Welcome to Da Nang Viet Nam, Republic of

We boarded a plane at Norton Air Force Base, near San Bernadino California, for a trip into the unknown. We had been through our training and now it was time to serve our country. This is what we joined for. We knew we would be in a relatively safe area but still we were going into a war zone. I remember landing in Hawaii at Hickam Air Force Base, and having fresh pineapple for a snack. It was wonderful, I was traveling on a charter flight of course full of members of all branches of the military, a few of us sat around and ate and talked until it was time to re-board. We made one more stop on the flight but I cannot remember where. And then there we were descending into what would be our home for the next 365 days. It was February 11, 1969 when we touched down at Da Nang Air Force Base, "Home of the "Gunfighters" aka the 366th Tactical Fighter Wing. We could see helicopters and F-4 Phantoms in their revetments. It was our first sight of "The War". After we disembarked the plane, representatives of US NSA Da Nang lead us to the Haze grey busses for our trip to Camp Tien Sha, this would be the home camp for many of us and others would be sent to one of the Detachments in I-Corp. The popular name for the 1st Corp Tactical Zone, one of the 4 zones South Vietnam was divided into. Most of the fighting in I-Corp was United States Marines under the control of Third Marine Amphibious Force, better known as III-MAF, which was headquartered in Da Nang. We were there to support the Marines of III-MAF, and other US and Allied Forces in the area

As we boarded the busses we noticed the wire screens on all the windows, and it was explained that this was to prevent the locals from throwing things like hand grenades into the busses. Welcome to Vietnam. The trip across the Da Nang River onto the Tien Sha Peninsula was uneventful, and we spent most of our time looking at the scenery and people. Riding their bicycles, hondas and their 3 wheeled lambretta vehicles. Conical bamboo hats on almost everyone.  Squatting down with hand rolled cigarettes hanging out of their mouths. We saw many water buffaloes, and could not help but notice that much of the building material was scrap crates and tin. Soon we arrived at our destination, Camp Tien Sha Vietnam, an old French encampment that had been converted by the Sea Bees into our base camp.

 Main Gate Camp Tien Sha Vietnam

       As we approached the camp we were unsure what to expect, I mean this was a war zone after all, but what we really did not expect were the rows of buildings, and the lawns surrounded by the little white picket fences.   We stopped in front of the Master-At-Arms office and exited the bus; we were placed in ranks and marched to the transit barracks that would be our residence while undergoing our indoctrination to Naval Support Activity Da Nang.  We were given directions to the Mess Hall and EM Club, and pretty much released until the next morning.  The transit barracks had bunks with 3 high beds and I would up on the top bunk. Early the next morning, the Red Alert siren sounded and I quickly jumped forgetting how high I was and hit the floor with a thud, got up and followed the rest to the bunker. We were lucky that night nothing happened, and soon the all clear sounded.

     The next day we started our indoctrination, classes about the same as we had been through in Coronado. Stay out of the local villages, treat the locals with respect, and so on. That night I was assigned to the Shore Patrol, my job was to stand at the back door of the 21 room at the club and when the sailors went to the head make sure none of the 18-20 year olds snuck back into the 21 room.  I had my painted helmet liner and duty belt, I was official yeah right.  I remember one individual, coming back from the head stopped and being shorter than I , looked up at me and remarked, “You look mean in that helmet!” I simply replied “I AM” and he went on his way.  At closing, many of the Shore Patrol were assigned to the “Drunk Busses”, escorting those very intoxicated folks back to places like the deep water piers, and Tien SHa Annex. We were there to break up fights and do crowd control. I had the DWP bus and there were no major problems.  I did that for a couple of nights before we received our placements into divisions. I was assigned to, General Stores Material Division, Covered Storage compound. We simply called it GSM. I was escorted to their barracks on Tien Sha and started meeting the shipmates that would be my family for the next year. The bulk of the barracks was open and shared by everyone from Seaman Apprentice, to Storekeeper Third Class. In the back half of the barracks were rooms for the 1^st and 2^nd Class Petty Officers, the Chiefs and Officers had their own sleeping areas elsewhere. I found an empty bunk and put my things away. I was home!

               Camp Tien Sha looking down from Monkey Mountain