hladik and me. At least twice we had to haul out the Thermite grenades from under the raised flooring, wire them up, then a couple hours later unwire them & put them away. They were heavy!
Once when I was on guard duty at the perimeter by AUTODIN the captain in charge had an idea to fortify the outlying rice paddies. He wanted to place oil cans filled with gasoline or kerosene around them and use Thermite grenades to set them off. (For those who don't know about thermite grenades, they're used to melt electronic equipment. They are about 2-3" thick, and maybe 18" by 24", and weigh 50 pounds or more. They are set off using a battery, and burn slow & hot.) So the captain thought the thermite would melt the oil can, ignite the gas, cause an explosion, and set the bad guys on fire. He tried 4 or 5 different ways of positioning the grenades on/under/leaning against the oil cans, but every time it just resulted in a burning puddle of gas. It made for an interesting afternoon, though.
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33. MIKE HARTSOOK 1/67-68
We landed at Bien Hoa Airport and were taken to the resort of Long Bihn. We stayed there 2 days and then were taken to Phulam. After about 1 week they shipped myself and 6 others to the detachment center at Long Bihn to be security guards. The CO. at that time was LT. Friedman. After a few days us getting us familiar with the layout we began building bunkers and doing guard duty. It was the hardest work I had ever done since being in the ARMY. DAMN THOSE SANDBAGS. Later on the new replacements arrived and the fun began.
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34. JOHN FOULKS 6/67-6/68
I worked in the Communication Center as a 72B20 ( Teletype Operator). . What I remember about phu lam was the E-M Club and when we sang "We got to get out of this place", I also remember the steak and beer we sometimes have outside, the movies, shows, going downtown to Cholon and the bars before the Tet offenses. What is vivid in my mind is the time when we got hit in February and a mortar round landed in the exact spot I just passed, and a guy named Shaffer who ran into a wall and broke his nose and got the purple heart. Also Being a Black Viet-Nam Veteran I always liked the unity and togetherness we had over there, that is another thing that come to mind.
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35. JIM STEVENS 4/67-4/68
I was sent to Sai Gon and ended up at Phu Lam Signal Battalion. When I arrived, I found out that they were looking for a Legal Clerk, and were disappointed to learn that I had no training in that area. I asked what I needed to know, and was shown a copy of the UCMJ. I've always been an avid reader and quick learner, so I got the book and headed for my new bunk. For the first few days, I typed up mundane reports and correspondence while I poured over the book, and, within a week was a fairly accomplished barracks lawyer (regarding military law, of course). I then spent the next ten months preparing charges and specifications for courts-martial (for officers who, with all due respect, were engineers, administrators, and signalmen one day and, heaven forbid, your defense counsel the next), attending the "trials", typing up transcripts, delivering the finished documents (and the occasional prisoner) to "LBJ", and, when I thought appropriate, advising the poor sap regarding his rights to appeal. I started transcribing the proceedings in my scribbled "shorthand", but quickly found that, if I didn't type it up quickly, I couldn't read my own writing, which often required that I return to the office and work through the night typing up the transcript. Concerned about the accuracy of a trial record so produced, I requisitioned a beautiful, new reel-to-reel tape recorder. Within a few days, I had received a nice, big stereo unit, so that I could place a microphone in front of both the prosecution and the defense, record exactly what transpired, and present, still within a day or two (I was able to type some 80 words per minute on my new IBM Selectric typewriter), a complete and (presumably) accurate transcript of the proceedings. Tape recorders of this quality were hard to come by, apparently, since the supply sergeant expressed his gratitude for my ordering one, which allowed him to (somehow) justify ordering two, one of which he promptly sent to his parents in the States. I later learned that they also enjoyed corresponding with their son in Viet Nam on their new IBM Selectric typewriter.
John Abstein (who typed a lot of correspondence for LTC Brown, then our CO.) was one of the neatest guys...once, the morning after a particularly grueling celebration at the EM Club, John was a little late producing a piece of correspondence for the Colonel. Colonel Brown called (down the hall) to, I think, LT John Silver, who called from his office across the hall to John, "...where's my letter?". John, barfing into the wastebasket, replied, "I'm working on it right now!". Letters from the colonel had to be typed perfectly, no corrections, no errors. As I remember, this one-paragraph letter took the better part of a day to complete).
SFC Reed, who "volunteered" me to help him with some deliveries to the Hoi Duc Anh orphanage (the visit to which remains a vivid --and gratifying -- memory to this day), was later replaced by SFC Isley. Reed was fun; circumstantial evidence indicated that he was a serious card player who dealt a nightly game in one of the conexes, and who dated a "round-eye", I think one of the nurses at a hospital in Sai Gon. A good-looking, clever fun-seeker, I've always been disappointed that I never saw him show up later on a TV show. SGT Isley, however, had no sense of humor (from my 19-year-old, very non-military point of view). Christmas of 1967 I was about to leave for a week of R&R in Hong Kong. Being dedicated (I really was dedicated), I checked into the office just prior to leaving Phu Lam for the Tan Son Nhut airport. SGT Isley asked me about an Article 15 that I was to have typed the day before. Dispite my intricate little "snowflake" tickler system, it had slipped through the cracks and had not been completed. He took this very seriously. For those of you reading this who may not be familiar with military vernacular, I'll translate what he asked me: "Young man, I'm not certain that you believe that excrement has an odor?" I offered to stay and finish the job, but he graciously bid me farewell, and allowed me to spend two months' worth of hard-earned combat pay whoring after the heathen in a British Crown Colony. What an experience!
Best friend was Vince Suhajda, from Des Plaines, IL, the Battalion mail clerk. Vince had a great personality, and could tell you that you had no mail from home and make you enjoy knowing it. His replacement was a guy named Bob - something, from Quincy, IL. Shortly before I left Phu Lam, I'd caged an Aussie out of one of them cowboy-looking hats, but didn't have the time or expertise to package it up and send it home. I asked Bob to mail it to me, but I never got it. Neither did I get the box of coffee-cup-sized Chinese firecrackers that I mailed to myself, which I did package carefully in a large cardboard box full of yellow chad (thanx, tape guys!). However, if any of you guys later became postal inspectors, please note that these were allegedly firecrackers, reportedly sent by someone with my name, to my commonly-available home of record. One night, Vince and I reportedly set one of these bad boys off in the middle of the street in front of the President Hotel, and were amazed at the speed at which dozens of ARVN troops and the "white mice" showed up to blame each other for the breach of security. The MP holed up in his sandbagged checkpoint beside the front door probably had a coronary, I'm not sure.
I assume, because I was the legal guy, and known to most of the officers (since I also helped to
prepare the roster of which officer was selected as the "defense attorney"), I was once asked to bartend a party at the Officers' Club (affectionately known as "The Snake Pit"). It started out calmly enough, as I mixed a dozen of America's finest whiskeys with your choice of Coke or 7-Up, but soon turned into (imagine this!) a Rowdy Event. Names were called, rank was pulled and thrown, and the Viet Namese military was subjected to some serious verbal abuse. Eventually, I was asked to leave, since, as it was slurred to me by a drooling Captain, it was not fitting for an Enlisted Man to see this kind of behavior by the officers. I assured him that they could trust me; that I understood, that I would be discreet, and, slipping a bottle of bourbon into one fatigue leg pocket, and a bottle of scotch into the other, waddled back to the barracks. And, 32 years later, this is the first time that I've told this story.
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36. JOHN WALKER-2nd STORY 3/67-11/68
We lived in single-storey barracks that held about 40 men, in cubicles. We had mosquito netting, and believe me, it was necessary. We had to go to another building for toilets and showers. We each had a foot locker, and a two-section wall locker. We had no other furniture, besides our bunks and some chairs. I don't remember desks. For a while we had some wooden cabinets that we paid a Vietnamese guy to make in return for cartons of cigarettes. The First Sergeant decided we were too independent so they came around, opened up all the cabinets, dumped everything out (carefully if necessary) and took the cabinets out and smashed them up. Oh well, that was one of the first very important lessons in how you have NO CONTROL over your life when you are in the Army.
Recreation consisted mostly of going to bars in Cholon, which was Saigon's Chinatown. There were occasional attempts at organizing sports but they failed miserably.
WORKING conditions were good, air-conditioned, (they weren't air-conditioning ME, but rather the electronic equipment) but the hours were long and the shifts kept changing. 12 hours on, 12 hours off, and 4 days on, two days off. We actually had it good. Others on the site were worked longer hours with no days off and were harassed by being called out of their bunks for formations. They actually went on strike, which was really a VERY big deal. They got what they wanted because the local chain of command didn't want higher-ups to find out about the strike! In a war zone, but not during an official declared war.
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37. JIM DOUGLAS 1/67-4/67
I was the Crypto NCOIC there. I remember after a Security Inspection, I had to put my people over to operate the Secure Patch Panel. Some WO in the past had moved the Secure PP from the Secure Section over to Carrier. We received some real static about that. The Deputy Fac Comdr called me into his office and wanted to know what we could do about moving it back. I told him that we would have to order the necessary equipment, install it and wire it up and when that was done, we would take one circuit at a time and parallel it off, insure it worked and take the next one. It would be time consuming but it would not take to long. In the meantime I put my people on the Patch Panel. I left for the US prior to any resolution of the problem.
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38. BOB BEARD 8/67-5/68
I was sent to Phu Lam after I returned from stateside leave to Nha Trang Signal BN in Jul 67. I was a school trained Univac 1004/DLT 6-4 repairman. At the time I was transferred to Phu Lam, Phu Lam had only two trained 1004 repairmen and they were both so short they hand to use an extension ladder to reach the belly of a snake. So off to Phu Lam I went (TDY). When I got there they told me I would be living at the Mercury Hotel in Cholon and as an E-5 I would be pulling CQ at the company every few weeks. That never happened because I was TDY until late September when I received PCS orders to Phu Lam and I was made ED (exempt from duty) because I was the only school trained repairman for the 5 1004 systems in the NARC. When I was promoted to SP6 in February I did go on the Staff Duty NCO roster but only pulled it once or twice before I left for the world.
For the entire period of time I was at Phu Lam until the last 10 days prior to DEROS I worked night shift at the NARC. There was one other repairman that had been OJT'ed on the equipment and all I can remember is that his name was Jones and he was a very short (height) individual. Well Jonesey worked the day shift when he could get help from the Univac Tech reps and I worked the night shift. The only way either one of us had any time off was that I would be on call for him one day a week and he would be on call for me one night a week.
When I first got to Phu Lam the EM club was a little room next to the orderly room and Co HQ that you could only put about 20 to 30 people in at a time but, thanks to Ron Mullen, we had German Draught beer in the club. That was stopped about a month after I got there and the rumor was that the trade the Ron had made to get the beer was not totally on the up and up. Not that any of us good wholesome clean-minded all-American boys would ever do anything that wasn't totally on the up and up in Nam, would we-e-e-e?
The new club was opened in Nov of 67 and we finally had a decent sized area to relax in. I do remember that for about two to three months from Dec 67 to Feb 68, the only beer they were able to get in the club was Bulletin Three Ring or Lone Star Beer. We had just received two palettes of Budweiser and it was still on the field behind the tape relay (where the pool was put in) during the first VC attack on Phu Lam. That attack landed on shell about 30 feet from the palettes and we lost almost half a palette of beer into the sand and gravel of that field. The second attack put one round through the roof of the PX and landed right on top of the Booze locker.
I was working at the NARC on the night the TET offensive started and I went back to the Mercury BEQ on the last scheduled transportation vehicle that left Phu Lam for two weeks. I had just gotten to sleep that morning when the duty guard woke me up and told me there was a call at the desk for the senior person at the BEQ and that was me. Well the First Sargent wanted to know what our security status was at the hotel and how many people were there. I called him back later and told him we had eight people at the hotel and that we all had our basic load of ammo (100 rounds) and there was no activity in the immediate area. He informed me that we had a contract with the hotel and part of the contract was to provide security for the hotel. He then asked me if we had any food at the hotel and I told him the only thing we had was some junk food and snacks. He then informed me that he would try and get us more ammo and some C-Rats but that we would have to stay there until relieved. Gee Thanks Top! Well they did get us some food and ammo that afternoon (three cases of individual meals C-Rats and 1000 rounds of 7.62 ammo in loose boxes). Five days later I was replaced at the hotel because Jones was the only 1004 tech at Phu Lam and he had reached his breaking point.
I can remember the VC taking over the area north of and west of us at the hotel. The RVN Combat police moved into the area the rout out the VC. I can remember walking out from the hotel bunker on the ground floor to get the refuges moving from in front of the alley leading into the Hotel. I also remember the fact that the mamma san at Suzanne's bar providing us with soft drinks and Chinese noodle soup to stretch out the C Rats that we had. I remember sitting on the Hotel Roof (scene of many cookouts) and watching the activity around us and praying that we had not been forgotten at our little piece of hell in Saigon. I found out later that the VC were using the area less than 2 blocks from our hotel as a rally point for two battalions of the VC. So much for ignorance in the heat of battle. We did see an individual through what we that was a grenade into the Phillapino Compound near us, but we took NO ACTION to bring any attention to ourselves at the Hotel.
I had been sent to the hotel on the night of the first attack on Phu Lam to get all my gear and move into the E6 hooch in the billet area, so I missed that little celebration. I saw the effects of the attack when I returned to the compound in the morning. There were several rounds the hit in the compound including the dud that was lodged in the false ceiling on the EM club. I remember the round that hit the top of the back wall at the NARC. If that round had been six inches shorter it would have ended up in the conex behind the NARC. The only problem with that is the fact that there were several dozen 36 pound block of thermite in that conex. If the round had been six inches longer it could have gone off under the comsec floor in the NARC and all of our crypto gear had thermite charges on them and they were wired for destruction. There was another round that let the half palette of Budweiser beer drain into the field behind the tape relay. Another round went off in front of the NARC and the OIC got hit in the elbow by a piece of shrapnel from that round. He didn't realize until later that his but had also been hit in the butt at the same time. I remember one guy got a Purple Heart for running into an air conditioning unit and breaking his nose during the attack.
I don't remember why but I was also off the compound the night of the second attack. That attack walked rounds right down the middle of the compound and did a lot of damage to vehicles and the bulletin board hut. Both ambulances were parked side by side behind the mailroom and were both damaged in this attack. The PX got hit and wouldn't you know that the Class 6 locker took most of the damage from that hit.
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