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[Old Seabee]

A little about myself. I was born in Chillicothe Ohio, moved to Highland Park CA, in 1950, then to Lawndale CA. in 1952. Joined the Navy in Oct 1956 and went to boot at San Diego NRTC. Received orders to Mobile Construction Battilion Center at Port Hueneme CA. where I spent one year on a kiddy cruse.

First over seas deployment to Okinawa with MOB-3 where we built The Marine facility at Futenma, which took several years. During peace time I deployed with several other battalinos in the Pacific, Guam, Kodiak, Adak, Okinawa again and again, Camp Hansen, Camp Swab. In 1965 Deployed with MOB-9 to Viet Nam, we were to go with the Marines to Hill 327 on main side Danang, but wound up in east Danang between Monkey Mountain and Marble Mountain. I worked with the Army on the Monkey Mountain projest, and of course with the Marines on the MAG-16, the 1/9,contonments. Our major project was the hospital job, which got messed up on the night of Oct/28/65 when Mag-16 and our base got hit. The guys in black went through the hospital site with their charges and blew it to hell.

My last tour in country was from 1968 to 1970, with MCBMU-301, I was sent to Cau Viet on the Z, and spent a wounderful ten months, then to Chu Li, where I ran the concrete batch plant. My most interesting tour was with a Seabee Team in Micronesia (Yap), went to an outer island called Fise, where one other Bee and myself along with locals built a school house. My last tour was at Pearl Harbor (Ford Island) with Ocianographics Systems Pacific a cover name for tracking subs, both theirs and ours.

Retired in 1978 (even got CPO sideboys), wound up in Grass Valley CA. where I couldn't get a job in construction becauseat that time it was aCousin Jack area, so went to work as a cop, go figure. Retired two years ago and now I am just kicking back. Hope this hasn't been to long winded, but you hardly get to tell your life story to anyone.

Welcome home brothers.

Any day above ground is a good day.

It don't mean nothing

[b3196]

OS
Welcome aboard and Welcome home from the only sane one here
Bob K

[David]

Welcome aboard Dan. Great service description, hope to hear more from you on the boards :)

One question, what is a Cousin Jack area?

[Doc.2/47]

Welcome home and welcome aboard Seabee!

Pleased and proud you chose to join us.

You'll find some awful fine folks here, make yourself ta home.

[Bill Farnie]

Old Seabee I have a big soft spot in my heart for the Seabee?s. When the 3rd Brigade 101st Airborne first moved up to I Corp we rotated in and out of the firebases getting used to the new AO that was covered by Camp Eagle. One of those firebases was Firebase Boyd. At Boyd the Seabee?s were working a quarry and they had their own mess hall. The very first night we were there a Seabee came down to our bunker and asked if we were hungry. Well a good grunt will never pass up a hot meal so up to the mess hall we went and I couldn?t believe what they had for us. Roast beef and mashed potatoes. Except for whoever was on guard, they went when we came back; one bunker at a time went up to the mess hall until the entire company, including the CO ate there. This went on every night for the week or so we were there. We never got to go back to FSB Boyd for we moved further north to Camp Evans but I will never forget the food and the hospitably we received from the Seabee?s.

Welcome home and although it probably wasn?t your unit at Boyd, thanks for the chow.

[Keith_Hixson]

Glad to have you on board.

Bob sane; he's a cop, he's Polish American, and he's sane.
If you believe Bob is sane, I have some ocean front property in Kansas I'd like to sell you.
I'm Bob's unofficial, self appointed therapist. He should have been committed years ago but he's a cop and they have pull.

Keith :D

[catman]

Dan...welcome aboard! Thanks for your service and welcome home!

Trav

[Old Seabee]

No thank you for letting me be a part of you company. I have stayed away for these kinds of web pages because thinking of Viet Nam brings back thoughts of a very good friend who was wonded on Oct/28/65, and died in the PI. But since I am getting to the point that life is short, I thought I would be in the company of friends even if it is over the net. I am trying to work up the courage to go to the Wall and say hello to my buddy, but I guess most of you know what the feeling is because you lost alot more friends then I did. Its guilt I guess, funny how a motar round works, not ten feet away and all you get is a minor head wound.

Dave, Grass Valley was one of the richest gold mining locations in Ca. with several very large mines. In the late 1800 the Cornish were brought over because they were so good at tunnel mining for tin in the UK. When a new arrival wanted a job in the mines he would be introduced to the forman as my cousin jack, of course the forman was Cornish. If you were anyother nationality you didn't stand a chance of getting a job.

Bill, thank you for the kind words, The Bee's have always been a group that tried to help out others in time of need. In 68 I was in Cau Viet and I had Army and Marine's ask for bags of cement, and lumber so that they could build up their bunkers, they always got what I could give, they were living in the dirt, at least I had a hootch. It wasn't unusual for them to return with an AK-47 (a couple of them) as payment. We would sell them to the black shoe Navy on the LST's that docked for resupply, no way we could get them out of country. Had a Marine show up once with a case of whisky, where the hell he got it I'll never know, but it was well taken care of.

Once again thank you for letting me join you.

Any day above ground is a good day.

Does anyone remember the names of the fire bases around Cau Viet?

[David]

Thanks for the explanation Dan, interesting history.

[Arrow]

Old Seabee welcome to the site, thank you for your service and welcome home!:32:

Arrow>>>>>>

[sn-e3]

Welcome aboard Chief.

[Jerry D]

Welcome aboard Dan :ae:

[Bill Farnie]

Dan,
Here?s a pretty good map of Quang Tri Province(with a little northern Thua Thien Province) showing camp and firebase locations. Don?t see any firebases marked around Cau Viet but that was pretty much a USMC AO and this map is a 101st Airborne map that shows the firebases that the 101st used when they covered the USMC?s pullout of VN and it looks like the eastern part of Quang Tri Province was taken from a different map and someone scanned them together. I?m not sure but Montana Kid might have been in the AO and my Homie, DMZ-LT spent some time up there too so maybe they remember the firebases around Cau Viet.

http://www.patriotfiles.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=15673

[frisco-kid]

Welcome aboard, Dan. Hope you enjoy the site.

[DMZ-LT]

Welcome aboard ! My brother was a Seebee. I worked around the DMZ as a cavalry platoon leader. Our base was Dong Ha , but we were not there much. Other bases were Con Thien , A-2 , Vandergriff , FSB Fuller , The Rock Pile. You are with friends and brothers in arms. Welcome Home ! :32:

[Chevelle]

...We're all family here,...

...Welcome aboard, and enjoy the friends, family, and fun,...

...I'm more sane then Bob, Yes I am, no I'm Not, yes I am, no I'm Not,...

...

[Old Seabee]

Dan and DMZ-LT
Thanks for the information. To everyone else thank you for the welcome

any day above ground is a good day