Category: "Location"

A swimming pool at Dau Tieng

A swimming pool at Dau Tieng
 

Article reprinted from THE TROPIC LIGHTNING NEWS, 20 March, 1967

The 3rd Bde of the 4th Division recently added it splash to one of man's most unusual wars when it resurrected a stately 1930 French swimming pool at Dau Tieng (Camp Rainier), just crackling distance from Viet Cong rifle fire.

In a scene that would undoubtedly sent Lloyd Bridges under for the third time, the combat hardened third brigade troops have taken the new swimming pool almost as calmly as a Vietcong mortar attack. "It's unbelievable!" said one specialist.".I haven't had this much fun since I left the states. About the only thing we don't have our girls".

And few would dispute that this was the greatest morale booster to hit the camp since Armed Forces television brought Batman to the country late last year. When the Ivy men arrived in War Zone C, it didn't take them long to uncover and overrun the dilapidated swimming pool, originally built under the shade of the Michelin rubber plantation by the French in the 1930s. The pool was marred by 20 years of neglect and war. The pipe system was beyond use, debris contaminated the bottom, a grenade explosion had ripped out a chunk of cement, but the potential was definitely there.

The 2nd Bn, 12th Infantry, getting a chance to show its versatility, moved in, cleaned up, then moved out, not before installing 10 showers below the sundeck, dumping 80 gallons of paint on the pool's walls and 275,000 gallons of water to fill the tank. The result was a fabulous 81 foot long, 31 foot wide and 12 foot deep pool and an opening day splash in that resembled a school of salmon in a goldfish bowl.

Since opening day, the pool is taken on a few added attractions and now features a little something for almost everyone. The high divers have a 4 m tower, while a spring board constructed from a helicopter rotor wing has been installed for the less daring. A wading pool tapering down to 4 feet accommodates those who just wanting to relax and forget the bitter turmoil in War Zone C. The sundeck is equipped with a stereo unit, and management has available masks, swim fins and sparkles.

The pool is managed by SP5 Ray Croft. He is responsible for the care and maintenance of the pool and equipment and for pool safety. He is assisted by SP4 Jim Fulton, Richard Webster and Cpl. Ron McAtee. In addition to their other duties, the pool crew teaches daily swimming classes for the nonswimmers in the brigade. The pool is open daily from 8 AM to 7 PM. No one yet has suggested putting up night lights for a midnight swim. That might be just too much.

Footnote: When I return to Vietnam in 2010, I returned to Dau Tieng, and the swimming pool was still there. I should have stopped the car and checked out the condition of the pool. But viewing the pool from the outside it looks like it was still in decent condition. I could not say whether the pool was still being used as intended. If you look in the photo, according to Bill Comeau, A Co., there is a Playboy Bunny painted on the bottom of the pool. – Sarge

Trang Bang Village

Many of us remember our time spent in and around this small town. I use the term ‘town’ because it had defined streets although they were still dirt until the Army Engineers arrived and laid down gravel and eventually paved some of the major roads. Whether this was done to make them more “all weather” roads or some attempt to minimize the VC’s efforts to place mines in the paths of our convoy’s and road security patrols only they have that answer. Hamlets and villages are the smaller cultural centers for the rural farmers to gather to exchange some commercial trade. Getting back to Trang Bang, we see a city with mortar and brick buildings, some corrugated steel roofs, and a few well placed signs advertising their places of business. There were plenty of street vendors both inside the city limits and stretching slightly beyond selling everything from flowers and hot food to soda and ice.

Most of us would pronounce Trang Bang as TRAANG Bang, but the Vietnamese pronunciation is TRON BON, because the “G” is silent. Located within the town gates to the east side was the ARVN compound, a small circular shaped affair with its rows of concertina wire and guard tower built right on top of the main bunker. How many times do you recall seeing ARVN’s in uniform, packing their weapons and wearing flip flops? They looked ill prepared for the dangers that lurked around the corner. Half the time, they didn’t even have a magazine in the weapon.

Trang Bang was the intersection hub for several main roads. From the south was Hwy 1 (QL 1) which connected Cu Chi and Saigon to the city then veered west to connect to Cambodia. To the north out of town was the gateway to Tay Ninh on QL 22 and Dau Tieng.  Someone who was is Mechanized would have to tell me if we ever kept a road open between Dau Tieng and Trang Bang or whether as I suspect, we used QL 22 up to Tay Ninh then crossed over to Dau Tieng using Hwy 239. It is here also that we fondly remember 6 Alpha or TL-6A as it is called on our maps. 6 Alpha was located on the southeast side of Trang Bang and took a northerly route toward the HoBo Woods to it's right and the Boi Loi Woods to it's left. 6 Alpha turned out to be both a blessing and a curse.

Where TL-6A split off from the main road (QL 22, as QL 1 turned left at the temple just outside of town, but only several hundred meters seperated the two intersections) was a downtown area of shops and restaurants. It was a bustling location full of villagers, old and young and children. Vehicles had to slow down in order to navigate through the pedestrian cross traffic. The kids would line the street to wave and shout at the passing G.I.’s. “You numba one”  or “You numba ten G.I.”. They would ask for cigarettes and offer to sell you their sister ("Boom boom loooog time G.I. only $3"), sodas and beers.

I’m not sure when FSB Stuart II was created, but I do remember being there in May, 1968. It was located on the west side of town on Hwy 1 toward Go Dau Ha and the 2/22nd  and 3/22nd was operating road security out of there. It was abandoned some time later and resurrected as FSB Stuart III on the east side of town, below the Buddist temple and several hundred meters from the Hwy 1 bridge that spanned the Trang Bang River which flowed into the Song Vam Co Dong. In Vietnamese, song means river.

The most famous photograph perhaps of the war taken by war photographer Nick Ut (born in 1951 in Long An, Vietnam as Huynh Cong Ut) from the Associated Press, was of nine year old Phan Thi Kim Phuc (third from left, no clothes) and her brother (left), who lived behind the temple at the edge of town. Ut won the Pulitzer Prize for this picture.

 

She was the little girl who had her clothes blown off of her by the ARVN Air Force who were napalm bombing the NVA and VC who had taken over the city. This was well after we had left the county in 1972. The photo made the cover of LIFE magazine. I had the opportunity of meeting her grand-daughter when I visited the area in November, 2010.  She lived just behind the temple on the main street.

Today, FSB Stuart is the site of a power substation and the rickety old bridge on Hwy 1 is now a four lane concrete structure. The temple still stands at the edge of town and many of the rice fields still exist. It was rather strange standing on the new bridge, starring down at the brown colored water as it slowly drifted down stream. I could visualize the caged white geese we had placed slightly upstream as an early warning system.

At the beginning of October 1968, when FSB Pershing was established, we relied on our supplies being delivered by the 242nd ASHC, Muleskinners and their CH-47’s. Later this operation was abandoned and road TL-6A or 6 Alpha became our main supply route back to Hwy 1 and ultimately back to Cu Chi and the Division base camp. The resupply convoy’s and occasional mechanized units along with the local villagers all shared this road. At first, all was quiet, until the VC realized that we were going to be using this route almost daily and that is when they started mining the road. After that, a platoon would be assigned daily to road security, escorting the 65th Engineer Battalion to sweep the road and look for signs of booby traps. 

Sniper fire, booby traps set along the edges of the road, occasional ambushes were not unusually common. We lost a few good men on 6 Alpha. Three men from my platoon, Lt James Merrett, SP4 Ron Stepsie and SP4 Robert Beltran were jumped at the edge of Trang Bang just beyond the ARVN compound in December, 1968 where they had set up a check point. All were killed in a hail of gunfire and RPG’s. Later in January 1969 Doc Leavy Solomon died when he stepped on a mine just past the bridge out of Pershing and later, Sgt Dees was killed  in an ambush near the bridge on 6 Alpha.

In talking to some of the guys who served in Echo Co which was formed September or October 1968 (?), (geez, I wish someone would tell me exactly when) I was told that there was a compound located somewhere in Trang Bang that had wooden barracks, corrugated roofs with cement floors. There was an underground concrete vault for communications. Officers and uniforms were scarce in the area and from what I was told, chain of command seemed thin for a U.S. represented operation. Maybe this was just the opinion of the man I spoke to. The compound housed both Provincial Reconnaissance Units and U.S. personnel. These men worked in RECON and were part of the Operation Phoenix group. I am not sure if everyone was involved in that counter intelligence group or not. You can read about Operation Phoenix on your own in RESEARCH>OTHER OPERATIONS>OPERATION PHOENIX. It was a rather unsavory job in which I was not sure exactly how far the U.S. was willing to push the limits of warfare, but apparently, this particular mission did test the line and crossed over. I’ll let you be the judge.

Today, Trang Bang is a bustling place with motorcycles and cars going in all directions. The streets are paved including 6 Alpha and the main avenue is a four lane affair. The market place is smaller, and not the central hub it once was although we did not spend much time "exploring the city" to see how it had changed from our era. In 2010, it was chilling walking down 6 Alpha through the old market area and out of the city and toward FSB Pershing and reflecting back on all that had happened here so long ago.

Return To Hoc Mon

Back in February and very early March, the 2/12th was engaged in routing the  enemy out of the greater Saigon area after the 1968 Tet Offensive. There was a massive amount of action in which the fighting moved from hamlet to hamelet driving the VC back fromt the surround countryside of the Capital city. This entire time lasted about 5-6 weeks. After stops at Saigon, Tan Hoa, Hoc Mon and Cu Chi, the battalion was recalled back to Camp Rainer around the 20th of March and went into a 3 day stand down to regain some order from the stress of combat.

The unit remained, for the most part, around the Dau Tieng, sweeping the vast expanses of the Michelin and Ben Cui Rubber Plantations from March until the first week of July. The one exception to this was Charlie Company which was OPCON'd to the 2/22nd (Fullback 6). They were located just south of Trang Bang and were pulling road security from Go Dau Ha all the way south just below the Hoc Mon bridge where the road forked. One leg being the main highway, QL-1 and the other which ran in parallel in a northwesterly direction and behind Cu Chi base camp. Charlie spent about three weeks away from the battalion working with the mechanized unit on road security before returning to Camp Rainer at the end of May.

After the first week of July, the entire brigade was shifted from the northwest south to the area below Hoc Mon. We were spread out along a parallel line approximately sitting on top of grid coordinates XT650000 To XT800000 creating a wall of separation between lines of inflitration from the Hobo Woods and Iron Triangle area south into Saigon. Intelligence confirmed the likelyhood that the VC were going to try another Tet offensive. To our west across a wide wet marsh area was Duc Hoa and to our Eastern boundry, the Saigon River. Along this front, we located the 2/12th, 4/9th and the 1/5th. To our northeast, the 2/14th. Our mission, was to patrol this area and not let anything slip through. We were to maintain stiff traffic control and do cordon and searches of all local villages with occasional MEDCAPs.

This was July and a good month into the wet season. The 2/12th had two laager sites; A and D in one site and B and C in the other. Our laager site was tucked into an open area near a small village and next to a large cemetery. After we had been at the site for awhile, the command thought it would be a good idea to create a burm wall for protection against ground attacks. The only problem for us was the fact that it turned our laager site into a large swimming pool. As we accumulated more rain each day, the water inside the site began to rise.

 
In order to survive and to sleep, we retrieved empty 81MM boxes from the 4th platoon so we could build platforms to stand on and get out of the water to dry our feet and clothing. We made make shift tents out of our ponchos. It was a mess and miserable accomodations. We waded through water to get our food, and move around. Every chance we got, we tried to avoid wet feet. The water rose to about 18" in depth. One day, it rained so hard that it added 12" of water to our "pool" in several hours. The rain came down so hard it stung the skin and you just had to seek shelter from its wrath.

Going out on patrol was no picnic either. The farmers were plowing the rice paddies so they could get their rice crop planted. Walking through the thick mud and high water was exhausting. The mud pulled on your boots and every step was an effort. Keeping pace count was also a challenge because you just couldn't take a normal stride.

Of all the times and places that I was assigned to or the unit was asked to go, this place was the most miserable. Sleeping on the ground in the rain I could deal with, but sleeping in a lake? Fortunately, we got through this and August was drier and some improvements to our defensive positions and our laager made life in the army more bearable. By the 3rd week of September, the Division pulled us out of the Hoc Mon area and our new tactical area of operations started in Trang Bang at FSB Stuart and the beginning of FSB Pershing began the first week of October.

Missing Charlie Co sign at Dau Tieng

After putting out the word about the 2/12th company signs used at Camp Rainer or Dau Tieng, which ever you prefer, I have stumbled onto the missing Charlie Co sign. You remember? We had photos of Bravo and Delta, but Alpha (still missing) and Charlie were yet to be discovered. Unlike the Bravo and Delta signs which were colorful and showed some artistic creativity, Charlie's looks rather amateurish. On top of that, we have no flashy catch name. There was Bad Ass Bravo and the Delta Devils if you remember from my previous posting. Charlie Co is, well, just Charlie Co. The sign has stenciled to it, the "Queen of Battle" but that is misleading.
 

The Continental Army was created on 14 June 1775 by the Continental Congress before the establishment of the United States, to meet the demands of the American Revolutionary War. At that time 10 companies of riflemen were authorized. After our Independence, Congress created the United States Army on 14 June 1784 after the end of the war to replace the disbanded Continental Army. The Army considers itself to be descended from the Continental Army and thus dates its inception from the origins of that force. Someplace in our history, the infantry were referred to as the "Queen of Battle". Thus, our sign's inference to that scrip is not our motto, but mearly pointing out the historical respect for the foot soldier, the grunt, the G.I.

This photo came from the newly published photo collection from Craig Schoonderwoerd whom I served with in Charlie Co. Craig was in 1st platoon and served from March 68 to March 69.

Other Memories of Dau Tieng by Tony Adams

Other memories of Dau Tieng by Tony Adams Bravo 2/12 Feb68-Feb69

As I recall there were no bunkers close by except the birm line surrounding the base camp.  There was a command bunker but it was only open to communication and staff officers.  Some of the huts were more permanent in nature and all were being rebuilt with wood rather than tents.  Here is a picture of William Tealer RTO on left and I can’t remember the name of the SGT on right.  It shows the sand bags, which were built about 4 feet high around the tent. As an aside, Tealer was the RTO for the3 man point element consisting of David Rosenberger and Larry Osborne on 4 Apr 1968 and the only one of the three to survive the initial contact of that point element for Bravo Company.  My memory tells me that he was from New York but I have never been able to make contact of find any record of him. 

This picture was before the 4 Apr contact and I don’t think he had the same innocent face later.  I only hope he led a peaceful and calm life after returning to the world.

 

This picture shows the structures before the sand bags were placed. 

 This was taken as we were about to leave for the airfield or be picked up by truck to go outside the wire. I’m on the left and I can’t remember the name of the guy on the right.  We did quite a bit of daily work from Dau Tieng sometime during March and April. As I recall there was always a company or two back at base camp as ready reaction force and it was done on a rotating basis.

 

 

I remember the Pool well as it was a welcome relief from the heat when we were back in base camp.  This picture shows some of the pool area.  As Arnold said in his story it was a raised structure left over from the French Colonization era.

 

 

 

 

 

There was also a snack bar in Dau Tieng where we could get Hamburgers and cokes.  I’m still not sure what the hamburgers were made of but the joke was they were from the last water buffalo that was killed in the field. Here is a picture at the snack bar during one of the stand-downs.  I think this was mid March 1968.

 Another poor slide copy shows the Hamburgers.  This is Virgil ??.

 The showers were makeshift walls with structures with water tanks above and gravity feed showers.  I think when I first arrived the showers were canvas bags in outhouse stalls for one man at a time

Arnold mentioned the hooches with the metal lockers.  Here is a picture of a beer party we had during stand down which shows the lockers as well as a few drunken grunts.
 
 
 
 
Finally, during a stand down in May they held a memorial service for Rosenberger and Osborne who were killed in the 4 Apr 1968 battle.  At the time I did not know the names of the others KIA that day and I don’t remember if this service was for just Ozzy and Rosie or others as well. In any
event you can see the damage to one of the hooches from a direct mortar hit.  Fortunately we were out in the field during this mortar attack and no one was injured.  This was early stage of rebuild. Far left are the old tent structures and dead center is the replacement hooches.

 

No story of Dau Tieng would be complete without the sign showing the Bravo Area.  I have this picture in my collection but can’t explain why it is dated Jan 68 when I did not arrive until Feb 1968. My only explanation was that we all had bought Kodak Instamatic cameras and each carried them and we made multiple copies of pictures when developed for each guy.  This must have been from another guy’s collection.

 Another picture of the Bravo sign in color but poor focus shows a close up of Company Commander and 1st SGT names. Arnold already has this picture in the collection and story blog.  I took this with a Pentax Spotmatic 35MM camera using color slides. The slide quality was good but the scan became a bit blurry.

1st SGT Clary ran the base camp like a prison camp and never let anyone kick-back too long but kept every Swinging D&#K in the field.  His Patch was three up and three down with a diamond.  We used to say his was a rough-cut diamond with no polish.  He was not liked much but was responsible for taking me off line in late July 68 and brought me back in the rear with the gear where I stayed until DEROS eventually becoming NCOIC when we transferred unit to Cu Chi in August. I now have fond memories of SGT Clary as you might expect.

 All in all it is good to remember some of these times and reflect that not every experience was bad.  Many good times were had in spite of the often-terrifying times. It was a great group of guys who will always remain in my memory.  I Have since identified back row 5th from left as Rich Shafer.  Still can’t remember front row right name.

Note: Bottom row of this photo, Ted Hauser is actually "Bill Hauser". - Sarge

 

PB Granite

Around February 6, 1969, the company was flown to a LZ east of the Mushroom and after sweeping the area, we set up a NL. We were with another company, I believe it was Delta. Shortly thereafter, we were working with the 1/5th Bobcats. I have pictures in which I thought they were taken at FSB Pershing when we were building our perimeter firing positions.

But, the photos contain members of my squad who did not arrive in country until December which leads me to believe we are at patrol base Granite setting it up. Does anyone remember this time?

We were at XT 597293 or in that vicinity, just below the Saigon River. We spent about two weeks there before we returned to FSB Pershing