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Opening Up Waterboy Control
Dong Ha, RVN
Nov. 1965
Our unit, 605th TCS, 5th TAC, out of Clark AB,
Philippines, set up the site at Dong Ha, leaving out of the PI around
Thanksgiving of 1965. We were the first Americans in at the site, with the
exception of a FAC pilot whose Bird was just off the path into town. There was
absolutely nothing on the site except for a couple of abandoned buildings, one
of which several of us Weapons Controllers commandeered for our quarters.
We brought 25 C-130's full of gear in to Dong Ha - the
strip was just that, a dirt strip. When the 130's came in from the south, they
had to go over about a three-foot hump just before the runway started before
they could set down. No
sooner were the wheels on the ground and they had to think about getting stopped
before they ran out of runway. Fully loaded and a tight "in" - these
guys did a masterful job. I was in charge of ramp operations and we got
every one of those birds in, turned around, off-loaded and out without a single
one taking any enemy fire.
The site was up and running long before Saigon was
ready for us to begin operations. I recall spending early days filling
sandbags for bunkers. We had set up big tents with cots for our sleeping
quarters - everybody all mixed together. Needless to say, the heat and
hard work caused us all to do some heavy sweating. With two "water
buffaloes" (two-wheeled water trailers) flown in from Clark the only water
supply - and that was for cooking and drinking - we all built up a pretty good
stink. Interestingly enough, we all got used to the same smell over a several
day period, maybe up to a couple of weeks. Then one night it rained and
some of the younger enlisted troops decided they were going to break out their
bar soap and take a shower in the rain. The
rest of us, who were not about to crawl out of our sleeping bags and go out in
the rain, warned them that they'd regret it. But no, they insisted. It was
a rude awakening for them when they came back into the tent all fresh and clean
and couldn't stand the stench of the rest of us. One of the lighter moments as
we set up in a no man's land, near the DMZ, with no real perimeter and nothing
but our M-16's and .45's. Wasn't too long after that that the monsoon
season kicked in and we had a VC spotted off the end of the runway. I'll never
forget that night when the Captain came into our barn (we'd moved from the tent)
and told us to get dressed, and hit the bunkers. Cold and scared, I've never
shaken so much in my life. Fortunately, there was no firefight. When that info
got back to 5th TAC, the Colonel flew in to see our setup. Next day we got
several 50-calibre machine guns, grenade launchers and other weapons on a C-130.
And in came the SeaBees with dozers, etc., to build us a perimeter berm. As I
recall, they buried one of the dozers because of the mud. With berm and heavier
weapons in place, we were able to sleep uneventfully (after the one episode) for
the first 45 days we were on site. The day I left, day 46, Dong Ha got hit with
a mortar attack, 11 hours after I got out on a Jolly Green. No one was
hurt, but I have a strong feeling that if I'd been there, I wouldn't be writing
this summary. Mention of the grenade launcher brings back a close call
memory. Our Security Lieutenant, Jim was his first name, and I went out to the
top of the hill where the air navigation site was situated, to sight-in the
weapon. Greenhorn idiots - we were lucky we didn't get killed. Out there,
in full view of everyone for miles around, we drew fire from a dense thicket of
trees to the north, down along the back of a stream. We heard the shot and then
we heard the bullet as it streamed by, about six inches from my head.
Needless to say, we hit the deck. Lt. Jim loaded a grenade and fired it in the
direction the shot came from. No more shots, and no more of us standing up like
fools.
Monsoon weather kept everything pretty
soggy and we didn't have a mess hall. Most of us counted ourselves lucky
that we had hot meals. We were eating C-Rations, yes, C-Rations, and we took all
of the main ingredients cans and put them in big, metal garbage cans. The cooks
put immersion heaters in the garbage cans and filled them with water and heated
up our meals that way. They also managed to keep a good supply of peanut
butter on hand which went real well with the homemade French Bread that they
brought out in baskets from the village. I also remember that we were kept
pretty well supplied with both soft drinks and beer. Many of us developed a
strong affinity for Olympia Beer. We had three operations crews - one was
mine - and the guys named our crew Harrington's Hotshots. Great group of guys
who later took on the name of my replacement as they became Ballard's Bastards.
Major Howie Douthet was in charge of our operation and
many of us received Air Force Commendation Medals for getting the site up and
running well in advance of expectations. I'll never forget the day that
the Major and several others of us drove one of our Six-Bys to Quang Tri to the
Army outpost. It was a civilized, compared to the Dong Ha site, facility with
HOT SHOWERS! We drove across some of the most God-forsaken landscape that I have
ever seen. The road was the site of many ambushes so we drove with our M-16s on
full automatic all the way over and back. The hot showers felt great and no VC
showed up along the way. interestingly, the Good Lord must have known that
my days would have been numbered had I stuck around any longer since I had two
options of getting out on Day 46. I could have gone out on a C-130 or a Jolly
Green (which I chose). Sure miss that field jacket I left laying on a bench
alongside that old dirt landing strip in my haste to get aboard.
Scott Harrington
Pensacola, Florida
seldomrest2 (at) panhandle.rr.com | |
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