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Water sking at Cam ranh bay


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I was wandering if anybody ever water skied at cam ranh. One time in the early 70's when we were there on the shuttle and we had a day off the pilot said us all go water sking tomorrow I thought he was crazy. Special services rented boats and water skies it was about two miles behind ihe run way. The water was a little choppie but we all had a good time.

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The only place I ever went at Cam Ranh was the beach behind the barracks, but I think there might have been some water skiing for those who wanted to do it. Since we were working six days with one off and then another six, I was always so damned tired I really wasn't interested in any off-base recreation. I waited until I got back to Clark for that! When I was at Cam Ranh from Naha we were living on the main base in a Qounset Hut. When I was back again from Clark, we were on Herky Hill. It seems to me when I was there in 66-67 that we were restricted to the base and that the town was off-limits. Speaking of the beach, one day I got stung by some nettles and went to the dispensary. While I was there there were two grunts there as well. They were still wearing grease paint. They had been on a patrol right on the perimeter and one had been shot in the arm by a Charlie. They were telling me and the medics that there were a bunch of them out there and they'd probably hate the base soon. Don't remember for sure, but I think they did within a few days.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I remember the beach well. I, like Wil, never water skied there, but did a lot of body surfing!! For a guy from Montana, that was "big time stuff"!! I also remember the choppers would go out to shoot sharks, and sometimes the guards in the posts would tell us to get out of the water because of sharks. They would then proceed to shoot the hell out of the water!! Never saw any dead sharks or pieces of them.!!! I do remember getting stung by those little jelly-fish though.

By the way, the only time we made it to the beach was when our bird was in the air. That was the only time off we got!!

Wouldn't it be good to have even half of the stamina and energy we had then?

I would do it all over again,

Ken

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When I was at CRB, 70-71, we were on the other side of the base. Only got to the beach a few times on our side. Working mostly 12 hr days, 7 days a week, keeping the Boos airworthy was tough. Especially after working for the feather merchants at WPAFB in ASD, on JC-131Bs, 8-5, 5 day weeks, off weekends.........

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Never skied at Cam Rahn, but did a lot of swimming. The barracks were just over the hill from the beach. At night we'd watch movies that the Red Cross (I think) would provide. Also seen the choppers flying overhead looking for sharks. Never seen any of them shoot into the water. I do remember the shore guard yelling at us telling us to get out of the water, we assumed it was because of sharks. I was there 68 - 69.

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Never skied at Cam Rahn, but did a lot of swimming. The barracks were just over the hill from the beach. At night we'd watch movies that the Red Cross (I think) would provide. Also seen the choppers flying overhead looking for sharks. Never seen any of them shoot into the water. I do remember the shore guard yelling at us telling us to get out of the water, we assumed it was because of sharks. I was there 68 - 69.

Smokey, remember any guys on skim boards? Being a kid from California one of the first things I did was to requisition one of the bases plywood STOP signs. Sanded all the paint off then took some sand bags from our bunker and placed it on a circle of bags with a couple in the center of the plywood and with regular watering it dished out in a couple of days. Then squirted it with a fresh coat of paint and was off to the beach. Those were the days. I worked 6p to 6a and didn't sleep a lot so lived at the beach when I wasn't TDY from my TDY that is.

After thought - Or were you on the main base side?

Edited by The Red Stuff
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  • 8 months later...

I found this site by accident while googling Cam Ranh Bay and just had to answer this thread. I was at Cam Ranh from june 1965-1966. I was in 864th Eng and we were the first US troops there. Our Co & Exec wanted to water ski and tried, we had two small landing craft that were too slow, the S Viet junk navy was patroling our coast, But their boats were too slow also. We had a small psp landing strip on the beach and a Bird dog observation airplane. It had taken a shot thru the engine and we were waiting for a replacement engine. The CO and our motor pool sargent (Redneck from the deep south) hatched a plan to make an air boat to water skie behind. The bad engine was crated up to be sent back when the new one came in. When the New engine arived, they took it away and placed the old one on the dock and blew it up claiming it had been hit in a mortor attack (the dock was shelled when we were unloading regularly). They installed the motor in and air boat that they had built and went skiing. Soo there Was water sking as far back as 1965.. I never went as there were sharks as big as pick up trucks in the bay.

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Nothing like a mortar round to ruin your day. I was always amazed watching the caribou pilots come in and out on the old strip. At one point nobody would fly in because it got so bad. They would do a high speed air drop and the off shore winds would send half the load over the hills and to the other guys.

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