deep water piers da nang vietnam

"By the time the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese did move in strength, the fundamental facilities from which to move American troops, planes, and ships were in place., By Captain Charles J. Merdinger, Civil Engineer Corps, U. S. Navy, Civil Engineers, Seabees, and Bases in Vietnam, CNO Naval History - Midshipmen and Cadets, CNO Naval History - Professional Historian, Doctors and Dentists, Nurses and Corpsmen in Vietnam, Captain Charles J. Merdinger, Civil Engineer Corps, U. S. Navy. Following the confusion of the explosion, while we When the Marine Expeditionary Brigade was ordered to land at Da Nang in March 1965, there was no naval activity ashore to support it and no indication in official files that the Navy would move to establish such an activity. high and dry as much a one mile inland. The major ports in Central Vietnam are the Quy Nhon and Da Nang ports, the latter being a deep-water port. Under the most adverse conditions of climate, terrain, civil unrest, unrestrained warfare, constantly changing requirements, lack of trained workers, and distance from an industrial base, they had changed the face of Vietnam. They did, however, in the next month, install a number of fuel systems, provide causeways for off-loading LSTs, and establish camp support ashore in Da Nang. U.S. Navy ship Comet docked at a deep water pier. Net progress has been minimal since during one period 22 bridges were built while 21 were destroyed by sabotage." Camp Tien Sha Back in May of 1845 at Tourane (now Da Nang), Captain John Percival, commanding the USS Constitution, saw fit to seize as hostages some three Mandarins to force, unsuccessfully, as it turned out, the release of a French bishop at Hue. Hoi An, Vietnam With the motto of sustainable development, which is the main maritime gateway of Vietnam, besides setting the goal of improving service standards, Saigon Port will develop and operate deep-water port and become a War Port. Accordingly, it was engaged on rough construction projects which could be dropped immediately when the call came. Address: 6 Raffles Quay, Singapore 048580. "Although this Seabee Team program is not widely known, I believe it is encouraging to learn of this down-to-earth attempt to assist our friends in Southeast Asia to build better communities for themselves and their families". I decided to resign my Commission in November 1975 and have been teaching In the course of a full career an officer will not normally have more than two, two-year tours with the battalions. When charges against project funds were made, troop charges were about one-quarter those of the contractor; but the other three-quarters, though hidden, were real enough, for they were charged against other appropriations such as military pay, operations cost, and the like. The Support Activity's Public Works Department, during Captain S. C. Gill's tenure as PWO, ultimately numbered well over 2,000 people, of whom nearly 200 were Seabees. In pre-Vietnam days some of the Seabees considered this something of an extra drill which interfered with their prime interest in construction work. Just as with many other facets of this complicated war, there was no sharp dividing line between work assigned to the contractor and that assigned to troops. The station hospital begun in 1965 had treated over 21,000 casualties, 44,000 nonbattle patients and one million outpatients flowing in from the hostile and disease-ridden I Corps environment. Like the rest of the CEC they were scattered throughout the Navygenerally in shop management positions. The Advanced Base Functional Component system, an outgrowth of lessons from World War II, consists of definitive advanced base component designs and pre-stocked hardware which had been designed, refined bought, sorted, and stored during the peaceful years. 50th Infantry As the conflict escalated and command relationships evolved, the battalions themselves also underwent transition. Halfway around the world they were to engage in a frustrating and perplexing war with an elusive foe, where there were no fixed battle lines, yet where there were absolute lines of containment as far as United States forces were concerned, which were self- imposed by political decisions in Washington. PO3 Berglund w/ beetle found in hooch - NSAD Sa Huynh . Air shipment to Vietnam of critical items could normally be accomplished within 30 days of ordering. A major portion of that engineering war was waged by the U. S. Navy. Another incident I remember was a morning that I also was again working the Vietnam 0 (+84) 989 383 767 Culture & Arts Ho Chi Minh City Hanoi Attractions Hoi An Halong Bay Sapa Hue Da Nang Nha Trang Phu Quoc Island Mekong Delta More Home Cruises Special Tours Honeymoon Tours Helicopter Tours Shore Excursions Veteran very difficult task with only four berths. . Consisting of a junior Civil Engineer Corps officer-in-charge, a hospital corpsman, and eleven men in the ratings of construction equipment operator and mechanic, builder, steelworker, construction electrician, utilities man, and engineering aid, these teams were normally given some months of intensive language and technical unit training at one of the three Naval Construction Battalion CentersPort Hueneme, California, Davisville, Rhode Island, or Gulfport, Mississippi (starting in 1968), prior to being sent on a mission. Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines) is the port's authority. Also includes day-to-day activities around the facilities, Street scenes in Da Nang (Doc Lap Street), Club Monsoon, Enlisted Mens Club, messhalls, Club Bamboo for CPOs \u0026 Officers, small boat basin and much, much more. One of the first Europeans to visit the city was Portuguese explorer Antonio De Faria, who anchored at Nng Port in 1535. Note new pier and old building. When it comes to specific action contributions, the Seabees are second to none.. The port has a total surface area of 154,700m2; total warehouse reaches 5400m2 and container yard up to 49000m2. The average annual cost to the sponsor was $88,000 per team for materials, transportation, and so on, plus $200,000 to the Navy for initial outfitting, training, and personnel costs. Danang, but it didn't look the same. In June, 1970, Captain Merdinger will become President of Washington College, Chestertown, Maryland. of the attack. Programming construction requirements in Vietnam through a similar line item system proved cumbersome, time-consuming, and out of step with the tempo of events. Unfortunately, from the Navys standpoint, few of them chose to stay in the Navy, electing to return to civilian life after 30 months or less in the service. We frequently found in Vietnam that items were not in stock and long delays ensued in getting them. The smaller Naval Support Activity, Saigon, immediately came into being to take care of those scattered Navy elements in the southern sectors (II, III, and IV Corps) which the Army found difficult to support.1. Experience ultimately showed that the life cycle of a piece of equipment committed to Vietnam averaged 45 months from the time it was received from the factory in a U. S. depot until it passed out of the system. WebShanshui Beach is China Beach, located 30 kilometers north of Haiyun Ridge. The Navys Headquarters Support Activity in Saigon was being phased out, being replaced by the Armys 1st Logistics Command, and the general assumption in Navy circles seemed to be that the Army would henceforth provide logistic support ashore throughout Vietnam. The job would not be easy. Such a contribution is valuable indeed. WebDescription Elevated view of the deep water piers of Danang as seen from the Monkey Mountains. De Faria was one of the first Westerners to write about the area, and through his influence Portuguese ships began to call regularly at Hi An, which was then a far more important port than Nng. I remained incountry through another typhoon, which let many ammo barges I was told it was moved, but for the life of me I do not remember to where. Upon activation of NSA in July 1965, however, a fledgling Public Works Department was formed under a CEC lieutenant (H. L. Higgins), soon replaced by a commander (A. E. Floyd), then a captain (R. D. Pinker ton). Fax 84 511 822 565. Up until 1965 the contractor was engaged largely in building facilities for the armed forces of Vietnam under the Mutual Assistance Program. Vietnam All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. Clearance Diving Team 3 8th Contingent [1][3]:2, In August 1967, the headquarters of NSA Danang was moved from downtown Danang to Camp Tien Sha. What have we learned about those areas which are vital to our military posture, and which affect or are affected by the naval civil engineer? Its head, also a CEC Captain, now carried the title of Deputy, though the Saigon office became increasingly independent of the main office in Bangkok. Vietnam Some observers have attempted to compare the Armys P.A. (7) Programming requirements by the line item (a barracks or aircraft parking apron, for example) through channels to Congress for authorization and funding has been standard procedure in developing the peacetime annual construction program. China Beach was recognized by UNESCO as one of the six fine sand beaches in the world in 1995. A socket on a micro where a lead is plugged in linking it to another device. Container tracking service provides a very convenient and easy to use way of tracking the current location of containers with your cargo by container number. Fortunately he had also become a member and responded to my email. Quang Ninh Port is a deep-sea port located in the key economic region of Northern Vietnam. ton off loaded) but they had loaded the on the barge beside the BD Crane side Service is designed for determination of sealine port list. Seabees returned again in 1956 when a group of five officers and six men from NMCB-10, led by Commander W. M. Brown, surveyed some 105 tortuous miles of jungle, the toughest link in a master survey involving 1,800 miles of existing and proposed roads in South Vietnam. NMCB-10 had been, prior to the Marine landings, the alert battalion on Okinawa, prepared to move en masse to any trouble spot on short notice. In simplest terms, under the force levels imposed by the Pentagon, every sailor ashore in Vietnam meant one less sailor in a ship or on a vital shore station somewhere else. (3) Joint service planning factors and construction standards will have to be developed prior to a contingency. This became the final consortium of the four contracting companies which were to carry out the bulk of the construction effort in Vietnam under the banner of RMK-BRJ; Raymond- Morrison-Knudsen-Brown-Root-Jones. huge Delong Pier was the most prominent feature. The one hundred and fifty battalions of World War II had dwindled to two shortly thereafter, were rebuilt to eleven during the Korean War, and returned to ten from that point until the Vietnam build-up in 1965. I Corps, comprising all five northernmost provinces of Mouth Vietnam, from the DMZ southward over 200 miles, became the Marines' responsibility. Currently LEC GROUP has been cooperating successfully with many ports in Vietnam (SPPSA, Baria Serece, Ba Son, International Thi Vai, Phu Thai, Cai Lan) with a total length of berths of 2.2 km, with handling capacity up to 300,000 tons / day. Finally he While a vigorous recruiting plan was instituted, the initial buildup of the battalions was accomplished by transferring Seabees out of shore stations all over the worldsome to the battalions and some directly to Vietnam. WebThe Delong pier was no longer located at Deep Water Pier in Danang upon my arrival in country and assignment to the 5th Transportation Command. The next significant change, the placing of all Seabee battalions under a Civil Engineer Corps Flag Officer in Vietnam, came with the formation of the 3rd Naval Construction Brigade under Rear Admiral R. R. Wooding, CEC, United States Navy, on June 1, 1966, at Saigon. He is so thankful I called and we exchanged addresses and he wants to come and visit. The mountains are full of caves, tunnels and Buddhist shrines just waiting to be explored! WebDa Nang Vietnam. Da Nang was the keystone, the major, deep water port and the major air base. In June 1967 it included over 3,200 personnel, a year later 4,900, and by early 1969 the total approached 7,000. During peacetime deployments in the Pacific areas the battalions had feported directly to Commander Naval Construction Battalions, U. S. Pacific Fleet, (ComCBPac) in Hawaii, and he in turn, reported to Commander Service Force, U. S. Pacific Fleet (ComServPac), also located in Hawaii. about Danang Port In like manner, whole battalions were pulled off jobs to go to Vietnam; in some places civilian contracting firms took over for them and in others the jobs just died. They included airfields capable of handling the c-130, water distribution systems for 1,000-man cantonments, combat support hospitals, and a host of others. Thus, after two years of experimentation and growth, the Seabee Command in Vietnam had developed into a 9,000 man, 12 battalion force of two regiments under one brigade. In July 1966 the "Bridge Cargo Ramp" (160307N 1081352E / 16.052N 108.231E / 16.052; 108.231) began operations increasing NSA's supply capability. Email cangdn@dng.vnn.vn. Although a CinCPac order in April 1965 stated that military logistics operations at ports and beaches at Da Nang and Chu Lai would be accomplished by the Navy, this was considered by the top command in the Navy as a temporary assignment at most. Conversely, as the Seabees were called upon for more tactical support, work originally assigned them was shifted to the contractor. Looks Back: Vietnam Army Engineers in Vietnam & Operations We raced volkswagens on our time off and we'd go to the range and shoot all day. Certainly, round-the-clock operations accelerated the breakdown of equipment, particularly where time out for adequate maintenance was hard to come by. Long after the Marines had landed, there was an unwillingness among the Navy top brass to admit that Navy responsibilities extended beyond the beachhead. The maximum number in Vietnam reached twelve early in 1968 and was reduced to ten before the end of that year. I got to know one of the skippers CW4 Ryle One of the biggest problem areas was real estate Property was not automatically available for our bases but had to be bargained for, haggled over, rented, bought, or condemned as the situation demanded. 5 is 98m (322ft) long, for a total of 528m (1,732ft). Subsequently 50 more were added to provide perimeter security for base camps and job sites, bringing new authorized allowances to 24 officers and 738 enlisted men. & E. contract with that between the Navy and Philco-Ford, but comparisons are difficult. The port area has 21 wharves with a total length of 3,567m with a design depth from -7.5m to -9.4m. Sign up to receive our newsletter regarding Veterans, Reunions, Military, Veteran Benefits, Military Pictures, Jokes, Military History, They even became involved in building stable platforms which the Army could fire their 155-mm guns into the again DMZ. Though this report referred essentially to timber bridges, the Seabees also used precast concrete, steel substructure with timber decking, Bailey Deck type, and the AMMI (a multi-purpose steel pontoon designed by NAVFAC's Chief Engineering Advisor, Dr. Arsham Amirikian). the bay from Deep Water Pier. They worked 60-to 90- hour weeks with little complaint under the most adverse conditions. We learned of their value again in Vietnam, but it should be emphasized in many casesin the hospitals, for instancethe hardware from World War II stocks had not been updated.3. Fortunately, enemy harassment was minimal in this early period, but temperatures reaching 120F. The Marble Mountains. The primary mission of NSF was to train the Vietnamese Navy to take over after U.S. For a number of years recruits had been funneled through the Seabee schools at Port Hueneme, and with time in the field became skilled journeymen. came and picked me up and said that he had changed his mind. Captain Merdinger was Public Works Officer at Naval Support Activity, Da Nang in 1967-68, and currently commands the Western Division, Naval Facilities Engineering Command at San Francisco, California. Though the two modes of construction were difficult to compare, the best evidence seemed to indicate that from the governments standpoint the ultimate costs were about the same. Coordinates 16 7' 34'' N, 108 14' 19'' E. Decimal 16.1263874, 108.2386362. By far the greatest construction effort outside of the RMK-BRJ joint venture came from the U. S. construction troops. The need for NSA to establish a base at Cua Viet, some four and one-half miles from the DMZ, to support Dong Ha in the late spring brought Public Works Seabees to construct and maintain the camp. Small arms fire and concussion grenades were utilized by pier sentries and VNN Harbor Defense personnel, and the sentries reported two swimmers killed. At the same time, Vung Tau port is one of two international gateways in Vietnam. This is not to say that the omission was not of concern in some quarters. In August 1858, again ostensibly on grounds of alleged persecution of Catholic missionariesthis time by Emperor T cFrench troops led by Admiral Charles Rigault de Genouilly seized Nng Port as part of the punitive Cochinchina Campaign. A small amount of material found its way into Vietnam from other countries, but "gold flow" prohibitions by the U. S. precluded this source from becoming more than a trickle. China Beach (4) Joint service planning standards should lead to compatible systems among services, of what the Navy has called Advanced Base Functional Components. I had a great time and intend to go again next year. 2 For more about this interesting situation see "Building the Advanced Base at Da Nang" by Captain K. P. Huff, U. S. Naval Reserve, in Naval Review, 1968. In late 1967 and early 1968, in I Corps particularly, there were a number of instances where RMK-BRJ men worked next to Seabees on similar jobs. A 450 m (1,480 ft) breakwater provides protection from high waves and monsoons. [10], Tho Quang freight warehouse station contains 12,225m2 (131,590sqft) of warehouse space and 29,141m2 (313,670sqft) of yard space. fireball almost directly over the port. who became our Harbormaster. Included in their numbers were some 4,200 Americans, 41,800 Vietnamese, and 5,700 "free-world journeymen, mostly Filipinos and Koreans. Starting in May 1963, and negotiated on a yearly basis, these contracts grew steadily, exceeding an annual cost of $100 million in less than five years. Deep Water Pier was where the large ocean vessels could offload cargo to support the armed forces in I corps. Ultimately every Seabee unit went to Vietnam except CBU-201, which was a small force serving the Antarctic research program. But this was not the OICCs sole job. Statistics have, of course, changed rapidly, but some idea of the contribution of the teams may be gained from these figures gathered at Seabee headquarters in Hawaii (ComCBPac) in mid-1968: "Pioneered or upgraded to all-weather standards over three hundred and fifty miles of provincial roads and highways; planned and built four 'New Life Hamlets; planned and laid out six Refugee Villages; built three provincial and four local district market places; built sixteen Special Forces Camps; constructed thirty hospitals and dispensaries; added sixty school houses to the Vietnamese educational system; placed over 286,000 cubic yards of fill; provided on-the-job training to more than five thousand Vietnamese refugees, villagers, public works personnel, and "Chieu Hoi returnees (ex-Viet Cong) (more than half of these in 1967 alone); built over 4,000 feet of bridges (12 to 400 feet in length) and laid over two hundred culverts; constructed over eight miles of airfields; added 865 one-family housing units to various refugee villages; placed over fifty fresh water wells; and, constructed 168 civic and public buildings for the Vietnamese Government."

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