Page 119 - Stand Down Vietnam

I volunteered six times to go to Vietnam. I lost my
mother in ’66. She was forty-seven years old when she
passed. Navy Relief help me get home for my mom’s
funeral. I wore my uniform at her funeral. My mother
did not like that I went into the military, but she
understood I needed to do what I did.

In January of ’69, I was sent to Vietnam. I was

assigned to a unit in Dong Ha, Vietnam. I was assigned
to CBMU-301. We maintained the entire base.
Airstrips, water, electrical, everything.

I spent nine months there; while I was there, part of
our command was moved six miles down the road to Quang
Tri. So, we had a split command.

Our command was known as Charlie Company. We got orders
to go to Khe Sanh to repair the airstrip and reopen the
base. We were there for about two months. All of a
sudden, one day, all these men came up out of the
ground. Coming up out of the ground was dear old
Charlie (Viet Cong), coming out of tunnels. I was
driving a low boy truck and trailer; another guy was
operating a bull dozier. The dozier was equipped with
an M60 machine gun. We managed to load that dozier and
escape down the road about twenty miles. A Marine
officer that saw the whole thing told me he’d never
seen such a thing and ask how we knew to do that. I

told him that when you are a Seabee, you learn how to
do a lot of things.

My unit was moved south to Chu Lai, the same location
as the Americal Division. We took over a civilian
contractor’s camp. They had 5,000 Vietnamese working
there. They had a crusher, quarry complex, asphalt, and
concrete processing plants. We went in there with just
125 men. We put out more asphalt and concrete then the
5,000 civilians ever thought about doing. A different
Seabee Battalion built nearby roads.