A Tour of I Corps

A Brief Photo Tour of I Corps, Vietnam

Welcome aboard, our NIS Vietnam “I” Corps photo tour is about to begin. The NIS mission was one of support to our Navy and Marine Corps war fighters, no matter where, in country, they might be deployed. We did this, and did it well, albeit often under untoward circumstances; an evolution that we are all proud to have been a part of and actually, It would have been impolite otherwise. Our tour today, however, reflects a visit to those physical areas through which our folks worked and traveled to accomplish their mission. Allow me to begin the tour at the NISRA Da Nang office. S/A Dave Roberts, shown here in his underwear, can be seen standing at our front gate, ensuring that all is in readiness for a baseball game with our neighborhood kids.

When not doing God’s work; responding to complaints of crime and/or evil throughout the length and breadth of I Corps, our focus was usually on report writing, lifting weights, reading the bible, having a beer or three and, interacting with the neighbors and their kids, as depicted in the following photos.

There was an event in early 1966 that did much to bring us closer to our Vietnamese neighbors. General Nguyen Cao Ky, head of the Vietnamese Air Force and a future Vietnamese premier, led an assault against the Buddhist uprising in Da Nang. Our NISRA was in the center of the street where the central Buddhist temple was also situated. General Ky positioned tanks and troops throughout the city as a show of force. A Vietnamese tank was positioned at the end of our street, and would fire on anyone who dared to appear on the street. As one could imagine, we responded to very few calls during that evolution. It soon became apparent that our neighbors were being unfairly punished by all this because their habit was to shop daily for needed food items. Their discomfort and misery levels were obvious. We had advanced warning of this siege and had laid in many, many cases of “C” Rations. Charlie Baldwin, the SRA established the Da Nang version of the Berlin Air lift, wherein we supplied “C” Rations to any of our neighbors who needed food. We could not carry them to our neighbors so, we threw snack boxes over walls and rolled food cans across the street to them, much to everyone’s amusement and delight.

General Ky, subsequently showed up at the gate to 3MAFHQ with a company of heavily armed Vietnamese marines and announced that he wanted the movements of all U.S. military personnel (U.S. Marines in particular) within Da Nang to be restricted, because he was in charge. When USMC General Lewis W. Walt was given this news, he left his office and walked alone to where Ky waited. The exact translation of what transpired has been lost to history but we were told by a trusted USMC source that General Walt put a gentle finger on Ky’s chest and informed him, literally, that if he and his troops were not out of town by sundown, they would feel the full wrath of the U. S. Marine Corps air and ground forces positioned nearby. It was a true Dirty Harry moment; Ky and his VN marines quickly departed Da Nang and returned to Saigon.

Da Nang, called Touraine, by the French, was once a quaint and attractive center of commerce and culture, modeled after the French City by the same name. Time, neglect and the infusion of too many residents had, however, substantially ruined its earlier beauty and, all of its former charm. Be that as it may, it still yielded some interesting street scenes, as can be seen in the following photos.

Several kilometers north of the city’s center, we find the heart of our military operations. First, The Da Nang Air Base, once a huge facility, managed primarily by the Air Force. Navy and Marine Corps air units shared smaller portions of the facility. Most all of the shore launched aircraft raids against the forces of North Vietnam and, close air support of our Marines on the ground, originated from Da Nang Air base. The Marines also maintained an air attack and support facility out of Chu Lai, to the south.

As the sights and smells of downtown Da Nang begin to fade into the distance, we begin to see sign of our Marines and their headquarters and logistic facilities.

Aside from 3RDMARDIVHQ facilities depicted above and the 3MAF compound situated on the far side of the Da Nang River, most of the more exciting USMC real estate lies to the north, beginning with the Hue/Phu Bai areas. Out next group of photos depict both military and civilian subjects within the Hue Phu area.

It’s time to get back on the chopper for an exciting flight further north, to our next area of interest; Dong Ha, Cam Lo, and those landing zones on or near the DMZ. You can’t go much more north than this without switching sides. Our next slide show begins with your landing zone at the Dong Ha International Airport. If you look carefully at the first slide, you can see the Dong Ha logo on the face of the administration building. The show continues with scens of Dong Ha and ending with several shots of the rural beauty of Cam Lo, nested in a scenic area just a bit south of the DMZ just a short flight from downtown Dong Ha.

Our final stop on the northern portion of our tour will be that area at and near the DMZ, that geographical “neutral” area between North and South Vietnam.

As you can see, our Marines made due with old technology. The Huey had not yet landed. The Marines that flew these birds should be sainted. They sat on their flack jackets and kept on flying. Your initial reaction when you see one of these birds is they look like a giant grasshopper and indeed, they did but at the time, they were all we had and they performed well.

For the final leg of our tour, we take you to beautiful Chu Lai by the sea; located south of Da Nang. NIS did not have an outpost in Chu Lai, rather our agents usually spent periods of 30 days deployed to Chu Lai in support of our USMC hosts. Chu Lai was a hot spot for combat operations and indeed, our agents seldom enjoyed a dull moment. We worked, lived, ate and shared many of the hardships routinely suffered by our Marine comrades and it was, without question, a very rewarding NIS tour.

Operation “Hastings,” carried out by the Marines and RVN forces was one of the largest combat operations carried out during the Vietnam War. Casualties were heavy on both sides however, losses on the NVA side were much higher. Substantial quantities of arms and ordnance materials were recovered when the smoke cleared. The following photos depict but a small portion of what war materials were recovered.

This brings to a close, our tour of I Corps, I hope you have enjoyed it. The remaining photos are an attempt on my part at being “Artsy” and consist mostly of the children in and around Da Nang, a photo subject my camera always seemed ready to focus upon. Kids rule!

------------------------------------------

I feel obligated to offer the disclaimer that age, memory and the passage of time has probably altered or inflated a good deal of the data in this presentation.

Semper Fi,

Carl