ED MAY ON LEFT

In April 1967, I reported in to MCB-121 at Gulfport, Mississippi having spent the prior 2 years in Scotland on the Dry Dock at the Nuclear Submarine Base. Being an SK2 (Supply) I was assigned to Headquarters Co. and went thru the training to convert me from a Fleet Sailor to a Seabee. It was an extremely busy time for MCB-121 as we were a recently recommissioned batallion and had to get up to speed before deployment to Phu Bai where we would relieve MCB-62.

We deployed in 16 flights from Gulfport with the advance party leaving in July and the 16th flight departing around mid-August. Our trip took us to California than Hawaii, Wake Island the Philippines and finally Vietnam. As I recall we spent about 48 hours on that C130. Upon arrival at Camp Campbell, it didn't take long for our Seabees to start improving living conditions. The most distinctive thing I remember about those first few weeks was the dust that blew into everything. It stuck in your nose and throat until everything you smelled and ate was tainted by dust.

Things were pretty quiet for the first months with the only action being the Security Platoon taking out a water buffalo who stumbled too close to our perimeter. But that was soon to change. Apparently the enemy felt seriously threatened by the work our Seabees were doing and they didn't want the civilian population to be won over by these Americans who built roads and bridges as well as provide medical and dental care to the general population. The Viet Cong response was to attack Camp Campbell in the middle of the night and blanket us ,with by some reports, up to 80 mortar rounds. I personally didn't count how many rounds fell on us as I was too busy diving into my foxhole in my skivies then scrambling back to the hooch to get my weapon, helmet and flak jacket.

The reports from Hanoi according to what I was told, was that the Seabees at Phu Bai had been wiped out. Fortunately, the report of our demise was greatly exaggerated. Some injuries were inflicted but to the best of my rememberance no one was seriously hurt. One of the injured, our laundryman SH2 "Musky" told me he never heard the mortars or the sirens as the noise in the laundry was so loud. He also said that he almost drowned as one of the mortars hit the water bladder (behind and above) the laundry hut sending hundreds of gallons of water into the confined area where Musky was working.

From that night on, we took the enemy much more seriously and set about reinforcing our interior defenses. We expanded our foxholes and covered them with sandbags. Although this wouldn't protect against a direct hit from a rocket, it would protect against a mortar hit. Relative calm returned for sometime until one morning we awoke and our camp was littered with propaganda leaflets urging our black Seabees to resist orders and not fight against the Viet Cong. They also advertised the unrest and division back in the USA. My

greatest concern was how these leaflets got into our base without raising an alarm. Nobody bought the propaganda they were pushing, but it did hurt to see these leaflets were produced in Berkley, California.

October 23, 1967 was a sad day of loss as we learned of the deaths of Lt. Rhodes -Delta Co. CO, SWC Dibble and BUR3 Morvay. Their jeep hit a landmine. I had known Chief Dibble from my position in Supply, having dealt with him on several occasions. He was a great guy who had a way of brightening up your day. He was always pleasant. I really felt the loss.

TET 1968 was a whole new wake up call. For the first time to my knowledge Phu Bai was attacked by rockets. I remember looking into the smoke filled night sky around us and wondering who could survive this? Well the Marine warehouse that stored the beer didn't. For the rest of our deployment we had to drink Korean beer. Also our food supplies were disrupted and we started to eat "C" Rations. For a week straight we lived in foxholes of three men per hole; 2 men up and one sleeping for 4 hours at a time. In addition to the increased enemy threat, we now had to contend with the monsoon season.

The dust that had made everything smell so bad, now turned to a mud that covered your ankles, soaked your feet and caused you to make a slogging noise wherever you walked.

I caught a break in February '68 as I got R & R to Hawaii. I'll share the story of that trip in a later letter.

Finally, in April 1968 MCB-121 rotated back to Gulfport, Mississippi.

This ends my overview narrative, but I have many stories of a human interest nature which I will be forwarding to the MCB121 website. I have sent Billy 9 pictures of some of us in the Supply Dep't over in Camp Campbell and he will be putting them on the site shortly. I also have an original November 1967 Familygram ( really a pictorial and letter)

describing in word and picture the first several months of our first deployment. I don't know if the picture quality is good enough to be scanned, but if it is I'll send that along also.

My best to all of you. Please realize that 35 years has a way of fogging the memory, so if I get a little fuzzy on some details it wasn't intentional.

Ed May former SK2

edmay55@Hotmail.com

lCDR

Supply Hut                                                                                      LCDR Julian

Biscoff                                                                            Barnes

More Pictures to Follow

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