Slummer and convoys

[splummer]

It sounds like Ron was writting on the Latrine walls at Phan Rang too"""

[39mto39g]

Never been there as far as I know, Where is it?
Ron

[frisco-kid]

Ron: Phan Rang is about 30mi. south of Cam Ranh Bay on Hwy. 1. During my time with the 101st [JUN66-67] it was the main basecamp. Wasn't there too often. Went there when I was sent to the unit to process in and to go through P-Training. After I was sent up to my company up by Dak To in mid-JUL, I didn't return until some time in NOV when I was brought down to the division hospital for a bad case of jungle rot. They sent me on to Saigon to see a specialist. Returned again in FEB67 to get re-outfitted. Didn't return until late JUN67 to process out. Went through there several times in '68 on convoys. It was at the turn-off to go to Dalat and other points in the southern Highlands. By then the 101st was gone; up to Phu Bai by then.

Steve: I don't think it was Ron; the spelling was too good .

Hai Van Pass: When I returned to Nam with the 82nd in FEB68 we landed in Chu Lai. We were told that we were being sent north to the Hue/Phu Bai AO. Because of the seige at Khe San, we couldn't round up enough C-130's to transport us. They got just enough to move the arty up, but the rest of us had to convoy it. We had to get I don't know how many trucks from the Americal to make the move.

I was with the 1/17th Cav at the time. We had our own vehicles; jeep mounted 106 recoiless rifles, M-60 gun jeeps, and .50 cal. 3/4 ton trucks. No armor. We were in the first convoy to leave Chu Lai. The first leg was going to be from there to Danang. We had some mortars lobbed at us, but made it unscathed. We got mortared and rocketed that night in Danang.

The next morning we were going to make the run to Phu Bai, but we kept getting delayed because of blown bridges. We finally got underway in the late morning. As we approached Hai Van Pass, we stopped and we [17th Cav] were sent up the pass to secure it. It was a long, narrow, switchback, road. Plenty of good spots for ambushes. We took some small arms fire, but the 106's and .50's discouraged that. We stayed up on the pass while the rest of the convoy passed through. We made it into Phu Bai without losing anybody.

The next day, us and a company from the 1/505th were sent back up the pass to keep it open. We spent the next week up there running patrols and having shootouts with the bad guys. There were lots of delays due to blown bridges. It rained on us the whole time we were up there. Miserable. We had only 2 WIA the whole time we were up there.

We finally all made it to Phu Bai, and we were given a piece of ground west of Gia Le. After having it swept for mines and booby traps, we built our basecamp. It was named Camp Rodriguez after our first KIA.

Let Tom's Big Adventure, Part II begin!

[splummer]

That Pass was so narrow and so many bad bridges the guy behind me thought several times that I was going over the side because my duel tires were hanging over. [My first convoy there in Feb 1968] As the year went on the engineers really fixed that pass up. Wider roads and black top. I think there was some ambush or incedent in every convoy I ever went on from Phu Bi to Danang in that pass or on R-1. Never in the part of the convoy I was in. Did Camp Rodregas turn into Camp Eagle later?? I can't remember when the 82nd left.

[Timothy R. Kuhr]

Rode in a couple or so
of the early morning mine-sweep and resupply convoys up to one of our platoons stuck up halfway from Tam Ky to DaNang. Our officers considered us "sufficiently armed". That's a 3/4 ton with an M-60 and a couple guys with minesweepers (getting out and checking "suspicious" stretches of the road), then a looey and his driver and some poor clerk with an M-16. Then a dump truck with a half-dozen replacements and me with an M-60 (Hey, I'm a welder, not a gunner; oh yeah, every marine, etc.). Then a deuce and a half or two and another dump truck with the usual stuff and Sgt. "Grits" on another M-60. Or maybe Sgt. Backwater. Hell, we had a shit load of Sgt's. How come Cpl me got stuck in the first truck all the time? Next stupid question.