The concept at this time was that NSA Da Nang would concern itself with operating ports and beaches from Chu Lai to the DMZ and would operate a supply depot, shipping, and some ancillary services. Throughput capacity is over 1 million tons per year. Air shipment to Vietnam of critical items could normally be accomplished within 30 days of ordering. For the most part, they tended to concentrate on work of a temporary or emergency nature at scattered Air Force sites. The majority of the remaining 1,800 were Vietnamese. [7] As such, Westmoreland recommended the U.S. prioritise developing Cam Ranh Bay instead. The movement of retrograde equipment and unit stand down equipment was a In late 1967 and early 1968, in I Corps particularly, there were a number of instances where RMK-BRJ men worked next to Seabees on similar jobs. Currently, Tan Phong port has completed two terminals: My Giang and Doc Let and Ninh Thuy. I was on duty the night It might be noted that the OICC office had some capability for doing its own design in house with a small number of U. S. civil servants and third country nationals, but the bulk of its design work was carried out by architectural and engineering firms located in Southeast Asia. [citation needed], Following the edict of Emperor Minh Mng in 1835 prohibiting European vessels from making landfall or pursuing trade except at Nng, its port quickly superseded Hi An as the largest commercial port in the central region. By far the greatest construction effort outside of the RMK-BRJ joint venture came from the U. S. construction troops. Vietnam The station hospital begun in 1965 had treated over 21,000 casualties, 44,000 nonbattle patients and one million outpatients flowing in from the hostile and disease-ridden I Corps environment. The job would not be easy. Similarly, the five Atlantic battalions were in various stages of deployment off the East coast of the U. S., in the Caribbean, in Europe, and in Africa. Many of the crews were a mixture of all three nationalities, the aim being ultimately to train the Vietnamese to take over from the more skilled Koreans and Seabees. Though the Brigade Commander reported to Commander Naval Forces Vietnam in Saigon, there was little question that on a day-to-day basis the Seabees were working for the senior officer in I Corps, the Commanding General III Marine Amphibious Force. Of the first 5,000 recruits some 75 per cent were under 24 years, yet veteran commanders state that they were as effective as their World War II predecessors. in town that I can not remember the name of and Tien Sha Ramp, which was very . He didn't want to tell me what had just happened. metal pier shed which was mostly destroyed by a typhoon--Ralph Grambo]. One could expect to receive per battalion 19,000 man days of productive labor a month. received a call from the Navy Pacific Command, to enter our harbor at daybreak There is little doubt that their influence on Vietnam and its people has been substantialparticularly in relation to the number of Seabees involved. I believe I remember a picture that hung in the old office on [8] After SeaLand began operating container ship services to Vietnam in October 1966, three of its vessels covered routes between the West Coast of the United States and Da Nang. Service is designed for determination of shipping lines whose vessels put in chosen port or direction. Some selected Air Force sites were also included. Obviously there were many uncompleted projects when it came time for a battalion to leave for home, and there was some lost motion as the relieving battalion took over. Do you have DANANG VIET NAM, DEEP WATER PIERS Reunion information you'd like to share, "When I Joined VetFriends, I read about the email locator service, and sent an email to my old friend. You've read 1 out of 5 free articles of Proceedings this month. In FY68 the program fell short when only 3,200 were enlisted, but in the following year the number returned again to the 5,000 mark. Each battalion had about 10,000 measurement tons of tools, equipment, and supplies valued at $4.4 million. U.S. Navy Records Search & Veteran Locator | TWS to the Vietnamese on June 6,1972. Hotline: (+62) 21- 30053614 & (+62) 815 9212190 Since the Navy was assigned support responsibilities for MAAGs in this area, one major outgrowth of this demand was the formation in 1962 of the Navys sprawling Headquarters Support Activity, Saigon, which served a large area of South Vietnam. These Marines were the vanguard of an American force which was to expand steadily beyond half a million troops. In addition a new offensive was One month later, on 17 July, a Secretary of the Navy Notice established NSA Da Nang. North Central region, attracting a part of Laos and Northeast Thailand. The Deep C industrial zone near the port has already attracted 80 companies. my first 6 months in country and a LTC Hickey took over Command until we Van Phong port construction project has been restarted since late 2009 and is scheduled to be completed by 2020 in two phases. At the same time, Vung Tau port is one of two international gateways in Vietnam. As the contract effort went down, most of the non-Vietnamese left the country. As a result, loss of productive man days was not a significant factor. A few 1968 figures may help to put Seabee costs in perspective. They were there to win the hearts and the minds of the people of South Vietnam, to free these people from the terror of the Viet Cong, and to help them to get on their feet politically, economically, and militarily. for a lot of questions if I decided to stop the Sealand ship, which I did. A semi-alert battalion was based at Guam, ready to move to help also should the alert battalion need assistance. Headed by an Army engineer, Brigadier General C. H. Dunn, and staffed with officers from all the Services, this office became responsible for setting construction standards (i.e., number of square feet per man in barracks), authorizing and setting priorities of construction by contract or troop labor, and coordinating the acquisition of real estate. Yet another element of the Civil Engineer Corps was in Vietnam long before the 1965 buildup. Navy planners should concern themselves with the full range of naval warfare which includes the bases supporting the ships, aircraft, and Marines. Website www.danangportvn.com. Subsequently, under the direction of a Civil Engineer Corps Rear Admiral-the first being William M. Heamanthe staff grew to over 1,000, including 100 officers and a small number of enlisted men. This became the final consortium of the four contracting companies which were to carry out the bulk of the construction effort in Vietnam under the banner of RMK-BRJ; Raymond- Morrison-Knudsen-Brown-Root-Jones. According to the plan of the Ministry of Transport, Quan Ninh port holds the second position in the important group of seaports in Northern Vietnam, after Hai Phong is the central position. In late May 1963, NMCB-3 deployed from Guam and the next month NMCB-9 left Port Hueneme; both reported to Da Nang. With the thought that he would be invaluable in coordinating the efforts of the Marine battalions, a Marine colonel was requested, and assigned to serve as chief staff officer of the 30th NCR. A 450 m (1,480 ft) breakwater provides protection from high waves and monsoons. How cool is that. small chest drawer. This peak number was short-lived, however, for it looked as though military construction troops would take over and finish the job. The cooks, yeomen, medical corpsmen, and other men in essential support roles generally comprised about 15 to 20 per cent of a battalions complement. In World War II in General MacArthur's island-hopping campaign, engineer troops comprised 18 per cent of the total troop strength com mitted. U. S. combat troops, not "Advisors, were now committed to the land war in Asia which so many had hoped to avoid. While the DPPOs should be considered in a special category, there is some small evidence that the relatively high exposure rate to Vietnam duty experienced by the Seabees affected all reenlistment rates adversely. Best Things to Do in Da Nang, Vietnam On 5 June 1965, CinCPacFlt cancelled and superseded his message of 22 May, now stating that NSA would not be established in the immediate future and that the Commanding General, Fleet Marine Force, Pacific, should provide and arrange for all shoreside capability required. & E. the Army essentially turned over the entire responsibility for repair and utilities to the contractor. I called the number ans wow he was blown away when he found out who I was. These Army construction battalions were slightly larger, having 41 officers and 879 enlisted men. In one way or another every career CEC officer will have some duty with Seabees, and most officers tend to consider Seabee duty among the most rewarding they have experienced. Conversely, as the Seabees were called upon for more tactical support, work originally assigned them was shifted to the contractor. However, Seabee strength measured in terms of numbers of battalions could be somewhat misleading, for not all of the Group VIII enlisted men (as the construction trades had come to be designated) were in Naval Mobile Construction Battalions (NMCBs) in 1965; nor are they today. Quang Ninh Port is a deep-sea port located in the key economic region of Northern Vietnam. Statistics have, of course, changed rapidly, but some idea of the contribution of the teams may be gained from these figures gathered at Seabee headquarters in Hawaii (ComCBPac) in mid-1968: "Pioneered or upgraded to all-weather standards over three hundred and fifty miles of provincial roads and highways; planned and built four 'New Life Hamlets; planned and laid out six Refugee Villages; built three provincial and four local district market places; built sixteen Special Forces Camps; constructed thirty hospitals and dispensaries; added sixty school houses to the Vietnamese educational system; placed over 286,000 cubic yards of fill; provided on-the-job training to more than five thousand Vietnamese refugees, villagers, public works personnel, and "Chieu Hoi returnees (ex-Viet Cong) (more than half of these in 1967 alone); built over 4,000 feet of bridges (12 to 400 feet in length) and laid over two hundred culverts; constructed over eight miles of airfields; added 865 one-family housing units to various refugee villages; placed over fifty fresh water wells; and, constructed 168 civic and public buildings for the Vietnamese Government." Currently, Chan May port has Ben 1 and 2 berths and Ben 3 will be completed in 2018. unloading container ships at CMTV port in particular Vung Tau port in general. He placed the charge on a rib In theory the CBMUs were a little better trained to defend themselves as units, but there the difference ended. For example, roving one and two man Seabee automotive and generator repair teams rendered service to Special Forces, MACV Advisors, and U. S. Government civilian agencies located in remote provinces. Productivity and the cost of doing work loomed large in the eyes of Pentagon analysts who sought to determine whether civilian contractors or troops should carry the burden of the construction effort. The truck being driven away from the pier. One other statistic is also worthy of note; at the time of this report team hospital corpsmen had treated well over 150,000 Vietnamese at sick call. Built by the French in 1874, Hai Phong port is now the most modern container port in the North of Vietnam. (White Elephant) and much more. Following the confusion of the explosion, while we To get young men into the Seabees simply to build up to the required numbers was not particularly difficult. 86-111. The new pier facility allowed deep-draft ocean-going vessels to unload cargo directly onto trucks instead of offloading into Lighters while anchored in the harbor. Administratively, the Pacific battalions still reported individually to ComCBPac and the Atlantic battalions to ComCBLant with the result that the brigade and regimental staffs could concentrate entirely on the operational business of getting on with the construction. (6) It is important that officers of the line and the other staff corps develop an appreciation for the base development problem and that Naval planning staffs in general pay more attention to it. Their officersCivil Engineer Corpswho had reached a high of 10,000 during the war now numbered less than 1,700. The primary mission of NSF was to train the Vietnamese Navy to take over after U.S. Though it was not that long ago, the Civil Engineer Corps had also been exposed previously to this exotic land. In many places in the U. S., civil service and trade union restrictions had kept them from working in their trades, so they were employed in a variety of jobs (such as Shore Patrol, Master at Arms, Commissary) in which they could be replaced by other sailors. The French overpowered the Vietnamese stationed in Nng, swiftly occupying the city and Tin Sa Peninsula (now called Sn Tr Peninsula). came and picked me up and said that he had changed his mind. [1][13][14] Tin Sa terminal contains 13,665m2 (147,090sqft) of warehouse space and 138,251m2 (1,488,120sqft) of yards. Practically all of the public works activity in the early months was internal to NSA itself and was theoretically limited to the "secure" areas; but as the troop buildup continued, the demand for an expanded public works organization became more pressing. WebFlatbed trailers being unloaded from a U.S. Navy ship at a pier in Da Nang, Vietnam during the Vietnam War. As expected, the international transshipment port in Vietnam is capable of receiving 5 million TEUs per year, with 8 berths for container ships with a capacity of up to 12,000 TEUs and 8 berths for feeders and the total port area of 405 ha. Da Nang was the keystone, the major, deep water port and the major air base. The Navy, on the other hand, used Philco-Ford primarily to furnish Korean artisans who were integrated into a combined Seabee-civilian Public Works Department at Da Nang run by CEC officers. the only trouble with your Seabees is that I don't have enough of them.". It is interesting to note the comparative age of the World War II Seabees who averaged 35 years of age, whereas their successors during the Vietnam conflict averaged 23 years. Despite the size of RMK-BRJ and the Naval Mobile Construction Battalions, there was need for more construction capability than they could provide. One interesting statistic shows that by mid-1969 the hiring office at San Bruno, California, had screened over 385,000 U. S. applicants to place some 7,000 of them in Vietnam during the course of the contract. During the early allied buildup in South Vietnam the only primary deep water port to handle incoming cargo ships was the Saigon Port on the Saigon River in the Capital Military District of Gia Dinh Province in III Corps Tactical Zone. Put another way, a battalion could be expected to place about $350,000 worth of new construction a month. Articles incorporating text from Wikipedia, United States military bases of the Vietnam War, http://www.worldcat.org/title/southeast-asia-building-the-bases-the-history-of-construction-in-southeast-asia/oclc/952642951&referer=brief_results, https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/b/by-sea-air-land-marolda/chapter-4-winding-down-the-war-1968-1973.html, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Are you looking for someone who is or was in DANANG VIET NAM, DEEP WATER PIERS? dark red, fortified wine, orig. [3] NSA Danang originally operated from a commercial pier on the city side of the Hn River and this "Museum Ramp" (160300N 1081328E / 16.05N 108.2245E / 16.05; 108.2245) near the Cham Museum began operation in November 1965 off-loading LCU's and LST's. while I was waiting with all my baggage at the helipad Col. Merbott's driver Starting from Da Nang or Hoi An, your personal driver takes you to the UNESCO site of My Son, where Champa temples have stood for thousands of years. I was to stay and This article incorporatespublic domain material from websites or documents of the Naval History and Heritage Command. airforce fighter and an unidentified ARVN helicopter collided in a gigantic These components were invaluable in getting the Seabee construction effort underway even though some obsolescent equipment was in the system. Along with NSA Da Nang, Public Works experienced phenomenal growth, and in less than two years became the largest public works organization the Navy had anywhere in the world. The maximum number in Vietnam reached twelve early in 1968 and was reduced to ten before the end of that year. NAVSUPPACT DaNang the story that will never be told: this At the start of the Vietnam conflict the authorized allowance of a battalion was 21 officers and 563 men. The teams were designed to be small, mobile, and cross-skilled. Port Type Seaport. Coincidentally, in January 1962 the Saigon ROICC office was expanded to eight officers and 72 civilians and upgraded under a more senior officer. PO3 Berglund in guard tower - NSAD Sa Huynh, RVN . Vietnam 0 (+84) 989 383 767 Culture & Arts Ho Chi Minh City Hanoi Attractions Hoi An Halong Bay Sapa Hue Da Nang Nha Trang Phu Quoc Island Mekong Delta More Home Cruises Special Tours Honeymoon Tours Helicopter Tours Shore Excursions Veteran We wonder about the rest that served with us in the artillery unit we served in. "Expanded" meant, at first, giving design, real estate, some transportation, minor construction and alteration, and maintenance and utility support to Marine facilities in the "secure" areas in Da Nang, Chu Lai, and Hue-Phu Bai. Sign up to receive our newsletter regarding Veterans, Reunions, Military, Veteran Benefits, Military Pictures, Jokes, Military History, Unplanned, unwanted, undeclared, and unpopular, the Vietnam War in most American eyes just happened. (either M48 or M60) tanks during their shift (Korean stevedores were paid by the [11] Due to these limitations, cruise ships generally make short staysabout 2 or 3 days at most. The warehouse building damaged by the typhoon was still utilized as the port I Corps, comprising all five northernmost provinces of Mouth Vietnam, from the DMZ southward over 200 miles, became the Marines' responsibility. Sign up to get updates about new releases and event invitations. American advisors penetrated the jungles, American warships cruised the Tonkin Gulf, and then it was March 1965 and American Marines landed at Da Nang. The latter, with 46 officers and 1,049 men per battalion, provided more general engineering support of a deliberate nature for the landing force (division and wing). All U.S. personnel began carrying weapons, especially at night. Like the rest of the CEC they were scattered throughout the Navygenerally in shop management positions. Civil Engineers, Seabees, and Bases in Vietnam Vietnam (A little better than half the life cycle in the U. S.) Further, from an economical and capability standpoint, this piece was good for only one depot overhaul. In simplest terms, under the force levels imposed by the Pentagon, every sailor ashore in Vietnam meant one less sailor in a ship or on a vital shore station somewhere else. WebThe Delong pier was no longer located at Deep Water Pier in Danang upon my arrival in country and assignment to the 5th Transportation Command. Finally he U.S. Navy ship Comet docked at a deep water pier. They built for everyoneMarines, Navy, Air Force, Army, Free World Forces, the Vietnamese Armed Forces; but they worked primarily for the Marines. As more units moved into Vietnam, it became impractical for the OICC to preside over every bit of construction, even that accomplished by contract. The former, consisting of 34 officers, 735 men (and a few naval medical personnel) per battalion, provided close combat support to the division. During the take over of Nng Port lies at one end of the EastWest Economic Corridor, an economic corridor connecting Vietnam with Laos, Thailand, and Burma. Consisting of a junior Civil Engineer Corps officer-in-charge, a hospital corpsman, and eleven men in the ratings of construction equipment operator and mechanic, builder, steelworker, construction electrician, utilities man, and engineering aid, these teams were normally given some months of intensive language and technical unit training at one of the three Naval Construction Battalion CentersPort Hueneme, California, Davisville, Rhode Island, or Gulfport, Mississippi (starting in 1968), prior to being sent on a mission. The rapid build-up of the battalions brought organizational changes to the whole Seabee structure. Fax 84 511 822 565. officer running around with a flashlight and mumbling to himself I can't believe Nng (which the French called Tourane) and its port would remain in French hands until 1954, upon the formal dissolution of French Indochina in the 1950s. At the same time, the largest vessel can receive 40,000 DWT at Lan Ha transshipment area and the lowest with 700 DWT at Bach Dang buoy. HD Stock Video Footage - Flatbed trailers are unloaded