Tent City by junge1
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Description
I had not previously planned to upload this picture, but it also shows part of my travels, this time courtesy of Uncle Sam.
It shows the tent city on DaNang AB, VietNam.
The picture was taken in July 1966 with a Minolta 16 and b&w film, and it was developed locally in 'Klong' Water (ditch water), or so we thought because the quality was so bad.
The large puddles in the foreground are from the most recent thunderstorm a few days earlier, and the ground between the puddles is already dusty. When it got to a certain point engine oil was dumped on the dust. This was good for dust control for a few days until the next thunderstorm.
In the left distance are the tents we lived in; 12 men per tent, 12 steel lockers and one fan. Wooden walkways between the tents, to stay out of the mud during thunderstorms in summer and during the monsoon.
In the center is a guard tower, manned by Marines that protected us. Behind the tower was a double perimeter fence, meant to keep the VC from infiltrating from the rice paddies on the other side. What the fence didn't prevent was the VC lobbying occasional mortars, and, from the west side, out of the mountains, rockets.
To achieve any kind of circulation inside the tents, the tent flaps were mostly rolled up. The problem was when we worked on the flightline and a thunderstorm came up it always started with a dust storm, red dust, followed by heavy rain. Both, the dust and the rain, went in one side the tent and out the other. This meant that we usually had to sleep on wet, red, mattresses.
DaNang lies on the 16th parallel North and the sun during June/July is just about overhead.
Daytime temperature was in the high 90s and morning lows in the upper 70s, and the humidity was high. Flightline temperatures were around 130F, so we were told.
In summer 1966 the perimeter road was not paved and there was only one operational run, a second one was being built.
When I first got there it was very difficult to fall asleep at night. There was a constant noise from rockets, motars, small arms fire, artillery, and occassionally the guns of a cruiser (no battleships were there yet). This noise was constant, sometimes near, often a distance away and oftern Gooney Birds (C-47) were dropping parachute flares to keep a particular area of activity lit. They dropped pattern after pattern. We got used to that eventually. But it was more difficult in the beginning to get used to the noise by a starting F-4 flying overhead in full afterburner, just before we drifted off. One nigth I heard a peculiar noise that sounded somewhat familiar. It was made by the clatter of tracks of tanks that came around the perimeter and it reminded me of WWII.
Eventually we got used to the noise, just as we got used to the rats. Around the outhouse the rats must have been 1.5-ft in length, minus the tail.
This picture was taken in July 1966 and later scanned.
Thank you for viewing and commenting on my uploads,
Sig...
Comments (41)
flora-crassella
....ein Zeitdokument.....
jeroni
Wonderful and very creative work
bronwyn_lea
Wow! What an experience that must have been. Another interesting and great photo. Thank you for sharing the history. Rats, ugh!
durleybeachbum
Fascinating, Sig!! You survived it all, thankfully!
THROBBE
Cool history behind this capture!
junge1
It irks me to this day that certain politicians had multiple deferments when it was their time to serve during Vietnam, yet when a certain country was invaded they were the most hawkish of them all. One senator called them 'chickenhawks'. I guess it is a lot easier, and saver, when protected by secret service men to make a lot of noise from the safety of the rear than serving in the lines themselves!!!!!!!!
Meisiekind
Incredible piece of history and that tented camp looks like a dreadful place. Glad you survived all of this Sig. :)
tallpindo
It is where you put in your time and learned the oppressive nature of opposition to your efforts.
pixelmeister
Very interesting!
M2A
Information is really useful to understand such photo, thank you.
jccj56
Awesome Scene!!
timtripp
the sorrows of empire. wonderful photo sig.
lucindawind
fabtastic photo ...Viet Nam still gives me such sadness to think about it.Im glad you survived
MrsLubner
My father, who seldom spoke of his 7 years in the service during WWII, once told me a story about how he was separated from his unit during an attach on their march. He looked for a place to bed down and found a small abandoned house, crawled up in a pile of rubble in one corner across from the fireplace. He was exhausted and fell asleep at once. When he woke just as the sun dawned, he realized light was shining in his eyes and that's when he saw the fireplace and most of the chimney was blown away by an explosion in the night - he had been "dead" tired and never stirred. He says he learned that night that it was necessary to fall asleep in less than 1 minute at any time but to sleep so light that he could hear a mouse pass by 20 feet away. This picture hurts my heart and brings back memories I had tried to lose. Many close to me never returned from this place and several who did were gone from me within months of their return. Some still suffer from various causes. Thank you for this photo and thank you for being there.
junge1
@MrsLubner. THANK YOU PJ, and thank you for understanding!
annie5
Interesting capture Sig! Thanks for sharing :)
Fidelity2
Very magical imagination on your part. 5+.
jocko500
look lioke you live in a nightmare. but it is a wonderful shot of what you had to go thought
Aioros
WoW!
MrsRatbag
This is a chilling shot, Sig; that whole thing was a huge mistake on our government's part, and I'm with you on the politicians who never served but see fit to play dice with other men's lives. May we never forget...
beachzz
You remind us of that terrible time, the loss of so many people, how difficult it really was. I knew too many who went, some came back irreparably damaged, what a heartbreak. And yes, too many were able to escape for all the wrong reasons--for shame on them. Thanks for the reminder--and as the little piece on my keychain says, "War is not healthy for children and other living things". Peace.
frankie96
That particular little war took two years of my life...like many others during 1965 and 1966....one has to experience the military situation to appreciate what you see here...
Minda
amazing photo sig,and awesome information im glad that u survived sig and Thanks a lot for sharing this to us...
PIERRE25
Excellent témoignage!
G_Mansco
Thanks for sharing, it's really incredible ;O)
fredster66
Amazing. Taken around the time I was born...
bkhook
WOW.. what a picture and story. In this instance, one picture is not worth a thousand words. It doesn't even convey half of what you just stated. Excellent history lesson and a reminder to those who weren't even around during this era.
virginiese
thnaks for sharing Sig. It looks like a storm is coming !
densa
this is amazing my friend my husband was there also doesn't talk much about it once in awhile he will tell me the horror he was exposed to so glad you made it home safe my friend
bmac62
Picture looks familiar...I spent two year there (65-66 and 70-71). First in the Delta as a District advisor living in a small compound with the Vietnamese District Chief and his small band. Two 155mm Howitzers firing overhead at night became routine...slept like a rock. Second time around just outside Tan San Nhut Air Base...slept through CH-47s coming and going during the night. My two years weren't half bad...even the dust and the rats couldn't run me off:-) Part of growing up. Newspapers made things far worse than they were!!! Bill