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Rocket Attack on Herky hill


jfp159
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Does anyone remember the rocket attack on Herky Hill in Jan. of 1970.The rocket hit the chow hall but Charlie was aiming at the yellow parachute we put up on our "deck". The AP's came and tore it down. There were some injured in the chow hall. If anyone can remember the date it would help.Thanks JP

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I remember that day well. I don't remember it well enough as far as the exact date though! If we are talking about the same attack, I had just launched my airplane and was heading back to Herky Hill when it started. One of the rockets hit in the sand up by the terminal and we all bailed out of the bus and headed for bunkers. Then when we got to Herky Hill, we noticed the commotion at the chow-hall after the rocket hit it! I had heard that somebody got killed, but never heard any more about it!! I do remember the damage to the chow hall and the shrapnel holes in the wall. It was a metal building!!

I will look at my little notebook I carried to see if I have a date for the rocket attack. I was there during several attacks so I may be getting some of my details mixed up!! CRS you know!!!

Ken

I just checked my spiral notebook and I was at CRB on a 462 input. I arrived at CRB at 1730 hrs on the 26th of Dec.(1969) and left at 0615 the 10th of Jan. (1970).

So, that narrows down the date of the rocket attack to somewhere between the 1st and 10th of Jan. 1970!

Does that sound right to you??

How I managed to save that notebook, I'll never know!!

Ken

Edited by Mt.crewchief
found some dates
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I'm not sure if was there during that particular attack or not, most of the ones I remember were at night or late evening. I do remember one occasion one of the female Vietnamese workers at the chow hall carried in and detanated an explosive device of some sort that took pretty much one wall out and killed one I if I remember right.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I was with the 463rd at Clark in 69-70 and spent most of my time at Cam Ranh. This is the first I've ever heard of a rocket attack on Herky Hill or that the chow hall was ever hit. There was a sapper attack on Herky Hill one night but the AP security guards picked them up and mowed them down with a .50 at the bottom of the hill. As I recall, there was a simultanous attack on the flight line but it was stopped before they reached the road. There was a major sapper attack on the Army casualty evac hospital on the other side of the causeway, but it was around August, 1969. The rocket attacks I saw at Cam Ranh were pretty random. One night I was on the flight line with Craig Clifton between flights when some rockets hit out in the sand between the West Ramp and the runway. We took off when the all clear sounded and flew to Qui Nhon or somewhere, then when we got back around daybreak another brace or trio of rockets hit in about the same place. It was kinda funny; a MAC contract airliner was parked in front of us and the flight attendants were walking across the ramp to get a Coke when the first attack came. When the second one came an hour or so later they had just loaded up with a bunch of troops who were leaving for the US. They evacuated the airplane and the troops hit the concrete. I imagine they're telling stories at the Legion and VFW about how they came under attack as they were leaving the country!

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You didn't spend much time on Herky Hill did you Sam? Yes the chow hall was hit. I came in to the chow hall after the mess was cleaned up and as I was eating my powered green eggs and sandy toast and p-butter I was amused at all the holes in the light fixtures in the ceiling. They had replaced the tubes but the glare shields were riddled. You also were probably not there when the boot cook brought the 40 mm grenade up from the beach after the nightly firefight. He didn't know what it was. EOD took it outside and sand bagged it and blew it up with C4. Lot of funny little things happened to us maint. pukes on the "Hill" while you fly guys were out slipping the surly bonds. :) Bill

Edited by Spectre623
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I was in the chow hall late one evening when a General exploded. He didn't like the paper plates, paper cups, the food didn't look good and the place was filthy. He finally found the NCOIC and gave him 24 hours to get the place cleaned up and start serving decent food. Everybody in there stood up and applauded when he left. I think the food improved after that.

Ray

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You didn't spend much time on Herky Hill did you Sam? Yes the chow hall was hit. I came in to the chow hall after the mess was cleaned up and as I was eating my powered green eggs and sandy toast and p-butter I was amused at all the holes in the light fixtures in the ceiling. They had replaced the tubes but the glare shields were riddled. You also were probably not there when the boot cook brought the 40 mm grenade up from the beach after the nightly firefight. He didn't know what it was. EOD took it outside and sand bagged it and blew it up with C4. Lot of funny little things happened to us maint. pukes on the "Hill" while you fly guys were out slipping the surly bonds. :) Bill

Actually, I spent a lot of time on Herky Hill, as in there every night when I was incountry, and I still don't remember a rocket ever hitting on the Hill. But I do remember sappers coming up the hill and being cut down by the security forces. As far as rockets go, while you maintenance pukes were sitting on Herky Hill we aircrews were out where the real war was and enduring rocket and mortar attacks every day, as well as ground fire. That's why they called them "Mortar Magnets." Ralph Bemis was hit 17 times during his tour at Clark in 69-70 (then he was shot down at An Loc. (How's that Don?)

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I remember that day well. I don't remember it well enough as far as the exact date though! If we are talking about the same attack, I had just launched my airplane and was heading back to Herky Hill when it started. One of the rockets hit in the sand up by the terminal and we all bailed out of the bus and headed for bunkers. Then when we got to Herky Hill, we noticed the commotion at the chow-hall after the rocket hit it! I had heard that somebody got killed, but never heard any more about it!! I do remember the damage to the chow hall and the shrapnel holes in the wall. It was a metal building!!

I will look at my little notebook I carried to see if I have a date for the rocket attack. I was there during several attacks so I may be getting some of my details mixed up!! CRS you know!!!

Ken

I just checked my spiral notebook and I was at CRB on a 462 input. I arrived at CRB at 1730 hrs on the 26th of Dec.(1969) and left at 0615 the 10th of Jan. (1970).

So, that narrows down the date of the rocket attack to somewhere between the 1st and 10th of Jan. 1970!

Does that sound right to you??

How I managed to save that notebook, I'll never know!!

Ken

Weren't you at Naha? I know that as late as mid-November, 1969 the Naha A-models were still operating out of Tan Son Nhut while the 314th E-models and 463rd B-models were at Cam Ranh. At some point there was a switch, but I don't think it took place until sometime in 1970. By the time I left Clark in August, 1970 the A-models were back at Cam Ranh. Thinking back, I was at Cam Ranh over Christmas, 1969 but was back at Clark for New Years because a bunch of us got together in one of the trailers on New Years Eve and New Years Day to pick guitars and banjos. We even made a tape. Dan Chandler still has his.

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I was at CRB, late 70 thru 71. Seems that around fall 71 sappers blew up the Tri-Service ammo dump on the other side of the hill from our barracks. I woke up and thought it was a bunch of drunks bouncing off the walls. Went outside and nope, that rising ball of smoke and fire sure wasn't the drunks. They were all sitting outside watching the fireworks.

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I was at CRB, late 70 thru 71. Seems that around fall 71 sappers blew up the Tri-Service ammo dump on the other side of the hill from our barracks. I woke up and thought it was a bunch of drunks bouncing off the walls. Went outside and nope, that rising ball of smoke and fire sure wasn't the drunks. They were all sitting outside watching the fireworks.
There was a major attack on Cam Ranh about that time that blew up the ammo dump. The most famous attack at Cam Ranh was on August 11, 1969 when sappers hit the Army convalescent hospital on the other side of the inlet from Herky Hill. A lot of us saw the explosions. For some reason her name has dropped through the cracks, but there was a nurse killed that night. Our crew took her body to Saigon the next morning. I don't remember exactly when the sapper attack on Herky Hill was, but I remember what happened. My engineer and I had already gone to bed and were just fallng asleep when we suddenly heard the .50s open up down the hill. We just stayed in bed. The next morning we found out that there had been an attack. None of them got close enough to the hooches to do anything.

I do seem to remember something now about a rocket hitting close to the chow hall, but I wasn't in country at the time.

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Yes, I was at Naha on A Models until March of 69 and after getting my orders, I ended up at CCK on E Models until June 70! It was at that time called a consecutive overseas tour!! I was told I was the first to receive one! That I do not know for sure as there were quite a few of my friends at Naha that followed shortly!! No leave was granted and I was back in CRB in less than a week as a crew chief on an E-model!! Since I didn't know anybody at CCK yet, I moved in with my buddies that were still on inputs from Naha on A-Models. Somewhere along the line, the Naha A-Models did move to Tan Son Nhut and in March of 70, while I was at CRB on an input, all of the E-Models from CCK were moving to Tan Son Nhut. There was a big move taking place and on that day, my plane puked (2 prop changes), and everybody left without me. I ended being the only E-Model on the base. I do remember, we must have traded places with the A-Models at TSN, because the guy driving the expediter truck was a guy I knew from my Naha days and he was with Naha still. His name was Ruffin!!

So, that is why I remember so much from Herky Hill! I went there almost every month for 26 months of my 33 months overseas.

The only attack I remember at Herky Hill was the one mentioned above and also there was a sapper attack at the Army 22nd. Replacement Battalion just up the beach!!

I hope I haven't bored anybody,

Ken

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Yes, I was at Naha on A Models until March of 69 and after getting my orders, I ended up at CCK on E Models until June 70! It was at that time called a consecutive overseas tour!! I was told I was the first to receive one! That I do not know for sure as there were quite a few of my friends at Naha that followed shortly!! No leave was granted and I was back in CRB in less than a week as a crew chief on an E-model!! Since I didn't know anybody at CCK yet, I moved in with my buddies that were still on inputs from Naha on A-Models. Somewhere along the line, the Naha A-Models did move to Tan Son Nhut and in March of 70, while I was at CRB on an input, all of the E-Models from CCK were moving to Tan Son Nhut. There was a big move taking place and on that day, my plane puked (2 prop changes), and everybody left without me. I ended being the only E-Model on the base. I do remember, we must have traded places with the A-Models at TSN, because the guy driving the expediter truck was a guy I knew from my Naha days and he was with Naha still. His name was Ruffin!!

So, that is why I remember so much from Herky Hill! I went there almost every month for 26 months of my 33 months overseas.

The only attack I remember at Herky Hill was the one mentioned above and also there was a sapper attack at the Army 22nd. Replacement Battalion just up the beach!!

I hope I haven't bored anybody,

Ken

The Naha A-models moved to Tan Son Nhut in the spring of 1969. I was in the 463rd at the time and we were all pissed that we were going to be moving to Cam Ranh, with no per diem after drawing half per diem for every day we were in country - and making big bucks. I was especially pissed because I had spent a good part of 1966-67 at Cam Ranh, both as part of a crew and as duty loadmaster. I'm not sure when Herky Hill opened up, but it was after I left Naha in August '67. The West Ramp had opened several months before but we were still living on the main base in the same quarters we had been in since Naha set up an incountry shuttle out of there. The Bs and Es were at Cam Ranh together for about a year, then the Es went to Tan Son Nhut and the As came back to Cam Ranh. We were told the reason for the swap in the first place was because of parts compatibilities.

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