Being used to ports of call that were historically military friendly I was never really at ease in Danang when among the local population. I attributed at first to my NYC (Bronx) up bringing. As time wore on it became apparent to me that we (Americans) could not be trusted by the locals and the feeling became ever more mutual.
On the whole it is (and was back then) a beautiful country. I'm not going to take you through a Vietnamese history lesson or a tour guide as I'm not qualified. Hopefully I can describe what I had seen through the eyes of a young man in a strange place. I thought I was a seasoned sailor in 1964. I had made two WestPac Cruises aboard the USS Munsee (ATF-107). I was sure that I had seen all there was to see. So there was a bit of a culture shock as I quickly discovered this was NOT a WestPac Cruise.
Unlike the "port of call" places like Hong Kong or Japan the people we encountered were the real people of this country. One could see the transition from farmers to city people in the brief trip from the Air Base to the city of Danang. Approaching the city the caribou driven carts began to be displaced by motor cars and trucks. The less hurried pace took on an airer of dodging and weaving as the maneuvering space diminished. What was common to both was the children. Their call "GI number one" as they chased our vehicle for our C-Ration surplus and the like. What they lacked in the material sense was made up by spirit, energy and ingenuity. In the city those same children be came the "street urchins" who could get the visitor anything he wished; for a price, of course. These very business conscious youths were resourceful and were masters of the black market. The black market was almost limitless in the scope of things one could buy. In the early days of the conflict when the logistics was still not well established and disorganised. It was understood by the armed forces that the black market an exceptable resource for materials. It was a known fact that a full warehouse at sunset would surly be emptied by sunrise if left unguarded. Like most big cities it never really slept.
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| Map of the Port of Danang |
Our task in the beginning was to expedite the handling and storage of military cargo utilizing civilian stevedores. Needless to say we spent most of our time in the city on the waterfront. The commercial piers built by the French during the colonial days were inadequate at best. The one thing that they had an abundance of was people. My early exposure to the Danang cutting edge technology in 1965 was mind boggling. For example a typical problem: move a 90 pound bag of cement from a barge to a truck 200 feet away. Solution: have four men lift the bag of cement and place it on the back of an 85 pound woman - she then carries to off the barge across a 4 by 12 board onto the pier and walks 175 feet to the truck where 4 other men lift the bag on to the truck. This would be repeated hundreds of times an hour until the barge was unloaded. This was know as "Mama-San" power; truly the prime mover of all Vietnamese pier gangs.
Here is a look at life in the city in the early days from my collection of photos. Take notice that we would wear "civvies" when on liberty. That policy, thought to be an means to foster better relations with the locals was quickly recinded. Liberty was restriced to base facilities and local hotels housing military advisors and the use of military payment certificates (MPC) replaced the "greenback" (US Dollar).
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Click to Enlarge Image |
I'm sure that each of our crew has similiar memories and maybe some photos as well. Feel free to contact me to add to this topic.
Here is something that Les Krieg sent me a while back. In the early days this was a hot bed of activity as the nerve center of all things involving logistics. Formally a French hotel the White Elephant was the Command center before there was a NSA Danang. Some of you TWOer's may know the guy on the rail.
