Rising sun, flawless sky, and barren sand highlight
our
dorm--uh, barracks--at Biggs Field one 1970 morning. Photo
from Dan Hanket
Sixteen or seventeen of us (plus Marquard, who took
the
pic) and a couple of native speakers at DLISW, 1970...
l-r: Esala, Collet, Mittlestaedt,
Underwood,
Divis, Allen, Deveney, Montiel, Shannon, Iwanusko, Gorman, Ongknown,
unknown (one of those listed as absent below?), Johnson,
Strauss, Ba Unknown, Smith, Romero, Gwin;
absent: Alleruzzo, Campbell, Elliot,
Hanket,
Pergolino, Powers. Photo from Ken Marquard
At Ba Trong's party, Dec 1970 (l-r): Ron LeGrand
(from Cape Girardeau, MO, a handball/running buddy of Hanket's from
another
language class), Gwin, Allen, Iwanuszko, Mittelstaedt Photo
from Dan Hanket
Some
of us lived here. The Stackhouse BEQ, home to "Company A, 519th
Support
Battalion," was a hotel the army rented located one block off of Nguyen
Van Thuay Blvd. (not sure I spelled that right) between Tan Son Nhut
airport
and Cho Lon (Chinatown) on the backside of Sai Gon. Walking out
the
gate in the foreground of the picture to the street (a short block
behind
and to the left of the photographer) to catch a ride to work, one
stepped
around mud puddles the size of small swimming pools, half-naked street
urchins relieving themselves or cooking crickets over little open
fires,
and other reminders that surviving war is filthy and poverty-stricken
at
best. I suppose that's why, more often than not, we rode to work
in the company bus and were glad for the lift.
At the little bar and grill--the gabled addition visible on the
fourth
floor--one could order a rib-eye steak for ninety-nine cents and watch
the army's tv station at the bar. But walking out onto the
rooftop,
we could see the cardboard homes of literally millions of refugees
stretching
as far as the eye could see, disappearing into the smoggy horizon to
the
west behind the hotel. Or we could walk to the parapet and look
down
into the narrow passageways that formed the "streets" between the
closest
of those homes and count the huge rats that infested and proliferated
throughout
that makeshift city.
Military intelligence? Yes, there were several hundred, perhaps,
of
us living there, under the guise of being a "support battalion." But
some
intelligent fool decided that we ought to have a publicly-announced QRF
drill--or fire drill, or whatever it was--from time to time. On
those
occasions, a loud siren was sounded throughout the BEQ that one could
no
doubt hear for blocks away, and we would dutifully climb out of our
racks
and head out into the parking lot in the front of the hotel behind that
little guard shack with sandbags around it there in the foreground. All
the VC had to do was secure a third-floor room in that little
hotel-like
building in the background, stockpile several grenades in a box under
the
bed, keep the room occupied by one person 24 hours a day, and wait for
that siren to wake him up. When everyone was standing out in the
yard, he could just start lobbing grenades at us and wipe out half the
MI personnel in the city with one swell foop. By the grace of God, that
never happened. But we visualized it as often as we heard that
stupid
siren.
Late in the year--perhaps that someone finally figured out just
how
vulnerable we really were--we were reassigned to new housing in the
billets
at MACV (say Mack-Vee) Headquarters next to Tan Son Nhut. There
we
finished our tours amid the PX, an olympic-sized pool, and all the
comforts
of home--including a visit from Bob Hope!
Photos from John Campbell
left: Maynard G(win) Krebs, 1972: So,
how
wild and hairy did it get after 'Nam, Grandpa?
right: Waiting for hours for Bob Hope at Long Binh,
Christmas
1971--thankfully, someone had brought a frisbee...
Photos from John Gwin
MUG
SHOTS
Photos from
Campbell, Hanket, and Marquard
|
Allen, Steve
|
Alleruzzo, Paul
|
Campbell, John
|
Collet , Al
|
Deveney, Jack
|
Divis, Henry
|
Elliott, Bill
|
Esala, Darrell
|
Gorman, John
|
Gwin, John
|
Hanket, Dan
|
Iwanuszko, Dmitro
|
Johnson, Larry
|
Marquard, Ken
|
Mittelstaedt, Walter
|
Montiel, Steve
|
Pergolino, Dave
|
Powers, John
|
Romero, Bennie
|
Shannon, John
|
Smith, Dennis
|
Strauss, Al
|
Underwood, Gary
|
top, L-R: Montiel, Hanket, and Iwanuszko at a mini-reunion they
had in May 2004; bottom, L-R: M, I, H, Old Blue and Gold
Hey, this Ivan fellow gets around, phai khong?
He has been visiting in Oklahoma and drove up for a nice visit.
We ate some pizza and had a few laughs. He had his son Lex with him.
Attached is a pic of the three of us. You figure out who is who. And
don't laugh until you look in the mirror!!!
Starting to get serious about where and when.
Here are three more taken in El Paso that Campbell found in a
stack
of stuff--l-r: Alleruzzo and baby, Smith, Montiel.
And here's Esala and a friend just south of DaNang.
